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Two Ehs

I occasionally swap DVDs with a friend, and for our last exchange I received the movie follow-up to Deadwood and a mini-series called The Outsider. Since neither one dazzled me I thought I'd kill two ehs with one post.

I did like the original Deadwood cable series. It had far too much profanity and violence for me to love it, but most of the characters were excellent, the casting was inspired, the attention to detail with costumes and sets absolutely stellar -- plus it only lasted three seasons. Sometimes enough is enough.

Deadwood the movie takes place ten years after season three. It's mostly fanservice and nostalgia, and the plot is almost non-existant. I also think they aged some of the characters too much (Bullock looks like a senior citizen) and some not enough (Jane barely changed, and frankly she should be dead from all the nonstop drinking.) I liked the movie because it did provide some closure -- I liked how things wrapped up with Trixie and Seth -- but not enough to justify a movie. So eh.

The Outsider was based on a Stephen King novel, and really was just a dull, uninspired reimagining of It. I could not believe how ordinary and boring they tried to make everything look -- the cast, the settings, the pacing, the dialogue, the conflict -- it was blandfest. And slooooooow -- holy cow, I nearly nodded off every five seconds. I suppose all this was an artistic choice to make the series seem exactly as it would happen in real life -- only nobody lives like that. At the end, when the usual implausible King protagonist "We Must Kill It" shenanigans ensue, somehow they even made that seem tedious. There are multiple stories within the stories in the usual King droste effect style, and a few interesting characters (Holly and her guy, and the defense attorney) but otherwise, eh.

As a result I cannot recommend either, but if you're a masochist and want the DVDs, give me a yell in comments and I'll pass them along to you.

Comments

nightsmusic said…
I watched the first episode of Deadwood and that was it for me. I've never heard of the Outsiders. Thanks for taking one for the team ;)

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