Dead Wooden

Last season, Deadwood shone, thanks to complex plotlines and eloquently quaint dialogue. This year, though, David Milch has taken everything that made Deadwood distinctive and pushed it to the point of excess: plotlines that meander with inadequate resolution, dialogue that is so pointlessly turgid that it impedes the flow of the story, characterization that seems at times at odds with itself...

When I first heard that HBO wasn't renewing this series for a fourth season, I was aggravated and disappointed. Now, though, I suspect they watched some of the season three episodes and realized that the spark was gone.

I'll stick around for the remainder of the season--but bear in mind that I also watched Twin Peaks and X-Files until the very end, even though both of those were execrable in their final seasons. My viewing is sometimes driven as much by loyalty as it is by a quest for quality...