โThat left-cheek ass-blisterโs a percolating son of a bitch,โ mutters Calamity Jane, shifting in her saddle as she drunkenly steers her horse toward Deadwood, South Dakota. Itโs been a decade since the hard-drinking, hard-punching Janeโplayed, phenomenally as ever, by Robin Weigertโhas stumbled through the frontier townโs muddy, bloody streets and smoky, sweat-soaked saloons.
Itโs also been about that long since Deadwood viewers were here, and itโs a relief to find the place hasnโt changed much: New-fangled telephone poles now blight the horizon, but Deadwoodโs residents remain proud and profane. โWu, feed that fuck to the pigs,โย says Sheriff Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant), his gunpowder still floating in the air.
Not far away, Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) holds court in his Gem Saloon, weaving a monologue through Deadwoodโs rich, Shakespearean cadences. Older and not necessarily wiser, Swearengen needs little prompting to ruminate on murder, and loss, and how to best fuck over whomever his enemy is today.
Long-running shows rarely end wellโthe slow-simmering mysteries and ever-evolving relationships that make great TV so addictive are also the things that are hardest to conclude. For every Breaking Bad that goes out with a satisfying bang, countless others flail and whimperโremember Lost, or Battlestar Galactica, or The Sopranos, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or True Detective, or The X-Files, or (oof, this wound is fresh) Game of Thrones.
Deadwoodโs series finale, on the other hand, didnโt disappointโmostly because it never existed. Alongside The Wire and The Sopranos, the western was one of the remarkable HBO shows that changed the course of television, but unlike those shows, Deadwood simply ceased to be, unceremoniously abandoned after its third season in 2006. For a while, it looked like the show had been fed to the pigsโbut now itโs returned, with an excellent TV movie that serves as both continuation and conclusion to one of the best shows ever made.
Series creator David Milchโs script, thankfully, doesnโt feel boxed-in, with a story that, for the most part, makes time for each member of the showโs unmatched cast. Meanwhile, veteran Deadwood director Daniel Minahan manages to recapture not only the showโs hard-weathered aesthetic but its way of letting very sad characters be very funny.
Just about everybodyโs back: Ostensible mayor E.B. Farnum (William Sanderson) stumbles around, fucking things up; trusty Charlie Utter (Dayton Callie) remains a far better man than the town deserves; Bullockโs BFF Sol Star (John Hawkes) proves as reliably wry as ever; and former prostitute Trixie (Paula Malcomson) tries, with mixed results, to escape the shadows of the past. (She also gets some of the best, Deadwood-iest lines, like โWell, whose fuckinโ blood is it?โ)
And through the middle of town stomps the imminently hateable Hearst (Gerald McRaney), now a United States senator. Deadwood was always about community, but it was also about the fundamental injustices that established Americaโs identityโand Milch is still willing to mess not only with the history the show is based on, but the creaky myths of how the West was won. Here, Hearst is a relentless, self-righteous pioneerโmanifest destiny made flesh.
This Deadwood movie isnโt the best place for new viewers to come onboardโeven old-school fans might benefit from a quick Wikipedia recapโbut even as it pushes the story forward, it instantly brings back the showโs inimitable feel. There are punches and shoot-outs, and fiery speeches and glimpses of tenderness, and itโs all beautiful and ugly, welcoming and dangerous. Itโs Deadwood.
And perhaps more than any other show, it feels like an actual placeโa place where, alongside all these weirdos and villains, you can scrape the mud from your boots, ignore the blood on the floor, and take another burning swig from a half-empty bottle. Itโs great to be back, if only for a few hours. 
Deadwood: The Movie shows on HBO starting Friday, May 31.