DEADWOOD
A camp, a town, a lawless cluster of criminals and outlaws. The titular site of David Milch’s brutal yet beautiful Western series is a character all by itself. Here we present its mean streets in all their grimy glory. Welcome to fucking Deadwood.
site of: wolcott’s massacre
Garret Dillahunt’s second role in the show was as the deadly-twitchy Hearst agent Francis Wolcott, who vents his frustration by Jack-the-rippering three Chez Ami prostitutes with a razor. An act he stiffly, chillingly describes as “something very expensive”.
site of: swearengen vs Bullock
The tense rivalry between law man Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) and chaos man Al Swearengen (Ian Mcshane) finally explodes at the start of the second season, when the pair brawl so furiously, they topple off the balcony of Al’s joint, The Gem, and into the mud…
site of: wild Bill’s murder
Deadwood doesn’t hang about when it comes to offing main characters. Only four episodes in, Keith Carradine’s Wild Bill Hickok is shot in the back during a poker game by Jack Mccall (Garret Dillahunt). Had to happen: the lawless man of myth making way for progress and civilisation.
site of: Al’s kidney stone removal
In a masterclass of televisual discomfort, we watch Swearengen going through the worst pain imaginable (for a man) as he passes a kidney stone with the help of smelling salts, and a horrible-looking pokey thing shoved right up his wee hole.
site of: tolliver’s interrogation
As seething saloon owner Cy Tolliver, Powers Boothe was sadism incarnate — look no further than his horrifically brutal torture and murder of two young thieves (one of whom is played by Kristen Bell, most definitely not in The Good Place).
site of: Calamity Jane’s history lesson
Deadwood could do lightness and joy, too. Town inebriate Jane (Robin Weigert) cleans up and delivers a lively lecture to attentive schoolkids about her time scouting for the “puffed up” General Custer. Already her adventures are passing into history.