Watching Carefully

How nice to know I have so much Brad Dourif yet to look forward to since I'm only two episodes in to Deadwood. I watched the second episode of the first season last night, "Deep Water", and found his Doc Cochran has gone from being the man eerily speculating about a bullet wound to being the man fiercely protecting a wounded child. I'm starting to think a mark of good writing on a show these days may simply be the ability to show multiple sides to characters. That's what made Game of Thrones great, it's one of the distinguishing aspects of Twin Peaks. Then again, Star Trek was fine without it. I guess it depends on what kind of story is being told.

I also really loved a scene where Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert) falls apart at the mere appearance of Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) when she'd vowed not to budge from guarding that injured child. One of the things that make Westerns great is their tendency to focus on small nuances of body language and the general impressions made by voice, costume, and demeanour. Something about the way Ian McShane simply walks in the room and calmly looks at the child absolutely unnerves the resolute woman even though she knows nothing about him at this point.

A later conversation between Al Swearengen and Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) highlights how much depends on other ways of reading people and establishing trust in a town with no law. "In a camp like this, Sol, no law or enforceable contract," Swearengen explains to Seth's partner, Sol (John Hawkes), "you gotta watch a man a while before you see what his word counts for." That's the kind of thing that makes a place great to hear stories about but you'd never want to live there. Though, of course, it also kind of describes the reality we do live in.

All this time and I'm only two episodes in. I don't binge, I honestly wish I could comfortably sit down and spend that much time watching a great series. But at the same time, it's nice to know I'll have this show to resort to nights for a long time.

Twitter Sonnet #1249

She used to know a metal dog and cat.
In picture halls a cherry coat was seen.
Her little steps the tiles gently pat.
The castle's walls repel a mirror beam.
A clever thread and fid could bolt a door.
Across a model lane the killers stray.
Deceptive pokers raise the furnace core.
The night's repast is sweeter in the day.
The printed likeness held her arms apart.
The rolling hills provide a moving frame.
The land and all the birds for now depart.
A morning cycle writ in wicker chain.
The mountain ridge was stained with breakfast tea.
Her lunch awaits beside a tannin sea.

Yet the Wood Lives

I finally caught the first episode of Deadwood last night. I get to these things eventually, this one only took me fifteen years. I like it so far, only one episode in--please refrain from giving me spoilers though I've already looked up some of the real life counterparts of characters portrayed on screen and have a general idea of who's going to live and who's going to die. I'm surprised how many of the characters are based real people, even Timothy Olyphant's character, Seth Bullock, though Bullock had a much better moustache in real life.

There's a wonderful, grimy atmosphere about the television portrayal of the town of Deadwood, about as close to a good Spaghetti Western as you could get on a mid-2000s HBO television budget. I find Olyphant a bit bland but most of the cast is terrific, especially Ian McShane as Al Swearengen.

Based on the show's reputation, I was expecting him to be more about delivering lyrically profane outbursts but in the first episode I was most impressed by his quieter moments. When a land deal he's orchestrated starts going in the wrong direction, he doesn't start screaming at the participants, he becomes stony faced, quietly repeating offers and arguments. It's much worse than an outburst--it's the kind of quiet that presages a particularly deadly storm.

It's also good to see Brad Dourif and he's already had one interesting moment as the town physician in a scene where he's amazed by a man who's survived twenty minutes after a getting shot in the head. It feels like it's been a long time since I saw Dourif in anything. Looking at his Wikipedia entry, I see he was in three movies last year, maybe I ought to watch at least one of them if I really want a Dourif fix.

The first three seasons of Deadwood are available on Amazon Prime.

Twitter Sonnet #1244

A frozen face at centre worked a sun.
A double glass reports a heavy harm.
In traded light, the purple systems run.
A youthful bracelet steels a weathered arm.
The magnet fooled a spinning weather vane.
A heavy sky disturbed the lightest cloud.
A horizontal drop astounds the rain.
A busy hermit's come the raucous crowd.
A thousand hands are busy making thread.
In flying east the swarm betook the trades.
The sheet of studs were useless, cold, and dead.
A picture soaked in varnish slowly fades.
The crispy edge delivered greasy food.
Conveyor belts create a static mood.