Sometimes I feel like a lone voice crying in the wilderness. The foul language is coming! The foul language is coming!
And, given the fact that some readers can't distinguish between the LDS Church News that comes wrapped inside this morning's Deseret Morning News and the rest of the paper, there's a danger that some might think I was moralizing when I wrote last month that HBO's new series "Deadwood" is so loaded with bad language that the show's executive producer/writer, David Milch, "is dreaming if he thinks mainstream viewers will get 'used to' the incessant use of the F-word. It's so overwhelming that it's distracting. It's like expecting an audience to pay attention to the characters and the plot when the person sitting next to them hits them over the head every few seconds."
So don't take my word for it. Here's what other newspapers have to say about "Deadwood," which premieres Sunday at 11 p.m. on HBO.
"This slog is for the Western connoisseur fascinated by prostitutes' health care. . . . The salty talk overwhelms the plot twists and ultimately deadens 'Deadwood.' " — Orlando Sentinel
" 'Deadwood' is rough and brutal and flowing with the kind of coarse language that would make Miss Kitty blush." — Contra Costa Times
"Viewers may recoil at the drama's relentless use of obscenities." — Philadelphia Inquirer
" 'Deadwood' . . . may set a new standard for unremitting use of the F-word." — Akron Beacon Journal
"It is startlingly gritty with such offensive language — including the verboten c-word — that I blushed when I watched the first four episodes." — Toronto Globe & Mail
"The plot is fairly pedestrian and the characters rather uninteresting once you're past the shock of their behavior and language. 'Deadwood' debuts . . . after 'The Sopranos.' This may constitute the most intense two-hour volley of expletives in TV history." — The Seattle Times
" 'Deadwood' features some of the roughest language ever heard on TV."— USA Today
" 'Deadwood' . . . uses that infamous, unprintable 'F' word more often than Gene Autry and Roy Rogers used to say, 'Whoa.' " — Rocky Mountain News
" 'Deadwood' is riddled with relentless and gratuitous obscenities that do nothing to set the scene or distinguish the characters. In fact, the folks in this saga, about a lawless gold-mining camp in South Dakota in 1876, make Tony Soprano sound like a Baptist preacher. The language is so out of place and unnecessary it detracts from the story." — Austin American-Statesman
You see, it's not just me.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com