'DEADWOOD: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON'

(HBO VIDEO)

I never imagined that a television series about cowboys, prospectors, drifters and saloon owners in an American frontier town in the 1870s could make a viewer forget about "The Sopranos," but "Deadwood" does that in spades. As historians remind us, Deadwood was an actual settlers' town in the Black Hills of South Dakota populated by some of the most compelling villains and anti-heroes the Old West has ever seen.

		New this week: "Taxi" -- A loudmouth cab driver helps a rookie cop on the trail of Brazilian bank robbers in this comedy with Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon. "Saw" -- Obsessed with teaching his victims the value of life, a sadistic killer abducts morally wayward people and forces them to play horrific games. "Raise Your Voice" -- Hilary Duff is a small-town girl with a big voice who defiantly heads to L.A. and a performing arts academy. "Motorcycle Diaries" -- Gael Garcia Bernal stars as the young Che Guevara in this movie based on a 1950s journey taken by the future revolutionary and a friend. "Donnie Darko: Director's Cut" -- This mind-bender has Jake Gyllenhaal as a 1988 high school student visited by a demonic rabbit with eerie visions. "My Architect: A Son's Journey" -- The son of architectural giant Louis I. Kahn tries to make sense of his late father's life and work in this documentary. Also: "The Yes Men," satire about political prankster activists; "Titanic Revealed," National Geographic Channel documentary hosted by Robert Ballard; "Goodbye Dragon Inn," Taiwanese movie about a Japanese tourist who takes refuge inside a rundown theater; "God Is Brazilian," a fantasy-adventure mixing humor and social commentary; "Nearest to Heaven," director Tonie Marshall's homage to "An Affair to Remember," starring Catherine Deneuve and William Hurt. TV on DVD: First season of "Drake & Josh," fourth of "Good Times" and fifth of "Angel," plus "Justice League Unlimited: Saving the World," with three TV episodes.

Series creator David Milch uses that historical tidbit as a springboard into a dusty universe full of back-stabbers, con men, prostitutes, ex-lawmen and a legendary gunfighter or two passing through on their way to nowhere in particular.

Keith Carradine plays Wild Bill Hickok with an alcoholic tremor and a world-weary fatalism he can forget only when he's absorbed in a card game. Still, Wild Bill's legend has preceded him, forcing even hardened frontier types to be deferential in his presence. Only ex-sheriff turned hardware store owner Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) has the intestinal fortitude to approach the gunfighter as an equal, warily offering friendship if he would be inclined to accept it.

Deadwood's criminal godfather, the saloon owner and pimp Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), has so many schemes going, including several murder plots, he has to employ an army of flunkies to keep track of it all. McShane's Swearengen is the most complex but sympathetic villain to come along since Tony Soprano.

The struggle between Bullock and Swearengen, one a legitimate businessman trying to make an honest living during the Dakota Gold Rush and the other a brilliant but ruthless parasite, provides the spine for a revisionist Western that has more twists than a Texas rattlesnake.

And what Western would be complete without Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert), a troubled widow (Molly Parker), an epileptic preacher (Ray McKinnon), a hooker with a heart of gold (Paula Malcomson) a wild-eyed doctor (Brad Dourif) and a man who would shoot another man in the back (Garret Dillahunt)?

Packed with fascinating interviews and commentaries with Milch and the series stars about the real and imagined Deadwood, this elaborate and beautiful DVD box set feels like an old family diary written in blood.

'THE WIRE: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON'

(HBO VIDEO)

Though the second season of this groundbreaking series failed to match the unabashed brilliance of the first, it more than held its own as a persuasive exploration of corruption in the Baltimore longshoremen's union. Like every season of this critically acclaimed but low-rated series so far, it is a novelistic character study of cops and criminals steeped in ambivalence.

The primary focus of the action in season two has shifted from the mean streets of West Baltimore to the city's grimy shipyards, where union chief Frank Sobotka (Chris Bauer) works double duty enriching his brethren in the stevedores local while skimming a little from the top for himself. Sobotka's tidy fiefdom is threatened when a shipping container with a dozen dead Eastern European prostitutes is discovered on his docks.

Sobotka and his nephew and trusted lieutenant, Nick (Pablo Schreiber), see everything they've worked for threatened by the increased scrutiny of homicide detectives poking around the docks for clues about the shipping-container deaths.

Meanwhile, Sobotka's erratic son, Ziggy (James Ransone), is even more corrupt than he is but lacks his restraint. Despite the fact that he has no work ethic, Ziggy views the docks as his private piggy bank. It is only a matter of time before the young man runs afoul of the real power behind the port's throne, a mysterious smuggler known as The Greek (Bill Raymond).

In West Baltimore, the Barksdale crew continues to do business even with its boss Avon (Wood Harris) in federal prison. Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) is determined to turn the Barksdale drug operation into a machine of felonious efficiency. The only problem is that his overweening ambition has attracted the attention of the same Wire detail that put his boss in jail. But if the cops don't succeed in upsetting Stringer's apple cart, the homicidal stickup man Omar (Michael K. Williams) will.

The episode commentaries by stars Williams and Dominic West are among the highlights for fans hungry for every morsel of information about how this brilliant show is put together.

'THE SHIELD: SEASON THREE'

(20TH CENTURY FOX )

It's easy to vacillate when asked to name the best cop show on television. If the question is "What cop drama consistently delivers the highest-octane adrenaline rush in an hour?" the answer is easy -- Shawn Ryan's "The Shield" is the show to beat. Its closest rival, HBO's "The Wire," delivers verisimilitude, realism and the finest ensemble on television. "The Shield's" cast is only a step or two behind it, though, and gaining fast.

Season three of "The Shield," available Tuesday, finds dirty cop Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and the Strike Team trying to maintain unit cohesion after stealing millions of dollars from a violent Armenian gang operating in Los Angeles. The Armenians conduct a relentless campaign of murder in their own community to ferret out those responsible for the heist, with Vic and his crew using their status as cops to shut down internal police investigations pointing to their involvement.

Tensions within the Strike Team erupt when Shane (Walter Goggins) and Vic disagree about dipping into the money for personal emergencies. Distrust gradually seeps into the formerly rock-solid relationships the Strike Team once enjoyed as the Armenians close in.

This is the tensest season of FX's critically acclaimed show yet, with standout performances by Benito Martinez as Capt. Aceveda, C.C.H. Pounder as Detective Claudette Wyms and Michael Jace as Officer Julien Lowe.

'MURDER ONE: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON'

(20TH CENTURY FOX)

I was too much of a "Homicide: Life on the Street" partisan to even look at another law and order drama back then, so I missed this excellent series when it ran on ABC in the mid-1990s. The conceit of the show is familiar these days but bordered on revolutionary a decade ago. "Murder One" tracks a single murder case from the point of view of defense attorney Theodore "Teddy" Hoffman, played with seething brilliance by Daniel Benzali.

Hoffman successfully defends the slick Richard Cross (Stanley Tucci) in a notorious murder trial but begins to have second thoughts about his client when a series of incidents and clues point to his involvement. For 23 episodes, Hoffman and Cross play a bizarre cat-and-mouse game with the outcome in doubt until the very end. This is network television at its very best. I could kick myself for missing it the first time around.

Tony Norman can be reached at tnorman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1631