57 replies to this topic

[J.A.A. Purves]

Charlie Cox (from Stardust and Stone of Destiny) joins the cast.

[J.A.A. Purves]

[J.A.A. Purves]

[J.A.A. Purves]

Ken Burns is turning his documentary skills towards this story.

Season Two starts next month, on September 25.

[Tyler]

Listen to Regina Spektor's version of "My Man" for the first season soundtrack.

[J.A.A. Purves]

That's better.


[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW6XHApigE8"]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=MW6XHApigE8[/url]

Edited by Persiflage, 31 August 2011 - 12:54 PM.

[J.A.A. Purves]

In my personal opinion, this is still the best show currently on HBO.

Don't know if anyone around here is watching this. For some dumb reason, they haven't got Season One on DVD yet. That's bad marketing right there, but it shouldn't matter too much since HBO always makes it easy to catch up.

I forgot how enjoyable these episodes were. Watching this show is sort of like reading a good historical novel. The first episode of Season Two takes us back to the impending conflict that was set up at the end of Season One. These characters are so many and they are all so well-developed this time, that it's a pleasure to watch almost any single one of them on the screen. Jack Huston is looking like one of the best actors on the show (with only half a face to work with). Michael Pitt has suddenly made Jimmy a much more interesting character for me as a character who, in spite of whoever he's siding with at the moment, looks like a guy who can't decide who is real father is. Michael K. Williams looks like he's going to have a bigger part this time, and when things get worse for Nucky, I wouldn't be surprised if he's the ally who turns out to be the most valuable. And Steve Buscemi ... I didn't remember him having as heavy of a presence in the first episode. This episode the guy actually has gravitas, or whatever it's called. The plot just started, but he's figuring it out. Michael Shannon's expressionless face as Van Alden taking out his wife ... had the most laughs for the episode.

Alan Sepinwall -

Quote

Few dramas on television attempt as many things as "Boardwalk Empire" does on a weekly basis. Fellow HBO show "Game of Thrones" feels like the only other current drama that has the same scope. "Boardwalk" not only has to recreate the Atlantic City of the 1920s, but toggle back and forth between the boardwalk, Chicago, Manhattan, Philadelphia and even the White House. It's both a crime story and a political story - and suggests that, more often than not throughout history, those are the same thing - with a sprawling cast of characters, some real and some fictional, and all with his or her own inner life and agenda. And it strives to pack every frame with details that evoke the sights, feel and sound of Prohibition-era America. Judge "Boardwalk" on what it attempts, and it's extraordinary. Judge it on what it succeeds at, and it's still a very good show - and often great - but one that still seems to be figuring itself out a bit in year two.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for gangster stories, but I don't get the impression that Boardwalk Empire is attempting and failing at anything. So the pace is slow (as a ton of reviewers are griping), it's a huge story with a large historical cast of characters that the writers care enough about to give significant time for. That's rare, and HBO needs to allow them to do it in their own way.

[J.A.A. Purves]

[J.A.A. Purves]

This show is still getting better. Compelling and gut wrenching last three episodes. I've enjoyed it so much I'm finishing up a review for Season 1, which, btw, comes out on DVD finally on January 10.

I'll also write up a review of Season 2 asap. So more on this soon ...

Edited by Persiflage, 12 December 2011 - 10:48 PM.

[J.A.A. Purves]

Great interview with Terence Winter on the second season finale and the surging popularity of his show. For anyone who hasn't seen it, the interview is full of spoilers. But here's a few nonspoiler quotes:

Quote

... We're going to come back to the series over a year into the future. Nucky's trajectory as a gangster has continued to grow. Nucky could have a different personality when we come back. And then depending on who he interacts with, it'll be a very different energy on the show ... You're constantly reinventing the series even though you're keeping it the same series. People come and go, and leave and come back. That's sort of the job. It's almost like a magician: Look over here! Okay, now look over here! Just direct your attention somewhere else. Our job is to tell compelling stories so that people don't get fixated to what the show was in a particular season. The same thing Matt (Weiner) has done to "Mad Men." He's taken the detonator to that show a couple of times. The agency crumbles, and you come back and it's a different set-up. So similar in some ways ...

I'd like to explore more aspects of some of the characters, deeper aspects of characters we've gotten to know a little bit: Rothstein, Luciano, Lansky, Capone, Chalky, Richard. Those are people who already exist and I'd like to get to know more about them. On the other hand, they also need conflicts and people to butt up against. So there will be new characters and new situations ...

Also, Winter says he's bringing a new James Cagney-type character into Season Three.

Also, we're going to start seeing a lot more of Stephen Graham -

Quote

As for the upcoming third season of Boardwalk Empire, Winter confirmed that not only will fan favorite war veteran/assassin Richard Harrow be back ..., but focus will also shift towards Al Capone's (Stephen Graham) rise in the criminal underworld. Winter mentioned that this mafia plotline will actually involve the return of agent on the run Van Alden (Michael Shannon). "People who are really students of Mob history will pick up on the fact that Cicero, Ill., is the place Al Capone became headquartered in 1924. So we put him (Van Alden) in a place where he theoretically could interact with other characters on the show," he said.

"The plan is now is we would come back in season 3 a little further into the future and start to really track Al Capone’s rise and — God willing — through the course of the series. By 1925, Capone was the guy everybody recognizes — the guy in the white fedora who’s firmly in charge of Chicago. Hopefully we’ll be on the air long enough to see that guy. Certainly in [season 3] we’ll start to see Capone on pretty much equal footing as Johnny Torrio in terms of who’s running the town."

[Thom Wade]

So...I just finished season 2 (it was on my DVR since it first aired...I thought I should get around to watching the season. Wow. Those final three episodes were...well...wow. I did not see them coming at all.

Spoiler

Van Alden taking off after being found out for the murder (the black preacher's quote right before he runs was nicly done)...Jimmy's attempts to get back in Nucky's good graces-and killing the Col. The death of Jimmy's wife. The discovery that what I thought was creepy sub-text in Jimmy and his mother's relationship is not creepy subtext...it's just creepy reality...The death of Jimmy-by Nucky and Nucky's now wife transferring stuff to the church rather than to Nucky, as she was supposed to.

It was a crazy way to close out the season.

[J.A.A. Purves]

Nezpop, on 16 July 2012 - 09:28 AM, said:

It was a crazy way to close out the season.

Yes it was, but it probably would have made Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides or Shakespeare happy.

[J.A.A. Purves]

Edited by Persiflage, 27 August 2012 - 11:02 AM.

[Tyler]

Via The AV Club.

[J.A.A. Purves]

Seven episodes into the third season. They had a hole to fill and at first I thought they were going to use a new character to do it. So far that really hasn't happened. Instead, we're getting to know some of the more peripheral characters much better. While the first half of this season has seemed like the darkest season in the show so far, it's working. Nucky is the least likeable that he's been for the whole show, although after last night's episode, it looks like something might be changing. Margaret seems lost, but she's trying hard to find something to hold on to. The show's biggest new character, Gyp Rosetti (Bobby Cannavale) is interesting primarily because he's the most out of control character the show has had. Prohibition's making crime highly profitable attracted some monsters, and he's representative of them. Whenever he loses control over a trifle ("Bone for Tuna?"), his men can't get a word in edgewise. Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg and Michael K. Williams are all still scene stealers (and the fourth and latest fantastic scene stealer, by the way, is now Stephen Root). Capone, Luciano and Lansky are all growing into bigger characters (and facing moral challenges of sorts). Gillian Darmody is the creepiest femme fatale I think I've ever seen. Owen Slater (Charlie Cox) has risen to the role of a former character. And yet, you can't help but get the feeling that he intends to be different. He's still holding something back.

For me, the best part of the show is Jack Huston's Richard Harrow. Time Magazine just called him the "moral center" of Boardwalk Empire. There were quite a few prayers in the last episode. Only two were in private. Rosetti's prayer was uncomfortably like Salieri's prayers in Amadeus. It makes you wonder why he's praying at all. ("I'm praying." "You're yelling.") Richard Harrow's prayer was serious, sincere and illuminated something that makes him different from almost every other character on the show. He's actually good. He's seen and been through so much, but he's somehow remained uncorrupted. Everything he's done has been out of his loyalty to friendship and family. If there is goodness and safety to be found in anyone in this story, it's to be found with Harrow.

The seventh episode was the first episode this season for me that was entirely mesmerizing. Scene after scene after scene contained little action but was completely captivating nonetheless. Shea Whigham is a much better actor than I had noticed before. I'm not sure if any episode had made it this clear how much he loves his brother. He sometimes sounds grumpy or even whiny, but there's a lot more going on if you pay attention to his eyes. I've never been as happy to see Harrow have as large a part in the story as he did this episode.

My opinion of Stephen Graham and Anatol Yusef's acting is rising as well. I hadn't really thought of this before, but, when things started heating up towards the beginning of Prohibition, guys like Capone, Lansky and Luciano probably often thought that they probably wouldn't make it. The odds were much greater that they'd die rather than really do anything else. This dynamic is starting to play out as Luciano is being pressured to turn against Lansky and Rothstein.

The story is still so grand in scope, that little minor characters (from American history) keep waltzing on and off the screen making you wish you could just spend a whole feature length film with just that one character. James Cromwell just did this an episode ago as Andrew W. Mellon. Root keeps doing this as Gaston Bullock Means. Stuhlbarg's been doing it as Arnold Rothstein from the very beginning of the show. Others are saying that Boardwalk Empire is still too slow. How can it be too slow? Every episode feels like it flies by in about 5 minutes.

[J.A.A. Purves]

Another little example of why I enjoy this show:

[J.A.A. Purves]

Ron Livingston, Jeffrey Wright and Brian Geraghty are all joining Season 4.

[J.A.A. Purves]

Patricia Arquette (True Romance, Lost Highway, Medium) and Eric Ladin (Generation Kill, Mad Men, The Killing) join the cast.