Boardwalk Empire

[Quality Start Machine]

Pleasantly surprised by both episodes so far.

1880s Nucky > 1930s Nucky

Al Capone is being played brilliantly after all.

The Eli/Mueller tandem is gold, should have happened years ago and could be its own spinoff.

Killing Rothstein between seasons is disappointing and must have to do with actor availability.

So ready for some boobie hatch lesbian shenanigans.

Thought we were getting that this week. Pretty relieved we didn't.

[R-V]

RIP Mickey. I thought he might be the last man standing at the end of the show but he couldn't keep his yap shut.

I'm going to miss this show. It was never able to overcome the original sin of having an extremely boring main character which prevented it from true greatness, but putting that aside it's one of the few shows that keeps me fully engrossed - the direction and acting are always just ridiculously good. The opening montage of this last episode, summing up the mob war with that driving soundtrack, was fantastic.

[Quality Start Machine]

RIP Mickey. I thought he might be the last man standing at the end of the show but he couldn't keep his yap shut.

They followed the Sopranos formula enough without leaving the Paulie Walnuts of the show as the last survivor.

[CBStew]

I'm going to miss this show. It was never able to overcome the original sin of having an extremely boring main character which prevented it from true greatness,

Had it had any other personality type as a main character (e.g. Al Capone) it would have been a different kind of show.  Maybe better, maybe not.  I don't know about the actual "Enoch Thompson" but the bland, bourgeois, person at the center of this story injected a type of corruption and evil that made for a much more interesting story line than its predecessor "The Untouchables".  I think Buscemi's character was far from boring. 

[R-V]

I'm going to miss this show. It was never able to overcome the original sin of having an extremely boring main character which prevented it from true greatness,

Had it had any other personality type as a main character (e.g. Al Capone) it would have been a different kind of show.  Maybe better, maybe not.  I don't know about the actual "Enoch Thompson" but the bland, bourgeois, person at the center of this story injected a type of corruption and evil that made for a much more interesting story line than its predecessor "The Untouchables".  I think Buscemi's character was far from boring. 

Yeah, on second thought "boring" is an unfair description, and you're right - maybe this show would have been worse with a colorful character like Capone or Rothstein on screen the majority of the time, instead of doled out to us in pleasing moderation. I just never identified or sympathized with Nucky the way I did with Capone, or Jimmy, or Eli - to me those characters had interesting and relatable flaws and were likeable to some extent, whereas Nucky was just a coldhearted bastard who had shaved off all of his compelling character traits in converting himself into a money and power pursuing automaton. Which to your point may well have been Winter's intent - showing the banality of evil and corruption, etc etc.

I might view this differently if this season's backstory had been explored earlier in the show's run. We know the general outline - that delivering Gillian to the Commodore was Nucky's original sin - but having it shown rather than told has really helped in sketching out Nucky's character. And my god the casting for the flashbacks has been unfuckingreal - young Nucky, Commodore and Gillian are eerily similar to the older actors.

[Quality Start Machine]

I'm going to miss this show. It was never able to overcome the original sin of having an extremely boring main character which prevented it from true greatness,

Had it had any other personality type as a main character (e.g. Al Capone) it would have been a different kind of show.  Maybe better, maybe not.  I don't know about the actual "Enoch Thompson" but the bland, bourgeois, person at the center of this story injected a type of corruption and evil that made for a much more interesting story line than its predecessor "The Untouchables".  I think Buscemi's character was far from boring. 

Yeah, on second thought "boring" is an unfair description, and you're right - maybe this show would have been worse with a colorful character like Capone or Rothstein on screen the majority of the time, instead of doled out to us in pleasing moderation. I just never identified or sympathized with Nucky the way I did with Capone, or Jimmy, or Eli - to me those characters had interesting and relatable flaws and were likeable to some extent, whereas Nucky was just a coldhearted bastard who had shaved off all of his compelling character traits in converting himself into a money and power pursuing automaton. Which to your point may well have been Winter's intent - showing the banality of evil and corruption, etc etc.

I might view this differently if this season's backstory had been explored earlier in the show's run. We know the general outline - that delivering Gillian to the Commodore was Nucky's original sin - but having it shown rather than told has really helped in sketching out Nucky's character. And my god the casting for the flashbacks has been unfuckingreal - young Nucky, Commodore and Gillian are eerily similar to the older actors.

I actually Lucky Luciano is the most compelling character, and a series built around the formation of the Five Families would be riveting as hell.

[CBStew]

I'm going to miss this show. It was never able to overcome the original sin of having an extremely boring main character which prevented it from true greatness,

Had it had any other personality type as a main character (e.g. Al Capone) it would have been a different kind of show.  Maybe better, maybe not.  I don't know about the actual "Enoch Thompson" but the bland, bourgeois, person at the center of this story injected a type of corruption and evil that made for a much more interesting story line than its predecessor "The Untouchables".  I think Buscemi's character was far from boring. 

Yeah, on second thought "boring" is an unfair description, and you're right - maybe this show would have been worse with a colorful character like Capone or Rothstein on screen the majority of the time, instead of doled out to us in pleasing moderation. I just never identified or sympathized with Nucky the way I did with Capone, or Jimmy, or Eli - to me those characters had interesting and relatable flaws and were likeable to some extent, whereas Nucky was just a coldhearted bastard who had shaved off all of his compelling character traits in converting himself into a money and power pursuing automaton. Which to your point may well have been Winter's intent - showing the banality of evil and corruption, etc etc.

I might view this differently if this season's backstory had been explored earlier in the show's run. We know the general outline - that delivering Gillian to the Commodore was Nucky's original sin - but having it shown rather than told has really helped in sketching out Nucky's character. And my god the casting for the flashbacks has been unfuckingreal - young Nucky, Commodore and Gillian are eerily similar to the older actors.

I actually Lucky Luciano is the most compelling character, and a series built around the formation of the Five Families would be riveting as hell.

I never thought about Meyer Lansky as a young man.  When I hear his name I picture a pathetic old man.  How did he deserve to get old?

[InternetApex]

Young Nucky's dentures should get their own imdb page. They absolutely DOMINATE every scene they're in.

[CBStew]

Young Nucky's dentures should get their own imdb page. They absolutely DOMINATE every scene they're in.

Those are his real teeth.  You thought that they hired him for his acting?

[InternetApex]

Young Nucky's dentures should get their own imdb page. They absolutely DOMINATE every scene they're in.

Those are his real teeth.  You thought that they hired him for his acting?

Oh, my god. I think you're right.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

I ran through every episode in about a 2 month period and then proceeded to read every word of this thread for the first time ever and I will now validate 94% of it.  Like a lot of you, I was most fascinated by Arnold Rothstein and Richard Farrow--whom until I saw this show only existed as a 2-dimensional prop gag stand-in for Mike Olt (which still makes me laugh BTW).  Also, there's something alluring about Arnold Rothstein in my opinion, and this was enhanced in how he was portrayed by that guy who starred in that Coen brothers movie as that Jewish fella from Minnesota whose life sorta falls apart.

I'll only add that I never watched a show that constantly compelled me to go to Wikipedia. I know it's technically fictional, but the constant movement of real players and moments from that time just kept sparking my curiosity.  Also, the benefit of watching the episodes as they're produced now is getting to watch the 3 or so minutes after each show with Winter or the other dude discussing 3 scenes and what went into them.

In short, I devoured the shit of this show like few shows I've ever consumed before.

*belch*

[InternetApex]

I ran through every episode in about a 2 month period and then proceeded to read every word of this thread for the first time ever and I will now validate 94% of it.  Like a lot of you, I was most fascinated by Arnold Rothstein and Richard Farrow--whom until I saw this show only existed as a 2-dimensional prop gag stand-in for Mike Olt (which still makes me laugh BTW).  Also, there's something alluring about Arnold Rothstein in my opinion, and this was enhanced in how he was portrayed by that guy who starred in that Coen brothers movie as that Jewish fella from Minnesota whose life sorta falls apart.

I'll only add that I never watched a show that constantly compelled me to go to Wikipedia. I know it's technically fictional, but the constant movement of real players and moments from that time just kept sparking my curiosity.  Also, the benefit of watching the episodes as they're produced now is getting to watch the 3 or so minutes after each show with Winter or the other dude discussing 3 scenes and what went into them.

In short, I devoured the shit of this show like few shows I've ever consumed before.

*belch*

Everything that aired after they killed off Jimmy was just well-produced pulp. Which is fine.