Deadwood: Season 2

Last Christmas, I got a few hefty gift cards to Best Buy as well as some kind of camera thing that I had no use for and returned, for store credit, to Best Buy. With a couple hundred dollars to spend there, I opted to expand my HBO on DVD collection, buying both seasons of Rome, all five of The Wire, and all three of Deadwood. Each episode of each of these 10 seasons is between fifty and sixty minutes long; the going, so to speak, is slow. This morning, I finally finished the second season of Deadwood. It took me four sittings (over the course of several months) just to make it through the first episode, but once I had, I watched the remaining eleven in under a week. And that's kind of fitting; Deadwood is not the easiest show to just jump into. There are dozens of characters and plot points going on at any different time. Differentiating between thirty different bearded white men in hats, and committing each of these characters to memory, is a difficult task indeed. But, once you get enough of a gist of what's going on, every episode is a real treat. In a way then, Deadwood is all about delayed gratification; if you struggle through the first few episodes - even if you don't like them much at all - you're going to reap the rewards down the line. Of course, I wouldn't be able to fault anyone for watching any random episode and saying, "this show is boring as hell." To be honest, that's a somewhat justified statement to make. But, I promise, if you keep chugging through the episodes (and reading recaps or plot summaries for clarification when necessary), you will appreciate this show. Because that's exactly how I came to appreciate it. A friend of mine calls Deadwood one of his favorite shows of all time, but I won't go that far; having now seen two thirds of it, I can't call it amazing or awesome in any way. Certain characters and story arcs are great, sure, but as a whole the show just doesn't blow me away. I guess that's exactly what can be expected from any HBO series though; you know you're going to get excellent production value and acting (well, save from Entourage), and you know the show will have a promising concept with plenty of depth. But that doesn't mean you'll love it or find it extremely memorable in any way. Look, if you haven't been able to figure it out by now, I'm torn on how to rate Deadwood. Twice now, I've started a season and been bored to hell by it, struggled through the early episodes, and thought "this is not a great show," only to really enjoy the latter half of each season and think each time at the closing credits of the season finale, "this is a great show!" I definitely think it's worth checking out, but only if you're going to give it an honest investment of time and attention; this isn't a half-hour comedy series that you can see once or twice and gage accordingly. If possible, find a week where you can spend two hours a night on the first season. If you like it, great; check out seasons two and three. If you don't like it, that's fine too. But please, fight your instinct to jump to judgment on it after three or four episodes. That's all I ask of you, and I'm sure the show would ask the same.