Wanted: "Deadwood" alive

Back in some dark days at Issaquah High School (1978), there was a vote (successful) to ban J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye," that American classic. One speaker before the school board had taken the time to add up the use of every objectionable word (785) in the novel. She read the numbered list out loud, her voice quivering with the revulsion it must have taken to count them.

Salinger is back on the shelves today, but I can't imagine what would happen to that poor woman if she stumbled across "Deadwood" on HBO.

The show is famous, even celebrated, for weaving language of such crudeness and sheer profanity that it occasionally invites wonder, like a successful rocket launch. There's not enough soap in the universe to wash out your television set after any given episode.

But "Deadwood," too, is some kind of an American classic, and it's back for a third and possibly final season at 9 p.m. Sunday.

I can't quite contemplate there will come a day without Al Swearengen. Keeper of the Gem Saloon and centrifugal force of all that revolves around the Dakota Territories gold-mining community of Deadwood, Swearengen weaves an ever-widening net of relationships with the local law, his competitors and the corrupt government officials who would tame Deadwood and make it part of "civilization." Golden Globe-winner Ian McShane climbs into Swearengen down to his pores; this is a guy, in all seriousness, who can get fussy about the best way to get a blood stain out of the saloon floor.

"It's fixin' towards a bloody outcome, boss," says Al's devoted pal, Dan (W. Earl Brown).

In the new season's storyline, George Hearst (Gerald McRaney) has come to town, a mining baron who means to bring the riches of Deadwood under his control. Early on, he crosses into the territory of the Gem by orchestrating the murder of a union organizer.

For once, Swearengen is in a position where he can't see all the moves ahead; he knows he's being played by Hearst but is reduced to playing off his bloodiest instincts — and they're not enough. In an early pivotal scene, Swearengen's taken from behind by a Hearst henchman, and it sets in motion a battle to the death.

Swearingen has his allies, though, and this year it's clear — after past bouts with the pouty sheriff, Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) — that Deadwood is a place where you hold your friends close and your enemies closer. A kind of truce has settled, in which the lawful half of Deadwood continues to take root. There are fine houses in town now, and a local school in a former bordello. Sloe-eyed Mrs. Ellsworth (Molly Parker) may be carrying the sheriff's child, but she's also opening the first bank, and may get back to that opium addiction from Season One.

All this is beside the point if you missed that first season. The many characters are impossible to follow without a playbook; a TiVo is handy, too, for picking up stray bullets of dialogue as they go flying by.

It's never been this involving to be so confused, assured only that creator David Milch is a master storyteller, and he will show you just enough plot (and plenty of flesh) to keep you hooked. This is fearless writing, and not just because any word in the book is fair game. The lack of constraint opens up the show as a florid but historical portrait of the West, where power, race and some version of the American dream meet and stake a claim.

Thus there was a fan firestorm when HBO reportedly failed to renew another season's contracts for "Deadwood." The result is this week's announcement of a series-ender in the form of two two-hour installments next year. Whether all of the original cast will be back is an open question.

That means there may be only this year left to see if E.B. Farnum (William Sanderson) can slime his way into office, find out what Doc (Brad Dourif) is spitting into his handkerchief and worry whether Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert) goes binge drinking again. And no talking about that horrible fight Dan gets into. I just cain't go there.

Lucy Mohl is senior news producer for seattletimes.com.