`DEADWOOD' CRACKLES, JUST AS HBO HAS CUT IT.

Byline: - David Kronke

Perhaps it's best this way. In the past few weeks, ``Deadwood,'' David Milch's inside-the-sausage-factory glimpse of the creation of a society in the late 1800s, has ascended from merely being considered in some erudite circles the finest achievement in television history to the martyr in the struggle between art and commerce.

HBO declined to renew ``Deadwood'' for a fourth season, one which Milch had previously said would provide closure for the series.

Instead, the saga will be somewhat hastily wrapped up in two TV films.

Whilst mourning the series' departure, fans can at the very least take solace that this ensures that the network won't try to squeeze any unfocused, meandering seasons out of the show, which is what we to our dismay have seen happen on ``The Sopranos.''

In the meantime, ``Deadwood'' -- both the show and the town -- continues to grow. More and more recurring characters have come to town as word of nearby gold strikes got out, which can make following the myriad plotlines a daunting prospect for casual viewers. (The show's easier to follow watching several episodes back to back, making the DVD collections indispensable.)

This rudderless expansion is just a headache for Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), the series' iconic brothel/saloon operator. When the series opened, Swearengen ruled Deadwood -- to the extent that it could be ruled -- with a mercilessness leavened only by his profane philosophizing. He was none too pleased when Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) appeared, to assume the role of sheriff; lawlessness suited Swearengen's purposes.

Now, however, others just as ruthless as Swearengen -- including George Hearst (Gerald McRaney), who's every bit as ambitious and ruthless as Al -- have come to Deadwood with dreams of domination of their own. So Al has entered an uneasy alliance with Bullock, supporting him in the upcoming elections (Seth's friend Sol, played by John Hawkes, is conducting a fairly clueless yet preordained-for-victory campaign for mayor).

Yet Swearengen hardly embraces the town's evolution. ``(Expletive) the (expletivin') elections,'' Al says with what passes, for him, as misty nostalgia; ``Let the camp return to its former repute.''

Swearengen and Hearst's brutally elemental battle for codifying power ratchets up as the season progresses, culminating in an exhaustingly protracted and shockingly graphic five- minute fistfight between the two's henchmen-bodyguards in episode five. You've been warned.

Elsewhere in Deadwood, Brian Cox comes to town playing a theatrical producer interested in bringing a little culture to the place (good luck with that). Alma (Molly Parker) follows tragedy with triumph when she finally opens her bank. Hearst has a particularly decisive way of dealing with employees seeking to unionize.

And Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert) bests her fog of alcoholism just long enough to provide a history lesson on her time with George Custer for Martha Bullock's (Anna Gunn) schoolchildren.

Naturally, what has drawn much just attention to the series is the dialogue, which Milch and his writers have crafted in epigrammatic rhythms landing somewhere between Shakespeare and the Old Testament, and it alternately seethes and crackles. ``Tell your god to ready for blood'' is the battle cry when Swearengen and Hearst's war escalates.

In a calmer exchange between the two, Al asks George, ``You ain't the center of the universe?''

``No, sir,'' Hearst immodestly replies, which leads to Swearengen's arch rejoinder: ``Don't that lead you to despair?''

DEADWOOD - Three stars

What: The town grows, as do its complications, in the third and final full season of David Milch's profanely poetic Western.

Where: HBO.

When: 9 tonight; also 11 p.m. Tuesday, 9 p.m. Wednesday, 10 p.m. Friday.

In a nutshell: History will judge it well.