I am – Hercules!!

I do hope “Deadwood” crushes the life out of ABC’s infuriatingly bland “Desperate Housewives,” but somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen.

My only wish for “Deadwood” this season is that it manages to work in the word “cocksucker” a little more often. I seriously doubt the real residents of Deadwood managed the kind of linguistic restraint demonstrated last season.

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… TV's grittiest and, arguably, most fascinating Western. … As it starts a second season of 12 episodes, Deadwood remains a place so dangerous and yet so rife with possibilities that neither the characters nor the viewers can let down their guard for even an instant. …

Variety says:

… stands as one of HBO's most fully realized dramas since "The Sopranos" and exhibits no signs of fading in the second leg of its run. … Season two begins on an engrossing note, centering on a conflict between the show's twin titans, Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant), the taciturn former sheriff thrust again into that role; and Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), the amoral saloonkeeper, who this year delivers a second speech while receiving oral sex, which must be some kind of TV record. …

Entertainment Weekly gives it an A-minus and says:

… As if to celebrate their newfound identity, the writers have provided a traditional, roiling showdown in the season premiere. (But first, viewers must get past the mystifying first 10 minutes, filled with dense discussions of government appointments and gold rights, as uncompelling as those trade-route taxation debates in The Phantom Menace.) … The violence — real and imagined — makes the instances of grace so poignant they're almost painful. …

9 p.m. Sunday. HBO.

I am – Hercules!!