Boardwalk Empire

Seasons 1 and 2 with Jimmy and Margret were truly outstanding. I know people hate Margret and I know why, but still truly outstanding. You could not make a better prohibition gangster fantasy. The Andrew Dice Clay / Harrow Murdersplat season was really really good. The Gillian/Chalky/Narcisse season... eh... I mean it was still good... but... and I fucking adore Gillian.

There is a trend. As great as the show is, and even with it's downward trend it remains a great show, people just aren't in the mood for historical fantasy. They're in the mood for K-niggits and swerds.

If it had ended at season 2 with the execution that would have also been perfect. Painfully short and painfully sweet. If they had switched perspective with season 3 so that they could reset instead of trying to transition... but they didn't, and they're not wrong to have not done that. It's just something they could have done which, given the talent and work of the first two seasons, I think they could have done it admirably. Every two years you get a new cast of characters to work with so that you don't find yourself in the "Eli betrayed Nucky AGAIN?" or "Gillian gonna Gillian" spot. Which is kind of inevitable.

But everyone gets shot to death. We get 8 episodes of full on murder. Thatisbetter than 15 scenes of Gillian in a jail cell crying about her grandson. And I'd watch every fucking one of those scenes too, but this is better.

Eli betraying Nucky again was a big bummer. I wish they hadn't gone that route. Other than that, the show's been awesome. Season 3 is probably my favorite.

There are a number of reasons why the show is ending, the ratings and critical reception is pretty good but the show is expensive. Most importantly the creator - Terence Winter - is working on a 70s based rock n roll series alongside Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger so he and HBO want to get moving on that. Rumor is Bobby Cannavale (crazy ass Gyp Rosetti from season 3) will be the lead.

End of the day the show is pretty good but frankly its the supporting characters and actors that make it like Al Capone and Chalky and Dr. Black Good Talker and Jimmy and Harrow and fucking crazy eyes and Gyp Rosetti and the Jews. Nucky is not that great as a character or portrayal. While its an overplayed setting and character in the media maybe, I woulda loved to see a Chicago-based series around Bugsy, O'Banion, Al Capone, etc.

Tarrant_sl said:

I have zero interest in a series like you described. (the rock n roll one)

Fuck.

Click to expand...

Well you're just lame. That sounds awesome. Especially on HBO. They won't tone down shit.

Yeah that show sounds pretty great.

well shit didn't realize season premiere was tonight till i saw the torrent

fuck i wanted to rewatch the show first but destiny

Interesting opener.

Seems like a lot of stuff to wrap up in so few episodes. Should be some pretty good shit coming up.

Arnold Rothstein died in 1928 so I wonder if we'll get a scene or two with him at the start. He was shot over not paying some gambling debts from a poker game that was probably fixed.

Good episode, the richness of the sets really oozes through your screen - Cuba was absolutely stunning, both in Havana and the plantation farms. I guess this is still long before Castro's revolution and the mob building big in Havana (Godfather 2). The New York stuff felt kinda jammed in, I guess I need to read more about Luciano's betrayal and stuff but it seems weird that the other Italian mobsters would just take a traitor in like that, isn't the whole Mafia thing not to be disloyal?

Nucky's stuff frankly felt like things that shoulda been in season 1 & 2, but it was interesting to see. The suicide of the broker was the first "awwww yiss its Boardwalk Empire" moment.

its crazy that there is so much going on and we still haven't seen a single scene out of Chicago. I assume Lansky's presence in Havana means that the NY Mobsters are also planning on controlling rum out of Cuba. The meeting between the nationwide mafia heads to divvy up the country already happened last season, right? Or is that a thing still for this season?

Yeah, I liked it. I was wondering what Meyers was up to, but it makes sense that he's there to squeeze Nucky out. Maybe I should watch the last few episodes of last season again. It seems to me like Nucky doesn't have anything that he was telling the Bacardi owner. He's in Havanna. He doesn't have the distribution network anymore, not really.

The Luciano thing made sense to me. He was honorably bought. I was wondering during the scene too though... are they gonna kill him, or are they gonna make him? Felt like it could have gone either way. Which is why Boardwalk is a great show. If I actually knew the history of it I guess there wouldn't have been any suspense. Did he have his eye put out? It looks like they gave him a glass eye. I just remember nucky making the two of them dig their grave and then scaring the hell out of them. I don't remember if he set some thugs on them to give them a memorable lesson.

Luciano's betrayal was the culmination of a big gang war. Gang wars are bad for business. One thing to remember is the Godfather was roughly based on this period of time in New York.

A -TON- of stuff happens in 1931 in New York. That storyline will have plenty of meat.

Cybsled_sl said:

A -TON- of stuff happens in 1931 in New York. That storyline will have plenty of meat.

Click to expand...

It's kinda sad considering both Luciano / Lansky / Capone rise to power kind of founded Italian-American organized crime as it were back in the day. Lots of stories to be told.

So who was behind the hit attempt on Nucky? Are we not supposed to know that yet? I assumed it was Meyer.

McCheese_sl said:

So who was behind the hit attempt on Nucky? Are we not supposed to know that yet? I assumed it was Meyer.

Click to expand...

Since Meyer showed Nucky his "wife" who's been reveleaed later she's just a cuban hooker and since Luciano is making a move on Masseria, it's safe to assume there's been a hit on Nucky.

There's no way Lansky would be so sloppy as to order a hit with a fuckingmachete.

Also could have done without the childhood flashbacks considering we only have 8 eps left.

Flashbacks sole purpose IMO are two fold:

1) Make Nucky more likable, which means he will die this season. Any time a show starts doing "this is your life" flashbacks for characters the audience might not feel too strongly about, it means they plan to bump them off because they are trying to make the audience care about them more

2) Make a parallel with Margaret. One thing that struck me is the parallel with the $50 in the hat and the locked cabinet. Both are in situations where doing the right thing might get you nothing and doing the wrong thing will get you something. The right thing is a calculated gamble in that it might get you ahead. The Commodore left Nucky with nothing as a lesson, but ultimately it did get Nucky ahead because he was able to get into his good graces after picking a fight with that kid that stole his money making chance.