TV

Deadwood
3x12 Tell Him Something Pretty [series finale]

Is it still a "series finale" if they make another instalment 13 years later? (Deep philosophical question, that.)

I also listened to the commentary by series creator/mastermind David Milch, which is disappointingly bitty. I guess these were recorded back in the mid ‘00s, when DVDs had been around a while but maybe people still weren’t fully familiar with commentaries... maybe? I dunno. It's just that I’ve not listened to a great many audio commentaries, all told, but the ones on this show are among the weakest I’ve heard. And that’s a shame, because I’m sure these are all intelligent people who could’ve offered some real insight, it just seems they needed better prompting. “You don’t have to talk about just what’s on screen in front of you” would’ve been a good bit of advice for many of them. Also: nearly every fucking track mentions that Richardson was initially an extra who got promoted to an actual character.

One thing, though, that’s both neat and depressing: Milch talks about one or two intentions for future plot lines, but also at one point says, “we’ll get to that in the two-hour films.” I've always heard rumours about Deadwood concluding with two or three feature-length TV movies, but it seems clear they really believed that would happen. Of course, for whatever reason, it didn’t. At least we’ve got the belated movie finally coming next month, which, though ten or more years late, will hopefully be at least somewhat akin to what Milch had planned all along.

I also watched a featurette exclusive to the complete series box set, The Meaning of Endings: David Milch on the Conclusion of Deadwood, in which Milch offers a bit more insight than on his commentary, I guess thanks to it being filmed with a bit more distance. He’s meant to be discussing some of the plot lines he'd intended for the fourth season, but instead winds up musing on the value or otherwise of endings as defining a work of art’s purpose and value. Very Milch.

And outside of the world of Deadwood...

The Twilight Zone
2x28 Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?
5x03 Nightmare at 20,000 Feet