A teeming Shakespearean epic of gold and mud, Deadwood used a South Dakota gold rush as a microcosm of the creation of civilization. This brutal and poetic Western was not just about imposing law on lawlessness and civilization on wilderness. It was about the free-for-all in which powerful interests sought to shape the law, and the still-forming territory, to their advantage — while less powerful men (and a few women) scrambled to find their place. David Milch created a language of elegant force and, in Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), a singularly memorable antihero trying to carve out his piece (and carrying a knife fitted to the task).