DVD Junkie #5: Battlestar Galactica

You may have noticed in your school or workplace that any resident nerds have become increasingly distracted as this week has progressed. Has productivity in the IT department slowed to a crawl? Has that guy in HR that always says good morning to your chest showed less interest as of late? Well, there's only one explanation. Tonight, the last season of a little SciFi show called "Battlestar Galactica" is beginning, and the nerds, as they say, have their little star wars printed panties in a bunch over it.

Now, I know what you're thinking - A first-run TV show on the SciFi channel that airs on Friday nights? Something to do with robots and space ships and other subjects that tend to make you think of conventions and internet forums and people with more action figures than sexual partners? I thought that too. I resisted Battlestar Galactica for a long time, as more and more of my friends were converted. It reached a critical mass point, when I was being told to watch it by everyone I knew, practically, and my resistance only grew stronger. But finally, this winter, I had an excuse.

I get most of my TV seasons through Netflix, like any normal twentysomething, but every once in a while I like to pop down to my local blockbuster and peruse their DVD section. I've discovered some shows that never would have made it to my queue online otherwise, even though their selection is lacking as only a blockbuster can be. But at the beginning of the TV aisle, nestled between 24 and Desperate Housewives were three or so seasons of Battlestar Galactica. With their charcoal colored packaging and hey-haven't-I-seen-you-somewhere-like-maybe-on-a-law-and-order-or-something cast, I never felt the urge to pick up the first few discs, until I got my first nasty cold of the season, and decided to see what I thought.

Little known fact: Cylon skin is designed to secrete an adhesive,
so no double-stick tape is ever needed to keep her dresses up.

Anyone who's watched even an episode or two of BSG in passing will tell you that show is a serious commitment. When there's more Battlestar to be watched and you're not watching it you feel like you're wasting your life doing anything else. That sounds hyperbolic but when you're in the thick of getting caught up with the seasons it sure as hell feels true. You're glued there, to your TV, as every relationship you have in the real world slowly disentigrates. You stay in on saturday nights. Your work performance suffers, and whenever you're pulled away from the Galactica and its crew you get resentful. I've called other shows addictive in the past, but Battlestar is worst than anything I've ever had occasion to watch. It's worse than the second season of Dexter, worse than the first season of the Wire. Worse, even, and if you know me, you know this is saying something, than the Shield. It's cripplingly good, it's almost viciously awesome.

Battlestar Galactica tells the story of a battle spaceship that's about to be decommissioned but then gets attacked...
Or, it tells the story of a scientist who seems to be losing his mind with guilt...
Or really, it's about a minor cabinet member who is suddenly thrust into the presidency...
Oh, fuck it. I can't write a real logline for this show, without spoiling it for someone. it's too big, and much of the fun of BSG is the discovering of how the show evolves into its 40 or so plotlines. Basically here's the premise: Humans vs. Robots in a race across the galaxy, and the robots are really smart, and everyone's fallibile and cuts the corners off their books and wears their tanktops backwards. Oh and Lucy Lawless is there. and EVERYONE'S A FRAKING CYLON. ALL OF THEM. AAAH! not really. I hope. Maybe.

Kris Kross was apparently very popular back on good ol' Caprica

But really, what sets BSG apart from Sci Fi gems like, say, Aztec Rex, is three things: The casting, the effects, and - once agian, dear readers - the writing.

First, the casting. Every person or cylon has been cast with pinpoint precision. The cast is a long list of newcomers or sci-fi TV show veterans (Xena, Warrior princess? Al from Quantum Leap? And even the Capt. Apollo from the orignal Battlestar Galactica in the 70's makes an appearance in the show [he's Tom Zarek for those of you playing at home]), and I'm hard-pressed to think of more than one or two actors who have been miscast or thrust into a role that's over their head. A perfect example of the spot on casting is Dr. Gaius Balthar, played to the hilt by James Callis. He's one of the most polarizing characters on the show, and could have been expressed in many different ways - from sleazy to angelic or self-pitying - but the way his character is acted walks a razors edge, getting just a little of each, and never too much of any of it. So much so, that I've noticed there are two factions of BSG fans - those that swoon at his feet, and those who want to put the guy out an airlock. We're all watching the same show, but the character is left human enough and open enough to interpretation - from the writer to the actor to the viewer - that everyone has formed disparate and conflicting opinions of him. And that's how you act a well-written character, kids. And almost everyone does it - from Katee Sackhoff's Starbuck to the most marginal of Red Shirt-esque characters. Everyon'e in their place, eveyone's talented as hell, and the show's real guts are in their performances.

Complete dick or nerdcore sexpot - YOU decide!

Secondly, the effects are extremely important, because even if the the acting and casting of each character is spot on it is still a show, you know, set on a space ship in space, so if that aspect isn't belieiveable then there's something seriously wrong. The effects in this show, to stretch a metaphor to the point of breaking, are not like the $400 a head valentines day tasting menu you get at major film studios, nor are they the five-star but slightly overhyped $200 dinner at the latest hot spot that you get with major cable shows like heroes. The effects on Battlestar Galactica are like that perfect niche restaurant that you only know about because you walk by it every day - like a Cuban restaurant under the manhattan bridge or the thai place where all you have to do is walk in and they bring you the usual - they're not anything special in the grand scheme of things, but damn if they don't get the job done well, and with as little fuss as possible, and at a higher quality than you would ever expect from some hole in the wall in alphabet city -or- the cable network that brought us Yeti.

And finally the writing - this is one of the best planned and executed television series I've ever seen. Plots flow seamlessly into each other, and the twists and turns would put most rollercoasters to shame. Now there are a few genuinely bad episodes. One of the few flaws of the series is that every once and a while it feels like their plots got stretched, so there will be one of those infamous "filler" episodes, where there's action going on in another part of the universe and you're stuck, say, watching someone make out in the woods or deal with their inadequacy through an addiction to food. This happens to the best of series, so I don't count this too heavily against them. These pepper the later seasons - but when BSG is on, it's on so well and in such a hardcore awesome way that this sort of thing is entirely forgivable.

Just make out already, guys, Jeez.

Before I was made into a believer, I heard Battlestar Galactica described as "The West Wing in space", and that was the way I looked at it before I ever watched the first episode (which is 4 or so hours long, it was actually tested as a miniseries before it was 100% greenlit as a show). I would say that that's a fair assessment of about 50% of the action. There's a lot of office politics and backbiting and the human element comes into it quite a bit. Through this scifi lens, the show is able to touch on just about every moral deliema you can put someone in, and then you're able to look at it from every angle, and see all the pros and cons on every side. But what makes this show more than just the West Wing in space is the action side of it, which usually slams through with little or no warning. and the fascinating part is that it does both ends of the spectrum equally well. the action is great, and the drama is excellent, and it's just about always equally matched. it's a wild, wild ride, and the writers should all have drinks bought for them on a regualr basis for their work on this show.

So, this review is going out a bit late, but just trust me. If you have a week or two to kill, settle down and introduce yourself to BSG before the show ends so you can start effectively hitting on cute nerd girls. If you have a life or a girlfriend or something and can't catch it on SciFi Friday nights, Hulu's totally got it, and you can get all the seasons on DVD or the iTunes store. Just watch it.

DVD Junkie is a weekly review of TV Series on DVD. Kosmic actually doesn't have anything better to do on a Friday night, thank you very much, and would have shoved Baltar out an airlock as soon as she got a chance and without a second thought. You can follow her on Twitter @kosmicblues

DVD Junkie #3: My Name is Earl

As we here at the Screenwriter's League recover from the holidays and get geared up for the year ahead, I'd like to take a moment to talk about a largely unrecognized show that I've just recently come to appreciate.

My Name is Earl doesn't get a lot of recognition. As far as Thursday night NBC comedy shows go, it's kind of like the plain Jane in the popular clique. Placed inconspicuously right before one of the most powerful one-two punches on TV (30 Rock and the Office), My Name is Earl lacks many of the earmarks its prettier neighbors - few SNL or Daily Show alumni, hardly any cameos from anyone above the C-list, and it lacks that postmodern uber-self-referential shtick that is thiiiis close to being overdone.

Earl is a unique combination - taking the tried and true single-camera sitcom format and mixing it with skilled, creative casting, and rock-solid writing. Add in the ever-entertaining white trash setting and a dash of eastern philosophy, and you've got a recipe for an amazing, though inconspicuous show.

Luckily "grew an awesome mustache" wasn't something he had to apologize for.
Because this is America.

The show follows Earl Hickey - a low-rent con artist and Joe Sixpack type. After winning $100,000 in the lotto and then promptly getting hit by a car, he writes a list of every bad thing he's ever done. With the help of his simple-minded brother, his psycho ex-wife, and a motel maid, Earl is trying to improve his karma by righting the wrongs he's done to people over the years.

What this translates to is a virtual golden goose as far as story concepts go - watching Earl in sequence helps, but this is one of the few good shows you can honestly watch in just about any order. True, as with any formula you have a few dud episodes here and there, but even when the story fails, it’s still damn funny. Each episode is its own self-contained gem, complete with a moral at the end and an impressive number of laughs.

The main reason for this is the impressive mix between the writing and the cast. The writing is witty, and extremely tight. In fact, if you need a quick primer in simple structure, watch a couple of episodes - you can set your watch by them, from inciting incident to conclusion. But the way the characters are written makes this predictable structure sing.

And the cast, headed up by the smugly charming Jason Lee, is full of unsung character actors who have honestly found a niche. Now, if you were an adolescent in the 90's, you will definitely remember Jason Lee from his roles in Kevin Smith's movies, most memorably as "Brodie" in the horrible, utterly classic Mallrats - a movie that by all accounts he stole. Even though I never really watched My Name is Earl before recently, I was happy just to see that Jason Lee was working steadily - so many of those talented actors that got their start with the Jersey Trilogy either faded into obscurity or - in the case of someone who shall remain nameless (but whose name rhymes with Ken Maffleck) - pissed away their talent for a hot latin ass and a Mark Stephen Johnson turd.


Beyond Jason Lee, the cast is fantastic. Ethan Suplee (which IMDB just reminded me was also in Mallrats as William the "I want to see the sailboat" guy), is both believable and hilarious as Earl's stupid but quite lovable brother, and the shining star of the supporting cast is Jamie Turner, as Joy - Earl's loud and slightly unhinged ex-wife. She won an Emmy for the role in 2007, and she's simply fantastic. What makes her so good is that her performance is overblown, but grounded enough to still be believable. And that also is where the creativity of the casting shines through - even minor one-off roles have been cast with a precision that's remarkable. This is what gives the world of My Name is Earl such a vast richness and relatability, even though there aren't giant season-long arcs - the characters are crystal clear without being two-dimensional. You "get" it immediately, and so there's no need for explanation, all you have to do is sit back and watch.

So even though it doesn’t have the fancy bells and whistles of some of the other Thursday comedies out there, Earl is definitely worth a watch. It’s a rewarding experience without the commitment of the more prominent shows. It’s kind of like a fuck buddy. Yeah, I’ll stand by that. My Name is Earl is like the perfect fuck buddy – entertaining without being too much of a tax on your time or energy, and is even more fun than a daytime hooker. Happy New Year.

The fourth season of My Name is Earl just ended on NBC, and the first three seasons are available on Amazon for $108.99

DVD Junkie is a weekly review of TV Series on DVD. Kosmic only wrote this post sorta intoxicated and can finally cross “didn’t make fun of Ben Affleck on the internet” off her list.

DVD Junkie #2: Metalocalypse

If you're in your twenties and have had access to either a television or a computer at some point in the past decade, there's a good chance you've watched adult swim, the late-night block of unusual television aimed at that golden 20-30 male demographic. Adult swim has gone through many changes through the years, and today I'll be reviewing one of the most highly-evolved adult swim shows - Brendan Small's bite-size hardcore sitcom, Metalocalypse.

Adult swim cornered the late-night stoner market back in the early 00's (I hear we're calling it "the Naught-ies" now, what will they come up with next) with offbeat original animations and dubbed episodes of Cowboy Bebop. The seed for the spinoff network was actually planted half a decade earlier - coming from that bizarre Hanna-Barbera bastardization cum bewildering talk show "Space Ghost Coast to Coast", which in turn came close on the heels of the trippy MTV animation block "Liquid Television". For those of you who remember, back in the early nineties Liquid Television launched Bevis and Butthead, Aeon Flux and has the distinction of being one of the first times TV specifically aimed their programming at chemically altered teenagers who needed something to do after they'd run down their cassette tapes of "Dark Side of the Moon". It was a winning formula - and even back in pre-TRL MTV (which when I think back on it now seems sort of lawless and free - Kurt Loder reported actual news, MTV showed actual music videos, and MTV was like an awesome older sibling instead of some squealing soulless preteen) Liquid Television stood out as something different, something weird, and as something that resonated with small town younguns with nothing better to do than sit in their wood-paneled basements and watch horrifically distended people jumping through bleak, dystopian landscapes.

then and now... aww, now I've gone and made myself sad :(

Space Ghost Coast to Coast latched onto that early market, and slowly that early pioneer of the bizarre Adult Swim format cultivated those stoner kids into a powerful niche of the market, right as they were being alienated from MTV by the channels increased focus on new, more impressionable pre-teen (or ... ugh ... "tween") viewers. The kids who so desperately wanted their MTV in the 80's and 90's had now been flatly dumped by it, and were ripe for the next big thing.

As Adult Swim's market share grew, Cartoon Network, and specifically Williams Street (the company that develops the lion's share of Adult Swim's original content) realized there was real money to be made tailoring shows to kids zonked out of their minds on weed and cough syrup, so they gave Adult Swim a great deal of autonomy (even officially breaking Adult Swim into its own channel so that it wouldn't skew the ratings for kid-friendly Cartoon Network). Williams Street in turn started developing more of their own shows, expanding the Space Ghost formula into an entire line of sometimes downright bizarre shows. That format morphed and grew, and has now found a profitable and influential place with the youth - where those disaffected high-as-balls teenagers have moved from their friend's basement to their dorms to their very own couches with their very own bongs, watching adult swim the entire time.

In any case, the Adult Swim format is hard to pin down and even harder to perfect. it's either brain-poisioningly stupid or absolutely brilliant, with very little in between. The good thing is, when they do it well, it's very entertaining and appears effortless, even to those of us not high as a kite. The bad thing is, for every Venture Brothers or Harvey Birdman out there, there are something like fourteen "Tim and Eric Awesome Shows". Usually they're short-lived, and universally seem like they're a hell of a lot more fun to be in than to watch. Which wouldn't be hard. Sometimes it seems like the execs just throw whatever they can at the wall and see what sticks. I mean, their target demographic would literally watch a test pattern and be heartily entertained for 15 minutes anyway, so why not experiment? And in the same way experiments sometimes create the epic failures that make up much of Adult Swim's original programming, they also, once in a great while, create something truly magical.

This is what the average Adult Swim viewer watches.
(Oh look, Zombie, it's your new best friend!)

Before Metalocalypse, Brendon Small was better known in the world of Adult Swim for his series "Home Movies", which was one of the first shows aired on Adult Swim and follows the trials and tribulations of Brendon, an elementary school student and budding filmmaker who dealt with his (actually quite depressing, when you think about it) life by grabbing his mom's vhs recorder and making movies with his friends. As much as I'd like to think that Home Movies was 100% biographical, my trusty friend wikipedia tells me that the real Brendon Small actually had a lot more to do with music - attending to the prestigious Berklee college of music. Taking that and the fact that he plays a good number of instruments on Dethklok's songs, the guy isn't too shabby of a musician, and the fact that he created a show so firmly based in music comes as no surprise.

Metalocalypse is one of the later Adult Swim shows, and is definitely one of the places where the disjointed narrative format and ludicrously mundane plots combine to create the unexpected magic that Adult Swim is famous for. The story of the show is roughly this: The most influential band in all of history, which just happens to be of the soul-rending black metal variety and covered in spikes, called Dethklok, has their every move watched by a secret tribunal of world leaders. And that's basically it. The tribunal watches, and Dethklok does a lot of navel gazing and texting. Oh sure, every once in a while they awaken a hellspawn troll or cause the death of thousands through their elaborate (and spiky) stage shows, but the very substance of Metalocalypse is that there is none. The Hollywood ideal of incite>conflict>resolution is left by the wayside. This is nothing new for Adult Swim's lineup, but the way in which Small executes the show is just about flawless.

*sigh* they grow up so fast...

Metalocalypse knows itself and its own potential in a way that not many Adult Swim shows can pull off - the characters are fully formed, the style is rock solid, and despite the apparent lack of forward motion, upon watching both seasons as whole works, there is a definite sense of trajectory. Side characters like Dr. Rockso, the rock 'n' roll clown (who, as you soon learn, does cocaine), have actual arcs through multiple episodes, and even though it is definitely a show meant to be watched out of order, without continuity, it shows a fundamental maturity that many adult swim shows lack. You care about the characters in a way that you're never even allowed to on a show such as Sealab 2021 or Aqua Teen Hunger Force. and also, unlike these shows, the watchability is not diminished by sobriety, which gives it a serious advantage over its more disjointed cousins.

But one of the best things about Metalocalypse is the fact that it has made metal accessible to just about anyone, regardless of personal music tastes. Personally, metal has never been my forte, honestly. I've always known as much about metal as I know about Mixed Martial Arts fighting and French New Wave: i.e., just enough to get me laid. But metal has never been that far from my heart either - from my brother's earnest garage-band practice sessions, to the long-haired, black-shirted metalheads that dotted much of my early love life, to the truly awesome music videos that come from the genre. While not a fan, I am a friend and sibling of fans, and have grown up with an interest in and understanding of the culture that goes along with it. I may have some predisposition to enjoy this show because of my anecdotal experiences with metal and its resulting culture, but still, I have seen people who think Metallica is too hardcore for their tastes become fans of the show, and not in spite of the music that is so close to the show's core.


Metalocalypse is metal taken to its distant yet logical conclusion, and paints a world that has been depicted in music videos for years - Metal is king, and all the world bows before it. As a complete universe, it has a smack of real fanboy glee about it, actually. One thing you can tell about the creators of this show is that they had a hell of a lot of fun creating this metal universe - the attention to detail, the inside jokes, the sly poking of fun at the stoic Scandinavians - not only did they know what they were talking about, they really enjoyed talking about it too.

Dethklok itself is a warped composite of many different bands in the metal and hardcore worlds - there are theatrics and all manner of musical styles that Dethklok touches on. And Metalocalypse is structured similarly to one of those "Hard Day's Night"-esque band vehicles - just about every episode has a song that is performed in a music video style and the song ties in with the plot. Just one aspect of that they poke fun at, which I'll take a minute to explain, is Scandinavian Black Metal - a genre that is not so much misunderstood as truly and abjectly pretty terrifying when you get right down to it and in real life has involved murder, burning down churches and all manner of crazy stuff. There are many different styles of black metal, of varying intensity, but for those of you who didn't have the experience of growing up with an older brother or the luck to be considered irresistible by every barrel-chested guy with an unruly goatee and a slayer t-shirt within a five block radius, here's an example which should give you a good introduction to Scandi black metal - Dimmu Borgir's "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse" (Slightly NSFW, if a brief glimpse or three of a topless woman on a chain or a guitar solo that rocks so hard it ends the goddamn world isn't kosher in your workplace):



Now mind you, ye uninitiated in this darker side of rock, this is the melodic end of black metal and is honestly on the lighter side of the genre. Metalocalypse takes these theatrics and turns them into something truly magical - the "videos" involved in each episode are clever pastiches of these styles - using popular metal video elements like 1-2 frame alternating cuts, meat lockers, bold colors, the undead, and buckets and buckets of bloody violence.

Metalocalypse is worth a watch, even if you don't have any stake in Adult Swim or the bizarre animations that have so marked growing up in the current generation. Actually, I'd go as far as saying Metalocalypse would be an excellent entry point for someone looking to start watching the Adult Swim animation lineup (the Venture Brothers is an excellent place to start as well), and as a parting gift, here's another awesome metal video: Lair of the Minotaur - "War Metal Battle Master" (NSFW if your boss has something against hot topless zombies or sepia gradient filters):



The second season of Metalocalypse was just released last week as a soul-crushing DVD, with a lot of extras and all sorts of hardcore stuff for $20.99 on Amazon. The perfect Christmas gift for grandparents, young children, or your local youth pastor. It can also be seen most nights on Adult Swim in a rotating lineup.

Also, for those interested, a huge 10th anniversary boxed set of Home Movies has been released for the holiday season on Amazon for $99.99.

DVD Junkie is a weekly review of TV Series on DVD. Kosmic has the most packed DVR you ever did see, and agrees that Bloodrucution makes an awesome song name.

DVD Junkie #1: Deadwood

Oh, December, how I love thee. For this is the one time a year when HBO shows become affordable to real human beings. Here's how it works: once an HBO show has been on TV for roughly a year, the network will release a ridiculously overpriced, uselessly ornate DVD of the season to us struggling masses who won't pony up $20 a month for the two or three hours a week we'd actually watch the damn channel. Besides obviously giving us sad peons the chance to have our very own special piece of premium television, these DVD's have recently become redundant with the advent of HBO full-season DVD sets. Why pay $80-$100 a season when you can wait a year or two and get the whole shebang for $150? This is a banner year for HBO box sets, with three great shows being released in their entirety - The Sopranos, The Wire, and that lovable romp through the cocksuckin' old west, Deadwood.

Any of these three would be worthy of a long and meandering personal review, but unless you've been under a rock for the past 6 years, you already know you should watch the Sopranos (and shame on you if you haven't) and if you were still under that rock when the hipsters discovered the Wire, then you might not know that it's very popular these days to say ZOMFG TEH WIRE IS THE BEST SHOW EVAARR DID YOU KNOW ITS ABOUT DRUGS AN BLACK PEOPLE? Both of these shows are fantastic, don't get me wrong, but their quiet, foul-mouthed cowboy cousin is what I'm focusing on today.

The western genre has swung wildly from great to terrible since its heyday in the mid 20th century. In the past 20 years or so, it's been increasingly abysmal - with 10 "Texas Rangers" for every "Unforgiven" that comes out. On TV, the odds of something worth the five minutes it takes to get to the first commercial break are next to nil, with the only one I can think of off the top of my head being "Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman" and that's a show that's so toothless even senior citizens find it condescendingly crowd-pleasing. We get it, Solitaire has ditched the sexy Bond-villainy and been transported to the Wild West, where she's a woman in a man's world who wears a hat and blah de blah blah blah...zzzzzzzz

Anyway, one of the only bright points on TV in the straight western genre is Deadwood, the golden child of David Milch - he of Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue and other blue things fame. Set in a lawless town before the annexation of the Dakota territory, Deadwood centers on a rotating cast of around 10 characters, some based on actual people, some not, but all of whom could probably use a good bath.

Now let me just preface the rest of this review by saying that I'm a huge fan of westerns. I'm a sucker for antiheroes and most westerns worth watching serve them up with reckless abandon. Also, morality is turned into a compellingly personal and flexible concept in fiction based on the old west. It's like an end of the world survival film, but without the cataclysmic inciting incident or zombie horde. Getting breakfast or playing a quiet game of cards with your best friends is a matter of instant life and death every day, and through that sense of urgency, tension can be kept at a fever pace even through 6 minutes of people silently staring at each other across a graveyard. The stakes are sky high the minute the title card fades, so if you've done your job your audience is already involved.

Deadwood is a show you would buy a used car from. It's convincing, and reliable, and above all else, is absolutely fascinating. The characters shoulder the plot with grace and skill, especially in the first season. You honestly care about what their fate, and when major characters get killed off, there is a true sense of loss. Above all else it grips the gritty realism that is so characteristic of the post-sopranos hour-long drama with a reckless tenacity, down to the speech patterns in the dialogue and the wanton, awesome violence.

It's a little-known fact that mustaches served as currency in the old west.

The cast was mostly made up of unknowns four years ago - Timothy Olyphant had yet to steal the Internet in Die Hard: Deathrattle, and the various actors that made up the original major cast had, god bless 'em, been climbing the industry ladder the hard way in Law and Orders, small episode runs in shows not Law and Order, and small parts in movies. The biggest exception to this was Ian McShane, an actor with a 50-year pedigree in theatre, film, and movies. If you're over the age of 30 and British, you might know him from his previous show "LoveJoy" which was apparently created using the British standard for creating dramas: madlib

"a [lovable/foppish/shrewd] [name of quirky profession/vicar/timelord] travels the countryside solving mysteries, with the help of their assistant, [young woman/comic relief/close definitely “heterosexual” friend]"

In re-watching the first season, I am first struck by the slickness and ease of the opening sequence - designed by Rock Paper Scissors and a52 visual effects (which is better known for car commercials and music videos, most notably the quite ridiculous "God Gave Me Everything" by Mick Jagger), one thing you can say about HBO is that they know how to set a tone. Their long opening sequences are like foreplay, and it's quite obvious they know this by how much care and design know-how goes into each.

There's a lot that's been said about Deadwood's dialogue. It's not in iambic pentameter, as many people have posited, but it might as well be. The cadence and the sheer density of it is almost overwhelming. In a genre that is characterized by silent looks and shoot first ask questions later, the residents of deadwood are unusually chatty. So much of the story happens in the dialogue that you find yourself paying close attention without really realizing it, so when someone gets shot or stabbed or somesuch it's that much more brutal because you're already so involved. And if you've got a problem with profanity, this is not the show for you. Not by a long shot. Just as an example, here's an episode from Deadwood cut down to nothing but its profanity (obviously, extremely NSFW)



It's two and a half minutes long. By my art school math education, that's something like 5%? 5% of this show is swearing. Awesome.

Also, I can't stress the strength of the cast enough. There are times in the later two seasons where the writing lags, and the story gets lost in its own opulence, meandering through its paces for episodes at a time. These are the times that the best actors shine - most of the times that this happens Ian McShane as brothel owner "Al Swearengen" shoulders the plot, with the considerable talents of Robin Weigert, Dayton Callie, W. Earl Brown and Brad Dourif taking the most of the rest of the burden until the story gets back on track, so even when she story is weak, the show is quite strong. Technically, Timothy Olyphant's "Seth Bullock" is the other main character of the show, but he's not one of the shining stars of the cast. Everyone is beyond capable, but Olyphant seems to phone it in a tad more than others, glowering and tight-lipped mumbling his way through much of the series, though some of the best moments in the show happen when Bullock and Swearengen are in direct conflict.

Much like many of the situations in the show, Deadwood did not come to a pleasant end. Deadwood's story progressed in two-season arcs, with a nice, clean temporary resolution at the end of each even-numbered season. The show was cancelled suddenly after the third season had wrapped shooting, so the end is frustratingly open. It was a very expensive show to produced, with sets and costumes almost all having to be created from scratch, and at the time HBO was in the middle of Rome as well, which was even more expensive, so the economic reasons for canceling make sense. But fans of the show at the time were angry and bitter, and would have sworn up and down that the reason the show was cancelled was David Milch, and specifically his new show John From Cincinnati which was heavily promoted shortly after word got around that a 4th season wasn't going to come.

The average Deadwood fan's opinion of "John from Cincinnati"

Part of me thinks that that show failed because people were angry about Deadwood. I'm not going to lie, I still have considerable resentment that we never got to have the closure that we all craved, especially since the third season seemed to be leading the show in a different direction, with many new characters being introduced then never shown to pay off. But the vigor with which its fans defend and mourn their fallen show is simply more proof of how compelling and immersive Deadwood is. God rest the soul of that great show ... and pussy's half price for the next 15 minutes.

All three seasons of Deadwood will be released in a shiny 19-DVD box set on Tuesday, December 9th for $108.99 on Amazon.com. It's well worth it.

DVD Junkie is a weekly review of TV Series on DVD. Kosmic has seen more TV than could possibly be healthy by anyone's estimation, and never sits with her back to the door when playing cards.