Alan Sepinwall on the Deadwood Movie
Great preview piece in Rolling Stone ahead of the Deadwood movie next month. Sorry to hear David Milch has been diagnosed with Alzheimers, but I'm glad he wrapped up the story while he still could.
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/deadwood-rides-again-movie-set-visit-milch-825534/?fbclid=IwAR3zfMf7JuHWQCsiQZ9WH4EqTYvdEzxwF3lTxwgyn39jyPQHkrjGKBEAvNQ
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/deadwood-rides-again-movie-set-visit-milch-825534/?fbclid=IwAR3zfMf7JuHWQCsiQZ9WH4EqTYvdEzxwF3lTxwgyn39jyPQHkrjGKBEAvNQ



Comments
It picks up, thematically, right where season three left off and it hasn’t skipped a beat in terms of characterization and tone. I can definitely see room for points of criticism, but why dwell on that when this movie worked all my emotions like it did and left me smiling. I had thought my expectations were impossibly high, but this surpassed them. What a perfect finale to the show.
+ The tension banjo was back in full force!
Loved it.
yea he really brought it to the movie. Sepinwall talks about it in his review of the movie, how the show was McShane's, but since they had Swearingin largely sidelined due to his dying arc, they let Olyphant shine in a way he rarely got to during the original run. He has a role in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," hoping that part gives him a chance to show his acting chops up against Leo.
I also thought they did a really good job with Calamity Jane's story for the movie and wrapping up her character's arc.
I loved the movie. I didn't get a chance to rewatch any of the show ahead of time, so had almost forgotten how fucking good the writing is. Miles about almost anything on tv right now. The dialogue is just fantastic.
I highly recommend reading all of sepinwall's coverage of the movie, he has fantastic interviews with Olyphant and also W Earl Brown
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/timothy-olyphant-deadwood-interview-835207/
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/deadwood-w-earl-brown-interview-838482/
Not necessary, but recommend if you have time. I didn't, so ended up just reading Wikipedia summaries of the seasons to remember the key plot points, and also this Sepinwall primer:
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/deadwood-movie-primer-sepinwall-835949/
The other bonus to re-watching was that I appreciated the earlier seasons much more this time around. As the guys said in the podcast, the dialogue obscures the intentions and motivations, so its easy to miss the subtleties the first time around.
I wish someone could recut Tombstone with Timothy Olyphant as Wyatt Earp (or the psycho version of Morgan Earp that we see in S3).