Are you ready for the summer? (2013 edition)

It’s that time once again, boys and girls. The broadcast network TV season ended last night at 11, and now we move into the summer, which will be a mix of leftover network programs (set your clocks now for the return of “Zero Hour”!), cheap foreign imports and co-productions (ABC’s “Motive,” NBC’s “Crossing Lines”), and a bunch of cable series to be excited about (“Breaking Bad”!), nervous about (“The Killing”!) and some combination of the two (“The Newsroom”!).

As always, I’ll be mixing and matching in terms of what shows I’m writing about – will I have enough new things to say about each “Newsroom” episode? – and as usual, I’ll also be revisiting a classic TV season from the past, one week at a time. And that season is (in case you couldn’t tell from the picture and its caption)…

“Deadwood” season 3.

Yes, I’ve been saying for the last two summers (when I covered seasons 1 and 2) that because I wrote about that season on my old blog, I wasn’t going to revisit it here. But I considered three things:  1)I didn’t cover every episode, nor did I cover every one as thoroughly as I have the first 2 (that was my first year of blogging, and I was still feeling my way around it); 2)My affection for the series only grew when I was writing about it in my book;(*) and 3)Those reviews were written before Jim Beaver turned up to share his stories with us. And since after a certain point, these “Deadwood” reviews turned into a Jim Beaver comment delivery system – and later a Keone Young comment delivery system as well – I decided to give it a shot and close the loop. We can start up a new project next summer (and please, no suggestions this far out), but we might as well finish what we started with Al, Mr. Bullock, Mrs. Garrett and all the rest. Jim’s already in (he told me he had put off rewatching the third season in the hopes I’d change my mind), and if we’re lucky, maybe some other alums will pop up as well.

(*) Speaking of the book, I’ll be doing a Reddit AMA today at 2 p.m. Eastern. Stop by if you like! Tell your friends!

Approach will be the same: Friday mornings, with two identical posts (one for anyone to comment about anything “Deadwood”-related, one for people who are watching along for the first time and don’t want to be spoiled on what’s coming next). We’ll start a week from tomorrow with the third season premiere, “Tell Your God to Ready for Blood.”

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