The remarkable first season of Deadwood represents one of those periodic, wholesale reinventions of the Western that is as different from, say, Lonesome Dove as that miniseries is from Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo or the latter is from Anthony Mann's The Naked Spur. In many ways, HBO's Deadwood embraces the Western's unambiguous morality during the cinema's silent era through the 1930s while also blazing trails through a post-NYPD Blue, post-The West Wing television age exalting dense and customized dialogue. On top of that, Deadwood has managed an original look and texture for a familiar genre: gritty, chaotic, and surging with both dark and hopeful energy. Yet the show's creator, erstwhile NYPD Blue head writer David Milch, never ridicules or condescends to his more grasping, futile characters or overstates the virtues of his heroic ones.

Set in an ungoverned stretch of South Dakota soon after the 1876 Custer massacre, Deadwood concerns a lawless, evolving town attracting fortune-seekers, drifters, tyrants, and burned-out adventurers searching for a card game and a place to die. Others, particularly women trapped in prostitution, sundry do-gooders, and hangers-on have nowhere else to go. Into this pool of aspiration and nightmare arrive former Montana lawman Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) and his friend Sol Starr (John Hawkes), determined to open a lucrative hardware business. Over time, their paths cross with a weary but still formidable Wild Bill Hickok (Keith Carradine) and his doting companion, the coarse angel Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert); an aristocratic, drug-addicted widow (Molly Parker) trying to salvage a gold mining claim; and a despondent hooker (Paula Malcomson) who cares, briefly, for an orphaned girl. Casting a giant shadow over all is a blood-soaked king, Gem Saloon owner Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), possibly the best, most complex, and mesmerizing villain seen on TV in years. Over 12 episodes, each of these characters, and many others, will forge alliances and feuds, cope with disasters (such as smallpox), and move--almost invisibly but inexorably--toward some semblance of order and common cause. Making it all worthwhile is Milch's masterful dialogue--often profane, sometimes courtly and civilized, never perfunctory--and the brilliant acting of the aforementioned performers plus Brad Dourif, Leon Rippy, Powers Boothe, and Kim Dickens. --Tom Keogh

Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 05/06/2008 Rating: Nr

i was happy with the service and the product i purchased.i highly recommend this site.

I was hooked from the very first episode. I literally couldn't get enough. Literally. Good extras but a few more would have been perfect. This show, without extras, would still be a wonderful buy. Fun commentaries. I got this at a great price and have no plans to let anyone borrow these DVDs. I'd be worried sick. I love Deadwood!

I got this series for my husbands birthday. He had watched a few shows on HBO and was interested in seeing more. It is a very well done series - great acting, costumes, directing etc. It was interesting to see how the town of Deadwood started. If you can get past the profanity and the violence especially against women it is well worth the purchase.

I got this for my parents and they loved it so much that they insist on lending it out for other people to watch. You gotta buy this series its excellent!!!

After watching all of the Soprano's and Carnivale episodes over the years I figured it would be nearly impossible to improve on them. I was wrong! This is unquestionably the best dramatic western series ever done for television! Imaginative and captivating while keeping historical perspective, it never ceased to keep you eagerly anticipating more of the same. Unfortunately, just when it seemed there would be much more to come, the brain-donors in charge of programming at HBO decided to cancel this immensely popular, award winning, hit series (in the same delicate fashion as Carnivale). It will be sorely missed. Nuts! to HBO.