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HBO Saloon-owner Al Swearengen (Ian McShane, left), sheriff Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant, center), and Sol Star (John Hawkes), Bullock's partner in a hardware store, are some of the key characters in Deadwood.
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Blood's red, language blue

Blood's red, language blue

A new day is dawning in Deadwood but it's just as dark, violent, full of profanity and treachery as yesterday was. And tomorrow? Well, by then things will probably be even worse.

HBO's powerful and profane western series Deadwood will begin its 12-episode second season at 9 p.m. tomorrow, and the inhabitants of the nasty 1870s Black Hills mining camp of the series title are still battling the elements and each other to survive in the largely untamed Dakota Territory.

(Carnivale fans: take note. There are four more episodes left in the season, but with the premiere of Deadwood, Carnivale's Sunday broadcast has been moved to 10 p.m.)

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The award-winning series, from executive producer David Milch (Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue), is based - loosely - on the real-life early history of the lawless town, and it's a far cry from your Gunsmoke type of western. From the night it debuted last March on the premium cable channel, it drew huge ratings and critical praise. And within a few weeks of its premiere, Deadwood broke a longstanding rule for TV series when one of its lead characters, Wild Bill Hickok (Keith Carradine), was killed off in a nod to historical accuracy.

This season, "civilization" is on its way to Deadwood, in the form of telegraph lines and a new territorial government that threatens to bring more order to the freewheeling area than some of the local power brokers will tolerate.

To call the show's cast "colorful" would be like calling a .45 slug to the gut "painful" - technically correct, but a long way from accurate.

Timothy Olyphant (Dreamcatcher) stars as the conflicted good guy, Seth Bullock, who has come to Deadwood to open a hardware store but ends up being pressed into service as the camp's sheriff. And despite the fact that he's married, he becomes romantically involved with Alma Garrett (Molly Parker, Last Wedding), the genteel widow of a murdered mine owner.

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But it's Bullock's nemesis, Al Swearengen, played by British actor Ian McShane (Sexy Beast), who flat-out steals the show. Swearengen, the cheerfully decadent owner of The Gem saloon, the busiest bar and brothel in Deadwood, is one of the great characters in TV history. He's a violent, boozing, foul-mouthed brute who runs the town like his own fiefdom and doesn't hesitate to slit a man's throat, shoot him, or stomp him to death. But he has a soft side as well and even a kind of twisted code of honor.

Cy Tolliver (Powers Booth, Men of Honor) is Swearengen's main competitor in the local gambling and whoring business. His Bella Union is a higher-class joint than The Gem, offering more refined and well-kept prostitutes along with sophisticated gaming, including craps. But Toliver can be every bit as violent as Swearengen.

Then there's Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert, Angels in America), the legendary horsewoman and crack shot, who is also a notorious boozer and brawler - and one of the most foul-mouthed people on the show.

Mr. Wu (Keone Young) runs the local opium trade and also offers a handy service in a place like Deadwood. People who want to dispose of bodies - which happens a lot - deliver them to Mr. Wu's place, where, for a fee of $5, they are unceremoniously dumped into a corral to be devoured by his ravenous pigs.

The town's mayor is E.B. Farnum (William Sanderson, one-third of the backwoods trio of Larry, Darryl and Darryl on the TV sitcom Newhart in the '80s), who's actually one of Swearengen's henchmen.

And the list could go on endlessly.

In Sunday's season premiere, we find Bullock and Swearengen going at it, first with words, then fists, over a crude remark about Bullock's mistress. Before the two tangle, though, the sheriff inquires politely whether his foe is carrying a knife - what is this, Marquis of Queensbury rules for a street fight? - and Swearengen assures him he's unarmed.

But as the bloody brawl spills out onto a muddy main street, Swearengen pulls a long blade out of his boot and calls out almost apologetically to his opponent, "Bullock! I do have a knife - it come to me now."

Much has been made of the rough language used on Deadwood, which may be even more profane - if that's possible - than HBO's most popular series, The Sopranos. When Deadwood premiered last season, some critics questioned the need for all the cussing, as well as its historical accuracy.

It's one thing for Jersey mobsters to talk like that, but come on, did they really use such vulgar language in the Old West of Little Joe and Hoss Cartwright?

But Milch has never claimed that the show is a documentary, and his use of pungent dialogue is a handy tool to differentiate among the classes of characters on the show. The upper-class ones, such as Alma Garrett , don't swear, while the countless low-life rogues can hardly open their mouths without a %#!@?$ or two belching forth.

Yet there's another peculiarity about the show's language. Much of it is flowery, almost Shakespearean. Consider this soliloquy from Swearengen, who sometimes serves as an off-screen narrator:

"A full fairmindedness requires us also to report that within The Gem, on Deadwood's main thoroughfare, comely whores, decently priced liquor, and the squarest games of chance in the Hills remain unabatedly available at all hours, seven days a week."

For newcomers to the show this season, keeping everybody and everything straight might be a bit of a challenge, but it's one well worth undertaking.

Contact Mike Kelly at:

mkelly@theblade.com

or 419-724-6131.

First Published March 5, 2005, 10:45 a.m.

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HBO Saloon-owner Al Swearengen (Ian McShane, left), sheriff Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant, center), and Sol Star (John Hawkes), Bullock's partner in a hardware store, are some of the key characters in Deadwood.
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