A Quavering Finale | Deadwood S1E12 | Dudes Daily
I feel a lot of ambivalence around this season finale. The resolutions to most of the running plots all work for me, especially Bullock's desire and aversion to becoming Sheriff and his relationship with Swearengen settling in. The plot with the Doc making Jewel's prosthetic and processing his Civil War trauma works better on paper than on the screen, though, where the camera can't help but hard-sell some schmaltz when it's on Jewel.
Unique among the episodes of this first season, several key dialogue scenes have the air of a stage play to them, which really didn't work for me. Something in the writing and the way the actors are being directed, I think. Bullock's monologues about who he is and wants to be, for example, land pretty weakly compared to Dan's simple "You oughta pin that [Sheriff's badge] on your chest. You're hypocrite enough to wear it."