Tuned In

I Am Cancelled, Butchie, Instead. More Deadwood, or Something Else?

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You no longer need to keep 9/11/14 cleared on your calendar; HBO has cancelled John from Cincinnati.

The question, as asked in the comments here and elsewhere, is whether this now means we get those oft-promised two wrapup movies for Deadwood. (To anticipate: forget seeing the whole series again. People have moved on.) As of this summer, HBO and David Milch were hedging on the possibility, which they set at 50-50. This decision certainly frees him up in one sense, but, under his development deal with HBO, he already has other, unnamed projects in the works.

This is flame-bait, I know, but I’d rather see a new Milch series sooner than the Deadwood movies. I loved Deadwood; it was the best Western made for TV and one of the best dramas, period. But that horse has left the barn. I’d like to see the movies, all things being equal, but I doubt they’d be nearly as satisfying as a full season would have been. And all things rarely are equal, so given the choice, I want to see HBO, or someone like them, give writers like Milch as many swings at making new series as they’d like. Sometimes you’ll get a Deadwood; sometimes you’ll get JFC; and sometimes you’ll get your heart broken. But Milch is a creator, creators create, and I don’t want to wait to see what he creates next.