Product Details

• Actors: Timothy Olyphant, Ian Mcshane, Molly Parker, Keith Carradine, Brad Dourif
• Producers: David Milch
• Format: AC-3, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed: French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 6
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: HBO Home Video
• DVD Release Date: May 23, 2006
• Run Time: 720 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (189 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000EULSR0
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,991 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #68 in Movies & TV > DVD > Westerns
• Learn more about "Deadwood: The Complete Second Season" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Deadwood: The Complete Second Season continues the Shakespearean brilliance of the landmark first season, created by NYPD Blue head writer David Milch. Milch either wrote or supervised the writing of each of the 12 episodes in this stunning follow-up, which contains more than a few surprises for anyone who thought they knew the myriad characters in the late 19th century town of Deadwood--a mucky, ungoverned, exceptionally violent development in South Dakota. As with the first season, Deadwood continues to be about many things--survival, loyalty, alliances, duty--but all of them are happening against a titanic battle between several parties to consolidate power and real wealth in the territory. Despite his cutthroat ethics, astonishing profanity, and bursts of cruelty, it's hard not to side in this bid for a piece of America's future with saloon owner Al Swearengen (a magnificent performance by Ian McShane), a visionary monster who is nevertheless more recognizably human than his rivals.

Entering an uneasy partnership with Al is Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant). Seth begins the second season by teaching Al a few lessons in chivalry, and their brief but bloody feud commences physical ailments for Al that become increasingly shocking to behold. Yet Al's difficulties have the practical effect of sidelining him for a couple of episodes while the story sets up more complex power struggles. Al takes on Deadwood's other saloon-brothel owner, the unstable Cy Tolliver (Powers Boothe), as well as an off-screen millionaire who is intent on owning all the gold-mining interests by buying out weary prospectors' claims. Meanwhile, Seth's wife and son (actually, his late brother's widow and child) arrive, an unsettling development for Seth's lover, the widow Alma Garret (Molly Parker), who soon reveals herself to be a more complicated person than in the first season. The prostitute Trixie (Paula Malcomson) begins thinking about her future and asserts independence from Al by having sex with Seth's friend, Sol Star (John Hawkes). Best of all, Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert) is back and more endearingly uncivilized than ever. Special features include actor commentaries on select episodes, the best of which finds Olyphant and McShane cracking each other up while watching the season premiere. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

1877. A new day is dawning in the Black Hills outlaw camp of Deadwood. For better or worse, times are changing, and the transformation from camp to town is imminent. Unsavory new arrivals - looking to cash in on the lucrative anarchy -- and a government of outsiders usher in an era of hard decisions and brutal power struggles among the camp's founders, all learning the hard way...fortune comes with a price.

DVD Features:
3D Animated Menus
Audio Commentary
Documentaries
Featurette
Photo gallery

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

108 of 121 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Even better than the first series March 9, 2006

By M. Packham

Format:DVD

Deadwood is perhaps the best show HBO has made, and that's saying something. There is no other TV show, barring perhaps 'The Wire', which is written with such a keen ear for dialogue and with such fleshed out characters. Season 2 is just as good, if not better, than the first series. It moves with slightly more pace and some of the more interesting characters, such as Cy Tolliver and Alma Garrett, are explored in greater depth. Tolliver - played by the incredible Powers Boothe - truly becomes a force to be reckoned with in this second series. The powerplays between him and Al Swearengen make for some of the most interesting television one could hope to see.

Among other things, we see in season two the return of Bullock's wife and son; the softer side of Al Swearengen; a sadistic geologist with a keen eye for gold; and blood-letting between Mr. Wu and a chinese rival from San Francisco. Throughout, we are treated to a healthy dose of Deadwood's trademark violence and profanity, the latter of which rolls of the tongue with surprising eloquence. Swearengen makes certain curse words sound as if they are as natural as 'if', 'and' or 'but'.

Ultimately, the most outstanding features of this series are the following:

1) Al Swearengen - again, as in the first series, Ian McShane is amazing.

2) Cy Tolliver - Powers Boothe devours every scene he's in.

3) Seth Bullock - Timothy Olyphant's sheriff walks the streets of Deadwood like a cauldron about to teem with furious anger. The addition of his wife and son, and his illicit affair with Alma Garrett, add further tension.

Pick up series two when it comes out. Strangely, it's already out here in Australia!

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Deadwood, Best on TV, Might be Killed by HBO's bizarre marketing May 14, 2006

By Paul D. Macneil

Format:DVD

First a review on the 2nd season of Deadwood, then my comments on the bizarre treatment of this show by HBO and possibly it's creator David Milch.

While the 1st season of Deadwood was almost unwatchable to some due to the constant profanity, it was hands-down in my opinion the best show on T.V. in gritty realism, set-design, writing, acting and re-watchability. You could watch the same episode for the 4th time and still catch something new. The dialogue was brilliant.

The 2nd season was just as compelling as the first (although a tad weaker) and it brought character development to a new height, introduced some brilliant new characters, and never lost its stride. Again highly re-watchable which makes it a nice DVD to own.

Now on to the strange behavior of HBO and David Milch. I just read that HBO released the contracts on the cast members of Deadwood allowing them to pursue other projects and hints at the fact that Deadwood may be dead no 4th season. Also, in the same news story it hinted at a new HBO series by David Milch about surfing culture. In addition, was I the only one who seemed to notice that HBO was ignoring Deadwood earlier this year in the news, on its website, and even within its marketing deparment. I mean The first trailer for season 3 appeared only last week! On top of all that, everyone knows that Summer is the Television graveyard and even though Big Love needed a strong kickoff behind Saprano's, exiling Deadwood to June makes me question HBO's sanity. To sum it all up, when after Saprano's sleeps with the fishes next year, Deadwood will be its highest rated show and HBO and Milch may cancel it.

Has HBO lost its mind? Has Milch lost interest in 1870's South Dakota? IS this all a marketing ploy? Am I being paranoid?

I was the first in line to send feedback to HBO stating SAVE DEADWOOD! Lets hope I'm not the only one.

47 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A few more clarifications about the show April 10, 2006

By MaceQuantex

Format:DVD

As with my review of the first season (which can be seen by clicking "See all my reviews" directly above this) I'm not going to comment on the acting, the story or anything of that sort. Again, I gave it a five star rating, and that should imply my opinion well enough.

This time around I want to comment on the delay of the DVD release and the price of the set.

The delay, while unfortunate, is actually a good thing. The third season of Deadwood was originally set to air concurrently with the sixth season of The Sopranos. However, after HBO executives saw the first half of the third season, they felt the show had sufficient strength to not need to piggyback on the ratings of The Sopranos. So Deadwood and Big Love switched time slots, with Deadwood moving to this summer. So Deadwood is no longer The Sopranos' little brother. This shows the confidence that HBO has in the show, and that means the show isn't going away any time soon.

As for the price of the set, keep in mind that HBO is a subscription based network -- meaning they don't make any money from advertising or product placement, which is what pays for most programming on network television (thus the need to charge more than other networks for the DVD releases of their shows).

HBO has something like 25-50 million subscribers, I believe, so most of the country hasn't seen a single episode of the season when it comes out on DVD. Compare that to shows like Law & Order, 24, and Desperate Housewives which are free to anyone with a TV, so anyone interested in those shows has probably already seen at least half of the season by the time the DVD comes out.

I don't know specific numbers for Deadwood, or any of the other shows that I mentioned, but I do know that HBO spent approximately $4 million per episode of Carnivale, which, while a great show, never had anywhere near the popularity that Deadwood has.

So, yes, the set costs a bit of money. And, yes, we did have to wait a little longer for the set than most of us would have liked. But any comments about greed are unfounded.