garret-dillahunt-in-deadwood-season-2

Over 1 week has passed since I concluded Deadwood Season 2 and I am, frankly, still in a state of awe.

I think the thing that really does it for me is this: it isn’t about the story. It isn’t even really about the characters, because I’m not sure how many of them (other than Bullock, Swearengin, Joanie Stubbs and The Widow Garrett) are really growing or evolving. What I find so mesmerizing is the sense of tableaux. Taking these people and putting them in very ephemeral situations within a greater context and watching them buzz about.

The great gimmick, of course, is how any given scene can volley back and forth between base vulgarity and utter beauty in a flash. There will literally be a man wallowing in shit or a drunkard plowing a prostitute, and then an unpredictable right turn into the genteel and emotional will appear without warning.

Unlike, truly, anything I’ve ever seen on television there is a profound theatrical artistry on this show. If I had to sum up what has happened in the first two seasons, well, I could get into the nitty gritty of the soap opera, but, really, nothing has happened other than “slow civic progress.” And that’s why the show is so good.