Back in camp


The first episode of Deadwood, season two, pleases

I’ve seen the first episode of Deadwood season two and bless ‘em, it’s on track. The local newsrag TV critic promises things go well in further eps, so it looks like late nights or sticky notes to set the VCR for Sundays from now on.

Spoilers ahoy:

I called it an oopsie, but Hubby disagrees: when Bullock and Swearengen go over the latter’s second-storey balcony and into the street, bones get cracked, as one might expect. But in a season one episode, Swearengen has an opium-addicted employee leave the building (semi-) voluntarily by the same method, and the man appears to suffer no (further) ill effects. That’s the trouble with them running all the season one episodes right before the premier, I guess. Hubs says the street being much muddier can account for the dope addict’s relatively intact state. I allowed as to how that and his being heavily self-sedated and therefore loose of limb might account for it. But I still don’t like it.

But the thing that generated the most discussion was Mrs. Garrett boldly staking her claim (and I don’t mean the gold field) nearly the minute Mrs. Bullock hit camp. This poor woman has brought her boy into camp on a stagecoach full of prostitutes, just to arrive to see her erstwhile husband-sheriff and a local brothel owner falling out of the sky and beating the living daylights out of each other. So very next thing, she’s sitting in her husband’s store watching the frontier doc dig a bullet out of her husband’s partner’s shoulder, and in walks Mrs. New-York-City, dressed in barely-year-old latest fashion, with a basket of goodies, making a high-falutin’ “welcome” speech. A bright red dress; oh somebody please get me costuming so I can beyach-slap ‘em! Aside from the fashion whoopsie (her husband dead less than a year, and her being society, she would at most be wearing grey) we just don’t need to be that obvious. Honestly folks, we get that their relationship is illicit and his wife would, too.

I am torn between being oh, ok, proud of Mrs. Garrett for announcing her relationship to Bullock’s wife-in-name-only (he married his widowed SIL) and being thoroughly disgusted for her seriously poor timing / judgment. I just keep reminding myself that poor judgment is rather a hallmark of this character, and she’s generally one of those lucky few who seems to perpetually come out smelling like a rose in spite of it.

Posted: Mon - March 7, 2005 at 10:16 PM   Home         | | View Technorati reactions

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