It is a dirty shame that this is the last episode of this fine program. I understand that there will be two two-hour long episodes airing in the fall of 2007, but this is the end. I understand that this is not the easiest show to watch. The 1880's dialect and the violence can turn some people off. I always thought of this show as high art. It belongs more on Broadway than it does on television. None of this detracts from the brilliant performances by Ian McShane or anyone else in the outstanding ensemble cast. I am glad that HBO has decided to let Milic finish what he has started. The final two episodes should wrap things up nicely. Although, it doesn't matter how great the final four hours are I, and others like me, will always want more f'ing Deadwood. I just love this show.
13 Reviews
Deadwood at its darkest
fernandojosecalvario4 February 2022
Warning: Spoilers
And so ends one of the most celebrated American TV shows of all time. Unlike all the previous season finales, this one doesn't end with a celebration or something cheerful to balance all the violence and backstabbing. The evil capitalist white businessman wins. The best anyone can do is apparently to do nothing. It's the end of the days of heroic gunslingers.
Season 3
IPyaarCinema4 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers
David Milch created a show that entertains and amazes at every scene, and succeeded in depicting the life in the old west more than anyone. He told a story of violence and terror, of love and hope, of people who held to their promises and oaths, who bound their friendships on trust, and of those who killed, tortured for the realization of their dreams; to make a business and achieve a fortune.
Season 3: Excellent in nearly every regard – dialogue, plotting, character, colour, only the lack of a 4th season hurts it (SPOILERS)
bob the moo2 August 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Having finished the third season of this show I now feel even more foolish for having spent so many years not watching it, because it really does go out without ever having dipped in quality for longer than one scene and it is a shame that it only got these three seasons. The narrative arch in this season is similar in theme to previous seasons since it continues to be about power struggles and politicking in this small town. While season 2 was strong, season 3 benefits from having less of a general threat (annexation into existing territories) and much more of a very human, very specific one set up on the balcony across from the Gem. Hearst is a great character and, like all the others in this show, he is not simplistic and he is not the boogie-man that some shows would have created. From early scenes where the tension is in the words through the season as words turn into acts, he is a great driving force and the tension between him and Al is fantastic. On a very basic level it makes for a season plot that is tense and engaging, full of sudden, shocking violence and plot twists that make it very hard not to watch all 12 episodes in one sitting!
However this is not 24, this is a show with more going on than that and it continues to satisfy at a character level. The constant murk of morality is always in play and in particular it is very satisfying to see "bad" characters becoming "good" in the eyes of the viewer despite them having not moved one inch morally – it is only the perspective of the viewer that is made to change. One such example is the wonderful (but understated) irony of Al's horror over the death of Ellsworth, and his sincerity in comforting Garret – this despite the fact of course that he himself was responsible for the death of her previous husband. Similarly it is satisfying to see Bullock moving into the role of the rash and emotional where he had previously tried to style himself as the morally upright and unflappable and there is a lot of these changes as elements come together out of need while others side with Hearst (to varying degrees of success).
These threads fit closely with the Hearst thread but there is just as much of quality happening around the edges, all of which come together to produce a sense of community with vested interests but also their own lives and interests. Calamity Jane, Joanie, Trixie, Farnum, the school house, the theatre group – all of these emotionally engage and dovetail into other events well while also standing on their own; I cannot think of one scene where I was impatient for it to finish so I could get back to a different thread – a feeling one will occasionally get with ensemble shows.
As previous seasons, the writing is tremendous. The plotting works well but the dialogue is great – near Shakespearean in the way the words have such colour and beauty to them. I started making notes of some examples while I was watching for purpose of dropping them in here, but there were just too many examples, the campaign slogan "Farnham: Christ knows he's earned it" is my favourite I think but like I said there are so many examples of darkly comic, meaningful, funny, rude or telling lines in here it would be pointless to start. The cast take this and run with it and are roundly good. There is no point in listing names because it will go on forever but suffice to say McShane remains tremendous, everyone else is nearly as good and the addition of McRaney is a strong piece of casting as he manages to convey menace and spite but without ever hamming it up or becoming a pantomime villain.
The end of the third season is both brilliant and disappointing. As the end of the total show, it is disappointing as there is a clear narrative in front of us that we'll never get. However as an ending to the season it is a fantastic downbeat anti-climax. The viewer (like the characters) wants Hearst dead, wants the town to win in a great shootout where "good" (as we see it) conquers "evil"; but when was it ever like this? In the end everyone is practical and stomachs it for their best interests – in the words of Al, the viewer wants "to be told something pretty" but the gritty realism of the situation is what we get, and it is a fitting and very strong end of the season – just not of the show.
Season 3 is excellent in nearly every regard and it barely has a moment that doesn't work in terms of what that moment is trying to do. It is a tragedy that there isn't a 4th season, but that doesn't really affect how strong this season it. Tremendous television - start to finish.
However this is not 24, this is a show with more going on than that and it continues to satisfy at a character level. The constant murk of morality is always in play and in particular it is very satisfying to see "bad" characters becoming "good" in the eyes of the viewer despite them having not moved one inch morally – it is only the perspective of the viewer that is made to change. One such example is the wonderful (but understated) irony of Al's horror over the death of Ellsworth, and his sincerity in comforting Garret – this despite the fact of course that he himself was responsible for the death of her previous husband. Similarly it is satisfying to see Bullock moving into the role of the rash and emotional where he had previously tried to style himself as the morally upright and unflappable and there is a lot of these changes as elements come together out of need while others side with Hearst (to varying degrees of success).
These threads fit closely with the Hearst thread but there is just as much of quality happening around the edges, all of which come together to produce a sense of community with vested interests but also their own lives and interests. Calamity Jane, Joanie, Trixie, Farnum, the school house, the theatre group – all of these emotionally engage and dovetail into other events well while also standing on their own; I cannot think of one scene where I was impatient for it to finish so I could get back to a different thread – a feeling one will occasionally get with ensemble shows.
As previous seasons, the writing is tremendous. The plotting works well but the dialogue is great – near Shakespearean in the way the words have such colour and beauty to them. I started making notes of some examples while I was watching for purpose of dropping them in here, but there were just too many examples, the campaign slogan "Farnham: Christ knows he's earned it" is my favourite I think but like I said there are so many examples of darkly comic, meaningful, funny, rude or telling lines in here it would be pointless to start. The cast take this and run with it and are roundly good. There is no point in listing names because it will go on forever but suffice to say McShane remains tremendous, everyone else is nearly as good and the addition of McRaney is a strong piece of casting as he manages to convey menace and spite but without ever hamming it up or becoming a pantomime villain.
The end of the third season is both brilliant and disappointing. As the end of the total show, it is disappointing as there is a clear narrative in front of us that we'll never get. However as an ending to the season it is a fantastic downbeat anti-climax. The viewer (like the characters) wants Hearst dead, wants the town to win in a great shootout where "good" (as we see it) conquers "evil"; but when was it ever like this? In the end everyone is practical and stomachs it for their best interests – in the words of Al, the viewer wants "to be told something pretty" but the gritty realism of the situation is what we get, and it is a fitting and very strong end of the season – just not of the show.
Season 3 is excellent in nearly every regard and it barely has a moment that doesn't work in terms of what that moment is trying to do. It is a tragedy that there isn't a 4th season, but that doesn't really affect how strong this season it. Tremendous television - start to finish.
Best TV series ever
wildblog18 February 2007
Warning: Spoilers
This was the best television series ever. It's the standard I look up to. Of course Hearst wins at the end. This show was all about the American Dream and Capitalism. Hearst is the poster child for the Corporation and what it will become. He wins and the rest lose. The man who's lost the most is Al who is the smart one, but realizes that he's just a small man with a small team. He rules the small pond but that's it. The world is large and Al realizes that he is just a small man. Such a smartly written show. What every other show needs to be. A distinct THEME with great characters and solid plots. What a show. If only other shows were this good. The world would be a better place all around.
Why not continue?
gallagher7815 May 2007
I absolutely love this show and cannot believe that HBO is stupid enough to let this one go!! I agree that this show and Soprano's are the only reason I let Comcast bend me over for HBO. And honestly, the Soprano's has been a train wreck for the past few seasons. i read that HBO offered Milch half a season to finish the show and he said no. it wouldn't be enough to wrap up the loose ends. What i am curious about is how two two-hour movies(4 hours) is any better of an ending than half a season? i have been waiting for 7 months to find out when HBO will announce the season 4 premier and i have to find out through IMDb blogs that it isn't coming back?! Surely they don't think that people keep their subscription just to watch City of Angels (or any other movie HBO gets their hands on) 22 times in 2 weeks. I just checked, right now they are abusing us with The Siege...thanks HBO, it was nice having you around, I'll be switching to Showtime now for Dexter.
Not excellent, but FANTASTIC and way, WAY too short.
zippyflynn212 August 2017
Warning: Spoilers
If you have not watched this series from the beginning and truly relish that phenomenon of RARE, great theater, STOP HERE and please start from episode # 1 season # 1.
Please, let me qualify myself. I am a part-time actor, film maker, and true aficionado of exceptionally rare, truly great film. I am also that common herd whom you never hear about but will occasionally see small glimpses of: the classically or well-trained actor who delves into theater and/or film but often surrenders their beloved pursuit of their foremost, heartfelt passion due to the constraints of financial support to a spouse, children, or even merely themselves in the financially unstable, unforgiving world of show business. Nevertheless, the vast bulk of us often retain our love of great acting, theater, and productions, whether they be from the stage theater, movie theater, and/or television. Which brings us to this offering of "Deadwood" season 3, episode 12.
Let me put this way, from me who turns off (or walks out of) EVERY single movie, show, and theater production which does not capture me (reasonably quickly) in a unique, superlative way: do not watch this until you have seen the entire series leading up to it. I have seen enough and done enough to know what is of RARE, great quality and, therefore, worth watching; as well as what is worth watching in its entirety and what SHOULD be watched in full. Deadwood falls into this rare, superlative quality.
POSSIBLE (but non-plot oriented) SPOILERS AHEAD: Deadwood is an extremely uncommon show for American television because it not only tells the truth in an accurate and honest fashion but it allows great, high-quality theater to happen at the same time. Once you see this, after you have seen the preceding episodes, you will know a few things about truly great television, stage, and film theater, which include: how to turn a despised antagonist into a beloved protagonist; how to take a strong antagonist and turn him/her into a multi-faceted character that delivers their great, humane depth including their weaknesses and strengths that will add qualities to your love and simultaneous dislike for them, just like it does for those you know in "real life". Deadwood is great "real life" theater. Enjoy it for what it is and realize this was one of the very few RARE series that should have gone on for much, MUCH longer.
Please, let me qualify myself. I am a part-time actor, film maker, and true aficionado of exceptionally rare, truly great film. I am also that common herd whom you never hear about but will occasionally see small glimpses of: the classically or well-trained actor who delves into theater and/or film but often surrenders their beloved pursuit of their foremost, heartfelt passion due to the constraints of financial support to a spouse, children, or even merely themselves in the financially unstable, unforgiving world of show business. Nevertheless, the vast bulk of us often retain our love of great acting, theater, and productions, whether they be from the stage theater, movie theater, and/or television. Which brings us to this offering of "Deadwood" season 3, episode 12.
Let me put this way, from me who turns off (or walks out of) EVERY single movie, show, and theater production which does not capture me (reasonably quickly) in a unique, superlative way: do not watch this until you have seen the entire series leading up to it. I have seen enough and done enough to know what is of RARE, great quality and, therefore, worth watching; as well as what is worth watching in its entirety and what SHOULD be watched in full. Deadwood falls into this rare, superlative quality.
POSSIBLE (but non-plot oriented) SPOILERS AHEAD: Deadwood is an extremely uncommon show for American television because it not only tells the truth in an accurate and honest fashion but it allows great, high-quality theater to happen at the same time. Once you see this, after you have seen the preceding episodes, you will know a few things about truly great television, stage, and film theater, which include: how to turn a despised antagonist into a beloved protagonist; how to take a strong antagonist and turn him/her into a multi-faceted character that delivers their great, humane depth including their weaknesses and strengths that will add qualities to your love and simultaneous dislike for them, just like it does for those you know in "real life". Deadwood is great "real life" theater. Enjoy it for what it is and realize this was one of the very few RARE series that should have gone on for much, MUCH longer.
A disappointing finale that was not meant to be
nmottel18 August 2023
I am almost twenty years behind seeing Deadwood for the first time in 2023. All the accolades are accurate, this could possibly be the best tv series ever. The writing, the acting, the costuming, the sets are absolute perfection. In reading archival entertainment articles I know a fourth season was expected but never came to be. Ergo the last episode of season 3 must serve as the series finale. Lots of questions unanswered, regular characters not accounted for (Doc Cochran...does he have TB or not?), and story lines left hanging as we see the final shot. Advice to all readers, if you get the opportunity to visit the actual town of Deadwoon you must. Calamity Jane and Wild Bill rest next to each other in the cemetery, the Bullock Hotel still stands, Saloon #10 is waiting for you. I am eager to see the HBO follow up Deadwood movie. If it is half as good as the series I will be well entertained.
Need at least one more season
numenorsniper-6639625 November 2023
I just now finished watching the entire series again, as I tend to do every few years. And as my years and experience pile on, I understand and appreciate the series with greater depth with each additional viewing.
The feeling the end of this episode gave me is of a throbbing phantom limb, like a hand that expects to have a full set of five digits, and longs for the ones missing, yet was never able to gain the complete five, and was left with just three.
Some may say they feel Season 3 was the weakest portion of the show as a whole, and maybe overall that may be true, because Season 3 does feel like Act 1 of a 3 act movie. Much in the way as the end of this episode shows Hearst leaving camp, with a cliff hanger and a lot of unfinished threads, you can imagine a similar dissatisfaction if Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings ended on Frodo & Sam leaving, with a similar cliff-hanger sense of anticipation for what is yet to come, and then finding out the trilogy had been cancelled.
The Deadwood movie that came out many years later by no means delivers any sense of fulfilment or satisfaction, and I would love it if the series were simply given a green light to deliver us another two seasons of 12 episodes per season, made in exactly the same way as the original.
Sadly these days, utter garbage media is perpetuated, while genuine gold continues to elude us entirely.
The feeling the end of this episode gave me is of a throbbing phantom limb, like a hand that expects to have a full set of five digits, and longs for the ones missing, yet was never able to gain the complete five, and was left with just three.
Some may say they feel Season 3 was the weakest portion of the show as a whole, and maybe overall that may be true, because Season 3 does feel like Act 1 of a 3 act movie. Much in the way as the end of this episode shows Hearst leaving camp, with a cliff hanger and a lot of unfinished threads, you can imagine a similar dissatisfaction if Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings ended on Frodo & Sam leaving, with a similar cliff-hanger sense of anticipation for what is yet to come, and then finding out the trilogy had been cancelled.
The Deadwood movie that came out many years later by no means delivers any sense of fulfilment or satisfaction, and I would love it if the series were simply given a green light to deliver us another two seasons of 12 episodes per season, made in exactly the same way as the original.
Sadly these days, utter garbage media is perpetuated, while genuine gold continues to elude us entirely.
When the Evil leaves the town unscathed, deeply disappointed!!!
elo-equipamentos29 January 2020
Deadwood was my favorite western series, exotic and multi colors characters, all them with smart lines in every single scenes, philosophical dialogues, quite often on Shakespearian style, between comings and goings all bad men had their final days on a tombstone, the town pulse of living people, however when arrives the evil George Hearst (Gerald McRaney) l was angry for an upcoming events for someone made his coffin dully adorned by dead flowers to bury him in high style, nonetheless Hearst triumphs over the dead souls that he leaves behind, by far the dubious Al Swearengen (Ian MacShane) was miles ways from the remainder casting, Deadwood survives at his presence, pristine like water it was a fictional series, no one on those days could expatiates such speech, such level of intellectuality implied on purpose by the writer, conceptive idea taking in the edge of human understanding, now no more Deadwood!!!
Resume:
First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5
Resume:
First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5
disappointing
jjsoltis28 June 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I loved this series. I love westerns. The entire series was so well written and acted except for this episode. This may have been the worst final episode of a great series ever. I had watched this series when it first came out and enjoyed it. I wanted to watch and enjoy it again. But I could not remember how the series ended until watching it again. Now I know why I couldn't remember the finale. Nothing happened. at least not compared to the previous episodes. The writers could have done so much more.
Rubbish ending
shar-x24 April 2020
Rotten ending
tgoneil12 November 2023
The series started off great. Weaving reality into the story line as with Wild Bill Hickok's character made the show compelling. All of the characters played their unique roles perfectly. The writing is brilliant, playing unexpected subtleties against each other. Couldn't wait to see what happened with this last episode. But then ...
How could HBO stop this show when it did? The expense of running the show doesn't justify cutting it off at the kneecaps, leaving the audience frustrated and depressed.
To the HBO executive who made the call to cancel the show before completing the story, you and George Hearst are of the same ilk.
How could HBO stop this show when it did? The expense of running the show doesn't justify cutting it off at the kneecaps, leaving the audience frustrated and depressed.
To the HBO executive who made the call to cancel the show before completing the story, you and George Hearst are of the same ilk.
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