Deadwood

The new season of Deadwood started last night. Once again I find myself absolutely riveted by the sepia-toned show. I decided early on last season that Deadwood was more about the creation of civilization out of absolute chaos and depravity than anything else. An interview in Salon with creator David Milch indicates he'd first wanted to do a show set in Nero's Rome about order without law, so I think I was pretty much on the right track in my thinking. I'd known Milch had taught Henry James at Yale, but didn't know about his MFA from the Writers Workshop. Milch discusses how the Hays Production Code in Hollywood brought about the mythology of the sanitized West; moral relativism; our impulse for society and something outside ourselves; as well as touching upon the ideas of William James and St. Paul. (St. Paul was very important in the first season.) And, for those who shy away from the show because of the bad language (as if there aren't more horrific things in the show to shy away from!), Milch only uses a single vulgarity in the whole interview. I think. I mean, I did watch *$#@! Deadwood last night and I might not even notice.