Boardwalk Empire Review: "To the Lost" (2.12)
Compared with the first season of Boardwalk Empire, season two certainly wrapped things up neatly. And while there’s a few loose ends dangling, there’s no imminent threat to Nucky’s position. Had the show ended with two seasons here there certainly wouldn’t be anything like the clamor for more Deadwood, since essentially these two seasons were one story arc. It was the story of Nucky’s surrogate son Jimmy returning from war, becoming gradually more estranged from his mentor and finally trying to succeed him; meanwhile Nucky found a new family to replace the relationship he once had with Jimmy. The rest... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsBoardwalk Empire Review: "Under God's Power She Flourishes" (2.11)
One of the great things about The Sopranos’ episode “The Test Dream” was that The Sopranos was doing it. Here was a show that was particularly grounded in a certain type of “realistic” filmmaking technique which it had never broken away from. Then, all of a sudden, we’re inside a subjective dream where anything can happen. It wasn’t like in Twin Peaks where that sort of thing was normal; you knew that this was important because otherwise the show would go out of its way to make its style work with whatever story was being told.... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsBoardwalk Empire Review: "Georgia Peaches" (2.10)
Once again Boardwalk Empire has given a serious look at one of its characters’ faiths. And while this part of the episode didn’t overshadow the string of memorable events going on elsewhere during “Georgia Peaches,” it still dominated what we saw thematically. Margaret doesn’t know what to do about her daughter’s polio so she heads to the church in order to perhaps buy a miracle. She’s a rational woman and she knows that this won’t work. She also knows that, even with her distaste for the priest, this is something she needs to do. So she takes all of the... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsBoardwalk Empire Review: "Battle of the Century" (2.9)
I’ve mentioned before in these reviews that one of my favorite things about Boardwalk Empire is the show’s incredible scope, and that was truer than ever with “Battle of the Century.” By taking on historical characters as larger-than-life as Al Capone, we’ve long known the show would be attempting to dive into kingmaking across the nation, but this is the first time we’ve seen the way Atlantic City’s bootlegging wars affect international problems. When the show first began we were dealing with Atlantic City, which soon expanded to New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. The gradual expansion, now to Belfast, has... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsBoardwalk Empire Review: "Two Boats and a Lifeguard" (2.8)
At its best, Boardwalk Empire feels like there are so many conspiracies and machinations going on that all of the cogs required to keep Atlantic City’s machine of vice running are out of control. Everyone has betrayed everyone else a couple of times and it’s unclear who’s really loyal to whom. When it’s bad it’s just setting up those cogs and watching them play out, slowly and meticulously. “Two Boats and a Lifeguard” was an oddity in that it featured both of these identities for the show, first moving so haltingly that it seemed to go on forever and then... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsBoardwalk Empire Review: "Peg of Old" (2.7)
The first few episodes of Boardwalk Empire‘s second season were plodding because they were almost entirely set-up. It’s fine if a movie’s first third is largely expository and getting pieces into play because that’s still only 20-30 minutes or so. In a television show, though, especially one without commercials, that just went on and on. There’s only so long you can care about the maneuvering when it’s just maneuvering.... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsBoardwalk Empire: "The Age of Reason" (2.6)
One element that’s consistently set Boardwalk Empire apart from nearly every other crime show and serial drama on television is the seriousness of its treatment of faith and religion. Just because the show is willing to exploit its characters’ beliefs for other purposes—spectacle, for instance—doesn’t mean it’s not there. It’s one of those aspects of Boardwalk Empire that makes it feel more like Martin Scorsese’s films than something by Francis Ford Coppola or David Chase. The “Age of Reason” means the dawning of a personal conscience and the ability to perceive right from wrong. It’s religious, certainly, but apart from... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsBoardwalk Empire Review: "Gimcrack & Bunkum" (2.5)
While Boardwalk Empire‘s first season was busy fleshing out Margaret, Nucky, Eli, Jimmy, and Van Alden, it also gave us two particularly fascinating characters who went for the most part unexplored: Chalky White and Richard Harrow. They were for the most part mysteries, major players in many of the events we’ve seen but their motivations never fully known. It would be an exaggeration to say that season two has been about delving into them, after all Nucky remains the show’s center with Jimmy becoming more and more his archenemy, but the best parts of the season so far have largely... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsBoardwalk Empire Review: "A Dangerous Maid" (2.3)
With “A Dangerous Maid” I’m not so much disappointed in Boardwalk Empire‘s inability to gain a little steam this far into the season, so much as I am impressed by how little it manages to move its plot in an hour of airtime. That isn’t to say that there’s anything wrong with the show’s frequent scenes that serve to develop character relationships rather than move the story forward, but it still feels like with the exception of just a couple of key events you could skip what we saw in this episode entirely and find that you’ve missed almost nothing.... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsBoardwalk Empire Review: "Ourselves Alone" (2.2)
If asked what the first season of Boardwalk Empire is about, you’d almost certainly find yourself stumbling for an answer rather than having one at your fingertips. Not that every show needs a central focus, but for a sprawling HBO drama like this, it does really help. Boardwalk Empire‘s lack of momentum besides time moving forward has long been its stumbling block, and it’s because the first season didn’t feel like it was building towards anything. Sure, there was an election, but that will always be the case.... read more
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