Deadwood

HBO’s Deadwood is the creation of NYPD Blue producer David Milch, and its unique setting is untouchable by absolutely anything else on TV. Deadwood is a town in the quasi-historical world of the Black Hills region of 1876 South Dakota, where prospectors, adventurers and entrepreneurs have set up a lawless community in the middle of Indian territory. The “original sin” of desecrating this literal promised land spirals into an unstable netherworld, boiling over with gold-diggers, thieves, murderers and prostitutes. Smoldering hottie Timothy Olyphant plays the righteous and quick-tempered ex-lawman Seth Bullock, who’s in town to make an honest living running a hardware store, and “Machiavellian” saloon owner Al Swearengen (a greasy Ian McShane)—who’d just as soon feed you to the carnivorous pigs as cheat you out of your gold claim—will stop at nothing to make sure nothing “honest” ever goes down in his town. A cast of flamboyant characters, including Wild Bill Hickok (Keith Carradine) and Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert), make up a colorful and lively world where anything can happen. Which is precisely why it’s so much fun to watch.