TV: ‘Deadwood’ goes out just as brilliantly as it came in 13 years ago

David Milch, creator of HBO’s Deadwood: The Movie, never strikes a false note upon his return to the lawless 19th century mining town at the center of his earlier series.

The three seasons of the series Deadwood, which ran on HBO from 2004 until 2006, were set in a mining town in the territory of the Dakotas — the black mining hills sung about by Paul McCartney in “Rocky Raccoon.” There was no established law there in 1876, when the first season of Deadwood is set, but there was plenty of gold and silver, which led to a quickly growing community of miners, laborers, gamblers, prostitutes, opportunists and outlaws.

One famous figure who came to Deadwood early was Wild Bill Hickok, played by Keith Carradine, but Wild Bill didn’t last long — one of the first reminders that, in this town and in this TV series, danger and death threatened every single character, no matter how prominent. And that’s a fact of life in Deadwood: The Movie as well.

Series creator David Milch has written Deadwood: The Movie so that it can be seen and enjoyed as a stand-alone drama, but the more familiar you are with the history and residents of Deadwood, the more consistently thrilling this new HBO movie will be. And you have to admire, and respect, the degree of difficulty in the task Milch faces — and how superbly he delivers. More than a dozen years later, a movie version of Deadwood has to serve as a reunion special, making room for the old show’s surviving characters and actors.

The year is now 1889, and South Dakota is about to receive official statehood — the cause for a celebration that brings back characters who left Deadwood to reunite with those who stayed. But to move the story forward so many years, Milch had to imagine what those years were like for dozens of characters. And he never strikes a false note. More at NPR.com