Michael "Omar" Kenneth "Little" Williams, Steve Buscemi, and ehhhhh Michael Pitt in Martin Scorsese's BOARDWALK EMPIRE

siiiiiked

hellz yeah

i anticipate

Michael Shannon, too.

This page describes it as "Martin Scorcese and the Producers of Entourage."

Kind of funny to imagine a Scorcese Entourage: Johnny Drama on a coke binge, Ari accidentally kills guest star Linda Fiorentino, etc.

Guys, Dabney Coleman.

^^!!!!!

will totally watch just for him

drexel's class 4-ever

"Martin Scorcese and the Producers of Entourage."

lol where's that aspie meta thread nabisco started?

i guess the wire is the one hbo show marty hasn't cameo'd in

I saw Summer of Sam last weekend, and didn't realize that it was the bridge between GoodFellas and Sopranos.

i guess the wire is the one hbo show marty hasn't cameo'd in

― FREE DOM AND ETHAN (special guest stars mark bronson), Wednesday, June 10, 2009 7:48 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i loved his arc on dream on

Sepinwall Set Visit

Hah Dabney Coleman was awesome in Deadwood

???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZMP4VgmUWI

New Trailer

holla @ kelly macdonald

oooh kinda wish I had HBO

oooh kinda wish my system currently met the minimum requirements for viewing HBO.com

i just don't know about michael pitt. i guess it's nice for scorcese that he can squint and pretend he's directing dicaprio?

fuckin a between this and Luck I really need to figure out how I'm gonna watch HBO again. other than payin for it

is it wrong that i instantly thought for a second, man is he using Gimme Shelter AGAIN

Premiere date Sept. 19

new trailer
http://www.televisionaryblog.com/2010/07/trailer-park-hbo-releases-new-promo-for.html

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4129/4948984946_10b50e73d1_o.jpg

indeed

nyt not really feelin it - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/arts/television/17boardwalk.html?src=me&ref=arts

like every 21st-century non-documentary Marty project ever

but Morbs, they've finally addressed that complaint you've been making for years:

MARTIN SCORSESE’S PILOT episode for the TV series Boardwalk Empire finally gives HBO what the cable network has been faking for years: a sense of cinema. Scorsese gives it filmic qualities that have been degraded by most television production practices; qualities that are almost infinitesimal but real—as in the je ne sais quoi of a weirdly sumptuous New Year’s Eve celebration where cascading black balloons convey an impending social disaster as a culture celebrates its self-destruction.

Almost Criminal

i'll check this out but man it looks pretty fucking self-important

I'm not terribly excited. A big gangster soap opera is fine and all, but some depth would be good. I've not read much about it, but what I've seen hasn't really mentioned anything about that. Then again, I don't think anyone really noticed it about Deadwood at the start either.

more excited about Sporanos peeps + the cast than Scorcese's involvement, which I assume will decrease past the pilot.

long tracking shots and slow, exalted pans from ceiling to floor. ... in one scene, a man lies dead in a pool of blood as a Caruso record plays on a blood-splattered gramophone.

i mean... i feel i have seen enough of this shit to last five lifetimes.

stephen graham plays al capone now after playing was it babyface nelson in public enemies?

but some depth would be good

...

this show sounds effing awesome. there's no reason to believe some nyt hack who has binged on screeners. im gonna give it a go at any rate. who knows what depth it will or won't have.

This take from TIME is heartening:

Having helped build up the expectations for the show, I should put one slight caveat on them: I actually didn't love the show after the first episode, the epic, Martin Scorsese-directed pilot. It's really good: but it was really good in pretty much exactly ways that I expected it to be good—it wasn't an out-of-left-field surprise, a rethinking of a genre like The Sopranos was. By three or four episodes in, though, I could see the show developing its own vision and voice, one I hope (and expect) will be with us on TV for quite a while.

Was always way more excited for this than Treme.

when does it start?

Tonight.

9 eastern, but it's on three times in a row, so if you miss it another chance will roll around in an hour and fifteen minutes.

Sooooo...?

A lot of plot. A few off moments but some really enjoyable stuff as well. Over all I thought it was very good for a pilot.

This was fucking awesome. Ok, not the most illuminating review there, but shit. Sunday nights are shaping up! Next week, This, Mad Men, and Eastbound and Down?!?!?!!?! Treats.

I enjoyed this! Aside from the cliche "one mobster gets a shave while another gets blown away as opera plays" climax, I found it pretty enjoyable. Lotta good actors and Michael Pitt makes a pretty good Leo surrogate.

Could see it successfully sating the Deadwood and Sopranos audiences, if not necessarily the entire Wire one

opening credit sequence is soooooo generic HBO though, can't they craft these things to mesh with the shows rather than other credit sequences?

If the Wire was still around I wonder if there's would be McNulty floating slowly over Baltimore set to the Dream Syndicate

Buscemi is an odd choice for a series lead.

Looks gorgeous but cliched. I'm assuming it'll grow into its own at some point, right now it's a more cuddly Untouchables. I guess they couldn't really do something radical with a massive budget, they're playing it safe, they wanted another Sopranos and they're sort of getting it (Sopranos was much more imaginative coming out of the gate though). That said the cast is awesome.

The Ford book seemed so disjointed coming in the middle of what should have been a gripping conversation about how to deal with betrayal. Why they decided to derail that with a weird historical detail is bizarre!

Please hire somebody who knows typefaces for the historical signage ... was going nuts noticing all the historical inaccuracies. When it counted (closeups) they usually got it right though.

season four felt like a total drag to me -- the big thematic movements of the earlier seasons had basically ben fulfilled and they really didn't know how to advance interesting new plotlines (season three was already sorta manufactured by an artificial conflict in that regard and trying to pull the same trick over and over would get old _fast_), so i was fine they tied it off when they did.

Finished it yesterday. Totally love this show, brilliant, very underrated (or just under-viewed?). So glad I went for this because now I'm reluctant to start tv shows. I'm fairly confident it will rest safely next to OZ in my heart, but I'm more likely to re-watch this.

Loved so many of the characters. The last few episodes of season 4 is the best ender I've seen of any drama series, with Richard, Chalky and his daughter, Gillian being deceived and the incredibly tense fight between Eli and Knox. All very upsetting and compelling. I felt genuinely sad about some of it. Might cry if I watch it again.
I was also I initially impatient with the flashbacks of season 5 but I think they built it up to the finish very nicely.

Michael Shannon as Van Alden is my favourite character in any tv show ever. One of my favourite screen performances of anything ever. Cherish Shannon while we have him.

Richard Harrow is obviously great too. Watching half his face trembling is heartbreaking.

Buscemi obviously too. Almost forgot to mention him because... this sounds silly but somehow I forget Nucky is Buscemi despite not being a radical departure from anything you'd expect of him. Gillian, Chalky, Narcisse all great too.

I think maybe they didn't show the demise of Rothstein because they didn't want you to see him lose his cool any more than when he shouts in an argument. Sometimes the stiffness of his smile with those calm eyes was hilarious and creepy.

It's a real shame there wasn't more time for Margaret in the last two seasons but I guess they couldn't find much more story for her. I just assumed she'd always be the secondary character.

Stephen Root as Means was brilliant. Surprised there's no celebration here of his "grim visaged thugees" line.

Just a shame we never got to see that loudmouth on Luciano's side get killed.

the dream version of this show i have in my head (that could have never been made cause it wouldve meant putting an expensive show that wasn't a phenomenon on for well over a decade, like possibly l&o or er type lifespan) is you keep it relatively nonfiction (a la deadwood, so very relatively), have buscemi (or maybe someone else, though i liked buscemi but a lot of ppl couldn't get past the casting) as enoch johnson, have the initial figures in charge from which the next generation got their chops (torrio, rothstein), have three arcs - first arc ends w/ capone's downfall and luciano setting up the commission (like the show, only the focus is going this way so that by this point enoch is just a supporting character)(the show wouldn't be named boardwalk empire obv), the second arc is the height of the mob, maybe it ends w/ giancana's downfall idk, the third arc is the downfall of the mob basically ending w/ gotti.

I know very little about the true crime stuff but I think I generally preferred what seemed to be the purely fictional stuff.

Just finished watching all 5 seasons. I was never bored. Beautifully produced and acted. Evocative. Great series.

And I take back all the bad things i've said in the past re: Michael Shannon being an emotionless, one-note actor. He was one of the best things in this.

Although it got better after he died.

3>4>2>5>1

i still havent finished the series. once knucky started hanging out in cuba i got bored & gave up

Keep going, it's great.

idk if it's great but I stand by my "ends as well as could be expected" upthread

They just never figured out what they were trying to say, did they?

otm, they went for a redemptive/doomed character arc for Nucky in the last season to make up for it (when in doubt might as well go Greek tragedy)

still have yet to catch up with this (only through episode 1 of season 4) but this...

thinking of omar's lynching story and the cunny story this week: in both cases, two of three lines in i am bored, i can see the punchline but i feel like i've got to sit through another minute of "aria" writing to get to it, i don't believe the other character's reaction, and i'm thinking about the writer not the show. it's shitty writing that ruins suspension of disbelief. i don't have a problem with speeches in drama per se. maybe these two just sucked.
― caek, Friday, October 29, 2010 4:01 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

yes! completely otm

these speeches try s0 hard and fail

also abe rothstein's pool ball story

― it's always random in wackydelphia (history mayne), Friday, October 29, 2010 10:10 AM (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

...is otm. and the major issue with the poolball story is that Rothstein is the one telling it! If that same story was told by someone else *about* Rothstein without the dialogue being changed, it would work. as it is, it deflates the threat and comes off as actually completely try-hard empty posturing. i feel like it's almost something they should teach in writing 101, it's such a major error.

season 4 is by far the strongest season of BE, for what it's worth

I'm gonna check it out soon! there's just too many damn shows...

I liked season 3 best, though 4 is good too. The jump in quality between 2 and 3 was pretty great.

Hated Season 3 myself. I actually like Bobby Canavale as an actor but his character and storyline made the whole thing a real drag. Agreed on Season 4's higher quality, though 1/2 were probably the best IMO, really liked Jimmy.

Another thumbs up for season 4. I actually found this show more memorable than most of these things. Now I'm really reluctant to start anything because I don't even have much time for films anymore.

i still havent finished this damn series. cuba is SO boring to me, I nope out every time I start up again. i like S1 & 2 the best, Jimmy was my favorite

After seeing Get Out, I've been thinking about what a treasure Stephen Root is, especially in this show. I could watch a whole spinoff series about Gaston Means. Had no idea he was Bill in King Of The Hill.

Stephen Root is a treasure in every appearance

I’ve been rewatching this and forgot that, with the exception of a couple over the top characters, how it really seems like it’s spinning its wheels by mid season three and then there are TWO more seasons? Sheesh

I definitely liked the two last seasons best.

I think the two impulses that ultimately hamstring the show are the impulse to give every character and arc, and the inability to be flexible in the arcs of actual historical figures.

Except the ridiculousness of giving Michael Shannon’s character endless arcs, because he’s just so great they kept tagging on more. I think he got typecast for too long after this part, but he just plays emotionally stunted and volatile so well!

i never watched past season two but goddamn this show could do sexy v well

despite the thread title I liked the Pitt-having seasons best

was never convinced by Buscemi tbh

not in this role, kind of agreed

i still havent finished bc the final season was so boring

Pitt seasons def best for me, he was so good

yeah I love the busc obviously but I never ever liked him for this

the closing arc of s2 was the most engaging this show ever got imo, the whole thing was just...painfully not as good as it should have been / as good as the production values and pedigree and tremendous supporting cast all suggested it should be

yeah we just couldnt see any point in moving on after that arc ended, way too much had gotten ridiculous at that stage, despite the talent and quality involved

adding Simon to blocklist

the thing about the Jimmy character is that he was a crucial plot hinge and the few moments where Pitt’s acting was necessary either worked or didn’t, but very few of his ephemeral moments made me want more

but it was such a plot hinge that season three floundered, as did the very end of season two, knowing he’d be written out

they obviously thought season two might be the end and it’d be fair — season three does nothing real with the fact Margaret gives the land for the highway to the church other than a bump in hospital cred

I’m into four now, and have no recollection of Katherine Waterston’s character arc but hope it does well

(i’d been drinking the prohibition hooch on first viewing)

It has grown for me. It wasn't as tight as a lot of other shows but I think it's ultimately one of my favorites.

I don't remember katherine waterston on it at all

I didn't realize she was in this because I wasn't aware of her at the time.

she’s Harrow’s (straight up merc half-face guy) sister in season four apparently!

ah yes another great character who got nothing of interest to do for multiple seasons iirc

the whole cuba thing i understand storywise/historically but every scene was like whyyyyyyy

I feel like the broad story strokes were sketched out by the producers but they weren’t necessarily where the writers wanted to go, or something they were inspired to write

that feeling is v palpable

williams was so damn good on this show. the attention today has understandably focused on omar, but chalky was nearly as complex, and elevated every scene

otm

he was so good at showing the inner struggle, and the real emotion of Chalky. and he definitely made Chalky’s story as gripping as Nucky’s, he owned the screen at all times

lmao at this

One of my closest friends was a PA on BOARDWALK EMPIRE for a long time and was scared of Michael K. Williams, who he only knew as Omar. The first time he had to call MKW from his trailer, MKW opened the door, stared him down, then tickled him and ran away. RIP

— ★ (@corpseinorbit) September 6, 2021

I mainly knew him as Chalky, some I watched the Wire so long ago. Chalky is one of my favorite characters in modern TV, just endless depth and so many facets. He was utterly believable in this role.

Obv he was great, forgive me for looking askance at the Twitter overload wrt his performance in Lovecraft Country which I never saw anyone mention until today, a show everyone hated. Was it better than consensus was when it was airing?

Lovecraft Country fkn ruled, I loved it start to finish then & now idc what the stupid “consensus” was. And Williams was great in it.

ok cool. it seemed like a lot of people hated it and I just didn't get around to it. will rectify that.

highly recommend!

VG on the money, it was a great show with a few episodes that were absolutely incredible. Williams was just one of the incredible cast members - Jonathan Majors, Wunmi Mosaku and Aunjanue Ellis were all amazing.

yeah i def don’t think everyone hated lovecraft country. it was ambitious and a bit inconsistent but was truly excellent at times. and yeah, mkw’s performance was stunning, same with majors and courtney b vance