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

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.

They have a point, but a.) sometimes that point isn't that great and b.) they are excessive in their execution

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.

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

that's otm. it's too obsessed with plot and has way too many characters to move around the board because of it.

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.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lto6q7IowP1qzyle2o1_1280.png?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1319731142&Signature=ufVBPe71L%2F4cbI2Photlg%2FEnBo8%3D

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.

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.

I still think that WWI plus liquor-or-no-liquor plus corruption leads precisely to violence.

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

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.

^^ "Pine Barrens" jumped to mind for me too!

Love that Eddie Cantor is a character on this show, going on about Ida and the girls. It's spooky.

boring episode

wasn't boring, was just a comedown after the insane-o previous ep

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

YES! I was trying to get my wife to explain to me where all of Katie's hair went when she's in uniform.

i'm enjoying season 2 a lot.

I did not want to be reminded of Esther Rantzen every 10 minutes in this episode
(nor did I want to see those fingers)

ugh, those fingers, yea

ugh... the sound they made!

fell asleep during this episode.

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).

those fingers coming off so obvious

wasn't for me - i had a half a second of "the fuck was that soun.... OH GOD!" in my head.

rewatched this, glad I did, fuck. not sure I followed exactly why he did that to that guy, some irish shit I guess.

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

i assumed that was the actual reason he was left behind there - to execute irish dude's enemies on the east coast.

this was episode was amazing

loving the peaches.

ya - good ep. loved the "the only winning move is not to play" part.

Yeah, this show has been on such a good run this season, not sure why the reception seems to be so muted.

A combination of backlash against/not living up to the hype of the first season probably.

I thought the beach scene between Jimmy and his wife was spectacular. Also like that her lesbian dalliance from last season wasn't a one-off "Marissa on The O.C." deal.

also: it has to compete with zombies.

Yeah, but the zombie show is terrible now. Its easy to tell which one of those Sunday night shows wins out for us, we always watch Empire as it airs and now have two eps of Walking Dead just sitting on the DVR.

I DVR Walking Dead, Hell on Wheels, and the 11pm Boardwalk Empire and watch the NFL-delayed Amazing Race live. I find that leaving Boardwalk for the end of the night gives me the most satisfaction. I am also aware that I watch way too much television on Sunday nights.

How is Hell on Wheels? Thought about giving that a shot, but we would up getting way too caught up in the first three seasons of Breaking Bad on Netflix.

i agree. but *zombies* seems to automatically grab certain numbers no matter how awful the writing may be.

xpost

Thats true, just so disappointing to me how badly they've fumbled a show with such great promise.

a little OT - but thursday are the same as sundays with me - where I watch one right away and wait until i have time for the other. (Always Sunny... being what I watch immediately and Community waits until later) (ya ya, i know how much Community is loved here and i still like it plenty) (def way more than Walking Dead)

I'm not sure about Hell on Wheels just yet. It's got enough promise that I'm happy to give it at least half a season. xposts

Back to BE: I think this ep dealt with the violent tendencies complained about up thread. Some great character stuff as well as probably the most exciting bit of political maneuvering. I'm guessing Nucky is going to start selling guns to the Irish?

Prohibition and the surplus of Thompson sub machine guns were the two major factors accounting for the rise of organized crime in the 20's and 30's. Notice how mostly you only see pistols, shotguns and rifles involved (with the exception of a Gatling gun) in the series so far? Fire power is about to get amped real quick, I imagine.

So what did everyone make of the pretty batshit last few eps? (BTW, HBO seems to be on a bit of an incest tip now what with this and GoT)

Finale was amazing.

I liked the episode giving us Jimmy's totally insane backstory a bit more than the finale (I think I'm just a sucker for backstory in anything other than Lost?) but yeah that stretch run made me feel like I hadn't wasted my time watching this show in the first place.

The episode immediately preceding the finale, should have been the finale.

I think Nucky and Rothstein arranged their phone call timing so that Luciano and Lansky would overhear -- so that when they learn of what happens they will wonder if they are also susceptible