David Milch wrote DEADWOOD like nobody else writes anything: Dictated, open-source and interactive; just-in-time inventory created nearly on-the-spot so actors and crew could barely get it executed. Nearly everyone who can read has been subjected to lessons in civics and history in which glowing images of founding fathers and inspired visionaries brought forth upon this continent a new nation... <br /><br />I think DEADWOOD is an antidote for all manner of propaganda, because it was pointedly intended to illustrate the evolution of orderly society from anarchy. It might have been set 2000 years ago at the conclusion of Republican Rome, but HBO already had something similar scheduled. So Milch turned to a more contemporary point in time in which thousands of imaginations snapped toward The Black Hills, impassioned by an American Dream of personal wealth (The Golden Rule) and beat an amoral path to get (and keep) theirs' first, in yet another time of violent transition. Custer died the day the telephone was first publicly demonstrated. Odd. <br /><br />Ironically, the rule of gold and the search for color drew damaged, self-serving anarchists together in a bizarre perversion of selfishness that came to strongly resemble civic pride and benevolent altruism. At least, that's what DEADWOOD presents to me in the form of a truly fascinating entertainment that also unmakes the familiar, laconic Hollywood Western hero, who was the self-censored product of 30s Hollywood moguls' anticipatory auto-antisemitism. <br /><br />About a year ago, David Milch presented many of his DEADWOOD intentions to an audience at M.I.T., in the form of a riveting interview. More clearly than in two seasons of DVD commentaries, he justifies his use of profanity in the series, explains his resistance to modern settings, and places the responsibility for understanding the DEADWOOD phenomenon on the audience, because the networks can't be bothered to re-educate anybody. In This class, there will be no yawning. <br /><br />Please check it out. Just drop "Milch MIT" into a search engine, and you'll be streaming the 83minute free interview in no time.