NEW DEADWOOD TONIGHT
our regularly scheduled Arsenic Lullaby content will be pre-empted as I celebrate this upcoming event to give you MY top ten favorite Deadwood moments.
spoilers? I'll not be giving anything major away but I am covering a wide swath of the series so you have been warned
These are in random order and my personal favorites...meaning that they may not actually be the ten best moments, just my top ten.
( first five are here https://steemit.com/review/@arseniclullaby/arsenic-lullaby-blog-deadwood-top-10-moments-part1 )
I'll give you the other five, with my reasons for each, today...
No.5 Cy praying for Leon
This show is thick and rich with villains. Cy seems to have a blacker heart than most, yet here and there briefly they'll be a hint, a glimmer, that that ever he has a code that he tries to hold himself to and tries...as best he can to be capable of caring about certain people. After a near mortal wound he professes to taking up reading the bible. It of course is assumed by all to be bullsh*t or him cracking up. although...at one point after being accused of such, and left alone he says to himself "pretense doesn't preclude the search" meaning even though it's a put on, he may still be getting something out of it.
This scene is brilliantly acted, tense, and funny and after seeing it dozens of times, it's still a bit unclear just where he was headed in that instance before being interrupted.
No.4 Seth's revenge stymied momentarily
Giving a story, in any medium, a sense of reality, 3 dimensionality, getting people to get sucked in, to feel like it is really happening, isn't just about the big things. It's actually more about a million little things.
The music, the lead up, the acting and reacting all nicely convey Seth's frustration and anger as he decides to go after McCaul...BUT it is him being reminded to pull his suspenders up being the tipping point making losing his cool completely that makes it feel real. The suspenders serve no roll in the plot, they aren't important, they are a pebble of stress compared to everything else... but that's life isn't it.
Anyone who's been in a hurry and stressed out to their upper limit has inevitably had some last small thing piss them off...pulling a door that needs to be pushed, looking for car keys that are actually in your hand, grabbing your phone without looking to see if it's plugged in and accidentally yanking the charger out of the wall with it. That final straw of frustration is captured perfectly in this scene.
No.3 The Reverend understands his situation
This scene ( redacted here for the sake of brevity ) I always find chilling and uncomfortable, and that speaks to the acting and the set up. This is a time in human medicine where if you had anything seriously wrong with you...you're just screwed. No one can help you and all you can do is continue on getting worse until you die. That includes, in this case, mental issues caused by a brain tumor. The Reverend struggling to sus out what is real and what is imagined as he is a hostage to his own decline is one of the most heartbreaking parts of the show.
No.2 Flora is small time in Deadwood
I'll admit I might just like this scene so much because it's the girl from Veronica Mars getting beaten senseless in the street. I don't have anything against That actress or her show...I dunno...It's just funny to me. She is great in this roll, as ruthless and dangerous as anyone else...well...except maybe Cy.
No.1 Tell him something pretty
SPOILER ALERT
Despite being cancelled prematurely, this has in my mind one of the greatest endings of all time. It was a show that didn't survive on tropes and forced character arches. The ending in that respect was perfect. Sometimes life is violent, sometimes people we care about die, sometimes the bad guys win, sometimes there are victories...sometimes small ones, tomorrow is another day. This show didn't feel like it ended...it just felt like you wouldn't be able to watch it anymore. Life in Deadwood would continue on as it had been.
Thus ends my Deadwood tribute...back to normal Arsenic Lullaby content next time.
Now if you'll excuse me...I have a new Deadwood Movie to watch.
