Boardwalk Empire

Credit to Gretchen Mol and the writers, for a character who can lean on the ridiculous, they're very good at pulling it back and making her compelling. The last scene with Nucky was pretty affecting. I thought Mol did a good job showing how terrified Gillian was at the same time as she was seducing Gyp.

I wasn't a fan during the season, but Cannavale finally won me over in his last scene. It was always obvious Gyp would be done in by his own men, but the complete psychotic break was well done.

I'm not too sure what to make of the finale and the season. I say this at the end of every season.
I liked the way the storylines converged. I think when the dvd comes out I will revisit all three. I enjoy this show quite a lot, but I still can't really say what I think of it as a whole beyond the incredible production values and enjoying the deliberate pacing.

Rothstein and Richard are still brilliantly played. Tim van Patton delivered as always (it's odd: I thought van Patton's direction of the early Game of Thrones episodes was terrible but he is really excellent with this material).

I'm glad that:
- they didn't chicken out of having Margaret get an abortion.
- Gillian didn't die.
- Richard didn't kill Gillian/magically have a happy life with Tommy and Julia (honest to god, sometimes I wonder what show people are watching)
- Randolph will probably be back next season.

What did you think of the last two/the season as a whole, Oppers?

There are a few issues with this season, which I will cover before I get into the specifics of the season finale.

Margaret Thompson has seriously regressed as a character in this season. They have turned her into Carmela Soprano, more or less. She was a wonderfully well rounded and complex character in the first season. At the end of season three, she had morphed into a woman in a perpetual state of unease at how her husband made his fortune (they even included a henchman with a thing for the bosses wife, which is a copy from the Carmela & Furio storyline in the Sopranos).

What has happened to Margaret is pretty symptomatic for the way the show has morphed in the latter half of season two and the entirety of season three. The first season happened in the periphery of gang activities. In the third season, the gangs and the violence have been moved well and truly to the center of the stage. The Gyp Rosetti character is the ultimate exponent of this trend.

In general I feel like the writing has lost some depth in exchange for the cheap thrills that are easily afforded within the gang warfare scenarios. This is a direct result of the writers pushing themselves into a corner by getting rid of most of the protagonists whose story wasn't directly linked to the criminal activities (like Angela's sexual preference).

Speaking specifically about the season finale, I was moderately pleased with it. It was all a bit messy at times. Why would Mellon agree to bail out Nucky by ratting out Arnold to Randolph? How could Rothstein be directly implicated, unless he occupied himself personally with the day to day operations at the distillery? Capone's racism and then subsequent expression of respect to Chalky was handled rather shallowly. Richard's killing spree was crowd pleasing in its purest, unashamed form. If any sense of realism had crept into that scene, Harrow should have died somewhere halfway through his mission.

In terms of how this sets us up for next season, it's truly anyone's guess. What will Margaret's role be? What kind of peace will exist between Masseria and Nucky? I think we can consider it as a certainty that we will see O'Banion's death in the next season, and likely Van Alden will be involved in some capacity (as Capone's mole). After the way things ended with Julia (assuming that this is truly the end for those two), I could see Harrow make his long awaited visit home. They have teased the audience so often with stories and mentions of his sister that it seems impossible for there never to be some pay-off.

Season 4 is underway. Can't say the opener left me hungry for more.

I have read some very lukewarm reviews from critics who got to see the first five episodes of this season in advance.
I honestly was not very fond of some of the plot decisions last season.

Second episode was just as underwhelming. Is there even a need for Richard to be in the show anymore? Takes away time that should be allotted to stuff actually happening.

Weird. I liked the first two. I think the Narcisse guy is shaping up to be a way better villain than Rossetti.

I think Narcisse is a bit of an out-of-place oddball at this point. Maybe it'll work in future episodes. I suppose it couldn't hurt to break the mould and have someone other than a cliched mafiosa type as the season's main villain.

I thought the scene where he called the woman on her lying and had her killed the moment she was of no use to him was pretty chilling.

"It's Thompson's willy!"

Best-delivered line of the series IMO.

Anyway, thought Ep 3 was a marked improvement.

I find this season rather disappointing, with a third of it gone already, not much has happened.
I have high hopes for the Frank Capone story-line and Van Alden's involvement in it, but not much else I'm interested in.
Turning Rothstein into an insecure fool has really ruined the character for me.
I couldn't care less about Nucky's business enterprise in Florida. I hope it won't be a focus for the remainder of his story line this season.

Vesper wrote:

Weird. I liked the first two. I think the Narcisse guy is shaping up to be a way better villain than Rossetti.

I like Jeffrey Wright but his performance here is a bit too OTT for the good of the character.

Really enjoyed the latest episode.

Except for the ridiculously repetitive cinematography. That drove me nuts. Any point it was supposed to make was completely undone.

Yup, the last episode was pretty damn good. Of course...

Spoiler:

Thoughts on the season? I enjoyed it a lot more than series three. I liked the developments with Chalky and the expansion of the African-American stories, I think the way they reintroduced Margaret was interesting, and killing of Richard made a lot of sense. Interested to see where it goes next year.

First half of the season was slow, but it turned around in the second half. Probably better than S3 overall.

Richard outlived his usefulness at the end of S3. They should've let the character go off into the sunset instead of bringing him back just to kill him off for a soppy final scene for the fans.

Perhaps I'm imagining things, but S4 also seemed to be the least Nucky-centric (not necessarily a criticism, mind you).

Vesper wrote:

Thoughts on the season? I enjoyed it a lot more than series three. I liked the developments with Chalky and the expansion of the African-American stories, I think the way they reintroduced Margaret was interesting, and killing of Richard made a lot of sense. Interested to see where it goes next year.

Many critics seem to argue it's the best season since season one, I would disagree. It is probably a little bit better than season three, but only marginally so.
Richard had to be killed off just because the character had been ruined in last season's finale.
Not sure where the show goes after this. Obviously they will focus more on the criminal elements outside of AC (even more so than this season).
But it isn't entirely clear what Nucky's long term role in this series is. You could already argue he is the least interesting character left (bar perhaps Gillian).

I like her as a character but I definitely found Gillian's storyline more interesting in retrospect than I did watching it unfold. I think it was supposed to be a noir perspective flip, which is a nice idea, but not knowing he was a PI until the end didn't really work. Having it be a revenge going all the way back to the death of the Commodore was a good choice, though. I am more interested to see where they go with her next season. This was the period of the murderess celebrity so it'd be interesting if they go the "Chicago" route with her, they hinted at that being a possibility in the finale.

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Richard had to be killed off just because the character had been ruined in last season's finale.

There's that, in that there was no way it would be interesting to watch him kill people after 'action-hero-ing' him last season, and it was boring as hell to watch him settle into domestic bliss (I personally found his attachment to Jimmy's kid, and his hatred of Gillian a bit of a false note and an aggravating storyline).

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They should've let the character go off into the sunset instead of bringing him back just to kill him off for a soppy final scene for the fans.

I read an interview with Terence Winter where he essentially said the reason they didn't do that is because a certain section of fans would keep expecting him to come back. With the over-obsessive, over-involved way some people watch television these days, (thankfully something the Netflix model should break) I cannot blame him. Places like 'Television Without Pity' and 'The Onion's AV Club's TV Club' must be nightmares for tv writers. The 'TV Recap' is one of the stupider trends of the past 10 years. Especially as the use of DVRs and online viewing has risen during that time.

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Not sure where the show goes after this. Obviously they will focus more on the criminal elements outside of AC (even more so than this season).
But it isn't entirely clear what Nucky's long term role in this series is. You could already argue he is the least interesting character left (bar perhaps Gillian).

I'm interested to see how the thing with Willy evolves. He's clearly a replacement of sorts for Jimmy, and there's the hanging thread of what he thinks of Nucky now that he walked in on him almost executing his father.

The Margaret and Rothstein development could be interesting going forward. But obviously there is going to be a lot of Al Capone into the future episodes.

Well I guess they abandoned the Rothstein angle by pushing the new season past the point where the real-life Rothstein died!

I have to say that the first two episodes were a bit underwhelming. I just find it hard to care about any of these people, and the focus on the historical figures has taken away most of the suspense. We already know what will happen to Capone, Luciano, Siegel, ... So there is very little real drama there.

With Nucky aligning himself against Luciano, he looks like a dead man. Especially with his desire to get out before it ends him. I suspect that his nephew will be involved in his demise in some way.

This last season is so very... dull.

The choice to introduce Joseph Kennedy at this point is baffling.

Salomé wrote:

ambler wrote:

This is being shown exclusively on $ky Atlantic in the UK so I'll have to wait for it to appear on DVD before I offer an opinion.

I suspect you might like it. Nearly all of the female characters are/were or are accused of being whores.  

Finally unwrapped the season one boxset last week. It was not so much a case of slitting the shrink-wrap, more one of dusting it off; it's been sat there that long. Guess I'm just not into organised crime stuff. Anyway, I've seen the first four episodes now and am distinctly underwhelmed. It's not bad, but my main thought is, HBO canned Deadwood for this? Not even close.

The first two seasons are the best. Once their interest in the Lost Generation faltered and they turned the show into a 1920s version of Goodfellas, all attempts at true greatness were abandoned. It was still occasionally entertaining, but devoid of real substance. 

The series finale has aired and I found it disappointing and more than a bit contrived. I have been told it is better after revisiting the pilot, which I might do soon. I still doubt it will have a huge impact on my general appraisal. Overall the fifth season felt entirely superfluous. I suspect the writers themselves struggled to come up with new material, since there were only eight episodes (as opposed to the usual twelve).

Thanks for the update, Sabs. Watched episodes five and six last night after my old router was eaten by moths and I enjoyed it a lot more. The bright but serious Margaret vs dumb but fun Lucy seems to echo my own female dilemmas.

The show is a collection of missed opportunities in terms of their female characters.
This applies to Margaret, but also countless others (which I won't name here as to avoid spoilers).

Episode seven; I was wrong about this show. The sniper episode is quite excellent and moving for anyone who lost family in the Great War. An unconscionable waste.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Episode seven; I was wrong about this show. The sniper episode is quite excellent and moving for anyone who lost family in the Great War.  An unconscionable waste.

What I love about the Jimmy-Richard dynamic is the fact that they are essentially two sides of the same coin.
Jimmy can hide his scars rather easily, and apart from his limp, there is little to suggest the horrors he went through.
But then you realize that the way Richards looks like on the outside is also the way Jimmy looks like on the inside.
Hence why his wife is so terrified of the man she once loved.