I TiVo’ed Sunday’s “Deadwood” finale on HBO and didn’t get to it until a couple of days later, when I just happened to watch it along with the second episode of Fox’s “Vanished.” It made for an intriguing study in contrasts.

As I watched “Vanished,” I kept thinking about how derivative it all seemed — how the look, the pacing and certain scenes felt like they had been blatantly ripped from the “24″ and/or “Prison Break” playbook. (Even the way the show segues to commercial feels just like “Prison Break” with its quick cuts and hyper-accelerated camerawork).

Ah, but then I watched “Deadwood,” and I kept marveling over how this show looks and feels like nothing else on television — from the remarkable costumes and mud-caked setting to its fascinating, fully realized characters and its Shakspearian-like dialogue. (It didn’t hurt, either, that the episode was capped by a song off the latest CD by Bruce Springsteen, a musician I ceaselessly admire).

And then I got a bit wistful because I realized I had just watched the last episode in what has turned out to be the final full season of this meaty, magnificent show. (A two-part movie is planned for next year). I’m sad, too, that more people didn’t discover “Deadwood” during its run. It isn’t often, after all, that the medium presents us with something this breathtakingly original.

Fortunately, there’s always the DVDs.