The English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix that this set contains sounds stunning right from the opening chords of the series' song which plays over the credits of each episode. Surround channels are used throughout the series to build atmosphere by spreading out the effects and score perfectly. Directionality is spot on, with plenty of left to right and front to back movement noticeable when the series calls for it. Ambient and background noise is very crisp detailed, so you'll pick up on not only background character voices but more subtle effects like animals in the background of certain scenes. Dialogue is very natural sounding, with Swearengen's booming voice has all the weight and power behind it that it should, while meeker characters are still easy to understand without having their dialogue pumped up at all. The more action intensive scenes benefit from strong and full bass, making each gunshot resonate properly while the thundering hoof beats of horses sound just as impressive. This series sounds pretty much perfect on Blu-ray, it's difficult to imagine anyone complaining about the work done here. Optional subtitles are offered in English and Spanish.

Extras:

HBO has carried over everything that was included in the standard definition releases, and for the unfamiliar, well, that's a whole lot of supplemental goodness to dig through. Let's start with the commentary tracks, which are spread over the first twelve discs in this thirteen disc set. Here's what you'll get and who will give it to you:

Disc One:
Deadwood: with series creator David Milch.
Here Was A Man: with actors Keith Carradine and Molly Parker.
Disc Two:
The Trial Of Jack McCall with actors Brad Dourif and Robin Weigert.
Disc Three:
Sold Under Sin with actors Ian McShane and Timothy Olyphant.
Disc Five:
A Lie Agreed Upon: with actresses Molly Parker and Anna Gun.
A Lie Agreed Upon: with actors Ian McShane and Timothy Olyphant.
New Money: with David Milch.
Disc Six:
Complications: with executive producer and director Gregg Fienberg.
E.B. Was Left Out: with actors Kim Dickens, William Sanderson and Dayton Callie.
E.B. Was Left Out: with actors Powers Boothe and Garret Dillahunt.
Disc Seven:
Advances, None Miraculous: with actors John Hawkes and Paula Malcomson.
The Whores Can Come: with Timothy Olyphant and Anna Gunn.
The Whores Can Come: with Ian McShane and Paula Malcomson.
Disc Nine:
Tell Your God to Ready for Blood with Gregg Fienberg and co-executive producer Mark Tinker.
Disc Ten:
A Two-Headed Beast with actors Jim Beaver, Sean Bridgers and W. Earl Brown.
Disc Eleven:
Amateur Night with Robin Weigert.
Tell Him Something Pretty with David Milch.

All told, this amounts to approximately seventeen hours worth of commentary tracks to go through, and as you could probably imagine, these tracks cover a lot of ground. While not every track is as consistently enthralling as the next, more often than not these discussions are quite solid and pretty revealing. The highlights are Milch's tracks, which really let us into his creative process and get into the nitty-gritty of what he was trying to accomplish with this series and how he tried to accomplish it, but the cast tracks are excellent as well. Olyphant and McShane's discussion over top of A Lie Agreed Upon is probably the best commentary in the whole set, as it finds that perfect balance of humor and insight and allows us to get a feel for what the two principal players were going through with this series and their work on it. The producers' tracks let us in on some of the behind the scenes activity while the other cast commentaries elaborate on everything from on-set camaraderie to character development, scripting, production values and pretty much everything else you'd expect to be covered.

From there we move on to the video features for season one, starting with the featurettes found on disc four which kick off with Making Deadwood: The Show Behind The Show which is a fourteen minute documentary that allows the cast and crew of the show to talk about their characters, their historical counterparts, and production details such as scripting, sets, costumes and what not. It's a solid, if fairly standard, look at the creation of the first season. More interesting is The Real Deadwood, a twenty-six minute documentary that provides a fascinating look at the history of colonizing the Black Hills area in South Dakota where the camp was based. Historians from different areas provide plenty of background information and we get a very revealing look at the actual people who lived there during this time and who in turn inspired the show. The New Language Of The Old West is a half hour long featurette in which series creator David Milch discusses the writing of the show with actor Keith Carradine, covering the language used in the show as well as the recurring themes that are explored and how the writing crew tried to create a unique and original atmosphere in a very familiar setting. The last extra on disc four is An Imaginative Reality which is a continuation of the discussion between Milch and Carradine that covers the differences between the historical Deadwood and the fictional one, why certain changes were made, and why certain aspects were kept more true to life.

Video extras for season two are found on disc eight and start off with The Real Deadwood: 1877, a twenty-one minute follow up to the similar feature from the first season in which historians galore discuss the historical accuracies of the series when compared to recorded documents from the time. This time around, it's season specific, so it covers material as it relates to the second season and once again it is a thoroughly engaging and very enjoyable look at how truth does really tend to be stranger than fiction. From there, check out the seventy-one minute three part documentary, The Making Of Episode Twelve which introduces us to David Milch's creative process and takes us through how the series is written before then showing us how this specific episode works in so many of the series' ongoing subplots. From there we explore some of the different characters that play an important part in that particular episode and then proceed to elaborate on some of its recurring themes. Cast and crew interviews are scattered throughout as is some interesting on set footage that gives us a look at the set and production design and this is, like most of the extras in this set, a really well put together piece that really lets you appreciate all the effort that went into the series. Closing out the extras for season two is Deadwood Daguerreotypes , an interesting still gallery that showcases pictures of the cast in character with available archival photographs of their real life counterparts.

The extras for the third season are found on disc twelve and start off with a twenty minute piece called Deadwood Matures which takes a look at what happened when the results of the 1877 elections came into play and how they affected the town and its populace. Many of the same historians we've seen in some of the other featurettes appear here and offer some valuable input as they examine how Deadwood transformed from a camp into a town. The Education Of Swearengen And Bullock is twenty minutes of cast and crew interviews edited into clips from the series to show how the relationship between the town's two main players evolved over the span of the series. Rounding out the extras on disc twelve is another interesting Deadwood Daguerreotypes piece contrasting the in-costume actors with their real life versions.

There's also a thirteenth disc in the set that includes some other interesting extra features, starting with a twenty three minute piece called The Meaning Of Endings in which series creator David Milch speaks with surprising honesty about how the show was brought to an end in its third season and how the plans for a fourth season and a pair of feature films were never followed up on. Obviously not particularly happy about all of this, Milch discusses where he would have taken the series and the characters and how he would have liked to finish things. This results in a very bittersweet featurette -obviously what we got with the three seasons of the show was great, but it evidently could have been quite a bit more had it been given the chance. The Real Deadwood: Out Of The Ashes is a half hour featurette with the same group of historians who have been used throughout the set to provide a look at the real history of the camp and its evolution, and this last piece with them focuses on how the camp became the town with a look at the evolution of the fire department and why that was so important. Like the rest of the featurettes with the historians, it's very interesting stuff. The Q&A With The Cast And Creative Team is a sixty-five minute discussion recorded in 2005 and moderated by Variety's Brian Lowry in which most of the principal cast and crew members talk about their experiences on the show, the themes it deals with and the characters who populate it. There's a fair bit of overlap between this featurette and some of the other ones but it's still interesting enough to check it. It's also the only featurette in the entire set that's in standard definition, the rest are in HD. Rounding out the extras on the thirteenth disc are the eight minute Deadwood 360° Tour in which Milch talks to us about the sets as does designer Maria Caso, and the ten minute Al Swearengen Audition Reel where comedian Titus Welliver does a quick one man show impersonating celebrities like Pacino and DeNiro as if they were auditioning for Ian McShane's role.

All thirteen discs are housed inside a slick, full color hardcover book containing some nice graphical representations of the different characters from the show. It, in turn, fits inside a classy, sturdy slipcase. It might be a little thing to some people, but it's definitely a classy and appropriate packaging style.

Final Thoughts:

A riveting work of gritty cinematic poetry, Deadwood may not have lasted as long as it should have but it nevertheless remains one of the best television series of the last two decades. Rich with fascinating characters, set in an interesting time and in an equally interesting place, the show is expertly acted, beautifully shot, sharply paced and incredibly well written. Profane? Absofuckinglutely but it's all the better for it. HBO's Blu-ray release of all thirty-six episodes is a true thing of beauty, from the excellent transfers to the perfect audio, it treats the series with the respect it deserves by carrying over all of the engrossing and thoroughly fascinating supplemental material that the standard definition releases had and giving them a welcome high definition boost in quality. Despite the high price tag, Deadwood: The Complete Series is entirely deserving of the DVD Talk Collector's Series stamp.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.