Deadwood

A settlement grows around money before it has much resembling a stable civic life. Deadwood follows the people trying to profit, work and survive there, with a saloon often doing more practical governing than any official authority.

Ian McShane's Al Swearengen is an extraordinary centre of gravity, but the ensemble is the real achievement. Timothy Olyphant's Seth Bullock brings a different and not always more manageable temperament. Shopkeepers, workers and newcomers all have interests that prevent the town becoming a simple contest between two strong men.

David Milch's dialogue takes a little adjustment. It can be elaborate, funny and exceptionally coarse, sometimes in the same sentence. Once its rhythm settles, arguments over apparently small matters reveal how people negotiate coexistence when there is little to make them behave.

The series is more interested in a community forming than in a succession of gunfights. If the street-level lives in Rome appealed, this is an excellent companion. Its later film also exists for viewers continuing beyond the original television run.