Deadwood Season 2 DVD (2005)

The fictionalized western-drama HBO is set in 1870’s in Deadwood, a miner’s stop in the Black Hills of Dakota. While this was a real place and many of the characters were based on actual events the show comes across as a cross between history and compelling drama.
Much was made early on about the cursing, which is prevalent and rather tiresome, but this overlooks the rest of the dialogue which is extremely complex and almost poetic. Some find it hard to believe that people would really talk that way, but on the other hand newspapers and letters of the day use much the same language, cursing aside, making it not much of a stretch to believe that certain people might have spoke in such a style. Either way, this makes the show that much more worth watching and listening to closely.
This is one of the densest series ever shown on television. There is so much going on that DVD is the perfect way to watch it. It takes multiple viewings to catch all the context and sub plots that each episode contains. Rarely has a cast like this been assembled for any film or television show.
The anamorphic 1.78:1 video gives a crisp, clear picture. The color palette is often somewhat dank by design but typically the colors are faithfully represented. The audio is in Dolby 5.1 and it sounds beautiful. This is an expensive DVD set, retailing at close to $100.00. I got mine at Best Buy yesterday for $62.00... for a six disc set that's not that bad.