Bleeping good

HBO’s new series “Deadwood” premieres 10-11 p.m. Sunday. Here are some excerpts from The Times’ review, which ran Monday.

The “uncouth varmints, dualist metaphysics, rampant harlotry, grimy yokels, hard times, hard drinking, Bible thumping and dirt, which graciously provided the color palette” of HBO’s “strained and portentous” misfire “Carnivale,” make a reappearance on “Deadwood.”

“Don’t be alarmed. ‘Deadwood’ may be a standard- issue Wild West creation story reenacting the original grudge match between good and evil, but the 12-episode drama takes place more than half a century before that other show ... but it feels much more up to date. In fact, disconcerting as this retro streak of HBO’s has been, ‘Deadwood’ is engrossing, refreshingly well written and oddly relevant.”

“The profanity in ‘Deadwood’ flows as naturally and freely as a mountain creek after a spring thaw. At first I found myself wondering, ‘Did the words bleep and bleepy and bleeping bleep- hole even exist in 1876?’ Of course they did. FCC Chairman Michael Powell is free to pretend that it’s dirty words that pose the greatest threat to our nation, but it’s good to know that people talked like truckers before trucks were even invented.”

-- Carina Chocano