chelseagirl

. . . and I am feeling bereft that there is no more.

Except that as of July of this year, David Milch had turned in a movie script to HBO that everyone is happy with. The question now is getting the principal actors available. Ian McShane has American Gods, of course, but that's a "cast of thousands" kind of series so maybe they can work around his shooting schedule. Timothy Olyphant has to be a lot more available while he's got Santa Clarita Diet than he did when he had Justified, so that could be workable. And Kim Dickens has Fear the walking Dead, which could be difficult, but Joanie's part could be more of a cameo, if necessary. I understand that John Hawkes mostly writes and plays music these days, and other people are clearly working but not necessarily at the moment (Robin Weigert is unlikely to be back in s. 2 of Jessica Jones, Breaking Bad is done which is only thing I've seen Anna Gunn in since Deadwood, and Molly Parker's character arc was done in House of Cards, as of last I watched -- I could not bear to watch the new season under current Real Life politics, because the Underhills being preferable to real life is too depressing. I have no idea if Jim Beaver is still on Supernatural, but alas, Ellsworth wouldn't be joining us, anyway).

I hope at the very least, if it doesn't get made, they publish it or do a novelization or something.

However -- the ending is not the one I remembered. *DO I NEED TO INDICATE SPOILERS FOR A SERIES THAT ENDED A DECADE AGO?* I honestly remembered it ending when Hearst's men rode into town. It's not that I didn't see it, because I recalled the scene leading up to Ellsworth's death very clearly -- his talking through his feelings to that cute little dog, and how his overscrupulosity leads to the wrong results. And that takes place several episodes later than the scene I misremembered as last.

But . . . I just read an interview with Ian McShane, I think from when the first John Wick movie came out, where he said that he'd recently seen the last episode over again in a hotel room and that he thought it was actually quite an appropriate place to end it. And now I agree. Because it ends with him scrubbing Jen's blood off his office floor. And the whole thing where he sacrifices Jen to placate Hearst and to save Trixie (who is actually the one whose death Hearst is insisting on, since she shot him) -- omg, and this is where we remember that David Milch had taught English at Yale way back when. Because there is so much mythology happening here. First of all, sacrificing the less-loved "child" (Jen) to preserve the life of the beloved one (Trixie). Second, I know Trixie opened her blouse to distract Hearst while she shot him, but the notion of a bare-breasted avenger also seems artists-depicting-ancient-Greece, if not accurate in and of itself. And third, I was thinking of Iphigenia, and then it occurred to me . . . Jen is never referred to as Jennifer or Jenny, always Jen and . . . IphiGENia . . . So there's a whole thing about Al's hubris in this case, and the scrubbing of the blood echoes Lady Macbeth and now I might argue there's even more intertextual mythological resonance with Ian McShane himself playing Mr. Wednesday (= Wotan = Odin) in American Gods.

Al's people have been so loyal to him, Dan, Johnny & Adams as well as Trixie in particular. But Johnny clearly had feelings for Jen, and this is the unforgivable thing. So much hubris.

I do have a collection of academic essays on Deadwood, but it was published before season 3 aired. I wonder if anyone's written on this. Will have to explore . . .