•
Rating:
Even before the dealings and the desert of "Breaking Bad", before the psychotic exhalations of "True Detective", before the blood of "Game of Thrones" and the knives of "Boardwalk Empire", serial violence in the new millennium is located in Deadwood.
South Dakota, the distant year of our lord 1876. Little Bighorn and Custer's defeat are just around the corner. A hundred years exactly from the declaration of independence, the United States is still a tangle of lawless towns, Indians who massacre here and there, regulations that struggle to be enforced. A state that was struggling to be accepted as such. Deadwood is a small microcosm under construction, where there is no sheriff, no laws that matter. In this suffocating bubble of Darwinism in the west, the strongest and the most cynical win. It's the usual old "west" reeking of dirt, mud, whiskey, death, whores. Yet don't expect to see the grand scenarios and landscapes typical of vintage westerns: the vast majority of events occur indoors, within the wooden walls of a saloon, a brothel, or the simple house of the town doctor. From the narrative in the great prairies to the cramped spaces of intrigues, between opium and alcohol. In the great journey towards the west and "civilization", America was also born this way.
The first season of this series, released more than a decade ago (2004), had the great merit of raising the bar toward that highly cinematic seriality that reigns deeply today, becoming a real competitor to cinema. A kind of trailblazer regarding the TV series in the following years, all without being able to rely on big names as the various titles already mentioned will do later. Remember Keith Carradine in the role of Wild Bill Hickok, while among those who will stand out in the future, John Hawkes should be noted (in a secondary role anyway), who will be nominated for the statuette for his interpretation in the gem "Winter's Bone" by Debra Granik.
The series created by David Milch suffers from the usual problem of all works of this type, that is, that underlying fragmentation that is expressed in a multitude of characters, situations, and events. Probably in "Deadwood" it's a "weight" that also weighs more lightly compared to other similar TV products, but a somewhat limping screenplay ensures that it is difficult to well-define a leading story that moves the various characters. More than a coherent narrative discourse, a proliferation of personal microcosms and often unrelated situations emerge. It is a true cross-section of that world and time, perhaps a bit stereotyped but appreciable and courageous as a point of view.
"Deadwood" is a niche product because the western genre increasingly attracts little mass attention, both in cinema and on television. This "non-trend" of the genre, combined with high costs, prompted HBO to stop production after the first two seasons, with a third that came later but still remains unreleased in Italy. An unjustly overlooked TV series, probably because it lacks the appeal and marketing of today's series. A historical fresco intertwining reality and fiction, for a very solid first season, without flaws and at the same time without a "hit" episode capable of landing the blow that leaves a mark. But beyond its overall quality, "Deadwood" is a TV product that should be rediscovered if only for the importance and influence it has had on many other subsequent titles: firstly, the institutionalization of violence toward that inherent level in current serial productions. Before the corpses disappeared in Walter White's acid, there were Wu's pigs to dispose of the dead meat...
South Dakota, the distant year of our lord 1876. Little Bighorn and Custer's defeat are just around the corner. A hundred years exactly from the declaration of independence, the United States is still a tangle of lawless towns, Indians who massacre here and there, regulations that struggle to be enforced. A state that was struggling to be accepted as such. Deadwood is a small microcosm under construction, where there is no sheriff, no laws that matter. In this suffocating bubble of Darwinism in the west, the strongest and the most cynical win. It's the usual old "west" reeking of dirt, mud, whiskey, death, whores. Yet don't expect to see the grand scenarios and landscapes typical of vintage westerns: the vast majority of events occur indoors, within the wooden walls of a saloon, a brothel, or the simple house of the town doctor. From the narrative in the great prairies to the cramped spaces of intrigues, between opium and alcohol. In the great journey towards the west and "civilization", America was also born this way.
The first season of this series, released more than a decade ago (2004), had the great merit of raising the bar toward that highly cinematic seriality that reigns deeply today, becoming a real competitor to cinema. A kind of trailblazer regarding the TV series in the following years, all without being able to rely on big names as the various titles already mentioned will do later. Remember Keith Carradine in the role of Wild Bill Hickok, while among those who will stand out in the future, John Hawkes should be noted (in a secondary role anyway), who will be nominated for the statuette for his interpretation in the gem "Winter's Bone" by Debra Granik.
The series created by David Milch suffers from the usual problem of all works of this type, that is, that underlying fragmentation that is expressed in a multitude of characters, situations, and events. Probably in "Deadwood" it's a "weight" that also weighs more lightly compared to other similar TV products, but a somewhat limping screenplay ensures that it is difficult to well-define a leading story that moves the various characters. More than a coherent narrative discourse, a proliferation of personal microcosms and often unrelated situations emerge. It is a true cross-section of that world and time, perhaps a bit stereotyped but appreciable and courageous as a point of view.
"Deadwood" is a niche product because the western genre increasingly attracts little mass attention, both in cinema and on television. This "non-trend" of the genre, combined with high costs, prompted HBO to stop production after the first two seasons, with a third that came later but still remains unreleased in Italy. An unjustly overlooked TV series, probably because it lacks the appeal and marketing of today's series. A historical fresco intertwining reality and fiction, for a very solid first season, without flaws and at the same time without a "hit" episode capable of landing the blow that leaves a mark. But beyond its overall quality, "Deadwood" is a TV product that should be rediscovered if only for the importance and influence it has had on many other subsequent titles: firstly, the institutionalization of violence toward that inherent level in current serial productions. Before the corpses disappeared in Walter White's acid, there were Wu's pigs to dispose of the dead meat...
Loading comments slowly
