HBO's Boardwalk Empire

This is what;s known as foreshadowing...

 

Italian gangsters in the 1920s racist? Who knew?

 

Richard Harrow is my favorite character on television. Layered. Complex. Loved his story arc. And that scene in the Artemis was just balls out awesome.

 

I caught up on the last 4 episodes this weekend -- hell of a run for the show.

The finale could have worked decently as a series finale -- with the throwing away of the flower the self-realization that Nucky was all gangster now.

I don't buy that Nucky and Eli would attack Gyp's men by themselves, without any backup from the Capone or Chalky people. It didn't make sense that the Masseria ambush would require all the muscle and the people still at war would need only two people, as Nucky didn't know of Richard's carnage.

I also don't love the killing of the Masseria group. I don't think that an old school guy like Masseria would take the killing of 30 men lightly.

Both those are two nitpicks on a great closing run of episodes. Buscemi was great.

 

Keyser Sose: Keaton always said "I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of him." Well I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Richard Harrow.

 

I can buy Nucky and Eli going in alone because most of the muscle was gone and Nucky has spent the last two episodes realizing how much he's fucked up by delegating responsibility to everyone. He sent someone to kill Gyp and he failed. He sent someone to hit Masseria and that person came back a corpse in a box. At some point, he was going to try to do the job himself.

 

Yeah, but 2 guys against 10 are pretty lousy odds when you are going against people who are in a war and realize that much of their muscle was just taken from them. Nothing wrong with Nucky being part of the attack -- I just think the numbers didn't make sense.

 

No one's discussing the final season?

 

meh? Im watching because i invested a few years into this but nothing much is happening. Steven Graham is no Robert De Niro but he is crazy as fuck.
I can root for a bad guy given the proper motivation and I can root against a good guy with the propert motivation, but Nucky is not a real protagonist. I get his motivations and his goals, I'm just not invested in his success.
You rooted for Omar, you can even root for Tony Soprano (though he was not redeemable) but not Nucky.

 

I think a lot is happening.

They forwarded several years to the Depression recovery. Chalky's on his way back to AC with hopes to probably get revenge for his daughter.

Mueller's run-in with Luciano and Capone's reaction to it was fricking awesome. "If you ask me, that's pretty damn disrespectful."

Graham's doing a great job as Capone, wouldn't be surprised if he gets a Emmy nod. They're really letting him cut loose this year.

Sucks though that the season is only eight episodes. Halfway through to the conclusion of a fantastic series.

 

Yeah, I'm still watching largely out of obligation, though it's still pretty good.

I do find it interesting that this series is going off the air just as Atlantic City's real-life gambling scene is going belly-up.

 

I have actually really liked this season, even though the death of the fictional characters has come at a breakneck pace. The conceit of the flashbacks has been good once they got to the deputy sheriff Nucky.

I assume his death is the only was that this can possibly end. Maybe at his own hand, maybe from Gillian.