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For the past week or so I have been spending quite a bit of time with HBO's Deadwood. And not just watching it either...many is the night I browse through Wikipedia on my phone when I should be asleep. When was the last time a television show made you investigate things further? Instead of sleeping I am clicking through links on Wild Bill and Calamity Jane. How did this happen?

One thing that Deadwood does better than most is offering rounded characters. Forget rounded...these folks are in 3D and Smell-a-Vision. It is a "root for the bad guys" good time, full of swearing and sex and drinking whiskey straight from the bottle. I love every single person on screen, precisely because they are warts-and-all monsters.

I am also a sucker for the myth of the Old West, where men could make it on their own and all that "possibilities of the frontier" bullshit. Deadwood does not sugar coat the fact that these were hard times, and especially hard if you weren't a white man. This kind of historical, Howard Zinn-like honesty about the past is refreshing when so many other shows try their hand at revisionist history. This was an ugly time, and people did evil things, and the writers don't apologize for it.

Much has been said about the use of profanity on the show, especially how the word "fuck" is used in it's extreme. Initially it does feel out of place...much more Lebowski-esque language than what you would have actually heard in the Dakota Territory in the 1870s. But the producers claim, and I agree, that the important thing to express is the coarse nature of their words, and that the swears of yesteryear wouldn't make much sense to us today. But it would be remiss to only focus on the naughty words and ignore all the other fun the writers have with language. Deadwood reaches new heights when it stresses the social obligations and laundry list of manners that the Victorian Era dictated, all couched in beautiful turns of phrase. The contradictions of a colonial culture obsessed with outward manifestations of dignity amidst the lawlessness of the American West are summed in characters like E.B. Farnum, the dimwitted innkeeper and ad hoc mayor, who desperately tries to straddle these disparate worlds with a vocabulary that is firmly rooted in both.

And for a show that focuses on the evil that man can do when gold and lust combine one thing you don't see a lot of is lying. Characters on Deadwood tell the truth and they tell it to your face. Sure there are plots and schemes. The real drama though is not based in the tension of revealed deceptions, but in the boldness of standing in the open. We don't get that enough, and this nobility in honesty endears us to even the most despicable characters. And despite its brutality, and occasionally because of it, Deadwood is an incredibly funny show.

The complete series box set is an attractive package that is worth adding to the serious TV-ophile's DVD collection. At least rob the torrent...that would make an old evil bastard like Swearengen happy.

Mad Men continues to be the absolute best drama on television. Nothing else even comes close. Sure the acting is superb, the art direction is out of this world, and the whole notion of exploring modern life by going back to a "simpler time" is pure genius...but what really stands out for me is the patience and restraint this show continues to exude.

Case in point is episode 6 of season 3, which premiered on Sunday. There was an instance where the story, in the hands of lesser TV producers, would have taken the most obvious turn. There are a few spoilers ahead, so if you aren't caught up ye be warned.

So the British owners of Sterling Cooper are in for a visit, and after a major shake up of upper management (love it when the show centers on the office machinations), they throw an office party for the staff to mark the transition, and to send off Joan Holloway Harris on her last day on the job. The usual drinking and grab ass ensues (much like the election episode). The frivolity culminates in a scene where a John Deere lawnmower is being driven through the office by a secretary, who loses control and runs over one of the Brit's feet. Blood splatters everywhere and the tractor ends up taking out a frosted glass wall. It is a very visceral scene that within the context of a normally quiet show shocks the shit out of you. It reminded me of the episode when Betty pulls out the old shotgun and shoots the neighbor's bird, leaving you to exclaim "Where the hell did that come from!"

So after this very un-Mad Men like moment we have an amazing scene in the hospital waiting room where Don Draper and Joan are talking about the accident. Both have had quiet a day. Don has been passed up for a promotion, and Joan's husband has been passed up for his residency at the hospital. For a brief second you think they might take solace in their shared misery and duck into the janitor's closet for a quickie and a smoke. Afterall this is Don and Joan, the two hottest pieces of ass on the show! Our baser instincts would love to see them go at it! But no...the producers instead give us a tender moment that is based in mututal affection, not simmering sexual tension. As Joan leaves (possibly forever) she gives Don a kiss on the cheek. There is no sex, yet somehow we are just as satisfied. OK, maybe not just as satisfied...but that restraint shows Mad Men's true genius. It is about patience and leaving us wanting more. The slow smolder burns hotter than the flash in the pan, and no other show does it better.