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

No Van Alden. Guessing he'll play a much bigger part in S4.

4 episodes in, totally sold on this

midway through season 2 - agree there's some thematic depth lacking here (what this show is really "about" is not entirely clear to me) but it makes up for it with great characters and tight plotting. find all the central characters compelling in one way or another. and of course it looks great. all the historical figures and refs are handled in a kind of obvious DO YOU SEE way but they are also fun so whatevs.

In hindsight I think the third season of this show was the TV I enjoyed most last year.

Third season took it to an unexpected new level, certainly.

fuck yeah Jeffrey Wright

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9F4LjWidmk

this isn't on for a stupidly long time :(

stupid fall

If this series continues the trend of each season being significantly better that the last this should be amazing.

excited

whoah @ s3 btw

this must be back soon, forget everything about s3 except that it was better than s1/s2.

they put owen in a box

back on Sunday!

Margaret's whole story arc in s3 with the women's clinic and "Dutch cups" and just generally being in the middle of things was so great

The S3 finale was awesome. I got into this half way through S3 and caught up on the rest, it does get better by the series. Awful theme music though, it doesn't evoke the era or the mood of the show and if I am watching 3 eps in a row it gets annoying. I noticed Gillian was in the S4 trailer so she survived the H overdose after her failed attempt at jabbing Rosetti.

the theme music does stand out as being the only non-period music used, it's a bit incongruous. otoh I find the period music kind of funny too, as its hard for me to think of silly-sounding boogie woogie piano jams as the hardcore gangster sdtk of the era

A relatively quiet opener, beautifully shot I thought, particularly the Hitchcokian long shots of Nucky standing on the balcony towards the end.

The shifty young FBI guy is intriguing, he's new right? Also could someone remind me what Harrow's status with Nucky's regime is at the moment?

Harrow, for reasons of his own, massacred almost all of Gyp Rosetti's men. He no longer has any loyalties to Gillian but I dunno about how he feels about Nucky. (I didn't see the premier btw)

I imagine Nucky appreciates that he iced a bunch of dudes he wanted dead, but he's probably a bit wary of him because of the association with Jimmy.

Thanks!

the bit with the actress and nucky was very well done

Yeah, they're good at telegraphing someone as a long term character then pulling the rug away (see also that cocky kid who Nucky wasted last season).

haha yeah that bit was funny, even Owen wasn't sure Nucky was finally gonna kill him

that was great, whole episode of 'this kid's got moxy!' and owen as shocked as the audience when nucky offed him.

anyone watch the latest one? good new character imo.

I get the feeling the good doctor is going to try and mentor/politicise Chalky and he ain't impressed with the manner which he lets the casual racism slide and his subservient role to Nucky. He is very observant, I mean how does he know that Dunn has some Libyan in his family background? He keeps referring to him as "The Libyan" and dead voyeurist's wife as "The Nordic lady".

I just assumed that words like "Libyan" and "Nordic" were anthropological/biological terms that Narcisse uses to prescribe racial identity.

But yeah, clearly this guy knows what's up, I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with him. The Chalky idea is a good one. Dragging a white lady through the muck, lynching her and leaving her lying under a massive sign saying "THE FUTURE" is highly suggestive.

The show's developing a really interesting cast of characters now - the doctor, Mr Gant, this little FBI lad who's clearly got a bit of a screw loose (actually reminds me of BB's Todd with his contrast between polite/bumbling exterior and apparent psychopathic tendencies, the Capone brothers seem like good fun - it's all looking good atm.

Very much enjoying Van Alden's steady descent into the underworld too, I love how the only time he sheds his very mannered, agonisingly awkward persona and seems comfortable in his own skin is when he's beating the shit out of someone or other.

Also no way is Eddie's promotion gonna end well for him, has he not noticed what seems to end up happening to all Nucky's other lieutenants?

I just assumed that words like "Libyan" and "Nordic" were anthropological/biological terms that Narcisse uses to prescribe racial identity.

yeah same. he said something to this effect.

Also no way is Eddie's promotion gonna end well for him, has he not noticed what seems to end up happening to all Nucky's other lieutenants?

and yeah was thinking this exact thing. it's certain death.

Narcisse gave me the serious creeps.

I've always had a lot of time for Geoffrey Wright.

I have not liked a lot of the movies he is in, but he is usually the best part of them, brilliant actor.

I agree, eg A Single Shot.

Enjoyed Jeffrey Wright's character & the way he contrasts with Chalky - interested to see where he fits in the wider scheme of things long term.

Still trying to figure out Harrow's deal now. Weird, dare I say dull, sidetrack for such an engaging character

Harrow's deal will get more interesting, he has put his sister in peril by leaving her bank letter/bookmark at the office of the guy he was supposed to whack. Dude who has whacked his target phoning him at sis's house pretending to be from the bank. I am sure it will get tasty.

Classy ep, all the threads were very satisfying. Patricia Arquette looked amazing as well.

Nucky's storyline this week would've made a great little short film in its own right.

yeah that was a nice little sidetrip, played out like a classic hardboiled short story

that new singer girl in Chalky's joint, daaaamn even MY jaw hit the floor when she walked in.

interested in where Ron Livingstone's character's gonna go. I have a crush on him so I'm onboard with whatever

Re Livingstone, I knew I knew him from somewhere and then I realized this show has TWO Office Space alums, whadathachances

Narcisse character so great. It's funny that not that long ago Chalky and other characters would set the scary/creepy bar and now I would much rather hang out with any of those guys than the Dr. The arch-off with him and Rothstein!

otm

Renewed

Some great stuff in last night's ep - Dr Narcisse, the poisoning, Rothstein's suicide gambling and the Capone bros + Nelson, all good. I think they have missed a trick with the very anodyne portrayal of Hoover, if they could have got Toby Jones in to play him or at least wrote him more like Ellroy's version I would be happy.

Rothstein's manic turn at the card table was indeed fun to watch, he'd been a notably flawless character prior to that I felt (flawless from a business perspective I mean - cold, calculating, intelligent, prudent, detached), was great to see him showing a little weakness at last. The last little bit when the dealer was looking at Meyer and Rothstein snapped his fingers and got mad for the briefest split second was super tv. Really thought when he turned round to address that prick at the table that we were gonna finally see him turn violent, tho Meyer's beatdown afterwards was also pretty satisfying

Lansky is way interesting enough to be a central character! Good to see him finally beating the shit of someone.

Oh yeah for sure! Part of the beauty of this show is the depth of the cast there are so many great characters I could stand to see more of - Rothstein, Lanksy, Luciano, Capone (and his brothers), Dunn, I could go on. Lots of potential for characters to step up from the periphery and let us learn more about them, kinda like Harrow I suppose. The Meyer story about how he met Luciano was really good. Even Van Alden is being rationed quite steadily, and I think his might be my favourite ongoing story arc. Was gutted when he didn't do the key with Al in this ep! I can't even imagine what sort of craziness Van Alden on coke would be capable of

ugh punctuation

Looks like they're going more for character studies than a big arc this season, not a bad thing as they couldn't really have topped the mentalness of Nucky vs Gyp. Speaking of Gyp, I like how Narcisse is more or less his polar opposite as an adversary; a pernicious snake rather than a raging bull.

Narcisse operating out of the UNIA office rubbed me the wrong way. There was some shady business they got involved in, but afaik nothing quite that direct in connections with the underworld. Finding it a big problematic imho.

i mean if someone throws down with a bunch of dirt on garvey & co i was previously unaware of i wouldn't be shocked shocked, but i'm just unaware of anything at this level of connection.

yeah, Narcisse's black power thing seems pretty at-odds with the way he's using what's-his-face & wants to sell heroin in Harlem..

Al Capone was cute at first, but I'm getting kind of tired of his "machine-gun face." Loved when Van Alden was like, "I'm not without a sense of humor."

I'm also really curious to see where they are going with the whole Mike Huckabee/Gillian plot, though on the other hand I question the point of Gillian's continued miserable existence.

Not really feeling the J Edgar or Eli's son becoming a main character (although I am always a sucker for the shy boarding school underclass kid steeze, plus there is a cute, young Irish boy void on the show what with Jimmy & Owen being dead). Agree with all about excitement over rise of Meyer.