The House Next Door

I know that in the next few days, a great deal of penetrating _Deadwood_ commentary will appear on this blog, but before that appears I thought I'd sneak in something a little lighthearted.

As I watched Seth Bullock sit there, in the town jail cell, assessing his quick temper, I had a sudden flash: My god, Seth Bullock is Ryan Atwood. An out-of-towner who tries to stay low and stay out of fights, only to have violent circumstances thrust upon him. He is attempting to make sense of his situation with a nerdy Jewish friend and a bushy-eyebrowed father figure, but we all know that his dalliance with a woman beyond his station is going to lead him into no end of trouble. And don't get me started on how out of his depth his Jewish friend is with his girlfriend.

Welcome to Deadwood, bitch.

Submitted with all due respect,
Anon

For more on Ryan Atwood, click here But I warn you all now, if this turns into an O.C. thread, there's gonna be fuckin' trouble.

For my Star-Ledger colleague Alan Sepinwall's review, visit his blog, What's Alan Watching?

I was gonna make the Bullock/Ryan connection, but I didn't want to offend Matt. But since the horse is already out of the stable, the parallels are uncanny, down to the fact that Seth's girlfriend is probably the least popular person on the show.

But before I start trying to figure out whether The Gem or the Bella Union is supposed to be The Bait Shop, I'll just say that I liked the point about Seth having his moment of self-actualization while sitting in the jail cell, which didn't occur to me.

I am the anonymous nit-picker. Two mistakes in your excellent review: 1) Joanie was heading to the Bella Union, not the Chez Ami (which is where she started and has been converted into the schollhouse), and 2) Henderson rushes to the Gem, not the sherrif's office. This first episode was so riveting, that when it's over it seemed as if it had just begun. My wife could not believe that the hour was up.

Anon--Thanks for those catches. They'll be fixed online shortly. After two months off from regular writing, I'm not quite up to full steam again yet, but hopefully I will be soon.

Another nit-pick - It's "Richardson", not "Henderson"...

Fer chrissakes.

Apropos of the issue of characters changing over time -- referenced in many Deadweek pieces (see sidebar, "The Deadwood Columns") -- here's a nice bit from Alan Sepinwall's review of the season opener. (For the link, see above.)

"Thank God for the Johnny Burnses of this show, because there were large chunks of the premiere where I badly needed someone to explain the plot to me. And what purpose does The Gem's barkeep serve if not to allow Dan or Al deliver several foul mouthfuls of exposition?

So let me make sure I have this straight: the Cornish workers at Hearst's mining operation have been agitating for better pay and conditions, so Hearst sends a couple of his goons to kill one of the Cornish at The Gem, sending two messages in the process: 1)Organize against me and die, and 2)I can do whatever I want, wherever I want in this camp -- up to and including the place of business of Deadwood's unofficial mayor. And Swearengen, knowing that Hearst needs the elections to go forward as much as he does (elections legitimize the government, which in turn speeds up the process of annexation and helps assure a level of independence from Yankton), plays the one card he has at the moment by postponing the campaign speeches. That sound about right?

As Al put it to Dan, "Don't I yearn for the days a draw across the throat made fuckin' resolution?" Amen, brother.

In all seriousness, while Milch sometimes makes the plot and dialogue so labyrinthine that I feel the need to hire a Talmudic scholar to keep track of it all, I wouldn't want Al to still be the self-interested cutthroat from early in season one. Change is the dominant theme of "Deadwood" -- the change from lawlessness to order being the biggest, but personal change for everyone -- and no one has changed more than Albert (did we know that was the full name?) Swearengen. Anyone who watched the pilot episode -- in which Al looked like the black hat destined to go up against Wild Bill and/or Bullock -- and then jumped ahead to this one would probably be stunned at his transformation into this paragon of community. He helps stage elections! He buys Sol Starr a house! He sets things up so Trixie can essentially move in with Sol with no one in town being any the wiser!

Which isn't to say that Al has become Fonzie circa the episode where he got his library card. He's still a hard man, capable of staring down one of the richest men in America, downing a bottle of the man's whiskey in one sitting and making a power play that could bring down more trouble than he, Dan, Johnny and Adams can handle."

Around the time all the “Deadwood is done for” articles started coming out I got into a discussion with a friend of mine where I came to the realization that an early ending might ultimately spare us all some heartache. I can’t shake the feeling that this brewing confrontation between Swearengen and Hearst is not going to end well for Al (I’m aware of the fate of the real Swearengen, so I’m not talking about death). With all this talk of change and evolution and progress, one can plainly see that men like Hearst are the wave of the future while Al is a dying breed, with control slipping from his grasp by the day. Would there be anything more depressing than watching a once proud wild animal, caged and castrated by infringing society and the courts and the conduct of “gentlemen,” fighting against his obsolescence for twelve episodes (“Sopranos” fans already know the answer to this rhetorical question)? I think a four-hour finale might make this pill a bit easier to swallow than a full season.

Andrew writes, "Would there be anything more depressing than watching a once proud wild animal, caged and castrated by infringing society and the courts and the conduct of “gentlemen,” fighting against his obsolescence for twelve episodes?"

Actually, that doesn't sound depressing to me. It sounds like it would be an amazing 12 hours of TV -- or four, if that's how things play out.

Such a story would not be a tragedy, necessarily -- Milch doesn't celebrate Al's thuggery, but his life force, which persists even as Al evolves. It would instead be the story of a reformed thug realizing that the changes he helped implement during his personal evolution have rendered him unnecessary. I've never seen an arc like that on a series, and I'd love to see it play out in Deadwood. Twelve hours or four, it doesn't matter to me. I'm there.

A question I have about the episode:

What is with Bullock's new tic of touching his nose? I noticed him doing it with Hearst, and thought maybe Hearst's room didn't smell good, then I noticed him doing it with his wife at the school house. Is it something larger or an actor's decision?

I thought it was a good episode for a third year opener. They managed to pull me right back into Deadwood, and did it with minimal wasted exposition. All the characters seemed true to themselves, if that makes any sense. I am looking forward to the rest of the season.

I do wonder what happened to Hostetler and the N. General, though. As my understanding was they were going to get the horse that ran down the Bullocks' child, and go back to Deadwood. Then strike out. Change of plan, I guess.

Am looking forward to new episodes, and more comments and analysis from the House Next Door.

Nicanor

Nicanor: I visited the set in January and observed Milch overseeing a scene that involved Franklin Ajaye, so that answers your question about whether the General will return. Hostetler I don't know about. I won't say what happened in the scene because it seemed significant enough that although I felt privileged to have been there for it, a part of me wished I hadn't seen what I saw.

MZS,

Thanks for the answer about the General.

It must have been something to visit the set. I am figuring there is an article in this? Or, has it been published all ready and I missed it?

Hope you are well,
Nicanor

Nicanor: No, I never published an article specifically about my set visits (I've been twice). But if there seems to be interest in it, I'll write one.

MZS,

I can't speak for the other chaps, but I would read the article. At least twice.

Nicanor

Another stellar season opener. Bravo Milch and Co.!

Was this Mark Tinker's Deadwood Directorial Debut?

Also: Was the actor playing the bathhouse guy (sorry forgot the character's name) where Joanie almost killed herself, the same guy who was the Russian telegraph guy from last season?

bill k: No it's not him, but I thought the exact same thing when I first saw him (how did Blazynoff lose his Russian accent in 6 weeks?).

The actor who plays the English landlord is Dan Hildrebrand who was Irish thug Tim Driscoll in the very first episode.

Wow, you guys beat me to it. Blazinov the telegraph operator was played by a different actor, Pasha Lychnikoff.

And as for Mark Tinker, yes, this was his first outing as DEADWOOD director.

Mark Tinker? Didn't he touch Kim Delaney's boob?

Yes, but then again, haven't we all?

i have to admit, i felt very ill reading the "OC" references...deadwood like that insipid show "OC?" no, no, no...more later on the agamben-esque world of deadwood...