I'll take some quality time with Harrow
Loved those scenes
― Muammar for the road (Michael White), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 22:17 (twelve years ago) link
I just keep reading how this show is pointless, not just from M Seitz:
http://www.salon.com/topic/boardwalk_empire/
― Dr Morbois de Bologne (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 01:31 (twelve years ago) link
Interesting that Tim van Patten directed the episode. Whenever his name turned up on the credits of a Sopranos episode, it was a sign that there would be some substantial violence.
― your way better (Eazy), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 01:35 (twelve years ago) link
it's fine and better than the first season but it is a bit formulaic - some character stuff, some gore, some tits, some brutal gore
― conrad, Wednesday, 26 October 2011 01:35 (twelve years ago) link
he's of the blond '70s TV van Pattens?
― Dr Morbois de Bologne (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 01:41 (twelve years ago) link
Indeed!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Van_Patten
― your way better (Eazy), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 01:53 (twelve years ago) link
Seitz pretty otm there, especially that last week's episode was probably the best the series has produced. I think the violence is pretty lolzy but really I'm watching the show for amusement and Richard Harrow, who has turned out to be a pretty compelling character.
There's a lot of great stuff in BE, and I don't ever find it boring, but it never grabbed me enough to really rue the descent of Margaret (though her and Nucky's courtship was probably the best thing about the first season imo). The show lacks a point, or a larger theme, which is probably why it will never be amazing. Still, watch it after The Walking Dead and it's grade-A brilliant.
― encarta it (Gukbe), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 04:47 (twelve years ago) link
I only just watched episode 2 of this season but it seems like there is a plot this time around, so that's something.
― medium rear (silby), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 06:44 (twelve years ago) link
seen up to end of episode 3 i think, prob shouldn't be reading in case of spoilers, but anyway
Think that series 2 has taken off brilliantly, last few episodes of series one were a bit of a mess.
― generation lmbo (darraghmac), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 10:37 (twelve years ago) link
Seitz pretty otm there, especially that last week's episode was probably the best the series has produced.
uhhhh, did you read it? He called it pointlessly violent.
― Dr Morbois de Bologne (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 11:46 (twelve years ago) link
is that necessarily a value judgement
― generation lmbo (darraghmac), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 11:48 (twelve years ago) link
i mean, other things that were pointlessly violent- gangsters, bootleggers, the irish
― generation lmbo (darraghmac), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 11:49 (twelve years ago) link
from a dramatic standpoint, he argues
― Dr Morbois de Bologne (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 11:53 (twelve years ago) link
dramatisation of violent events doesn't require them to be softened. He's only arguing from personal preference there, not critical detachment
― generation lmbo (darraghmac), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 11:57 (twelve years ago) link
By last week's I mean the episode that aired last week, "What Does the Bee Do?". That's the one he says is one of the best episodes of TV of the year full stop. And it might be.
― encarta it (Gukbe), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 14:49 (twelve years ago) link
A show about Prohibition is 'pointlessly violent'?
― Muammar for the road (Michael White), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 15:25 (twelve years ago) link
A show about dougyboys coming home from the Great War to Prohibition, I could ask.
The dramatization of 'pointlessly' violent events can/should have a dramatic point. In theory.
― Dr Morbois de Bologne (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 15:26 (twelve years ago) link
They have a point, but a.) sometimes that point isn't that great and b.) they are excessive in their execution
― encarta it (Gukbe), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 15:29 (twelve years ago) link
It might be a lazy comparison because two of the writers from the Sopranos created them, but it seems like Mad Men inherited the adherence to larger thematic interests, the deep characterisation, and the more elegantly executed standalone episodes while Boardwalk got all the double-crossing plot machinations and the more base, violent streak.
Seitz seems as annoyed with the fans as much as the show itself. The mob stuff made The Sopranos a big crossover hit, but the viewership dropped (and those mob genre fans - i.e. the average male viewer) tuned out when it started with the episode-long dream sequences or Tony in a coma.
Boardwalk is in an odd position in that it wants to appeal to that mainstream fan base so it's reluctant to really wade into deeper territory, but it also has too many pretensions towards 'prestige' and 'legitimacy' to embrace the schlocky violent thrills that say, Spartacus could do. Of course, Game of Thrones is probably more violent than Boardwalk, and it is also a better show so what are ya gonna do.
― encarta it (Gukbe), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 15:45 (twelve years ago) link
boardwalk can't even seem to decide what to make of some of its own lead characters from one episode to the next, tbh, so asking for overarching themes might be a reach
― generation lmbo (darraghmac), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 15:51 (twelve years ago) link
that's otm. it's too obsessed with plot and has way too many characters to move around the board because of it.
― encarta it (Gukbe), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 15:53 (twelve years ago) link
i do think they appear to have spotted and worked on that so far this season, tbf.
First season really seemed to suffer from a sense of 'we're making this up as we go along', even if they weren't.
― generation lmbo (darraghmac), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 15:58 (twelve years ago) link
http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lto6q7IowP1qzyle2o1_1280.png?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1319731142&Signature=ufVBPe71L%2F4cbI2Photlg%2FEnBo8%3D
― Aerosol, Wednesday, 26 October 2011 16:00 (twelve years ago) link
I'd also take issue with Seitz' claim that the man mentioning his time fighting native americans only serves the purpose of allowing a scalping to take place later on. That scene and that relationship is as much about generational disrespect as anything else. The man talks about massacring indians with glee, as though it was the manly thing to do, and all these kids today coming back traumatized from laying in the and killing white folk just wasn't legitimate. I don't think it was very elegantly done, but it wasn't done just for the violence.
― encarta it (Gukbe), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 16:00 (twelve years ago) link
Seitz may also be missing the fact that one of the commonly tossed about modern takes on Prohibition is as a kind of latter-day Know-nothing nativist response to all these Catholics and Jews and foreigners living in cities, a kind of reassertion of WASP dominance.
― Muammar for the road (Michael White), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 16:09 (twelve years ago) link
I still think that WWI plus liquor-or-no-liquor plus corruption leads precisely to violence.
― Muammar for the road (Michael White), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 16:11 (twelve years ago) link
The show lacks a point, or a larger theme, which is probably why it will never be amazing. Still, watch it after The Walking Dead and it's grade-A brilliant.
― encarta it (Gukbe), Wednesday, October 26, 2011 12:47 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark
yeah, i agree with this. it's not really pushing the envelope thematically - though sometimes it gives you glimpses of the kind of show it COULD be - but it's coming into its own as really good entertainment.
tim van patten is probably the best 'in-house' HBO director
― The sham nation of Israel should be destroyed. (Princess TamTam), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 16:11 (twelve years ago) link
just caught up on this, holy hell, gruesome stuff. agree with most of what's been said, plotwise i have no idea what's going on with nucky anymore but there's enough characters around to entertain me. nice little pine barrens touch on the last ep too.
― sonderangerbot, Monday, 31 October 2011 00:06 (twelve years ago) link
^^ "Pine Barrens" jumped to mind for me too!
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Monday, 31 October 2011 03:29 (twelve years ago) link
Love that Eddie Cantor is a character on this show, going on about Ida and the girls. It's spooky.
― whoop, up the butt it goes (silby), Wednesday, 2 November 2011 03:46 (twelve years ago) link
boring episode
― sean gramophone, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 16:00 (twelve years ago) link
wasn't boring, was just a comedown after the insane-o previous ep
― The sham nation of Israel should be destroyed. (Princess TamTam), Wednesday, 2 November 2011 16:14 (twelve years ago) link
can someone explain to me where the women are hiding their long hair when it is "up", I have no idea how that works at all
― whoop, up the butt it goes (silby), Friday, 4 November 2011 20:27 (twelve years ago) link
YES! I was trying to get my wife to explain to me where all of Katie's hair went when she's in uniform.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Friday, 4 November 2011 22:12 (twelve years ago) link
i'm enjoying season 2 a lot.
― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 4 November 2011 23:11 (twelve years ago) link
I did not want to be reminded of Esther Rantzen every 10 minutes in this episode(nor did I want to see those fingers)
― kinder, Monday, 7 November 2011 06:02 (twelve years ago) link
ugh, those fingers, yea
― johnny crunch, Monday, 7 November 2011 12:07 (twelve years ago) link
ugh... the sound they made!
― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 7 November 2011 15:04 (twelve years ago) link
fell asleep during this episode.
― akm, Monday, 7 November 2011 15:37 (twelve years ago) link
Haha, yeah, the sound of those fingers was the first time this show has ever actually made me flinch. I'm still loving this season, even though I thought the ending was a bit rushed and anticlimactic. I mean, you'd think it would have unfolded a little more interestingly, considering how many storylines were tied up in it (trying my hardest to avoid spoilers here).
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Monday, 7 November 2011 19:29 (twelve years ago) link
those fingers coming off so obvious
― conrad, Monday, 7 November 2011 20:35 (twelve years ago) link
wasn't for me - i had a half a second of "the fuck was that soun.... OH GOD!" in my head.
― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 7 November 2011 21:51 (twelve years ago) link
rewatched this, glad I did, fuck. not sure I followed exactly why he did that to that guy, some irish shit I guess.
― akm, Wednesday, 9 November 2011 07:34 (twelve years ago) link
didn't get that at all either. thought he was going after nucky's hitman at first or something. kinda slow episode.
watching goodfellas right now i realize paz and lorraine bracco sound EXACTLY the same
― sonderangerbot, Thursday, 10 November 2011 20:49 (twelve years ago) link
i assumed that was the actual reason he was left behind there - to execute irish dude's enemies on the east coast.
― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 10 November 2011 20:53 (twelve years ago) link
this was episode was amazing
― encarta it (Gukbe), Monday, 14 November 2011 05:37 (twelve years ago) link
loving the peaches.
― s.clover, Monday, 14 November 2011 06:25 (twelve years ago) link
ya - good ep. loved the "the only winning move is not to play" part.
― Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 14 November 2011 17:33 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, this show has been on such a good run this season, not sure why the reception seems to be so muted.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Monday, 14 November 2011 17:33 (twelve years ago) link