"Deadwood" (2004-2006)

I heard the charmingly no-nonsense David Milch interviewed on The Treatment; at Elvis's prodding, he did talk a bit about his father's rough-and-tumble and not entirely legal background, but he never did explain what gave him the balls to pitch a show about the Wild West in which the chief scumbags talk like Shakespearian seconds and the entire cast revolves around a 60-year-old English actor who isn't exactly known for his good looks.

Sounds great, Milch. We'll clear a place in the schedule for it right now!

My friend Killian insisted that "Deadwood" was a great show long before I got around to watching it. She forced me to watch part of an episode with her once, and of course it happened to be the most fellatio-heavy show in the entire history of the series. Good one, Killian. No thanks.

But fortunately I gave it another go and rented the DVDs, and I cannot believe how attached I've become to the rogues and murderers and Indian heads in boxes and corpse-eating pigs and delicate ladies stranded in the sea of filth that is the town of Deadwood. That 60-year-old Englishman turned out to be my most deepest love on the show, a character who as vile and noble and sexy and repulsive, lovable and cruel as... let's say Regan and Goneril as played by Lear. A bossman's gotta do what a bossman's gotta do.

This show is a miracle of casting and of stellar writing and plotting. And don't miss the gorgeous opening credits and theme song; the love and care that made this show extends to all corners of the production.

"Deadwood", huh? Sure, Milch. Sounds great. We've also got a pilot ready for a Custer-meets-Chekov show in which Custer tries to sell his house to Indians. And we've got a great Watergate-meets-Jane Austen show in which G. Gordon Liddy is played by Hugh Grant, and Nixon can't choose between his love of hotel theft and his devotion to his shit list.

(Bonus post convergence: 20 years after his turn in this dopey and appalling "Red Dawn", Powers Boothe shows his real stuff by swaggering around Deadwood as Cy Tolliver, who is, let's say, the Regan and Goneril as played by Gollum.)