Boardwalk Empire official discussion thread (1 Viewer)

[JonZ]

I was pretty sure it was her. I had said to my g/f when I saw the photo "I didnt know Molly Parker was in this".

 

[Charlie Campisi]

I was watching with half an eye and caught most, but must've missed something. What was the motive behind whacking the one gangster in the restaurant? Great scene and buildup of tension. I just forgot who he was among the other mustaches.

 

[MikeyWeitz]

AND Omar is BACK!

 

[mattCR]

HBO has already renewed for Season 2!

 

http://www.deadline.com/2010/09/hbo-renews-boardwalk-empire-after-one-episode/

 

[JonZ]

Originally Posted by Charlie Campisi

I was watching with half an eye and caught most, but must've missed something. What was the motive behind whacking the one gangster in the restaurant? Great scene and buildup of tension. I just forgot who he was among the other mustaches.

It was mentioned by Al Capone when taking to Jimmy, that he was against getting involved with alcohol, that it was too risky, and wanted to stick to things like gambling and girls.

 

[Phil Florian]

Loved this show! I love the semi-impotence/semi-invincible quality of Enoch. On the one hand, he is THE man about town and can get what he wants, when he wants...unless it is into his own bathroom. or even to have free time to schtup his mistress. What a hoot! I loved his butler, too. I see that role being a potentially great one througout the season. I liked the lighter tone at times, too. This wasn't heavy-handed melodrama moment to moment. The fun watching the newly created FBI squad to fight the booze running was better than them being too earnest and well-oiled. The scene at the hotel with the lead agent Shannon trying to teach one of his guys how to identify the baddies was great.
 

I loved the fantasy look of the Boardwalk, too, and how various storefronts are just as enticing to Enoch and others more jaded to its appeal outside of the obvious alcohol and women. I think this was a strong start that put a lot of balls in the air but the best part of HBO is the give the time and space to play these stories out.
 

Oh and Yeah, hell yeah...glad to see Omar back on the screen again.
 

I think the line at the end by Jimmy was a great way to lay out the theme of the season:

 


 

 

Something to the effect of "Enoch, you can't be half a gangster any more." I assume that will be the struggle for the season. Can't wait and can't think of a better actor to inhabit that.
 

 


Can't wait for more.

 

On side note, Love what I am seeing with GAME OF THRONES, too. That is the show I have been dreaming of since I read that novel.

 

[Pete York]

Originally Posted by Phil Florian

... I loved his butler, too. I see that role being a potentially great one througout the season. ...

Knowing Scorsese, this character is almost certainly inspired by Vince Barnett's 'Angelo' in SCARFACE (1932), right? Anybody else see that?

 

[Greg_S_H]

I didn't watch this under the best circumstances. With new shows starting up and old shows returning, I had a ton of material on my DVR I wanted to clear out before the next day's material began to pile up. Boardwalk Empire was the last thing I watched after a blur of hour dramas and half hour game shows. It was also late and I was kind of tired. So, I kind of liked it but didn't love it (I did love the period details). In my state of mind, I'm not sure I completely got the ambush. Let me give it a try and see if I'm close:

 

Jimmy gave up the bootlegging operation for a variety of reasons: he hated the guy who ran it; he needed to give the feds some red meat; and he needed to take the feds off the board for when he pulled off the ambush. See, I was distracted during the scene where the convoy set out, so I'm guessing it was Rothstein's men transporting alcohol they bought from Thompson back to their operation in New York. Jimmy hit them to recoup the money Rothstein had won gambling. Capone's motive was to take his part of the shipment to Chicago to start up his own operation there (I did get that the (relatively) nice older gentleman was killed because he didn't want to get into the alcohol game). I'm pretty sure I'm right about Capone, but I'm not sure about Jimmy. Even though the abusive husband was set up as the fall guy for the ambush, it seems like bad business for Thompson to allow the first shipment of liquor to be stolen on the roads out of Atlantic City. Even if Rothstein could believe he had nothing to do with it, he'd have to think twice before buying from him again.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by Greg_S_H

I didn't watch this under the best circumstances. With new shows starting up and old shows returning, I had a ton of material on my DVR I wanted to clear out before the next day's material began to pile up. Boardwalk Empire was the last thing I watched after a blur of hour dramas and half hour game shows. It was also late and I was kind of tired. So, I kind of liked it but didn't love it (I did love the period details). In my state of mind, I'm not sure I completely got the ambush. Let me give it a try and see if I'm close:

 

Jimmy gave up the bootlegging operation for a variety of reasons: he hated the guy who ran it; he needed to give the feds some red meat; and he needed to take the feds off the board for when he pulled off the ambush. See, I was distracted during the scene where the convoy set out, so I'm guessing it was Rothstein's men transporting alcohol they bought from Thompson back to their operation in New York. Jimmy hit them to recoup the money Rothstein had won gambling. Capone's motive was to take his part of the shipment to Chicago to start up his own operation there (I did get that the (relatively) nice older gentleman was killed because he didn't want to get into the alcohol game). I'm pretty sure I'm right about Capone, but I'm not sure about Jimmy. Even though the abusive husband was set up as the fall guy for the ambush, it seems like bad business for Thompson to allow the first shipment of liquor to be stolen on the roads out of Atlantic City. Even if Rothstein could believe he had nothing to do with it, he'd have to think twice before buying from him again.

This is where fact gets mixed with fiction. The fact is this, Big Jim Colosimo was the Chicago mob boss killed in his restaruant. He was killed by his own people because of his reluctance to get into the bootlegging business. The guy that gave to the order to kill him was John Torrio, he was Colosimo's underboss. In this series, he was the other gentleman with Colosimo at the dinner table in Atlantic City and met Capone when he delivered the truck with the booze in Chicago. Also, Torrio was the mentor of Al Capone and he was the New York gangster that brought Capone from Brooklyn to work with him in Chicago as well as Frankie Yale, another NY gangster who was the trigger man in Colosimo's killing. Interesting that all of those NY gangsters got their start with the Five Points Gang including Lucky Luciano and that they would be intregal in the establishment of the national crime syndicate years later. By the way, as alluded to in this series, Rothstein was a mentor to Luciano and I'm wondering how they are going to introduce Luciano's

 

close childhood friend, Meyer Lansky.
 

 

It's going to be interesting to see how they mix fact with fiction in the upcoming episodes as one of the big events regarding the national crime syndicate would take place in Atlantic City several years later after 1920 which is the current time for Broadwalk Empire.
 

 

[PhilipG]

Really enjoyed this. A gangster show with none of the (what I saw as) flaws of the Sopranos: I liked the main character (Buscemi's), no annoying family and no therapy sessions! :-D

 

The comedy butler was excellent, as was the g/f. Kelly Macdonald too.

 

Can't wait for the rest of the season.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

The second show was great.

 

[JonZ]

Yea I liked it better than the first a well.

 

[todd stone]

good one!

 

[adamfarren]

I have to say, Episode 3 was pretty slooow. What did people make of the image at the end, with Nucky's muddy/rainy foosteps across the pristine inside of the hotel? I think an ongoing reference to him being unable to stay above the criminal fray; just like when Jimmy told him he can't be half a gangster anymore.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Three episodes in I am neither overly or under impressed
with Boardwalk Empire.


Visually the show is enormously gratifying.


It just seems that there's only enough going on to keep

you coming back each week but nothing major to really talk

about with your fellow HTF viewers.


I did say that I read that the initial reviews for the show

said that things didn't really kick into gear until about the

4th episode. That being said I am hoping for better viewing

ahead.

 

[joshEH]

I'm pretty sure that from now on, a wild-eyed Michael Shannon pushing through my gut with his fist will be the ending of many of my nightmares. As if it wasn't already known, Shannon is one creepy dude. He's like this generation's Ted Levine.


I enjoyed this episode, but I can see MacDonald becoming the weak link of the series for me. I've never particularly liked her, and she's not doing much to change that. (Unlike Pitt, who I didn't care for, but is now slightly growing on me.)


Michaels Stuhlbarg and Shannon are just so good. I feel bad for admitting this, but after the third episode, I just want so much more Stuhlbarg/Shannon, and so much less Pitt/Buscemi. Creepy fire-and-brimstone G-man, please never go away.
Liking this show a lot, even if it isn't quite in the same realm as Mad Men or The Sopranos. It's still damn fine entertainment, and on track to be the new Deadwood.

"He thought? Fuckin' Aristotle!"

 

[JonZ]

Last nights episode was kind of strange. They seemed to introduce a lot of things that went nowhere - so Im guessing theyre going to expand upon them in future episodes.


2 scenes I loved was Shannons character walking in with the warrant with added "Gmen". Then go outside where he drops money for them on the ground, they scrambled for it, then went onto the soup line. That was great.


The second was the Paz LaHuerta scene. Pretty nice on my GFs 50+ inch HDTV


Supposedly, as mentioned, the show really gets better after episode 4.


And I cant look at Chawkly without thinking "Omar".

 

[ScottH]

I love this show. Liked every episode. Interesting casting Gretchen Mol as Jimmy's mother as not only is she only 8 years older than Michael Pitt, but she looks fairly young for her age and they didn't appear to do much to make her look older. A little surprising considering how much attention to detail appears to be given to this show. When they first introduced her in the previous episode I thought it was Jimmy's mistress or sister or something.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by ScottH

When they first introduced her in the previous episode I thought it was Jimmy's mistress or sister or something.

Same here. I was taken aback slightly when he called her "Ma" in that scene.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

It was nice seeing Chawkly (Omar) on the screen. Then Lie To Me had Jamie Hector (Marlo). And Fringe last week had Andrew Royo (Bubbles) to go along with Lance Reddick. I even saw a clip/shot of Wood Harris (Avon Barksdale) but I no longer remember in what context. Quite a week for The Wire alumni.


The show has not captured my attention yet. I don't look forward to it every week. The only thing that would make it better for me is having someone tying the events on the screen to actual historical events and relationships. But just going by what's on the screen, I can barely make sense of it because I don't know the history. Capone, I know. I didn't know he started out in Jersey organized crime. Speaking of organized crime, I don't expect this to be like The Godfather (which was back in the day), or Goodfellas, Casino, The Sopranos (70's/80's, current). But I'm having a very difficult time picturing this as being anything big. Maybe it's too early. It just seems like a bunch of poor folks and then a few corrupt politicians and such doing "their thing." It's quite possible I'm not paying close enough attention (since the show bores me in long stretches, so I end up multitasking), but that's where I'm at so far.


I don't get the comparison to Deadwood. I just finished a Deadwood marathon and that show was captivating beginning to end. I question whether this show would receive the attention it is receiving if it didn't have the names it does behind it. I don't mind watching something for the name as long as the content keeps me. That was certainly the case with From The Earth To The Moon. But I find myself hoping this show picks up real soon because its actually becoming a chore to watch.