#Deadwood season 3 review series

The most important of all these social transactions, of course, is that of oneвЂ™s very soul: how much are you willing to sacrifice for yourself (or others), and how much are you able to live with those consequences of those decisions, good or bad? The lines between good and evil are only clear in theory DeadwoodВ exposes the reality that nothing in life is truly black or white вЂ“ and the more things get covered in shit, the harder it can be to tell which way is up, and which path leads directly away from salvation. DeadwoodВ is a show about many things вЂ“ at its core, however, it is about the compromises it takes to build a society, compromises borne out of thousands of tiny little negotiations from people, individually and as a collective.

#Deadwood season 3 review series

However, everything on DeadwoodВ is a negotiation, and this opening scene is no different: through the brief few minutes we spend in Montana, вЂњDeadwoodвЂќ beautifully lays the groundwork for the series to follow. There are but a few pilots of the modern era as confident and assured as Deadwood, and even fewer with the mastery of dialogue DeadwoodВ immediately makes its calling card. To him, the lines are clearly drawn: the criminal admitted to committing his crimes, and since he was arrested, the responsibility of punishment falls on the shoulders of the marshal. On the surface, this scene establishes BullockвЂ™s sense of morality heвЂ™s not persuaded by the criminalвЂ™s offer of riches, neither is he convinced by the gunshots fired off by a drunken mob ready to extract their own measures of justice. As Bullock prepares to hit the road, heвЂ™s met with an offer from his last remaining criminal to hit the road to Deadwood together, a desperate attempt at freedom, by a man who sees his own mortality catching up with him. Frankly, it is an odd vision to behold, especially when rewatching the series, to see the show begin with this strange, brief anecdote of Seth Bullock and his business partner Sol StarвЂ™s last night in a dark, strange town firmly rooted in the laws of so-called organized society.Д«ut itвЂ™s important this scene is set outside the supposedly lawless borders of Deadwood вЂ“ it allows writer (and series creator) David Milch to introduce just about every important theme of the series, in a single masterful stroke. Instead of the showвЂ™s usual South Dakota setting, вЂњDeadwoodвЂќ begins in 1876 Montana, where a young marshal is trying to wrap up one last case before hitting the midnight road to a new opportunity awaiting to the east. ItвЂ™s easy to forget the opening scene of HBOвЂ™s Deadwoodis not set in the iconic dramaвЂ™s titular town, the only meaningful scene in the series not to be contained in the pile of shit, mud, and blood Deadwood is mostly comprised of.