The House Next Door

Milch is clearly fond of developing parallel characters in his tales. Recently we had Dan and the Captain, and now we have Wyatt Earp and Bullock. Both ex-lawmen who've come to Deadwood to explore business opportunities and (theoretically) leave their law enforcement days behind, only to be drawn back into the field by powerful men with their own agendas. And just as Dan had to meet the challenge of his camp doppelganger head-on, so too will Bullock. What will we learn about them (Bullock in particular) in the process?

I confess to having been disappointed by the episode. It seemed to me more like a collection of scenes, some glorious, some (like Bellegarde's with Chesterton) less so.

As horrifying as it was seeing Captain Turner lose an eye a few weeks back, I thought to myself, "Oh well, it's only half as gross as your average King Lear!"

And now, we get to see Brain Cox (who was a great Lear himself with the National Theater back in '92) deliver a heartbreaking rendition of Gloucester and his son at Dover Cliff. Great stuff. I'm looking forward to an actual Langrishe performance on stage next week!

The previews make it look like the stage show will be an amateur night, so I doubt Langrishe will be performing...

Yes, I saw that amateur hour sign too, but it did look like he was taking a bow onstage. I'd love to hear him do another speech.

Anyway, it just occured to me that anywhere Langrishe goes, it's a grand performance, whether he's on stage or not!

Matt-

I'm slightly confused about one thing. The episode that aired Sunday night on HBO did not open with a dramatic thunderstorm but rather with Blazanov and Merrick setting out in the gray, blustery morning to deliver the Pioneer.

Did you mention the storm because it had obviously rained in the night, or because it was still raining while Merrick and Blazanov were walking, or was there a full thunderstorm in the copy of the episode you saw? (I believe you stated you are watching advance preview copies of the current batch of episodes.)

I will admit that this ep was not one of my favorites although partly because I thought that Unauthorized Cinnamon was one of the all-time greats after watching it several times and it would be tough for anything to compare.

I didn't find myself intriqued by either of the Earp boys, but am willing to give them more time (esp Wyatt) to blossom; and other than Cox, I find the whole theater arc to be a bit tedious.

The Steve scenes prior to the horse kick were great. Michael Harney is (was) so impressive as this character that I actually kind of started to like him(?).

I also wish that Odell had stayed around a little longer. I think he is a facinating character and his scenes with Hearst were great from the previous couple of eps.

I didn't realize until the short HBO feature after the show that Langrishe was also based on a real person.

Greg C: No, I think we saw the same version. It looked like a dark and rainy morning to me, and the wind was uncharacteristic of weather on the series. That, coupled with the "King Lear" references in the script, made me think of it as a storm before the storm, as the headline suggests.

Matt, just out of curiosity, I know of no daily paper that devotes weekly coverage to reviewing a TV series, like you are doing with DEADWOOD. Blog items on popular shows like IDOL or LOST, sure. And I can understand blanket coverage of SOPRANOS for a Jersey paper. But with DEADWOOD, are your editors there big fans? What's the reaction overall from the paper's readers? Or are you doing this just online for them?

Oh, and btw, McRaney's been magnificent this season. He works menace like Clinton at a coming out ball.