Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Deadwood: You're here with friends


As much as anybody, I know that lists of the top 50 movies/tv/novels/comic/songs/whatever are designed to provoke debate and argument. Everyone brings their own subjective views to them and you'll never please everybody all of the time. But when a local media outlet did a list of the top 50 television shows made by HBO, and none of them were Deadwood, I could only assume it was some kind of clerical error.

I'll patiently listen to anybody who says that The Newsroom is a great TV show, (they're wrong), but even the very best of the shows on that list rarely reach the joys of this moment in Deadwood where the dying Reverend Smith is struck down by a monstrous ailment that he worries is threatening his immortal soul, only to be assured of friendship and compaionship, with the simplest of declarations. Such a moment of grace, such compassion, such beauty. 

(Also, my wife firmly believes that the bit where Alma's scumbag father tells Bullock that if he's going to take his swing, he best do it - and then Seth beats the living shit out of him and declares that anybody else who puts her in jeopardy should expect the same -  is the sexiest thing that ever fucking happened in the world. I love it too, and she might be right, but my favourite bit in that scene is Ricky Jay's immortal 'gentlemen, watch the felt')

 

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