21st
In my on going quest to find television series that I can watch through Netflix, I have found several that I really enjoyed, some that were interesting enough to watch a season or two when nothing else was on, and a few where I couldn’t care enough to watch the second episode.
And then there have been a very few like Deadwood which I turned off after about thirty minutes. I had heard many favorable reviews about Deadwood and I’m partial to westerns so I was looking forward to seeing the series. So much so that I was actually willing to have Netflix send me the dvds when I prefer to watch TV series that are streamed. I even gave DW more time than I wanted because I kept thinking maybe it would improve. But it didn’t. I have not heard the f-word so many times in a minute ever before in my life. Sprinkle that with a variety of other foul words and you’ll have the dialogue down pat. The cinematography was flat and colorless. The characters, stereotypical and uninteresting. After thirty minutes of the first hour’s episode, I still had no idea what the plot was and that is knowing the history of town of Deadwood.
I’m sure fans of the show would argue that the language and dusty, monochromatic town were in the name of authenticity. But if they were reaching for true authenticity, why have all the actors smear their faces with dirt and then even the lowest drunk on the street have perfect, white teeth?
