Product DescriptionWith the debut of Deadwood on HBO, a vision of the “Old West” emerged that was unlike anything done before on TV. David Milch, also the creator of NYPD Blue, imbued the series with his signature use of harsh language, complex storylines, and shocking acts of violence. The characters he created redefined the hackneyed stereotypes of the Western genre, from the harassed but defiant "Chinaman," Mr. Wu, to the murderous, ferociously funny Al Swearengen, to the whiskey-drinking Calamity Jane who's only too happy to help her friend run the new brothel in town. Reading Deadwood offers an entertaining and eye-opening look into everything from the use of profanity, the characters, and the way the show bends the genre, to subjects like prostitution, race, and the making of American civil society. Complete with episode and character guides, no fan of Deadwood--and no one interested in Westerns--should be without this book.
With the debut of Deadwood on HBO, a vision of the “Old West” emerged that was unlike anything done before on TV. David Milch, also the creator of NYPD Blue, imbued the series with his signature use of harsh language, complex storylines, and shocking acts of violence. The characters he created redefined the hackneyed stereotypes of the Western genre, from the harassed but defiant "Chinaman," Mr. Wu, to the murderous, ferociously funny saloonkeeper Al Swearengen, to the bullwhip cracking Calamity Jane. Reading Deadwood offers an entertaining and eye-opening look into everything from the use of profanity, the characters, and the way the show bends the genre, to subjects like prostitution, race, and the making of American civil society. Complete with episode and character guides, no fan of Deadwood--and no one interested in Westerns--should be without this book.
SUCKS (Rating: 1 out of 5) Unless this book is assigned to you as a student in film class do not buy it. The muck here which passes as narrative is better layed in the streets of Deadwood then to be read by us today. My God be praised I wish I could get my money back from this one.
Weak and herniated. (Rating: 2 out of 5) Like so many Lavery-edited works, the essays are works of hyper-extension, in which the essayists try ever so hard to find subliminal and subtextual meaning where there is none. It is the blight of popular culture studies that the so-called academics who endeavor to give extraordinary signficance to "art" that is meant more to entertain than to edify. I am not saying that "Deadwood" isn't one of the greatest shows ever to be sent over the airwaves (cable waves?), because it is every bit deserving of the attention this book presumes to give it. Unfortunately, the essays here focus more on the putative "hidden meanings" of the show instead of simply examining why "Deadwood" is, in fact, a great show. I have no trouble with an academic or intellectual approach to TV; in point of fact, James South's "[name of show, e.g., Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files and The Simpsons] and Philosophy" series is a brilliant exercise in interpreting TV, because it takes the shows at face value, then applies various philosophical disciplines to the actual text of the show. Lavery's collection, here, endeavors, instead, to dig below the surface of this outstanding show, and mine for that which, very well, may not be there at all. In short, he fails to "find the color."
(I am reminded of the student who asked William Faulkner what the significance of the large pillars in front of the plantation house in one of his novels, to which, Faulkner replied, "Oh, by all means, the pillars have tremendous significance...they hold the roof up." Sometimes, the text is just the text, and that can be enough if you are imaginative enough to enjoy it and analyze it as is.)
And to the reviewer who touted Ms. Klein's essay on the opening credits, I thought her entire thesis was undermined by the fact she mistakened a prospector biting into a nugget to see if it was gold (gold is soft, and will dent when bitten) for a man pulling a rotted tooth out of his mouth. It is hard to give much credence to an essayist who bases her thesis upon such blatantly mistaken impressions of the material upon which she opines. Sloppy academics, indeed.
I gave the book two stars instead of one simply because there were a few bits of information about the show of which I was unaware.
Another great book in the Reading Contemporary Television series (Rating: 5 out of 5) This is the second title in the Reading Contemporary Television series I have read. Like READING SIX FEET UNDER: TV TO DIE FOR, this volume is a collection of thoughful essays written by academics and media scholars while the series was still in progress. The volume on DEADWOOD covers the first two seasons. This means the authors are not fully aware of all the plotlines that will be pursued in the life of the entire series; nor do they know the ultimate destination of individual characters' story arcs. In the case of DEADWOOD which lasted only three seasons (with rumors of possible movie-length follow-up episode or two), that's a pretty substantial number of episodes, so the authors have plenty to chew on.
Of the fourteen articles in the collection, five really stood out for me: Joseph Millichap's on "Robert Penn Warren, David Milch, and the Literary Contexts of Deadwood"; Sean O'Sullivan's "Old, New, Borrowed, Blue: Deadwood and Serial Fiction," which makes interesting connections to the serialized creations of Charles Dickens; Paul Wright and Hailin Zhou's "Divining the 'Celestials': The Chinese Subculture of Deadwood"; "What's Afflictin' You: Corporeality, Body Crises and the Body Politic in Deadwood"; and David Diffrient's "Deadwood Dick: The Western (Phallus) Reinvented."
The volume also contains an episode guide to the first two seasons, a Deadwood Encyclopedia (not as interesting, helpful, or comprehensive as the word "encyclopedia" implies), notes to some of the articles, and a bibliography/filmography. It does not include a list of characters with the names of the actors who play them, which is frustrating because the way HBO series list credits doesn't make it easy to put a name to a face (the DVDs of season one and two don't help in this regard either; the curious are forced to google the actors' names to find a picture and lists of other films and shows they've appeared in).
This book should be of interest to any serious fan of the show, as well as to people interested in the Western as a literary and cinematic genre and in American history/culture in general.
Well done (Rating: 5 out of 5) Great reading for fans of the show. Gets into the nitty gritty and makes points you might have missed. My favorite one was by Amanda Klein who opines about the opening credits. I didn't know that a wagon wheel in the mud could carry so much symbolism.