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Boardwalk Empire (NSF56K, some Season 1 Spoilers)
Grey Ghost
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I noticed there wasn't a thread for this, and I'd seen some people talking about it here and there, so I wanted to go ahead and do a thing (man why you even gotta do a thing) because it's a great show!
Boardwalk Empire takes place in Atlantic City, New Jersey, beginning immediately after the passage of the Volstead Act, which introduced that delightful period of American history known as Prohibition. It focuses on a lively cast of characters caught up in various groups' attempts to control the bootlegging and other illegal trades in the region, and generally is about the rise of the organized crime syndicates that have become so famous in history and pop culture.
It's also got a hell of a cast!
Enoch "Nucky" Thompson
Treasurer of Atlantic City and the main character of the show, played by Steve Buscemi. Based on the real-life Nucky Johnson. While ostensibly in control of the city and its liquor trade, there are some recent developments that have made things a lot more complicated for him and a lot of people are scheming to take over or divide up his empire for themselves.
Jimmy Darmody
Played by Michael Pitt, who's doing a pretty good Leonardo DiCaprio impression, Jimmy is Nucky's protege and enforcer at the start of the show. He's also a World War I vet, so he's seen some shit, man. He goes from being a fairly thuggish dude to hanging out with Al Capone and wearing really nice suits. He's also really smart and just ambitious enough to start chafing under Nucky, which is gonna be problematic. He also has a super-hot (and maybe kinda crazy) mom, played by Gretchen Mol.
Margaret Schroeder
Nucky's mistress, played by Kelly MacDonald. A working-class Irishwoman who's smarter than she sometimes lets on, Margaret is slowly taking a bigger role in helping Nucky run the city and fend off those who are trying to muscle in on his territory. Pretty quick with a snappy comeback when the situation calls for it, too.
Nelson Van Alden
Played by the awesome Michael Shannon, he's a Prohibition Agent for the Department of Internal Revenue leading a crusade against booze and, more specifically, Nucky Thompson. He's also batshit crazy. Strictly religious and staunchly anti-liquor, the dude is pretty single-minded in his pursuit of justice, but lately he's been having some conflicting feelings and has done some things that are starting to look less and less like appropriate behavior for a federal agent. Also? No sense of humor.
Louis Kaestner, a.k.a "The Commodore"
Dabney Coleman! The Commodore is Nucky's mentor and the former crime boss of Atlantic City, and is also
Jimmy's biological father.
Though he was deathly ill for much of season one, he's back on the mend now and has decided he'd like to get back in the city-runnin' game, and is assembling a gang of other rich old dudes to do so.Richard Harrow
Richard is another WWI vet who had half of his face blown off, which hasn't stopped him from being a total badass. He meets Jimmy in an army hospital and accompanies him back to Atlantic City, joining him as an enforcer. The dude has some pretty serious psychological issues in addition to the actual scars, though lately he's been trying to fit into Jimmy's messed-up little family. We'll see how that works out. Still a crack shot with a rifle, and probably my favorite character on the show right now, with the possible exception of...
Albert "Chalky" White
Omar comin' yo! Chalky (Michael Kenneth Williams) is sort of Nucky's counterpart in Atlantic City's black community, and has recently gotten involved more directly in the bootlegging business. Relations have been a little strained lately because Chalky feels that Nucky isn't giving enough thought to the needs of the black community, especially with increased KKK activity against them. I don't know what else to tell you about him except that Williams is a fantastic actor and every scene with Chalky is just phenomenal. "These here my daddy's tools."
Arnold Rothstein! Al Capone! Lucky Luciano! You know these guys. They're real guys. You ain't know? Look 'em up.
Anyway, this is a great show, but I feel like it's always just a step away from whatever it needs to do to really explode and become the hit that so many other HBO shows have been, especially with this kind of creative talent involved. So, let's rap. About some booze.
Grey Ghost on
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SteamID: Baroque And Roll
Although this season's been developing Harrow a lot and that's been really cool.
Also you should introduce the new additions of season 2! A certain Irishman deserves some praise.
Now that's just flat out wrong.
Anyways, I love the shit out of this show. Episode 4's ending was I want to say cathartic. Mol's creepy peepee kissing ass needed it, though.
As gory as it was I got a kick out of the old cane racists fate.
Love this show
I am a week behind.
But all of my favourite scenes involve Richard.
He knows exactly who to fuck with, and who not to fuck with.
(Also I thought him and Jimmy met in Chicago? And that they were just both in the war together)
Satans..... hints.....
Don't fastforward that stuff. Watch it every damn time.
Satans..... hints.....
Yes
Oh, sorry, it was an army clinic in Chicago where Jimmy had gone for like, a checkup and a psych evaluation
I realize the way I wrote it is unclear
Richard Harrow is the best character by far, if you disagree you have brain problems
Dear satan I wish for this or maybe some of this....oh and I'm a medium or a large.
Satans..... hints.....
Unless, you don't want to.
Satans..... hints.....
good luck
"Who the hell are you!"
"A soldier."
https://www.paypal.me/hobnailtaylor
The problem with the first seasons is that when you lead with a MARTIN FUCKING SCORSESE pilot is that things are going to go a bit downhill. As good looking and as well acted as the first season was there was a lot of wasted space and on-the-nose episode themes. Despite the severe lack of Scorsese in the second season (why does he still get a producer's credit, by the way?) the second season feels like they've actually started the main story. Things have begun to move and they've inserted characters and plot points that are more interesting than Nucky getting laid.
And, again, there is some crazy Shotgun Stories meets Misery shit going on and that is full blown fine with me.
Eli is such a fucking idiot.
https://www.paypal.me/hobnailtaylor
Except Pete.
https://www.paypal.me/hobnailtaylor
I like what they're doing with nucky/margaret a lot. Nelson is an interesting character, but a lot of his scenes felt sort of disconnected from the rest of the show, especially
season 2 is out on dvd now, right? should probably go buy that
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
SteamID: Baroque And Roll
https://www.paypal.me/hobnailtaylor
What exactly does one do to get a producer's credit, anyway? I am mostly ignorant of such things
Mark Wahlberg gets one, but I don't see a whole lot of actual influence from him
I laughed my ass off at the "They're made in America, I'm American."
Also, you done fucked up, boychick.
I know a lot of people have complained that this show moves too slowly and they're like WHY ISN'T EVERYBODY GETTING SHOT (when it's a show about guys making desperate back-room deals in order to avoid having to shoot people) but seriously things are picking up like crazy now
https://www.paypal.me/hobnailtaylor
God damn.
Dude got some power and has decided it's time to go off the rails and fuck with a dude he knows will fuck his shit up.