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Introduction In the fifth episode of Deadwood’s first season, the Reverend Smith is called upon to eulogize Wild Bill Hickok just as the man responsible for his murder is acquitted and released to ride freely from the camp. Mr. Hickok will lie beside two brothers. One he likely killed, the other he killed for certain and he’s been killed now in turn. So much blood. And on the battlefields of the brother’s war, I saw more blood than this. And asked then, after the purpose, and did not know. But know now to testify that, not knowing, I believe. St. Paul tells us from one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jew or Gentile, bond or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member but many. He tells us: The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of thee. Nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble and those members of the body which we think of as less honorable–all are necessary. He says that there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the same care one to another. And whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it. I believe in God’s purpose, not knowing it. I ask him, moving in me, to allow me to see his will. I ask him, moving in others, to allow them to see it.1 I begin with this homily in part to signal the focus of this “theology of popular culture” (namely, television entertainment) but, more substantively, because it highlights two central themes: relationality and diversity. Deadwood creator David Milch identified this sermon as a kind of mission statement for the series as a whole, which explores the efforts of an illegal camp to impose order on itself and evolve into a genuine community in which each member is recognized as necessary and irreplaceable. For Milch, this relationality also characterizes the writing process as well as the connections made between viewers and characters: “the telling of a story is nothing more or less than the process of the viewer coming to experience what has seemed to be separate entities as informed by a single unity. And, in that context, all of the sort of abstract categories of plot, character are subsumed into really what is a religious 1 construct… e pluribus unum, ‘out of many one.’”2 Matthew Weiner (Mad Men) describes the experience of TV viewers as follows: “People feel less alone in a great way. It becomes part of their education. It becomes an entertainment that is substantial. They feel close to other people. They communicate with an artist. There’s light shed on their lives. They’re diverted. They’re lifted from their burdens. They’re entertained.”3 Television has the capacity to bring people together. It creates relationships—not only with fictional characters (as is true of any other form of storytelling), but also with writers and with fellow viewers. Far from a passive and solitary experience, as it has so often been depicted, watching television has become an active, inter-active, and relational endeavor. Through Twitter, Reddit, Comic-Con panels, and blogs, viewers get to know the creative voices behind a series and get to know fellow-fans as well. For example, when Todd VanDerWerff suggested a target of 100,000 comments on his review of Community’s third season finale (to demonstrate support for the series and for series creator, Dan Harmon, who was fired by Sony Pictures Television the day after the finale aired), readers stepped up, reaching over 160,000 (so far). Consider this excerpt from the 100,000th comment: “crucially, this is a message board not about Community itself, but about one of the show’s central themes: acceptance. That there’s a place where you can talk about whatever’s on your mind, where you can post about any subject you have a passion for, where you can love or hate or be indifferent to anything you want. A place where you’re already accepted.”4 For Milch, storytelling (on television or elsewhere) lends to the telos of human existence as a “co-habitation in the Spirit,” which he (drawing from Kierkegaard) understands as coming to “rest transparently in the spirit that...

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