DEADWOOD (Milch, Minahan)

[Milky Joe]

May 31. HBO.

Fuck. Yeah.

[Ezee E]

If only it were on the big screen.

[Milky Joe]

And if only I had made it a poll.

[Milky Joe]

full length trailer:



looks fuckin' great.

[Peng]

Starting the series soon, but I came across this yesterday and it is heartbreaking:

[Milky Joe]

Yeah that article broke me.

Enjoy the show!

[Milky Joe]

Can someone edit a poll into this?

I wept. By the end, a totally rapturous experience.

[Duncan]

Can someone edit a poll into this?

I wept. By the end, a totally rapturous experience.

Coming out of Match Cut retirement to say that this was wonderful and that I had a very similar experience. Probably won't be as rewarding for those who weren't as invested in the series when it aired, but for me, personally, it's what I needed.

That last line. Goddamn that was perfect.

[Milky Joe]

Yes! Duncan, good to see you.

[Irish]

Man, I am seriously bummed.

I've spent the last coupla weeks re-watching the original series (after never having seen the third season) and now I'm on the final episode and after that, the movie. I'm gonna miss this town.

I wouldn't call this one of the greatest shows ever made --- it was too uneven when it aired and it was cancelled too early --- but like everything else Milch did during this period, it was a unique experiment on television. I could criticize the show here and there for this and that, but in the end I can't help but find it exceptional. Milch was willing and eager to push the medium in directions it doesn't usually go and how rare that is, how rare.

[DavidSeven]

Best reunion thing ever? This was wonderful.

I had the unique experience of watching the entire series for the first time over the last month or so and then jumping right into the film. I was surprised, but delighted, at how connected the film was to the events of the Season 3 finale. I'm sure there must have been at least some temptation to make this a more self-contained piece. From an emotional standpoint, however, it was really gratifying to see them close the loop on a story they weren't able to finish a dozen years ago.

[Peng]

“What a grand surprise, after such a piece of time.”



Both fascinatingly alike and different to its abruptly canceled third season’s finale back in 2006. Like that episode, the many story threads here don’t exactly resolve themselves out, which feels appropriate for a show mainly about how a community forms, comes together, and evolves over time, rather than about full fledgling narrative arcs proper. The crucial difference though, is that this time Milch knows in advance that this is possibly the town’s final outing, so he seemingly pens the whole ethos of the show into one gloriously concentrated, feature-length burst, which is stirring and moving to the extreme.

Storylines are carried over from the show’s final episode and don’t end conclusively, but in between there are birth, death, funeral, and wedding, encapsulating the whole spectrum and emotions of what the original series usually take over multiple episodes to achieve its thematic catharsis. Most importantly, Milch makes very explicit this time how Deadwood the town has settled into a single, occasionally fractured, but collectively very united organism, ready to strike back hard as a front when threatened by a malicious and forceful outsides force. This sentiment leads to some rapturous passages, in which it’s amazing how Milch can make my heart soar by an auction scene, or an angry mob forming.

That the characters we know to represent this town have aged visibly only add to the poignancy and pride. They remain the same in coming to protect their own, just with more lines etched on their faces, history shared in the long years we haven’t seen, and, in the case of one particularly distinguished member, heartbreaking frailty. Don’t let them know though, or you will be cussed out for feeling too much about their vulnerability. “Fucking… stay there” indeed, Al. 9/10