Western have always been a popular stable of American culture, from pulp fiction stories, to films like The Searchers, the Man With No Name Trilogy, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Unforgiven and The Assassination of Jesse James. HBO has also produced some of the best television ever made, The Sopranos, Oz, Rome. Deadwood is a fine addition to that list.<br /><br />Set in the years 1876 to 1878, Deadwood is set in the town of Deadwood, South Dakota. Deadwood starts off as a small camp and slowly becomes a town through the course of the show. Deadwood is a growing town with gold prospers and becomes a area of interest for businesses, politicians and criminals. The show focuses on a number of characters, the town sheriff Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant), his deputy Sol Star (John Hawkes), salon owner Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) and prospector/mine owner Alma Garret (Molly Parker), as well as many key supporting characters throughout the series. The series focuses conflicts within the town. In the first series the main focus the conflict between Swearengen and Bullock over Garret's gold claim, one wants to protect her, the other wants to take it off her. The second is about Deadwood's attempt to become a part of South Deadwood and with outside interests wanting to take over people's gold claims from under them. The final series is about the conflict between Deadwood's citizens with the evil George Hearst (Gerald McRaney) who wants to take control of the town, using his thugs to gain it.<br /><br />The show is bold, focusing on themes about growth of law and order, the Untied States and Democracy in a small time. Deadwood and people change with the wider world. They are looks at industrialization process with minor themes about trade unionism, the growth of politics and the benefits and disadvantages of joining the union. The show also takes an new look of the west, it was not a glamorous world, but also looks at the influence of big business and not just individuals. The show looks at crime within the town, looking at drug dealing, prostitution, gambling and gang wars. This makes for interesting and entertaining viewing. This is a refreshing look at the west, almost like the Sopranos of the nineteenth century. There are subplots, from youth crime, to homosexuality to a very good one about a psychopathic serial killer. Deadwood is the closer America has come to making a costumer drama.<br /><br />The series has excellent characters and actors playing them. Swearengen is easily the best and Ian McShane made the role and Powers Boothe as his rival. There are good guest stars like Brain Cox who plays an over the top characters and Gerald McRaney as the quiet villain. I really like Garret Dillahunt as the villainous psycho. There are good supporting characters such as Mr. Wu, the leader of the Chinese and has some great comical moments with Swearengen and Joanne Stubbs, a prostitute who questions herself.<br /><br />The show is good for the most part but it is not perfect. The first is that in the show there are so many subplots that they end up unresolved and sometimes hard to follow. It takes away a compelling viewing. The second is the main character Bullock and the actor who plays him. The character is stiff and wooden compared to most of the other characters in the series and he is too righteous for his own good. He isn't interesting. Timothy Olyphant is a very wooden, a very dull actor. The character Alma also suffer from a similar problem, but Molly Parker is a pretty decent actress.