Actually the gritty realism of the old west was pretty boring.
Have you ever noticed the same names come up over and over again? JW Hardin, Billy the Kid & Pat Garrett, Butch and Sundance, Wild Bill Hickock? Thats because these folks were about all there was for the most part. Garden variety criminals were not much more than they are today... we just know about the famous ones- legends of self promotion by a large part.
Very few shootings.Bullets were expensive. Whores few and far between. Not much citrus in the diet. Dentists did extractions mostly. Porn was certain sections of Wards or Sears & Roebucks mail order book...once in a blue moon a 'French Post Card". True "rounders", scoundrels and tramps usually died of something like TB, Syphillis or some other STD or just a bad infection or respritory illness. Now and again a touring Bawdy show might come around... mostly a tease- but a diversion is a diversion.
About the only thing to really do for fun was drink... and homeade booze was really more about creating a sellable commodity from excess corn. It's easier to store hooch than it is to can or store dried corn. Cutting firewood, making tons of hay, sweeping the house, building the house...all done by hand. Driving mules oxen and horses is not a soft touch either. The reins of a 4 -up waggon hitch weigh nearly 40 pounds in the drivers hands.
Ever traveled much by horse? Most folks didnt venture much further than 50 miles back then. Cowboys were pretty much used up by the age of 25 ... they found other work or were dead by then. Most of the skeletons that get dug up from that era seem to have pretty good evidence of serious arthritus and other such maladys... even by 50 the body was pretty well worn out from work.
I can see why HBO needs to add to the 'color' of foul language. The world is pretty bland when heated by wood, lit with coal oil and dusty and dirty as the ground your buried in. Most kids watching that show would not understand a vile oath or curse from that era anyway.
Hill