Deadwood

5. Deadwood’s Political Economic Narrative

Chapter 5 Deadwood’s Political Economic Narrative 61 We, who have pursued our destiny outside law or statute, will be restored to the bosom of the nation. A. W. Merrick For the past 25 years, the narrative structure of each episodic television drama has fallen somewhere on a continuum between having each installment tell a self-contained story, so that the occasional viewer is never at a disadvantage when dipping in or out of a program’s first run or is catching it in reruns, or telling one continuous story from first episode to last. The networks , still dependent on revenue from advertisers who want their commercials viewed live at the time of broadcast, have usually insisted on at least one self-contained story per episode, even if longer story arcs are part of the total picture. The success of one heavily serialized program is enough to spawn several more before the inevitable retreat to police procedurals or medical dramas with discrete cases to be solved within each episode. Compromises that have worked well for the Big Four (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC) could point to The Fugitive as a template. 01 Hark text.indd 61 1/30/12 9:01 AM 62 Chapter 5 Overall, Dr. Richard Kimble fled pursuit by Lt. Philip Gerard to return him to the death house (i.e., the term given to death row in the show’s opening narration) while he himself sought the “one-armed man” who had actually killed his wife. Several episodes per season might focus on this über-plot, but each week Kimble also moved on to a different location and became involved in the personal dilemmas of strangers that he helped ameliorate. Cable channels, especially after the advent of DVDs and online viewing, could more readily risk serialized storytelling in which the individual episodes might begin and end in medias res. Many HBO dramas are thoroughly serialized, and Deadwood is no exception. Since the heyday of the Western generally preceded the tilt toward serialization, this marks another way in which Deadwood stands out from other examples of the genre. That events occur over a very short period of time helps make its serialization work. Each season spans less than a month. A title in the pilot reveals that, after a brief prelude, viewers first see Deadwood in July 1876. The elections that conclude the series are held in November 1877. There is a seven-month gap between seasons 1 and 2, and there are six weeks between seasons 2 and 3. The rationale behind having the action occur only in the summers or autumns of the two years probably has to do with the difficulty of portraying a snowbound Dakota winter while filming on location in Santa Clarita, California, just north of Los Angeles. This is not to say that Deadwood is all one long story containing no discrete subunits. The various health crises have their beginnings, middles, and ends. For instance, the smallpox epidemic begins when Cramed becomes symptomatic and ends when the vaccine arrives and all those infected previously have either died or recovered. Many guest stars become recurring characters, but some have a story that plays out over just a few episodes, like the grifters Miles and Flora, who are introduced and dispatched within two hours of showtime. An appearance 01 Hark text.indd 62 1/30/12 9:01 AM 63 Deadwood’s Political Economic Narrative by Wyatt and Morgan Earp in season 3 is also of short duration, but their somewhat comic portrayal does not fit organically into the grim struggle with Hearst that surrounds it. Similarly, although historical personage Jack Langrishe works well to expand our view of Swearengen, since the two are old friends and relate as equals—a situation hitherto unseen with Al—the various subplots concerning his acting troupe have rudimentary development and also don’t complement the larger events of the story. Even the most episodic of shows allow the characters to change and grow, and often love relationships provide a catalyst for these arcs. Alma anchors the dominant romantic plot in Deadwood, a tragic one that sees her first and second husbands murdered and her passionate affair with Bullock ended. More happy results ensue as Sol becomes Trixie’s lover and Joanie begins an intimate relationship with Jane. Nevertheless Deadwood does not foreground personal stories as a broadly defined soap opera might, nor does it derive...