7.5/10. Al Swearengen was in rare form, and that's always good for an episode. His perturbation at all of the commissioners being from Yankton made him appropriately irascible, and his personal scrap with Bullock was great. He's often at his most entertaining when he's being insulting and you could tell he had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed for the ten consecutive days before we saw him here. The actual scrap, with Bullock and Al in the mud, their seconds getting into it, and the only thing stopping Al from finishing the job being Seth's adopted son looking off in the distance was a crackerjack sequence. The "Welcome to Deadwood" line was a laugh riot, and the perfect way to start off this season with a bang.
I liked a lot of the fall out here. I could do without the HBO-mandated scenes of Bullock and Alma getting carnal, or their dull pillow talk, but the reciprocal moment where Bullock's wife shows up and Alma makes an awkward presentation and introduction at the hardware store. I've ragged on Olyphant a bit and I think he often plays the character a little too one-note for my tastes much of the time, but I did like the scene set in the store where he and Alma are standing next to one another, facing opposite directions, and yet the tension between them is palpable. Much of that owes to Olyphant, who sold the restrained longing there well.
I was less endeared with the Cy Tolliver scenes. Joanie getting out on her own, and Cy realizing it and having trouble coping is an important story development, but I get tired of seeing his cruelty. I'm sure that's by design. More than even Al, Cy just seems like unvarnished harshness, expressing his cruel though broken heart through nigh-unwatchable abuses. Boothe just plays him in a very theatrical way, and given the subject matter, it's easy to have too much of it.
As usual though, Al is the highlight. I'm not sure what his illness is (ulcers? syphilis?), but he and his gang dealing with his annoyed nature were enjoyable and interesting, with plenty of great details like the growing rivalry between Dan and Adams, and Johnny turning out to have a conscience after he shoots Star and Utter and frets over it. Good stuff.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-07-20T16:10:37Z
7.5/10. Al Swearengen was in rare form, and that's always good for an episode. His perturbation at all of the commissioners being from Yankton made him appropriately irascible, and his personal scrap with Bullock was great. He's often at his most entertaining when he's being insulting and you could tell he had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed for the ten consecutive days before we saw him here. The actual scrap, with Bullock and Al in the mud, their seconds getting into it, and the only thing stopping Al from finishing the job being Seth's adopted son looking off in the distance was a crackerjack sequence. The "Welcome to Deadwood" line was a laugh riot, and the perfect way to start off this season with a bang.
I liked a lot of the fall out here. I could do without the HBO-mandated scenes of Bullock and Alma getting carnal, or their dull pillow talk, but the reciprocal moment where Bullock's wife shows up and Alma makes an awkward presentation and introduction at the hardware store. I've ragged on Olyphant a bit and I think he often plays the character a little too one-note for my tastes much of the time, but I did like the scene set in the store where he and Alma are standing next to one another, facing opposite directions, and yet the tension between them is palpable. Much of that owes to Olyphant, who sold the restrained longing there well.
I was less endeared with the Cy Tolliver scenes. Joanie getting out on her own, and Cy realizing it and having trouble coping is an important story development, but I get tired of seeing his cruelty. I'm sure that's by design. More than even Al, Cy just seems like unvarnished harshness, expressing his cruel though broken heart through nigh-unwatchable abuses. Boothe just plays him in a very theatrical way, and given the subject matter, it's easy to have too much of it.
As usual though, Al is the highlight. I'm not sure what his illness is (ulcers? syphilis?), but he and his gang dealing with his annoyed nature were enjoyable and interesting, with plenty of great details like the growing rivalry between Dan and Adams, and Johnny turning out to have a conscience after he shoots Star and Utter and frets over it. Good stuff.