
I’ve been completely captivated by Deadwood, and it’s easy to see why critics love it – it’s got a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes! To me, it feels like a brilliant link between classic Westerns and the more complex, morally gray dramas we see today, like Breaking Bad and Justified. It really captures that same gritty frontier spirit that Tombstone brought back in the 90s. What’s amazing is how the show explores themes of loyalty, power, justice, and decline – they’re woven throughout everything, like hidden treasures. Timothy Olyphant’s quiet intensity reminds me of Kurt Russell’s commanding presence, and Ian McShane’s Al Swearengen feels like a direct descendant of Val Kilmer’s Doc Holliday: incredibly smart, cynical, and utterly compelling. It’s not a stretch to see the connections between these shows and films – they all feel like parts of the same story, continuing a tradition.