Thoughts on Boardwalk Empire from a first time watcher.
My expectations of Boardwalk Empire going in were that it would be B-tier prestige tv, something worth watching but not nearly in the same caliber as the greats. Never have I been so happy to have been proven wrong, because this show's writing is absolutely sensational. Immersive, tight plotting, wonderful dialogue, and an absolute feast for anyone interested in 1920s history the way I am.
Season rankings:
Season 4--From what I've seen, a lot of folks online think this is where Boardwalk jumped the shark. For me, it's the most engaging and consistent season of the show start to finish, and one of the best seasons of tv HBO has ever done. Apparently that's heresy in some parts of the internet, but that's my impression from a first watch through. The reason why I think that is that I feel this season is the best at weaving together seemingly disparate storylines into a much more cohesive picture by the end. It's a difficult thing to manage, writing-wise, but I think Winter and Co. nailed the execution with this one. You can't see the full picture until it's over, but boy does Farewell Daddy Blues pay everything off just about perfectly. How did Jeffrey Wright not get an Emmy for this one?
Season 2--I think overall, post-Jimmy Boardwalk Empire was a better show than Season 1 and 2, but I think Season 2 deserves its reputation as a fantastic season. Considering they supposedly had to rewrite this season on the fly to deal with Dabney Coleman's illness, this is seriously impressive. The main story, the feud between Jimmy/The Commodore/Eli and Nucky, is logically well thought out and every chess move each side makes is logical. Refreshing to see intelligent characters written intelligently. We also get more of Richard, which is always welcome. The show really comes alive in the final two hours, though. The sickening, nightmarish fever dream Under God's Power She Flourishes and the quiet, melancholic To The Lost are what launched this show into the stratosphere for me.
Season 5--Season 5 lands higher on my list than it does on the average redditor's, apparently, mainly because I value it for its positives rather than for what it's lacking. Yes, it sucks we don't get to see Rothstein's ending, Tommy is too old considering he was conceived after the US entered WW1, sometimes it doesn't truly feel like 7 years have elapsed, we don't get to see all of Luciano and Lansky's rise to power, etc. What it does so very well is take information we already knew and spin a fantastic story out of it--we knew that Nucky was a poor and abused child who grew up to make an unforgivably monstrous choice to hand Gillian over to the Commodore, but actually seeing it is infinitely more impactful, and that's mainly thanks to the casting of the flashbacks--child Nucky, young adult Nucky, young Gillian, Mabel, and the Commodore are all pitch perfect. It's a wild swing that ultimately cements Boardwalk Empire as a story not about Prohibition, bootlegging, or extravagant parties, but about a man who sold his soul to the devil in Faustian fashion for an ultimately worthless prize. What a show, folks. To the lost.
Season 3--The next three are all very, very close, but Season 3 notches at 4th because it has some of my least favorite Boardwalk Empire subplots, mainly Margaret's adventures with the hospital and the affair with Owen. The former is of the 'look how backwards things were back then' variety that this show is above, and you never really buy that Margaret and Owen have a chance of escaping Atlantic City. There are also moments where Gyp Rosetti feels a little too cartoonish for this grounded world. That being said...the run from Sunday Best to Margate Sands is one of the best ever. Owen Sleater arriving in a box at the Ritz, Nucky crashing out after almost getting blown to smithereens, Bobby Cannavale going all out, Richard Harrow's assault on the Artemis Club...the glaring positives of this season make it dynamite television, minor flaws and all.
Season 1--Putting Season 1 at the bottom feels a little mean, because I still think this is pretty great tv (if this aired today it would be near the top of my list of favorites going, it just got lost in the shuffle of 2010s tv.) Nucky/Margaret are great, Michael Stuhlbarg chewing the scenery as Rothstein is instantly iconic, Michael Pitt is phenomenal as Jimmy, the introduction of Richard Bloody Harrow....need I go on? As for issues, I think Lucy and Van Alden are fairly flat as introduced here, and the D'Alessio Brothers aren't the most exciting antagonists.
Favorite episodes:
- Farewell Daddy Blues--Yanks thread after thread after thread of Season 4 into one tragic, devastating package. Richard loses everything, Chalky loses everything, Narcisse comes under Hoover's boot, and the gaping husk of a man that is Nucky Thompson by the end of S4 is thrown into high relief.
- Margate Sands--Some of the most satisfying payoff I've ever seen. End of.
- Two Impostors--Some of the most riveting suspense there's ever been in 50 minutes. End of.
- Devil You Know--Chalky dies while saving Daughter to make up for the daughter he inadvertently got killed. Brutal.
- To the Lost--"I died in the trench. Years back. I thought you knew."
- Eldorado--This is the perfect ending to Nucky Thompson's story. It brings the entire series full circle in ways that are perfect thematically, and every final scene with every one of his relationships is spot on the money. "Why were you always the wise one? Because you needed me to be."
- Friendless Child--In the present, Nucky sacrifices his empire for what really matters, family, while in the past, he prepares to sacrifice human decency to build that empire. Phenomenal tv.
- Sunday Best--Sunday Best is probably the show's most underrated episode for me. This is some Mad Men-level character writing, showing how Nucky and Margaret's relationship is fundamentally broken beyond repair....and yet there's still a yearning for what could have been there. He takes steps towards repairing his relationship with Eli, Gyp whines to God for making him a loser, and Richard has Easter dinner with another damaged veteran. A classic.
- Boardwalk Empire--The Martin Scorsese-directed pilot just pulsates with energy, and is one of the most memorable first episodes ever made. It instantly, effortlessly evokes a world long gone where most period dramas fall flat on their face.
- Home--I think Home, Peg of Old, and Sunday Best form this underrated trio of episodes that feature some of the best character writing of the entire series. Home, in particular, features Richard Harrow's introduction, Margaret's first glimpse of Nucky's Jekyll/Hyde dichotomy, and more great Jimmy scenes in Chicago.