Set in an ungoverned stretch of South Dakota soon after the 1876 Custer massacre, Deadwood concerns a lawless, evolving town attracting fortune-seekers, drifters, tyrants, and burned-out adventurers searching for a card game and a place to die. Others, particularly women trapped in prostitution, sundry do-gooders, and hangers-on have nowhere else to go. Into this pool of aspiration and nightmare arrive former Montana lawman Seth Bullock Timothy Olyphant and his friend Sol Starr John Hawkes, determined to open a lucrative hardware business. Over time, their paths cross with a weary but still formidable Wild Bill Hickok Keith Carradine and his doting companion, the coarse angel Calamity Jane Robin Weigert; an aristocratic, drug-addicted widow Molly Parker trying to salvage a gold mining claim; and a despondent hooker Paula Malcomson who cares, briefly, for an orphaned girl. Casting a giant shadow over all is a blood-soaked king, Gem Saloon owner Al Swearengen Ian McShane, possibly the best, most complex, and mesmerizing villain seen on TV in years. Each of these characters, and many others, will forge alliances and feuds, cope with disasters such as smallpox, and move--almost invisibly but inexorably--toward some semblance of order and common cause. Making it all worthwhile is Milch's masterful dialogue--often profane, sometimes courtly and civilized, never perfunctory--and the brilliant acting of the aforementioned performers plus others. --Tom Keogh