2004 Hit 'Deadwood' Ranked 'Best Western TV Show of All Time' - And It's Now Streaming

When most audiences think of Westerns, it's either the classic Hollywood productions of the '40s and '50s or the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci that spring to mind first. But in modern times, the genre has also seen a massive resurgence on television.

With the cinema industry drifting away from the Western genre and seemingly replacing it with commercially appealing summer blockbusters instead, there's more space for television to develop the genre and help it evolve.

HBO's Deadwood is perhaps the best example. The show began airing at a time when Westerns were remarkably unpopular in the cinema industry; we were largerly moving past the '90s boom of Unforgiven and Tombstone, leaving the genre in the dust.

However, Deadwood took everything that worked about the Western genre and applied it to long-form storytelling, giving the complex characters and volatile relationships more time to gradually morph and intensify through some genuinely brilliant writing.

Deadwood stars Timothy Olyphant and Ian McShane as real-life residents of the South Dakota boom town following the discovery of a huge gold depository. The show is loosely based on real events in this historically significant area, with many real-life figures appearing as supporting characters throughout the seasons.

Deadwood received immediate acclaim from critics, who widely praised the lead performances and the show's detailed, purposeful writing. It had everything you'd expect from a traditional Western movie-all the action, drama, and tension-drawn out for long-form storytelling.

TVLine even named Deadwood as the best TV Western ever made, and it's hard to disagree. The publication called it "one of the best HBO original series ever made, regardless of genre", standing tall against projects like Game of Thrones, Succession, and The Sopranos.

Although Deadwood was ultimately cancelled after its third season, the show's legacy remains untouched. It's still a perfect example of how to bring the massive narrative scope of the Western genre to the small screen, focusing heavily on character dynamics and slow-paced storytelling to bring all the action and tension that audiences expected.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 22, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published June 22, 2026 at 8:14 AM.