/Deadwood/

[torrain_circles]

Started watching /Deadwood/ tonight; I expected a pleasant way to spend time with John, mellow unwinding after a lazy dinner and mop-up errands. I thought it would be something interesting. Warren Ellis said good things about it, and while I do feel the man is cracked when it comes to /The Mummy/, I generally have a high opinion of his writing.[1] So. Watched the first episode.

Watched the second.

Watched the third.

Absolutely must wind down and fall over now, or I would be watching the fourth.

The characters. Dear god, the characters. And the set-ups and the interaction and the dialogue that doesn't drop completely needless expository lumps. I was expecting... I don't know, some kind of well-plotted Western with name-dropping. Something that didn't insult my intelligence and could be geeked over, clipped down or sliced up into short-hour segments.

It's more and better than that. It's got a coherency I didn't expect, and I want to sit down and watch the character interaction and take notes except I can't stay detached enough to write when I could be watching.

...dammit, it's late and I'm going to stop before I start using the word "epic". But yeah. Really, really impressed.
---
[1] By which I mean that if he died, I would find myself giving a depressing amount of consideration to the completely unacceptable idea of cracking open his skull and sucking down his brainmeats in the hopes of acquiring some measure of his skill.

Comments

[eididdy.livejournal.com]

In the words of Al Swearengen (Season 2, Episode 1):

WELCOME TO FUCKING DEADWOOD!

The last few episodes have been a little slow, but overall the show is amazing. I can't believe HBO cancelled it.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

*grin* It is a mark of how much of it I have watched that I am thinking it ought to be "Welcome to fucking Deadwood, cocksuckers!"

Definitely angling to pick up the DVD collection. (I have not checked, but I am sure there is one.)

I did not know they had cancelled it. On the one hand, it means I won't have to worry about catching up and then having to wait between episodes. On the other hand--damn.

(And of course, it is doing nothing for my craving for Deadlands.)

[eididdy.livejournal.com]

The line was actually from the first episode of the second season. It was how Seth's wife and son were greeted by Al when they first arrived. So no cocksuckers, but wait 'til you get to that episode. The way it's delivered combined with the scene that it's delivered in is awesome.

There are actually two DVD collections, one for each season so far.

From what I understand, there may be one/some/a few movies to wrap up the story, but a lot of that is hearsay.

And I just have to say this: Richardson is awesome.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia sez: Three seasons, two made-for-TV movies yet to come.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

...pardon my missing it; who's Richardson?

[waterspyder.livejournal.com]

When I showed the show to Faye, her immediate reaction was "Holy crap.. Shakespeare Western"

To support this... think of how often Al gets a soliloquy.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen him do one yet, although I've only watched the first six episodes (barring about the last ten minutes of the sixth) of the first season. EB's started doing them, though.

[waterspyder.livejournal.com]

Well, Al does them... whiele receiving blowjobs and speaking to dismembered heads. It's sometimes not obvious he's just talking to himself.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

*blinks* ...I evidently haven't gotten this far yet, as he hasn't done either. (I'm guessing it's the Sioux head he asked whatsisname to set aside? That was the last I saw of it.)

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Addendum: if it is someone's else's severed head, please don't tell me. I'm already having trouble avoiding spoilers.

[jagash.livejournal.com]

*Chuckles* You have read "Kren of the Mitchegai" by Leo Frankowski, right? If not, read it for you made a reference.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Haven't read it.

Tell me what the reference was? If it's just a character using the same phrase I did, for example., it's not enough to jump my reading queue.

[jagash.livejournal.com]

The alien race in this book have motile brain cells aswell as a diet entirely dependent on canibalism. The main character is known as a "vampire", in that he kills other adults then munches on specific portions of thier brain mass, adding their meal's cerebral matter to thier own. Pretty much "Cracking open his skull and sucking down his brainmeats in the hopes of acquiring some measure of his skill.".

Not enough to jump the reading cue, but i think it worthy of a place in line.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Good god, Jason, something at least has to be original or unique to a source for me to even be independantly coming up with the same thing, let alone making a reference to that source. I've been been talking about consuming Moore's and Ellis's brainmeats since before that book, and Frankowski and Grossman aren't making a reference to me.

(Especially since the idea of specifically gaining skills by consuming the brains of the talented has also been addressed in short stories well before 2004.)

[jagash.livejournal.com]

Very true, and i did mispeak in my posting. The specific description seemed very much in line with the book i had been currently reading and i simply remarked upon the coincidence.

I blame sleep deprivation + sunburn for my partial incoherence.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Understood. Myself, I blame pet-stress and landlord-invocation for my own abruptness, and apologize nonetheless.

Take care of yourself.