TV News and Reviews @ KickAssTV.com

I can’t believe what an idiot I’ve been for missing out on all three seasons of HBO’s insanely good “Deadwood”. This mistake was doubly irritating, in hindsight, as I’ve always loved Westerns. I guess the reason why I never bothered with “Deadwood” was all the hype about the show being yet another revitionist Western, which is not all bad in spurts, but over the course of a season can get pretty damn boring. But daaaaaaamn, is “Deadwood” friggin good or is it goddamn good? I’m going with both.

“Deadwood” shows on the HBO cable network, and comes in 12-episode seasons. And oh boy, are they doozies. I’ve just finished up the entire first year in two days (it would have been one day, but there’s life to be lived and all that junk), and I can’t believe I’ve been ignoring this show all this time. It’s simply magnificent.

Basically set in the real-life gold town of Deadwood in South Dakota in 1877, “Deadwood” follows a stern Montana Sheriff named Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant, who looks and sounds dead-on for Bill Paxton, except for the ’stache) who travels to Deadwood to find his fortune with his former deputy and Jewish best friend Sol Star (John Hawkes). The two plans on starting a hardware store to sell supplies to all the miners coming to Deadwood every day hoping to get in on the gold rush.

In Deadwood, they encounter the local kingpin, the foul-mouthed, murdering, whoring, and complete POS of a human being Al Swearengen (played to perfection by Irishman Ian McShane). Seth and Sol also arrives in town about the same time as the legendary gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok (played by a dead-on Keith Carradine), who has come to town to, well, play poker and get shot in the back of the head while doing it. (Hickok’s murder takes place in Episode 4, but as everyone and their momma knows how he died — or at least I’m assuming it’s common knowledge — I don’t consider it a spoiler.) It would be in another five episodes before Seth would meet Alma Garrett (Molly Parker), the beautiful Eastern woman dragged to Deadwood by her brash and naive husband who goes and gets himself thrown off a ridge while prospecting for gold.

“Deadwood” is full of surprises, twists, turns, killings, and beat-downs. It’s classic David Minch (people even say “Anyways” a hell of a lot — to much for a Western, actually), with harden men — hard bad guys and the even harder good guys — and the pretty women who loves them. It’s every bit as brutal, violent, nasty, and foul-mouthed as you would expect a show by Minch minus the restraints of broadcast television. The F-word flies around freely, people are murdered onscreen in almost every episode (by both the good guys and the bad guys!), and whores, well, do a lot of whorin’.

The real genius of “Deadwood” is the character of Al Swearengen, who steals the show from frame one. Yes, Seth is the de facto hero, and he has his moments, but it’s Al that commands the screen. Ian McShane is friggin brilliant, kids. You wouldn’t think someone doing nothing but scremaing out “c-cksucker” could be so lyrical, but Mcshane manages it.

While the critics have been kind to show, they haven’t really shown it with the hardware. McShane won a Best Actor in 2005 at the Golden Globes, but the show lost out on Best Drama. The Emmys, as always, have been total crap at honoring the show, which is no surprise since, well, the Emmys is shit anyway. (I’m pretty sure they’ll find ways to nominate and give out more awards to the “West Wing” even after that show has been cancelled.)

If you haven’t taken a shot at “Deadwood”, don’t make the mistake I did. I’m already going through Season 2 right now, and will be catching up to Season 3 shortly. This is a must-watch show, folks. It’s 10 times better than the overrated “Sopranos”.

Some highlights from the First Season includes:

- “Veronica Mars’” Kristen Bell as a swindler who gets the beJesus beaten out of her in the mud.
- Seth separates some teeth from the mouth of one of Alma’s family members.
- Al trying to communicate with his Chinese opium supplier and their one common word is “c-cksucker”, which Al proudly accepts as having taught the Chinaman.

You know the sound of thunder, don’t you? Well don’t you, c-cksucker?