Spoilers ahead for those still watching.

Did Hearst sanction Mr Lees murder?

In this episode, Al finally meets Mr Hearst. During their conversation, Mr Hearst says he only cares about the color after Al informs him of Mr Lee burning dead whores. After Hearst leaves the room Al essentially tells Wu to celebrate, and to sharped his weapons for what I’m construing to be the planned murder of Mr Lee. The vernacular used in this show is so fucking confusing sometimes.

“When you giggle, you leak piss Chucky.”

Having a rewatch and Ian McShane is better each time...his delivery, his physical acting... everything is just top notch. I think I underrated W.Earl Brown previously too

I like the character and enjoy most every scene Wu is in. It is curious though that he never learns more than a very few words of English.

He is clearly intelligent, resourceful, courageous, and admirably business-minded, and people like that tend to pick up the language of the dominant social group pretty quickly. He has every incentive to learn enough English to communicate effectively with the whites in camp. Yet by my reckoning his English consists of the following words only:

cocksucker, one, two, ten, day, San Francisco, Custer city, know (his only verb I believe), English, big man, Swedgin, and some days of the week

(Swearingen knows only two Chinese words, b@kwailo and hengdai; but as a member of the dominant social group in camp he has little incentive to learn more.)

Wu almost certainly does not know more English than he lets on- he is often desperate to communicate with Al about stolen dope and murdered couriers and Mr Lee, yet no matter the urgency of the situation he is unable to form even the most basic sentences (I believe the only complete English sentence he says is “Wu know English, b@kwailo”) It’s kind of charming really.

EDIT: remembered a couple more words Wu knows

Who was a worse person?

Who was a better tactician?

It looked like Al was all geared up and ready for another "Cocksucker" "hang dai"! Shouting session to talk with Wu. But then Wus son began translating and he lost that direct line of communication with Wu, so Al sent the kid on an errand right away.

You might give Unforgiven (1992) with Clint Eastwood a shot. The dialogue isnt as immaculate as Deadwood but the direction, tone, and deconstruction Wild West myth are pretty on point.

My 3rd time watching the entire show. The scene where Bullock fights Swearengen has them both going over the balcony. Al's henchman and Bullock's are inside the bar and when Trixie says they went over the balcony, Dan grabs a shotgun and Utter and Sol watch him take off out the front. Utter is a deputy and he didn't have Bullock's back. He let Dan come up behind bullock and whack him with the shotgun. Useless tool...

He seems to have TB, but later he's alright. A miracle cure.

This is something I've wondered about.

Assuming Aunt Lou had been with Hearst since before the Civil War, I don't think it's a stretch to say that his family probably owned hers at some point.

When Fields is trying to convince Odell to leave town with him, he says something to the effect of 'it'd be a waste of that fine light skin of yours' to stay and get killed.

Could Hearst and Odell have been brothers or cousins or something? Maybe even father and son?

Late last night while I should have been sleeping, I was watching Deadwood clips on YouTube. I happened upon the scene where Aunt Lou is gambling in c***ks alley. Elite stuff.

So, the question I put to you all is, shall we clatter those motha’ fucka’s again?

I recently started rewatching Deadwood, again, and decided this time I wanted to write about it. Maybe even an episode-by-episode deep dive.

I didn't even get out of the first scene.

Here's the beginning of what ended up being an 8-minute read. Longer than the scene itself! You can read the whole thing here.

*

The first 7 minutes of the Deadwood premiere is a prologue in the traditional sense, occurring before the primary narrative and mostly standing apart from it. In fact, if not for the involvement of Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) and Sol Star (John Hawkes), there’s no real tie to Deadwood proper at all. It feels superfluous in a way, and a lesser storyteller might’ve cut it altogether.

Fortunately, showrunner David Milch knows his craft. Because the prologue foreshadows much of what’s to come, and is brilliant in its own right. 

A brief plot synopsis—with lots of asides, like this one—feels necessary. 

Bullock is a marshal in Montana. He’s only minutes from leaving his badge behind and riding off in search of wealth and the kind of independence that only comes from working for yourself. The American Dream, before commercialism reappropriated it. 

Clell Watson (James Parks) is in a jail cell waiting to be punished for the crime of horse theft, a capital offense. Can you imagine if car jackers were hung by the neck until dead? Different times. Then again, you have a phone if you end up stranded without a car. If you’re on the frontier and someone rides off with your whip, you’re probably gonna die. So maybe it makes sense, in an eye-for-an-eye sorta way.

Bullock and Watson get into a conversation about Deadwood. Gold has been discovered and everyone is fixing to get their share. Bullock is on his way to open a hardware outfit with his partner; I’m a big fan of how pronounces business as “bidness.” It’s the little things. 

Watson goes on about how he’d planned on going to Deadwood to prospect because word is you can scoop gold from the stream with your bare hands. Farfetched, but this guy is clearly an idiot. Though I love that he suggests he’s being held for “supposedly stealing Byron Sampson’s horse.” He isn’t side-stepping the truth but denying it even to himself. More on that in a minute. 

We get just enough background on Deadwood to prepare us for what’s to come:

1. No law. Deadwood is situated on Indian land and outside Uncle Sam’s reach. It’s a den of rampant inequity and naked vice. A true gangsta’s paradise; and y’all thought Coolio was rapping about L.A. 
2. Gold and lots of it. 

We’ll be talking enough about the town of Deadwood in the future. For now I want to linger in Montana because there’s some interesting stuff going on in this brief scene. 

For one, we get our first taste of the show’s poetic combination of the divine and the profane. Watson hits Bullock with a proposition: “I’d like to suggest an idea to you, sir, that I pray as a Christian man you will entertain on its own fucking merits.”

Bullock is not a Christian. Being a white man was just synonymous with being a Christian. Everyone else—Jew, Chinese, Indian—was an Other, and thus less than. It’s an antiquated worldview in keeping with the 1800s, but also feels newly relevant today.

Also, by the way: These pieces on Deadwood, if they continue, will be lousy with filthy language. There’s really no way around it. To not include it—or worse, pretend it isn’t there—would steal some vital essence from the show. Not exactly its heart or brains. Maybe it’s genitals? That feels thematically appropriate. Just know it’s not me saying these things, Mom. It’s them cocksuckers in Yankton.

Keep reading

(I would've just posted the entire thing but Reddit's terms grants them ownership of everything posted. That's a no from me, dawg.)

I respected Commissioner Jarry because of how self aware he was. He never pretended to be anything but a crooked politician and coward.

There's currently a storm going on. This is all I thought of.

Cheyenne and Black Hills Telegraph

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZIwDhWPz3o

I saw the headline and immediately thought of the show.

Deadwood is way better with subs on. Only wish Mr Wu’s lines were translated

Did he lose all of his money? He sold his claim for a fairly hefty sum and also got his brothers share.

Yet he chose to be a night watchman for Joanies school where I doubt he was getting paid much.

Was he just working for Joanie and the school out of a sense of redemption for what he did to his brother?

Just started in on Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2. Right out the gate Brad Dourif converses with Dayton Callie. Doc Chochran and Charlie Utter reunited, I like to think the two of them had fun on set reminiscing about the deadwood days.

The movie is a hell of a lot better than a lot of critics would seem to suggest.

I know if I scroll deep enough on this sub I’ll find plenty of praise for Dr Cochran. But I just finished season 1 and he was easily my favorite character. A man seemingly void of nefarious intent, corruption, or any ill will in a place that has plenty of all three things. He is always assertive and sharp when dealing with more imposing characters. Simply put, the doctor was a character who rose to the occasion whenever called upon in this season and I hope it continues for the rest of the series.

He also delivered one of my favorite lines that gave me a belly laugh when he was inspecting the prostitutes at the Gem. “When you giggle you leak piss.”

Say it, then we’ll play cards.“ Hickcock

Instead of just making a new theater? Buying and turning Joanies school into a theater + buying her a new school certainly had to be far more costly and complicated?