he now-defunct HBO series Deadwood was as tough and complicated as the South Dakota town it was named after, and it wasn't going to go out without a fight. The characters who populated the dusty 1800s landscape were so well-written and compelling, creator David Milch was able to land great actors to play them. You might think you know everything there is to know about Calamity Jane, until you've seen Robin Weigert's drunken, swearing take on the iconic gunslinger. But Weigert continued to bring heart and soul to the complex character, never settling for a one-note performance.
As the kindly Doc Cochran, Brad Dourif has finally found a role that suits his offbeat sensibility outside of voicing Chucky, the doll from the Child's Play movies. And then there's Ian McShane, tearing up the screen as the foulmouthed and brutal Al Swearengen. A pro such as McShane knows villainy is never simple, and he shows Swearengen's human side in the way the character genuinely cares about the people of his town—particularly Trixie (Paula Malcolmson), his favorite prostitute.
After the departure of the great Powers Boothe as Cy Tolliver, Swearengen's nemesis, Gerald McRaney ably stepped up to the task as mining magnate George Hearst. Watching Swearengen and Hearst form an uneasy alliance was uncomfortable in the best possible way, and watching these two great actors play together was a pure delight. The series is filled with great character actors—Gale Harold, William Sanderson, and John Hawkes among them—who lose themselves so deeply in their roles you can almost smell the rawhide. And it's wonderful to watch Timothy Olyphant portray Seth Bullock, the last honorable man in Deadwood. Olyphant is frequently cast as characters of dubious ethics (Go, The Girl Next Door), but here he gets to show he can be just as interesting playing good. Of course, "good" is a relative term in Deadwood.