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.
