Worry 'cause I'm wearing a hat now !

I've just seen "The Curse of the Black Spot" which was entertaining, and the episode does have a few neat things and funny moments but definitely not the best Doctor Who of the Moffat era.

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Ad fucking hoc !

So now I've seen the twelve episodes of Deadwood's first season.

Not much happens during that first season -- apart from a certain "historical event" that was to be expected -- at least not in a way serialized dramas are usually plotted. It's mostly about world-building and character development (and there are many of them, about 6 lead characters, and a dozen of major recurring characters), and I can't think of any other show doing that, and doing it so well.

Also, the series takes historical figures (Wild Bill, Charlie Utter, Calamity Jane, Jack McCall) and a historical place to make them its own better than any so-called historical show. Deadwood seems to belong to the Western genre, and it does in a way, but it's much more than that.

No supernatural stuff, no fantasy, but the series is merely mythological in a way that very few fictional works have achieved. We witness the beginnings, how a human civilized world is being born in the mud, literaly!, while titans are watching those feeble human creatures, observing the insects below from their highs (the balcony!), playing with them, crushing them even when necessary. Gods are rarely benevolent, they are actually as cruel as children can be, some are even quite the sociopaths (Cy Tolliver especially!).
But sometimes they join in, they are willing to share the fire, to be part of a community, to build something on earth. The first season shows how a mining camp could be turned into a city. At first it looks like an illusion, a complete farce, but lies tend to turn into truths if everyone involved is willing to play along, and pretending is another way to start becoming. And eventually you become who you are and must acknowledge it.

The gallery of characters is simply extraordinary, from E.B Farnum (a character that seems taken out of a Shakespearian play and does soliloquy better than Hamlet!), to Jewel, to Reverend Smith, to Mr Wu and his pigs, to Trixie, to Flora (played by Kristen Bell just before Veronica Mars!)and her brother, to "the tits licker"...

And there's the nicest ones like Sol Starr (wonderful John Hawkes who was the fantastic Teardrop in Winter's Bone), Doc Cochran, Reverend Smith, Ellsworth or Jane (and the last scene between drunk Jane and Cochran was heartbreaking)or Eddie...and the darker ones, Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant, ladies and gentlemen!) being among them, a fascinating character, because he's supposed to be a hero from the Old West (and Hicock recognized him as a kindred spirit) and he's a decent guy with principles but at the same time he's intense, like a time bomb with very bad temper and possibly psychopathic tendancies.
As for Al Swearengen, his nemesis (being an opportunistic gangster while Bullock is rather a law/code man), who is ruthless, capable of doing horrible things but also capable of moments of awe, concern and kindness; charismatic and pragmatic, he knows to work angles and has less narrowed views than most. Ian McShane is simply mesmerizing in the role and got some of the best lines ever, sometimes hilarious and sometimes filled with wisdom. His scenes with Farnum, Jewel or Mr Wu were just so funny.

The Deadwood speak is another feature that must be pointed out. It's a blend of profanities that sound quite modern (pussy, fuck , fucking and cocksucker being the basics of the Deadwoodlanguage) and old-fashioned wordy talk that recalls classical drama plays. There's nothing comparable on tv, as far as I know.

And the titles of the episodes? Often weird yet significant and poetical (in a Biblical kind of way) like "Here Was the Man", "Suffer the little children" or "Sold Under Sin" (this one being borrowed from the Bible: Romans 7:14 "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin."!) and of course the apparently silly "Jewel's boot is Made for Walking".

Deadwood is a fucking gem on comédie humaine in which all the characters are simultaneously observers and observees, especially when Seth is to unleash the beast inside or when Al is embracing his god-role, answering Cochran's unheard prayer. That season finale was bloody fabulous! Rarely a finale moved me that much. It would deserve a review of its own.

I'm falling for that show as I fell for Breaking Bad, hard!