NYP TV WEEK • REALLY BIG SHOW Cowboys, Sopranos-style By MICHAEL GILTZ IF '00 were wondering how HDO was going to gel a big bang now that "Sex and the City,· has put the Manolos away and "The Sopranos" is eyeing the I1nish line. think ODe word: "Deadwood." A Western sffrin lheDal<otas during the 18705. "Deadwood" re1magines the TV western a a bloody, dusry, ioul-mouthed u<iiverse .</p><p> There's no Matt Dillon or Miss Kitty.</p><p> The cowboys curse, lhe whores are . nliSty and th~ series' violence would make ~"en Tony Soprllno flinch.</p><p> In the rradition of the HBO prison show, "Ox .. "Deadwood" also has male frontal nudit)..</p><p> One of t~e besr ~hings about lttis gritty drama IS us sterling Ca5t: Keilh Carra· dine, Powers Boorhe, Brad Dourif.</p><p> Ricky Jay, Molly Parker and B terrific lead in Timothy Olyphant.</p><p> The creative force behind the show is DliVid Milch. co-crealor of "HID Streel Blues," who immcr3ed himself in period Research, which accounts for [he series' coarse lan~age.</p><p> Atcording to 1\1llch, it's all aurbennc and essential. "The languag~ seemed to me so much of the essence of thai world," says Milch. "/ spent an awful lot of lime al the Living Memory Projecl at the library of Con gress.</p><p> There wasn't anybody who writes ab, ur tbat setdemenr who doesn't say you just couldn't bear to listen 10 -people talk -the unrelieved Ob5Cenlty imposed irself so strikingly On everybody." The cursing is so constant thai it threat ens to overshad ow the fact that Milch has created a gripping drama.</p><p> While Milch is aware that "historically accurate" can be boring, he's marlaged to populate this town with I1gures ',,,ho lived at the time -great, familiar characters such as Wild Bill Hickok (a magnetic Carradine) and Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert).</p><p> Milch's Old West doesn't include Indi ans at first. "Two weeks berol'e [h~ fse ries) begin ," M.llluins Milch, "CU3tcr had his batt I. alllnie Big Hnm.</p><p> In the after math, Crarl' Horse wem west and Strtin2 Bull went to Canada.</p><p> So JUSt at the point when the lerror about the Indians was at Its hdg-ht, the maron had all pliL" The initial 12 episode of "Deadwood" were filme~ in California on a set produc ers took ptilIl5 iO make as accurate as pos SIble.</p><p> For h'Phant, who plays the re31- life lawman. eth BulIo~k, the accuracy W~:i tmpreSSlve -In th~ ir ErS! meeting, Milth told him what would be happening to hIS cnaracrcr three or four SCasons down the rood -hm am as imporlant as finding our wbat .Bullock would be like. "I read a bio~"ph1 written by a nephe:" of fB.ullock's) that was really gUile lOfonnatlve," mys Ihe 35-year-old OlypbaD!. "He's a very familiar, iconic characler bur ~t (he same lime, he's not.</p><p> The amount of ra~ that's on the surface the amount oj vul"nerabiliry -( don't re~ member see ins: John Wayne crying." Olyphant was the first actor cast in the series and, after years of knocking about about in Hollywood in search of a career (his I11ms include "Scream II"), he's clearly found the role of a lifetime. ,,( commJued 10 tbis he~llU3e oi ju tone episode," says Ol),phant, who knew of ~Wcl,'s reput,1t10n but, as a non-TV watcher, hadn't aCluallv seen his work, ''1 thought, 'This is fant.asi:icl' And If 11 were a t1Im, I'd be behlnd ~ long u<;[ "r guy. trying to get a hold of iIlis pan." .</p><p> Well. this time, Olyphanl didn't have to gel in line behind the Pitt;, Damons and Depps of the worid. "I didn't know Timo thy at all," savs Milch. ~h(] adds that, to gether, they decided to -pu h rhe bounda ries or' \\,11.1 a 1a\'-nl2!1 in the West would be lil,i:. '"Tim<lthy wal> a litrl<! provlsiOIwl with hi, performance in the beginning.</p><p> It really encouraged me [0 make mucb oj hi, emol ional apprenriceship [Q Hickok:' [lLSt as "Deadwo d" will evolve O\'e1' the seasons from a lawless spot to a town that had telephones eve'n before San Francisco, Bullock shows the transition of the gunman from a \"igilante figure of jus· tice to a citizen with, as Hickok puts it, "an active conscien ce." "Bullock is the apostolic successor to the gunfighter," says Milch. "He was a more responsible figure." Deadwood Sunday. 10 p,m., HBO
