Entertainment

Extras go to heart of hit series

11:34 AM CDT on Friday, May 19, 2006

By TOM MAURSTAD / The Dallas Morning News

Deadwood's second season comes out on DVD not only just as its third season is about to start (firing up a little promotional synergy), but also as The Sopranos winds down. It's an irresistible intersection. The Sopranos is the most recent Greatest Show Ever on Television while Deadwood is the upstart rival for that title.

They have much in common. Both are period pieces set in communities both familiar and exotic: the Old West vs. contemporary New Jersey and 19th-century prospectors and prostitutes vs. 20th-century gangsters and strippers.

Both feature large casts of talented actors playing colorful characters; both offer unapologetically adult entertainment, which superficially means sex and violence but on a deeper level means a devotion to complexity and nuance.

And perhaps the most fundamental feature the two series share: Each is the creation of a writer and producer who honed his craft in network television. David Chase went on to The Sopranos and David Milch to Deadwood.

Though the depth and breadth of Mr. Milch's involvement in the day-to-day production of Deadwood is hardly a news flash to Deadwood fans, it is the most remarkable feature of this set.

For those unfamiliar with the series, it revolves around the characters of Deadwood, S.D., a frontier mining town that is filled with corruption and crime. For fans who have already seen the episodes, the best way to watch this collection is to start with the bonus features.

The documentary on "The Real Deadwood: 1877" is a great opener, providing the historical source of the fictional town. You gain an appreciation not just for the level of accuracy in the details (of dress, politics, commerce and so) but also for how true Deadwood is to the spirit and psyche of its time and place. It's an achievement of Mr. Milch's scholarship and his artistry.

You won't feel quite so silly using such puffed-up terms as "artistry" in reference to a TV show after watching the three sections of the "Making of Season Two Finale" feature, mainly because that's so plainly what Mr. Milch and his cast of collaborators are making: art. "Trusting the Process" should be required viewing not just for aspiring writers, but also for the aspiring executives who will one day be their bosses. At some point during the process of making this show, every rule about how to make a show is broken.

The scenes of writing sessions are fascinating: Mr. Milch lying or sitting on the floor, looking up at a big-screen terminal, reading and reciting lines of dialogue. He is surrounded by other writers, directors and actors. This is how he writes; he has transformed writing from a private act of loneliness and isolation to a public act of community and collaboration.

Along with "Mr. Wu Proves Out" and "Wedding Celebration," what this behind-the-scenes trilogy does is show us how things go from talking and writing to a scene on film. You watch and listen as Mr. Milch talks with the actors about a scene. That's intercut with an interview with one of the actors describing his thoughts and questions going into the scene and Mr. Milch giving his big-picture view about what underlying themes are being played out in the scene. And then you see the scene. It's like looking at a Magic Eye picture when you suddenly achieve that balance of focus and fuzziness and the picture within the picture finally pops into view.

Then, with your newly acquired magic eye, cue up season two's 12 episodes and watch. All sorts of little moments, images and expressions pop out that you hadn't noticed before or didn't fully appreciate. That television can be this good and rich and satisfying really is a kind of magic.

E-mail tmaurstad@dallasnews.com

Deadwood

Grade: A
The Complete Second Season. Starring Timothy Olyphant, Ian McShane, Molly Parker, John Hawkes, Anna Gunn, Brad Dourif and Robin Weigert. Unrated. 648 mins. plus extras. $99.98. In stores Tuesday.