A farewell to Deadwood

Its all the same, only the names will change
Everyday it seems were wasting away
Another place where the faces are so cold
Id drive all night just to get back home


Im a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride
Im wanted dead or alive
Wanted dead or alive

Sometimes I sleep, sometimes its not for days
And the people I meet always go their separate ways
Sometimes you tell the day
By the bottle that you drink
And times when you're all alone all you do is think

Bon Jovi - Dead or Alive

Deadwood is the best show that nobody ever saw. Airing on HBO (which is the only channel it really could've been on), the show was largely overshadowed by its more famous brethren in Entourage and The Sopranos. Nevertheless, Deadwood gained a small but hardcore following in its three season run. And with damn good reason.
Following the town of Deadwood, South Dakota and its inhabitants as they are transformed from a rough-and-tumble town built upon gold into a civilized part of the United States, the show managed to make even the dullest moments of everyday life compelling. Blessed with fantastic period costumes and with some of the best (if not filthiest) writing around, the show never bored me. Though the high points of Deadwood may have not reached the highs of The Sopranos, neither did the lows ever reach that of The Sopranos (I mean honestly, did anyone actually enjoy watching those damned Tony dream episodes?). And while The Sopranos was forced to rely on the acting of the main stars of the show (Gandolfini, Falco, Imperioli, and their guest stars like Pantoliano and Buscemi [who, it should be noted, stole every scene he was in]) due to the average acting ability of the rest of the cast, Deadwood benefited from having an overall all-star cast. Much like The Sopranos and Entourage though (with Tony and Ari respectively), the star of the show was undoubtedly the show's anti-hero, tavern owner Al Swearengen.
Swearengen, played by the awesome Ian McShane, is what Tony Soprano wished he could've been. Smart, tactile, ruthless, ruling by fear... but also compassionate, just, and managing to also rule through respect. Now Al's ruthlessness cannot be understated. He cut a myriad number of throats, berated his whores regularly, and even ordered a hit on a little girl. But for all that, it's his moments of compassion that stand out most resoundingly (his keeping the cripple around even though she was useless to him, putting the priest out of his misery, and, most strikingly, jumping off a balcony to help a woman being shot at). He could be amusing, thoughtful, vengeful, terrifying, and amusing. In my estimation, he's one of the best television characters ever created. It was hard for me to ever empathize with Tony or to ever truly root for him (granted, he did also shoot and kill my favorite actor ever, not that I hold grudges or anything). He was a greedy, cheating fuck that would shoot one of his friends in the back if it made him a couple bucks (but then again, it can be argued he never truly had any friends, but that's something different altogether). And though the character of Al Swearengen was a ruthless thug, and for all intensive purposes the 'boss' of Deadwood, he had that unspeakable quality that made him imminently likable.
Tony never had that likability. He was a Caesar-like figure, which is what made his story so fascinating to the viewer. Who would he kill next? How would they die? Would Tony die? Ultimately, the appeal of The Sopranos was not knowing the imminent futures of anyone on the show. Deadwood took this concept and propelled it a step further. Though the show was violent as all holy balls, Deadwood was more story and character driven than The Sopranos ever could be. While the biggest shortcoming of The Sopranos may have been its inability to juggle all its characters and their personal lives, Deadwood was able to do so with ease. Every character had his or her place, unlike, say, Tony's mom or Dr. Melfi who were just unspeakably annoying and intolerable.
It's a shame that Deadwood never gained the fame of so many other HBO shows. It seems that its brilliance was perhaps lost in the shuffle. I mean, who would have thought to watch a western drama in this decade? But with the rumors of an upcoming Deadwood movie, perhaps the show isn't quite dead yet. It will never be more popular than The Sopranos, nor really should it be, but it should undoubtedly be placed on the same high pedestal in television history. When it comes right down to it, Tony Soprano will never win a fight against Al Swearengen. Maybe if Tony just hadn't gone and shot Tony B....