Talking Big

For a long time, I’ve been writing a book about the HBO series Deadwood. It’s entirely in my head, the book. I scribble ideas or claims (sometimes daydreams) in my Deadwood notebook (red, spiraled). I want to make an argument about Al Swearengen. The first time I watched the show, Al struck me as a Hamlet without a Horatio. Since he could talk to any of the other characters on their own terms (and in their own terms), since he could talk to anyone, he was left able to talk to nobody.

David Milch said: His language is the way he expresses his connection. His conversation is his reaching out. It is not necessarily conversation with others. It is verbal meditation.

Dan Decker, the screenplay guru, writes: You must provide the audience access to the drama. They must be able to know what is going on inside the Main Character’s head. A screenplay is not a novel, which can say “he felt sad.” The Main Character must turn to the Window Character and somehow express feelings.

This concept of the window character. Horatio is Hamlet’s window. Sol Star is Seth Bullock’s window as often as not.

When you watch multiple seasons (and a wrap-up movie) of an HBO drama, you spend dozens of hours with the characters. That’s a long time with a group of actors. Deadwood is a dialogue-heavy show that cast many prominent roles perfectly with a strong group of character actors. Though Season 1 opens with an introduction of Timothy Oliphant’s Seth Bullock and his arrival in the town of Deadwood, Bullock is not the show’s main character. I’d argue it’s not even a show with a split main.

Deadwood belongs to Al Swearengen.

As many fans have pointed out, Deadwood managed the alchemy of bringing together a great actor with the role he was destined to play. Ian McShane brought Al Swearengen to life. McShane was asked in a 2019 Vulture interview how it felt being so strongly associated with one character. He said, “I’m fine with it. All of us have a limited time on this earth, and at the end of it, we all go down. And when that day finally comes, I’ll be happy to go down as Ian ‘Al’ McShane.” How McShane brought Swearengen to life was a combination of his charisma, the show’s writing, and the way the dialogue was structured.

I’ll return with a post about the shape of Season 1.