YMMV / Deadwood

• Anti-Climax Boss: In season 2, Mr. Lee and his brutal tong organization get wiped out in one night by Mr. Wu with Al's men, with Lee himself getting his throat cut while nodding off on opium without even getting a chance to fight.
• Awesome Music: The opening theme song has a suitable Western feel that alternates in mood throughout. Each episode also ends with a unique musical selection, which ranges from hidden gems to big stars like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.
• Badass Decay: Swearengen and Bullock are built up as ruthless, pragmatic, and proactive men who are willing (albeit sometimes reluctantly on Bullock's part) to Shoot the Dog if necessary. Then Hearst shows up, and their big plan to deal with him? Write a Strongly Worded Letter to the editor about his labor practices and then wait until his boot is on their throats before sending someone to a neighboring town to see about maybe hiring some guns.
• Catharsis Factor: The Movie serves as this for fans, with many characters getting a satisfactory ending. Sol and Trixie get married in the Gem surrounded by all their friends and Al gets to die gracefully with Trixie and Jewel by his side. Perhaps best of all, the impossibly smug Hearst gets long-awaited karmic retribution for all his vile deeds with seemingly the town itself coming to life to beat him down: his arrogance allows him to be exposed by Bullock, humiliated by Merrick, called out by Jane and beaten to within an inch of his life by an angry mob who utter reject his way of the future talk; the fear in his eyes as the mob gathers is something to behold in someone so smug, and then he's tossed in jail by the ear just as Bullock did many years ago. As an extra cherry on top, a member of the mob is a cameo by Garrett Dillahunt, allowing Wolcott to posthumously take revenge for being used to death by Hearst.
• Complete Monster:
  • George Hearst is presented as as Corrupt Corporate Executive who slaughtered the Cornish workers in his employ for unionizing; cut off Albert "Al" Swearengen's finger as a show of power; and attempted to have Captain Turner kill Dan Dority in a public street fight that is long and drawn out, both to emotionally torture Al and demonstrate that Hearst holds all the power in town. Hearst also hires an army of Pinkertons to terrorize the town, and sends Odell Marchbanks on a dangerous quest to find gold which ends up getting him killed. Hearst has the head Pinkerton Barrett savagely beat Merrick in response to posting a notice about the poor working conditions of Hearst's employ. Hearst then orders the death of heroic prospector Whitney Ellsworth to force Ellsworth's wife to sell the land Hearst wants to him. To demonstrate his power, Hearst also forces Al to murder his favorite prostitute for trying to assassinate Hearst. It's implied he may know Al killed a lookalike girl, but simply doesn't care, more than happy he broke Al completely.
  • Season 2: Mr. Lee is a Chinese Tong boss from San Francisco, allied with George Hearst to profit by spreading opium through Deadwood. Lee's main vocation is prostitution, with Chinese women trafficked into Deadwood to serve as prostitutes in such horrific, painful conditions that even Doc Cochran is left in open-mouthed horror. Lee intends on seizing control of all the Chinese quarter, with the girls forced to work as sex slaves until they die of the terrible treatment.
• Creator's Pet: The theatre troupe in general in season 3 come off this way due to the time we spend on them in spite of their lack of relevance to the larger plot. They were supposed to have more impact in season 4, but the show got canceled, so they end up serving no larger point.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Mr. Wu goes to Al's office to demand (in his broken and extremely limited English) that he do something against his rival, Mr. Lee. Al says that he will meet him "to see how much juice [Lee]'s got behind him". Wu is confused and asks "Jews?" while mimicking a bunch of coins in his hands. Al negates. Wu gets up from his seat then, moves to the window, points to Sol Star's shop, pretends to have a big nose, and asks again: "Jews?"
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Mr. Wu, due to his many comedic moments, his strange bond with Al, the subtle character work that makes him a clear counterpart to Al who likely has a whole show of material happening off-screen, and Keone Young's engaging performance.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Reverend Smith's slow degeneration from a brain tumor is even harder to watch given David Milch's own affliction with Alzheimer's Disease while writing the finale movie.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Santa Clarita Diet provides the knockdown, drag-out brawl between Timothy Olyphant and Gerald McRaney that we were denied in this show.
  • Bullock is quite concerned with getting his hat back after his brawl with Al, much like a certain later Timothy Olyphant character would be.
  • As unlikely as it seemed at the time, this would actually be one of the healthier marriages in Anna Gunn's career.
• Magnificent Bastard: Albert "Al" Swearengen is a respected and feared member of the Deadwood community. The owner of the Gem saloon, Al has been hardened by a rough and brutal life into general misanthropy. Murdering one potential issue, Al disposes of him with the help of Chinese boss Mr. Wu and arranges for the massacre of a prospector family, averting suspicion by blaming the Natives and by offering discounts on alcohol and prostitutes to keep the townspeople sated. Playing in politics to enrich himself and increase his fortunes, Al winds up helping to resist the ruthless George Hearst, forced to kill an innocent prostitute when his own beloved Trixie shoots Hearst and Hearst demands Trixie's death. Years later, a terminally ill Al arranges for Trixie's final happiness and helps to ensure Deadwood's prosperity, meeting his end with dignity and a final private blasphemy.
• Memetic Mutation: White COKSOCKA!
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Doc Cochran helps Al pass several kidney stones by inserting a large metal spike into his urethra — while he's awake. This procedure causes so much pain that Dan has to keep administering smelling salts to prevent Al from passing out.
  • The fight between Dan and Captain Turner. Even besides the famously horrifying conclusion, it's one of the least "glamorized" fights in any medium: just two men using every ounce of strength they have to overcome the other, because anything less means death. It's not surprising that Dan's recovery from it amounts to sitting alone in a room, weeping.
• One-Scene Wonder: Peter Coyote rolled into Deadwood, was a badass, told Smug Snake Cy Tolliver that he'd have him hanged if he could, gave Bullock the final push needed for him to become Sheriff, and rolled out leaving a trail of Badassery in his wake. In one episode. Plus he gives a hell of a speech and, when Merrick asks him to listen to his notes on that speech, utters what most of Deadwood must have thought at one time or another: "Oh God!"
• Retroactive Recognition: One of the first onscreen roles for Kristen Bell.
• Rooting for the Empire: Until Hearst shows up as the Big Bad, the rather wooden goodie sheriff Bullock doesn't hold a candle to the criminally magnificent Swearengen. Not a literal rooting as his early deeds are despicable enough, nevertheless Ian McShane's role is widely considered the most memorable character of the show.
• Squick:
  • Doc Cochrane pushing a needle through a head wound in the first episode.
  • Also, the Eye Scream moment when Dan seals Captain Turner's fate.
• Tough Act to Follow: The series achieved a lot of cultural saturation in spite of not being a ratings powerhouse. Neither of David Milch's follow-up series, John from Cincinnati and Luck, made it to a second season.^note Though to be fair, Luck, a series set in the world of horse racing, was initially renewed but later canceled due to concerns for the safety of the horses used in production, three of which died during filming.
• Trapped by Mountain Lions: The theater troupe in season 3. Maybe they would have had some kind of payoff if the show had continued, but as it is they just feel like a big waste of time in the final season.
• Vindicated by History: HBO was proud of the series, but low ratings versus too high a budget forced them to cancel it after the third season. With heavy promotion in the DVD market, audience acclaim has skyrocketed.
• The Woobie:
  • Reverend Smith. No one takes him seriously from the start, but at least he has God - then it's suggested that his intense feeling of being loved by God is a symptom of the brain tumour that's causing his fits. Then his body starts falling apart and he starts to hallucinate.
  • Alma Garret for her Cartwright Curse.
  • Whitney Ellsworth.
  • Joanie. First Cy makes her shoot a young girl on the face, then her attempt to start her own business far from him is ruined by a Serial Killer.

---