(*Fires gunshot into the thread's ceiling*)
DISPERSE THIS RIOTOUS ASSEMBLY!
Posted on 05/27/2006 9:45:20 AM PDT by zarf
Is it worth renting?
First season is, can't say about the second one.
Absolutely. One of the best shows on TV, if you are not bothered by graphic violence and general nasty criminal behavior. The writing and acting are great.
Deadwood is excellent. Not suitable for children, though.
One word: yes.
A little rough on the language BUT I watched every episode. Normally I have no use for TV other than TDC and The Military Channel, stuff like that.
If you can tolerate the utterly foul language. Worst I have ever heard. I stopped watching it on account of that. I'm no prude but this was well over the top. Even the Sopranos didn't match it.
Excellent show!! As someone mentioned earlier, make sure the kids are nowhere around when you watch it.
It's an acquired taste. When you first see it, you're going to be shocked..it is raw and it is dirty. But then once you're hooked, it's fascinating. The acting is incredible. So yes, I think it's worth it, but if you're easily offended....forget it.
Agree. The wife and I rented it and got about 15 minutes into it before we turned it off. We're not prudes, but the foul language was gratuitous and over-the-top.
By the way, something to watch on DVD is THE SHIELD...another show not for the faint of heart. But in my estimation, the BEST EVER drama on TV. You'll have a lot of catching up to do, though. My husband and I watched the entire first three seasons in something like four days. We could not stop watching it. We were hooked. Watching episodic TV on DVD is so great.
By the way, do you believe that's the way they spoke back then? I truly wonder about that.
(*Fires gunshot into the thread's ceiling*)
DISPERSE THIS RIOTOUS ASSEMBLY!
The reason I think it is good for kids to be exposed to profanity at home is that they are going to encounter it in the school hallways and playgrounds anyhow. Even 12-year-old kids talk like drunken sailors when they get away from adult supervision.
Now my wife and I never swear and not because we are prudes but because we both have mastered the English language and we are able to express ourselves with intelligent words. That said, hearing profanity from others does not offend us nor does it disturb us. It does usually cause us to render a lower opinion of that person's intelligence and education however.
I believe this attitude has rubbed off on our kids and they do not swear either - at least not in front of us. But we had no problem having them watch profanity-laden shows and movies with us from the time they were just little babies. As a result, they have grown up to be well-mannered, having learned what is and isn't appropriate language to use in public. I believe that the fact that they have become experts on profanity has helped them with their peers. They are not impressed (or shocked) to hear their peers utter profanity and they don't think it's very cool either.
It does have a very high "bad language" count, but I disagree about it being "over the top". For the era and setting, it's entirely fitting. Furthermore, the writer has an excellent "ear" for when and where to use it, and for which characters. It's not at all gratuitous. For characters like, say, Swearengen or Jane or Trixie, it would be bizarrely out of character for them to *not* swear like they do.
There's even a certain "poetry" to the deft way in which the writer uses foul language for certain characters, it flows with the dialog and the character's mental state at the time, it doesn't feel as if it's just peppered at random into the lines like it does in some shows.
The same goes for the writer's use of "non-foul" language -- I can't recall any other TV show or movie that has ever had each character's lines be so tailored to their individual personalities and backgrounds -- they all use different vocabularities, manners of speech, styles, grammar, etc. fitting their characters. Unlike a lot of shows, a great deal of care has been taken to pay attention not just to *what* they say, but *how* they say it. It's another one of the many "attentions to detail" in "Deadwood" which make it an absolute joy to watch, and one of the best shows ever put on television.
In outlaw mining camps, certainly. The show's producer deliberately wanted to over-do the foul language, but as someone who celebrates the late 19th Century gold mining culture, I can vouch for the accuracy of the use of Victorian-era language sprinkled with profanity used as punctuation.
Interesting.
I read recently that it may not be renewed because it's one of the most expensive shows on TV to make, so the producers are looking for other sources of funding besides HBO.
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