I am – Hercules!!

When we last left “Deadwood,” Al Swearengen had just met George Hearst, Alma Garret had just married Mr. Ellsworth, Mayor E.B. Farnum had just sold his hotel, Cy Tolliver had brandished a letter, Wolcott swang from rope, and Calamity wore a dress.

Variety says:

… After a slow-going premiere, series kicks into another gear in the next four episodes previewed, mixing brutality, scheming and the sheer poetry of David Milch's nothing-else-quite-like-it dialogue. With HBO's Western melodrama now fated to become a morsel for Wu's carnivorous pigs after a pair of wrap-up movies, it's destined to go out in style.… Seldom has any series been this densely layered, sometimes to its detriment. It's that level of storytelling, more than the colorfully coarse language, which sets the show apart -- though there's also a fight in a later episode so grisly anyone remotely squeamish will likely be fumbling for the remote. …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… The third season, as much as the two preceding ones, continues to breathe new life and vigor into the Western genre. What's more, the actors have become so comfortable in the skins of their characters, we can now appreciate the complexity of their personalities and desires. Heaven help us, but there are aspects of even Swearengen's henchmen that are becoming heroic. …

TV Guide says:

… n 1870s Deadwood, violent actions may speak louder than words, but it's the words (courtesy of creator David Milch) you remember: a dazzling, baffling barrage of flamboyant language, elegant in its wit yet profane in its bile. … The circuitous plot is challenging, but the true glory of Deadwood is in its vivid creation of a volatile world where scoundrels, wretches and tormented heroes coexist in an unvarnished time capsule of Wild West history. …

The New York Times says:

… The series' end is near; its creator, David Milch, has reached an agreement with HBO to bring "Deadwood" to a close with a four-hour, two-part finale. As it lurches to its conclusion, the politics of "Deadwood" keep growing more dense and colorful, and that magnificent obsession crowds out other primal forces. Death is still common in "Deadwood." It is sex that has taken a holiday.…

The Chicago Tribune says:

… Once you look beneath the show's incredibly realistic sets, its pitch-perfect costumes and its simply phenomenal cast, you find that "Deadwood" is not just about the birth of politics and civilization in a remote, lawless place, but about diversity. Not the corporate-seminar brand of bland diversity that "The Office" cleverly mocked in a first-season episode; "Deadwood" is too smart for that. …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… the beginning of "Deadwood's" third season crackles as ever with sudden violence, slow death-by-drinking and gradual suffering. The dialogue is "Deadwood's" calling card, with its mixture of gutter and Elizabethan grace. It layers Milch's broader, working theme — the coming-together of various organisms to create a single, functioning one. …

9 p.m. Sunday. HBO.

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