My home is mine again at last
Dec. 27th, 2011 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaniThe family left in the afternoon so I could resume my holiday tv schedule and watched Deadwood!
I don't think I mentioned how much I love Seth Bullock lately. He wasn't among my favourites in season1 but he has grown on me. A lot.
"Full Faith and Credit" was a great Bullock episode, and as much as I enjoy Al and Ian McShane's acting, I was glad to see Deadwood being more than the Al Swearengen's show for once. That said the infamous blowjob soliloquy returned!
I do think that Timothy Olyphant didn't get enough credit for his work on Deadwood. He's great at playing Bullock struggling to control himself or giving way to the rage that always boils under the surface. He often looks possessed. He hasn't done much of a gun job since season 1 but the way he walks is threatening; the look in his eyes is frightening; he yells and hits people, sometimes even beats them to a pulp; he has little patience with people who are supposed to be on his side (the scene with Charlie pointed it out). What Dolly the Whore told Al during the blowjob scene was significant. Bullock is very scary and lots of people are probably terrified by him. Al thinks he's the best candidate for sheriff but would the people pick him for an office? Not sure. Steve said it so, he's going to vote for Harry Manning.
But there are those little scenes in which the character becomes more than one-dimension, scenes like the one with Martha in bed or with Sol, when Sol quietly suggested a way out of an impossible situation about the Steve/Hostetler business before Bullock loses his cool and kill them both. Weh Sol came up with the solution, there was a smile in Seth's eyes then, the same eyes that are usually filled with anger, and once more I thought that Sol is the only one who knows how to handle Seth and who prevents him from turning into a sociopath. BTW I LOVED that Seth said Sol's name when in bed with his wife! Not only the fact that he pronounced Sol's name in the matrimonial bed (it would fuel slash fantasies if I had them about those two!), but the gentle way he said it and what it meant of the new intimacy between Martha and Seth. There was so much in that simple "Sol". Seth knows that Sol is reliable and smart, that he always has his back whatever happens (something we saw in the pilot of the show). Seth can always count on Sol to be the voice of reason and wisdom. It echoed the theme of the episode, and the title, even though the newly opened bank whose money is BACKED on Alma's gold seems the most obvious reference.
Speaking of backup, Al can count on Dan, Johnny and Silas...and probably Merrick and others. Hearst? His Captain Turner, but I wouldn't bet on Tolliver's loyalty.
The title of the following episode, "A Two-Headed Beast", was borrowed from one of Al's lines -- in reference to Hearst's strategy about Cy and him -- but of course it called Shakespeare to my mind and the "two-backed beast" phrase.
Above all it carried on the "who has your back" theme with the street fight between Dan and Captain Turner. I loved the beginning of the fight, when they looked at each other across the street and a wagon passed between them just before they rushed into each other, clashing like beasts while the gods watch from the heights. And it's dirty and muddy to the point that it seems that there's a two-headed beast twisting in some primeval mud. An aborted Golem maybe.
Speaking of heads, the chief's head is back! Al was keeping it in a closet with bottles.
I'm worried. Doc is a "lunger" (loved the word, it reminds me of the old-fashioned French word "poitrinaire", at least that's how I understood it) and Hostetler shot himself. Two of the most decent characters which makes me worry about Sol, Charlie and Ellsworth, the latter being the embodiement of decency and nobility. With Alma being back on the dope, I am really concerned. How poignant was the scene between them, when a very high Alma tried to seduce her husband but he realised she was on drugs (Jim Beaver was terrific in that scene). He has her back and I fear she might cause his death soon or later. And Alma being the financial backing of the whole camp, her addiction seems really dangerous for everybody. Leon knows since he's her dealer, and so does Cy now. And of course Trixie who's been studying Alma and noticed the changes. BTW I liked her scene with Sol and what she said about him:
"You're too fucking healthy-minded."
It's one of the reasons I love Sol Star. He's a kind and healthy-minded, like Ellsworth, so it balances things out. Characters like that are very difficult to pull off, because, on paper, they aren't as sexy as the caricatured villains or the damaged and screwed-up anti-heroes (that have become such a tv trope these days), but when the "good ones" are well done, well written and well played, they aren't boring at all, they are actually refreshing, touching and kind of sublime. That's the reason I loved Helo so much on BSG. He was a gentle giant; a tender rock (and a beautiful one!), a good man "always doing the right thing", to paraphrase Sharon.
And there's that Chesterton who just arrived in town, a dying actor, among the theatre folks. Jack telling him he's his Jack but also his producer sounded like a way to say that we must brace ourselves for characters' death but the show will go on (except it didn't beyond season3!). The theatre subplot seems so superfluous that I'm more and more convinced that it's nothing but a meta commentary inside of the show, a mise-en-abîme.
BTW the scene between Joanie and Jane had a super meta feel about it (thanks to the use of the word "line"):
"Jane: Where would the stage be?
Joanie: I don't know.
Jane: Yeah, I don't know either. Ain't our line I guess."
And there's Richardson's line about the theatre folks gathering around a table to discuss the deal with Joanie and set things in motion:
"Are they performing now?"
Here I can't help quoting the Bard himself:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
As You LIke It, Act II Scene VII.
Now that I think about it, Al didn't understand the "whys", couldn't "figure the fucking angle", but he should have asked his pal Jack (who, btw, offered to play the role of backup!!!!). The fight Hearst had asked for, with Dan facing Captain Turner, was obviously a big show Hearst was putting on, as a producer, using his star to convey a message.
The stage wasn't at Chez Ami yet, it was on the thoroughfare!
And we even got to see what happed backstage (Dan oiling his body, Captain Turner exercising) before the show actually occurred, twisting the old-fashioned way of Western standoff and indulging in some gore with the eye poking.
The dying Chesterton foreshadowed the death of another performer (but Hearst, being a wealthy producer, must have more tricks in his bag) and Hostetler's death as well. By the way there was a horse dancing around the fighters during the Dan/Captain Turner fight scene so I wonder whether it was a clue. Maybe I'm reaching here.
Hostetler shooting himself was quite shocking and it seemed to come out of nowhere, but I think it served both as a plot device and as a bad omen. Bullock had just managed to make the deal work out between hateful, racist and paranoid Steve the Drunk and Hostetler, but eventually the better man couldn't take the hateful words anymore and Hostetler chose his own exit...off stage. The fact that he happened off camera and that we only saw the blood on the wall was a nice touch.
Bullock's helplessness was so unbearable that he had to do something which drove him to make his move and arrest Hearst. Next Act to come!
I don't think I mentioned how much I love Seth Bullock lately. He wasn't among my favourites in season1 but he has grown on me. A lot.
"Full Faith and Credit" was a great Bullock episode, and as much as I enjoy Al and Ian McShane's acting, I was glad to see Deadwood being more than the Al Swearengen's show for once. That said the infamous blowjob soliloquy returned!
I do think that Timothy Olyphant didn't get enough credit for his work on Deadwood. He's great at playing Bullock struggling to control himself or giving way to the rage that always boils under the surface. He often looks possessed. He hasn't done much of a gun job since season 1 but the way he walks is threatening; the look in his eyes is frightening; he yells and hits people, sometimes even beats them to a pulp; he has little patience with people who are supposed to be on his side (the scene with Charlie pointed it out). What Dolly the Whore told Al during the blowjob scene was significant. Bullock is very scary and lots of people are probably terrified by him. Al thinks he's the best candidate for sheriff but would the people pick him for an office? Not sure. Steve said it so, he's going to vote for Harry Manning.
But there are those little scenes in which the character becomes more than one-dimension, scenes like the one with Martha in bed or with Sol, when Sol quietly suggested a way out of an impossible situation about the Steve/Hostetler business before Bullock loses his cool and kill them both. Weh Sol came up with the solution, there was a smile in Seth's eyes then, the same eyes that are usually filled with anger, and once more I thought that Sol is the only one who knows how to handle Seth and who prevents him from turning into a sociopath. BTW I LOVED that Seth said Sol's name when in bed with his wife! Not only the fact that he pronounced Sol's name in the matrimonial bed (it would fuel slash fantasies if I had them about those two!), but the gentle way he said it and what it meant of the new intimacy between Martha and Seth. There was so much in that simple "Sol". Seth knows that Sol is reliable and smart, that he always has his back whatever happens (something we saw in the pilot of the show). Seth can always count on Sol to be the voice of reason and wisdom. It echoed the theme of the episode, and the title, even though the newly opened bank whose money is BACKED on Alma's gold seems the most obvious reference.
Speaking of backup, Al can count on Dan, Johnny and Silas...and probably Merrick and others. Hearst? His Captain Turner, but I wouldn't bet on Tolliver's loyalty.
The title of the following episode, "A Two-Headed Beast", was borrowed from one of Al's lines -- in reference to Hearst's strategy about Cy and him -- but of course it called Shakespeare to my mind and the "two-backed beast" phrase.
Above all it carried on the "who has your back" theme with the street fight between Dan and Captain Turner. I loved the beginning of the fight, when they looked at each other across the street and a wagon passed between them just before they rushed into each other, clashing like beasts while the gods watch from the heights. And it's dirty and muddy to the point that it seems that there's a two-headed beast twisting in some primeval mud. An aborted Golem maybe.
Speaking of heads, the chief's head is back! Al was keeping it in a closet with bottles.
I'm worried. Doc is a "lunger" (loved the word, it reminds me of the old-fashioned French word "poitrinaire", at least that's how I understood it) and Hostetler shot himself. Two of the most decent characters which makes me worry about Sol, Charlie and Ellsworth, the latter being the embodiement of decency and nobility. With Alma being back on the dope, I am really concerned. How poignant was the scene between them, when a very high Alma tried to seduce her husband but he realised she was on drugs (Jim Beaver was terrific in that scene). He has her back and I fear she might cause his death soon or later. And Alma being the financial backing of the whole camp, her addiction seems really dangerous for everybody. Leon knows since he's her dealer, and so does Cy now. And of course Trixie who's been studying Alma and noticed the changes. BTW I liked her scene with Sol and what she said about him:
"You're too fucking healthy-minded."
It's one of the reasons I love Sol Star. He's a kind and healthy-minded, like Ellsworth, so it balances things out. Characters like that are very difficult to pull off, because, on paper, they aren't as sexy as the caricatured villains or the damaged and screwed-up anti-heroes (that have become such a tv trope these days), but when the "good ones" are well done, well written and well played, they aren't boring at all, they are actually refreshing, touching and kind of sublime. That's the reason I loved Helo so much on BSG. He was a gentle giant; a tender rock (and a beautiful one!), a good man "always doing the right thing", to paraphrase Sharon.
And there's that Chesterton who just arrived in town, a dying actor, among the theatre folks. Jack telling him he's his Jack but also his producer sounded like a way to say that we must brace ourselves for characters' death but the show will go on (except it didn't beyond season3!). The theatre subplot seems so superfluous that I'm more and more convinced that it's nothing but a meta commentary inside of the show, a mise-en-abîme.
BTW the scene between Joanie and Jane had a super meta feel about it (thanks to the use of the word "line"):
"Jane: Where would the stage be?
Joanie: I don't know.
Jane: Yeah, I don't know either. Ain't our line I guess."
And there's Richardson's line about the theatre folks gathering around a table to discuss the deal with Joanie and set things in motion:
"Are they performing now?"
Here I can't help quoting the Bard himself:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
As You LIke It, Act II Scene VII.
Now that I think about it, Al didn't understand the "whys", couldn't "figure the fucking angle", but he should have asked his pal Jack (who, btw, offered to play the role of backup!!!!). The fight Hearst had asked for, with Dan facing Captain Turner, was obviously a big show Hearst was putting on, as a producer, using his star to convey a message.
The stage wasn't at Chez Ami yet, it was on the thoroughfare!
And we even got to see what happed backstage (Dan oiling his body, Captain Turner exercising) before the show actually occurred, twisting the old-fashioned way of Western standoff and indulging in some gore with the eye poking.
The dying Chesterton foreshadowed the death of another performer (but Hearst, being a wealthy producer, must have more tricks in his bag) and Hostetler's death as well. By the way there was a horse dancing around the fighters during the Dan/Captain Turner fight scene so I wonder whether it was a clue. Maybe I'm reaching here.
Hostetler shooting himself was quite shocking and it seemed to come out of nowhere, but I think it served both as a plot device and as a bad omen. Bullock had just managed to make the deal work out between hateful, racist and paranoid Steve the Drunk and Hostetler, but eventually the better man couldn't take the hateful words anymore and Hostetler chose his own exit...off stage. The fact that he happened off camera and that we only saw the blood on the wall was a nice touch.
Bullock's helplessness was so unbearable that he had to do something which drove him to make his move and arrest Hearst. Next Act to come!