John's Blog

That's one way to describe my self-imposed ban from blogging, which looks like it lasted just one day. Blogging isn't the source of my frustration, but just another symptom. My perspective is more balanced today, although still not back to the center where it should be. Life goes on...

Except for Deadwood, which ended it's final season last night. This too was a disappointment. All season long it has looked like the show was working it's way towards an explosive resolution. The finale had you biting your nails, thinking that the bullets would be flying any moment now, but that never happened. Instead of demonstrating defiance to the forces of evil as represented by Hearst and his thugs, everybody opted for a less confrontational approach. Preserving the peace, but resulting in many principled positions being abandoned too quickly and easily, and this just wasn't what I expected.

Not that I thought the episode was bad, but it just seemed out of character. Not at all the way I wanted this series to end, even-though I'm sure some of the loose ends will get wrapped up in the two TV movies that are tentatively scheduled. I almost hate to complain about the ending since it puts me in the camp of people who complain about The Soprano's not being very good because "they didn't wack enough people". But just as real life forces you to make choices born of expediency, these characters made choices that resulted in "real", if less than dramatic results. The raw, lawless frontier is replaced by a more "sophisticated" society where might makes right. One form or lawlessness replaces the other.

But I'm sure I'm not the only one to have experienced some disappointment over this conclusion. Ironic, since part of the reason that they are pulling the plug is over concern that the high production costs don't justify the viewer-ship it produces....like the gore-fest Rome does much better? Meanwhile HBO continues to search for the next Big Thing. Sometimes you have to give a series time to get momentum and build viewership like Cheers or L&O in their early days. But these days, the beancounters keep a focus on the bottom line, so that's not gonna happen.

While I mull this over, a few Deadwood links to review:
Deadwood: Fact or Fiction
Deadwood Revealed
"Old Seth" Bullock
Deadwood Wave Files
The Number of Fucks In Deadwood

Tags: TV, Deadwood, history, blogging