Home of true grit

SomeTIME last year, in a moment of deranged grief, perhaps, over the impending demise of a flagship series, HBO hitched its wagon to “Carnivale,” one of the most strained and portentous parables of the age-old struggle between good and evil ever to feature a prophetic dwarf.

Set somewhere in the vast, exceedingly dusty Western American past, “Carnivale” was a miasmic bouillabaisse of uncouth varmints, dualist metaphysics, rampant harlotry, grimy yokels, hard times, hard drinking, Bible thumping and dirt, which graciously provided the color palette.

All of these -- even the dirtvision -- make a reappearance on the new HBO drama “Deadwood.” But don’t be alarmed. “Deadwood” may be a standard-issue Wild West creation story reenacting the original grudge match between good and evil, but the 12-episode drama chucks the magic, the dwarf and the haunting flashbacks in favor of a more concrete approach. It’s “South Dakota Vice.”

This should not come as a surprise, as series creator David Milch, whose credits include “Hill Street Blues” and “NYPD Blue,” knows from the thin blue line. The town of Deadwood is a lawless place, but not so lawless that it will tolerate any modern inversions. There are no crooked cops, no sensitive crime bosses, no tetchy antiheroes, no possessed preachers spewing fire, brimstone and -- oops -- sulfur.

A mining camp in the Northern Black Hills of South Dakota, Deadwood was the site of the last great gold rush in the United States, in 1876. Within months of the initial discovery in Deadwood Gulch, Deadwood was overrun with prospectors and the merchants, saloon owners, prostitutes, priests, liquor salesmen, gamblers and con men who loved them. Milch was quoted in HBO press materials as saying he was attracted to the idea of exploring how a community behaves when not governed by laws and spent more than a year researching the historical place. (He also spent significant time with rodeo cowboys, figuring they more or less party like it’s 1876.)

Most of “Deadwood’s” main characters are based on real people, some of them Wild West celebrities complete with fans and stalkers, like Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, as the town was what today might be called a destination spot. It also happened to be on land that had been deeded to the Sioux eight years earlier, making it more of a sore spot for them. Technically outside United States jurisdiction, the camp became a sort of proto-Vegas, averaging one murder per day. Seth Bullock (Tim Olyphant) a former Montana marshal, and his partner, Sol Star (John Hawkes), arrive in Deadwood to set up a hardware business catering to miners and find that the town is ruled by a corrupt mob boss named Al Swear- engen (Ian MacShane). Swear- engen is a very bad, very suave, very violent man with a very pointy mustache who, 100 years later, would have topped some FBI corkboard pyramid.

The owner of the popular Gem Theater (and saloon and brothel), Swearengen is one of Deadwood’s O.G.s., dabbling in pimping, gambling, drug pushing, extortion, even waste management. (Dead guys, hungry pigs.) Suddenly besieged on both sides by industrious, civic-minded mercantilists like Star and Bullock (who eventually becomes Deadwood’s first sheriff) and other corrupt broker-bookie-pimp-scamster types, Swearengen tries to close ranks.

(In reality, Bullock arrived in Deadwood just one day before Hickok -- by that time a jaded, self-destructive celebrity with fans, stalkers, a bad gambling habit and rapidly dwindling funds -- and was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall [Garret Dillahunt], a half-witted drunken prospector. On “Deadwood,” however, the two men have time to bond over their quick draws and former careers in law enforcement.)

The biggest threat to Swear- engen’s business -- besides the murders, the threat of Indian massacres and the infectious diseases, of course -- is Cy Tolliver (Powers Booth), a slick second-wave mobster who opens an up-market whorehouse and gambling establishment across the street from the Gem. Tolliver’s partner, Joanie Stubbs (Kim Dickens), is a smart, self-possessed madam who responds to a local’s entreaty to excuse his French by deadpanning, “I speak French.” Joanie is a far cry from Swearengen’s main girl, Trixie (Paula Malcolmson), a disheveled, tear-streaked and bruised prostitute who isn’t above shooting a john in the head.

The profanity in “Deadwood” flows as naturally and freely as a mountain creek after a spring thaw. At first I found myself wondering, “Did the words bleep and bleepy and bleeping bleep-hole even exist in 1876?” Of course they did. At the time, H.L. Mencken wrote an essay about the prevalence of profanity of Deadwood and concluded that it amounted to a sort of verbal chest-beating. FCC Chairman Michael Powell is free to pretend that it’s dirty words that pose the greatest threat to our nation, but it’s good to know that people talked like truckers before trucks were even invented.

After a pioneer family is slaughtered nearby, Bullock and Hickok (Keith Carradine) suspect plundering “road agents” and ride out to survey the scene. They discover that a little girl survived and place her in the care of Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert) and the town medic, Doc Cochran (Brad Dourif), who has reason to fear that Swearengen may have an interest in her silence. Alma Garret (Molly Parker), a New York society wife with a dumb husband and a laudanum habit, may wind up playing a significant role in the little girl’s life.

The story takes place more than half a century before that other show with caravans in it, but it feels much more up to date. In fact, disconcerting as this retro streak of HBO’s has been, “Deadwood” is engrossing, refreshingly well written and oddly relevant. The gold rush mentality well outlasted the gold rush in America. As ever, lawless opportunism is business as usual.

*

‘Deadwood’

Where: HBO

When: 10 to 11 p.m. Sunday

Tim Olyphant...Seth Bullock

Ian McShane...Al Swearengen

Molly Parker...Alma Garrett

Keith Carradine...Wild Bill Hickock

John Hawkes...Sol Star

Brad Dourif...Doc Cochran

Robin Weigert...Calamity Jane

Creator, executive producer, writer (of Sunday’s premiere) David Milch. Director (of Sunday’s premiere) Walter Hill.