Deadwood, 3x1 to 3x3
Sep. 18th, 2006 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiAmong the good things, recently, has been catching up with Deadwood -- watching some of season 2 again, and starting on Season 3. It's such an amazing show.
One of the thing the show does rather well is play with my expectations of character -- so for example, Heart was this terrifying, shadowy character for much of Season 2, but when he arrived he didn't seem quite so bad because he wasn't willing to overlook what Wolcott had done. But now it turns out that he really is this terrifying figure, and that his single-minded pursuit of "the color" makes it necessary for him to control everything that comes into his path. Which of course throws him directly into opposition with practically everyone in Deadwood, since they by and large hate authority of any kind. There's a point, in this third episode, where Sol makes the point that if they want the offices of Sheriff and Mayor to have weight, there needs to be a body of law for them to support and enforce, and Charlie and Seth just stare at him as if he's gone mad.
(Al, in particular, is interesting in this respect -- considering that his hatred of the Pinkertons rests on their union-busting, and that his sympathies seem much more with the Cornish, and his general opposition to any authority but his own -- but you can just imagine what would happen if Trixie tried to organize the whores.)
My love for Al grows ever more boundless, in fact. That moment in the first episode (or maybe the second?) where he basically asks Seth for help? And when he comes back to the Gem after Hearst has his fingers smashed, and Seth wants to go over and have a confrontation, and Al says no, he'll have his served cold.
I really hope Al is right about that.
SO MUCH LOVE.
I also have a huge amount of love for Trixie -- it's more and more clear, first in Season 2 and now in these episodes, that she and Al are in some respects a perfect match, because they're the only people in the camp smart enough to keep up with each other. (I mean, I love Dan and Johnny, but they're not all that bright -- Trixie's the only once capable of following what Al wants and taking charge when he's incapacitated -- without her they'd be lost.) And yet it's not a ship I can really support, because he's her pimp. And because I'm not sure that they love each other, whereas at least Sol loves Trixie, and you can tell that really he wants to move into that house with her and quite possibly marry her. And sure, there's an element of saving her from what he thinks is a bad life in there, but he doesn't mean it cruelly. Whereas Al does mean to be cruel -- and of course, Trixie finds that reassuring, whereas Sol's affection disturbs her deeply, in large part, I think, because she thinks he has no idea who she really is.
She's quite probably right about that. I mean, I adore Sol -- how could I not -- but I'm still not sure that he's in love with Trixie herself or with who he thinks she is.
I was terrified for Alma -- I mean, she should never have gone to see Hearst on her own, but Ellsworth was being hopelessly unhelpful -- not that I don't love him as well, in fact, I love pretty much all the characters except for the ones I hate -- and unsupportive. I want that relationship to work out, but it's going to be interesting. She only married him because she felt she had to marry someone, and that was driven by her pregnancy. But now that she's lost the baby (at least, that's what I assume happened in episode 2, that Doc Cochrane gave her an abortion to save her life), how will she feel about the marriage? And she left Seth as Sophia's guardian, which means the guardian of the money as well. I know she said she meant it as a kindness -- so that Ellsworth wouldn't have to negotiate with Hearst -- but that's not how Ellsworth will see it, and I don't think that's all there was to it.
I really, really want Hearst to be driven out of the camp. Or destroyed utterly.
I'm a little worried for Joanie, as well -- she's so lost. I want to see more of that odd triangle between her, Charlie and Jane.
(And how much did I love Jane's first speech on Custer? "Custer was a cunt. The end." But she's become sort of the town project -- with both Martha and Joanie trying to befriend her.)
I could keep writing about this all day, now that I've started. But my lunchtime is over, and I need to get back to work.
Why don't I have a Deadwood icon? I thought I did have a Deadwood icon, actually. Oh, and please try not to spoil me for later episodes. Thank you.
One of the thing the show does rather well is play with my expectations of character -- so for example, Heart was this terrifying, shadowy character for much of Season 2, but when he arrived he didn't seem quite so bad because he wasn't willing to overlook what Wolcott had done. But now it turns out that he really is this terrifying figure, and that his single-minded pursuit of "the color" makes it necessary for him to control everything that comes into his path. Which of course throws him directly into opposition with practically everyone in Deadwood, since they by and large hate authority of any kind. There's a point, in this third episode, where Sol makes the point that if they want the offices of Sheriff and Mayor to have weight, there needs to be a body of law for them to support and enforce, and Charlie and Seth just stare at him as if he's gone mad.
(Al, in particular, is interesting in this respect -- considering that his hatred of the Pinkertons rests on their union-busting, and that his sympathies seem much more with the Cornish, and his general opposition to any authority but his own -- but you can just imagine what would happen if Trixie tried to organize the whores.)
My love for Al grows ever more boundless, in fact. That moment in the first episode (or maybe the second?) where he basically asks Seth for help? And when he comes back to the Gem after Hearst has his fingers smashed, and Seth wants to go over and have a confrontation, and Al says no, he'll have his served cold.
I really hope Al is right about that.
SO MUCH LOVE.
I also have a huge amount of love for Trixie -- it's more and more clear, first in Season 2 and now in these episodes, that she and Al are in some respects a perfect match, because they're the only people in the camp smart enough to keep up with each other. (I mean, I love Dan and Johnny, but they're not all that bright -- Trixie's the only once capable of following what Al wants and taking charge when he's incapacitated -- without her they'd be lost.) And yet it's not a ship I can really support, because he's her pimp. And because I'm not sure that they love each other, whereas at least Sol loves Trixie, and you can tell that really he wants to move into that house with her and quite possibly marry her. And sure, there's an element of saving her from what he thinks is a bad life in there, but he doesn't mean it cruelly. Whereas Al does mean to be cruel -- and of course, Trixie finds that reassuring, whereas Sol's affection disturbs her deeply, in large part, I think, because she thinks he has no idea who she really is.
She's quite probably right about that. I mean, I adore Sol -- how could I not -- but I'm still not sure that he's in love with Trixie herself or with who he thinks she is.
I was terrified for Alma -- I mean, she should never have gone to see Hearst on her own, but Ellsworth was being hopelessly unhelpful -- not that I don't love him as well, in fact, I love pretty much all the characters except for the ones I hate -- and unsupportive. I want that relationship to work out, but it's going to be interesting. She only married him because she felt she had to marry someone, and that was driven by her pregnancy. But now that she's lost the baby (at least, that's what I assume happened in episode 2, that Doc Cochrane gave her an abortion to save her life), how will she feel about the marriage? And she left Seth as Sophia's guardian, which means the guardian of the money as well. I know she said she meant it as a kindness -- so that Ellsworth wouldn't have to negotiate with Hearst -- but that's not how Ellsworth will see it, and I don't think that's all there was to it.
I really, really want Hearst to be driven out of the camp. Or destroyed utterly.
I'm a little worried for Joanie, as well -- she's so lost. I want to see more of that odd triangle between her, Charlie and Jane.
(And how much did I love Jane's first speech on Custer? "Custer was a cunt. The end." But she's become sort of the town project -- with both Martha and Joanie trying to befriend her.)
I could keep writing about this all day, now that I've started. But my lunchtime is over, and I need to get back to work.
Why don't I have a Deadwood icon? I thought I did have a Deadwood icon, actually. Oh, and please try not to spoil me for later episodes. Thank you.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 03:27 pm (UTC)OMG, yes. I was just saying to
You are so right about Al and Trixie, too. "Custer was a cunt. The end." has to be one of the best Jane moments, too.
No point, really. *g* Just shared squee.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 03:42 pm (UTC)I am really torn about them -- because they understand each other so well, but Al is just very... destructive. And I have trouble getting over "he's her pimp," and although I love Al more as a character, Sol is such a better bet as a human being.
But those scenes in Season 2, when Al was basically incapable of doing anything because of the kidney stone and the stroke, when Trixie had to take over, were priceless.
Without spoiling you, I think you're going to be really happy with the rest of S3 from an Al perspective.
Yay!!!!!
And please, squee away.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 03:49 pm (UTC);)
no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 04:12 pm (UTC)I have always loved Al because for all his messed-up ways of dealing with life, he genuinely cares about people. Or, rather, he cares about HIS people. And it's fun to watch him decide who to include in that and who are marks for preying on. And how hard it is for him to understand the line between possessions and humans who also have free will, because he's all "mine, mine, mine" about things. His relationship with Trixie is so about that, although you can keep seeing her surprise him and watch him respect her more and more and have to hide it because it doesn't fit in in his head with what their relationship is supposed to be or the sort of person who is a "whore". And he seems to live by some fairly rigid internal rules of logic and how to deal with the world that he CAN bend, but it's hard. I like to watch that struggle. Because a less complex person wouldn't struggle.
And his freakish civic-mindedness is also one of his most endearing qualities. It's almost like he's expanded his people to include all of Deadwood in certain respects. Deadwood is under Al's protection, and in almost every way, that's a lot better thing than being under Seth's. It's one of the best things about the show, because Al is the bad guy. And we saw it last season with the whole Mr. Wu situation. You'd MUCH rather have Mr. Wu running the Chinese crime rather than Hearst's awful guy. Just like you can count on Al to probably not kill too many people or mess up other folks doing business. I just love that.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 04:20 pm (UTC)Yes, that's absolutely right. It doesn't stop him from exploiting the people under his control, but damned if he'll let anyone else victimize them. And in a sense you're right that he's the bad guy, but that's weighed out by the fact that there's no good guy, really. I mean, at first we all thought it was Seth, but Seth's anger-management issues are so painfully clear that it's hard to see him as "the good guy" in any simplistic sense. He's trying to do what he thinks is right, but he's less successful than any number of other people in the camp.
I really like how you put the relationship between Al and Trixie here -- yes, that he's having to see her differently, and is struggling with her being a person rather than a possession.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 04:50 pm (UTC)The Adams House in Deadwood, SD has a great website. It has lots of factual info on it about these REAL people in the show. The stuff about Al, Sol and Seth is particularly cool. There are photos. The most bizarre one is Charlie Utter. When you see what he really looked like and learn how much of a Bill fanboy he was. I totally rec reading it. But you might want to wait until you've watched this season because there's at least one major spoiler I'm pretty sure the show will use. And I can't wait to see it. And I love the idea that it really happened because it is so damned kickass.
Don't click if you don't want real life spoilers.
http://www.adamsmuseumandhouse.org/characters_people.html
no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 07:35 pm (UTC)And yes -- the hints we get about Al's past are really... yes, they just kill you.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 07:08 pm (UTC)Some things this season will make you happy, I think; others... not so much. I share your Joanie love, however, and I was thrilled with the resolution to her arc.
Also, doesn't she have the best clothes on the show? She outdresses even Alma.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 07:33 pm (UTC)Oh dear! I hope nothing too awful.
I do like Joanie's clothes, especially her little hat -- although I like most of Alma's clothes better, and have suddenly noticed that Trixie has taken to wearing much more clothing than she did for most of the first two season. Is that significant, I wonder?
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Date: 2006-09-18 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 07:58 pm (UTC)Watch for the relationship that develops between Alma and Al in season 3. It's pretty wonderful.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 11:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-19 06:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-19 12:13 pm (UTC)I do love the Al/Trixie relationship, but I also love the Sol/Trixie relatinship, because it's so difficult (for her more than for him, but for him as well.) So I'm torn.