Why must HBO make all premiere episodes longer than an hour? It makes them so daunting to watch. I still haven’t gotten all the way through the first episode of Treme, and I wasn’t sure I could handle committing a whole hour and ten minutes to Boardwalk Empire, their latest project. Sure, I’d heard great things about it. But that’s a lot of time to devote to something that could end up sucking. Luckily, I really enjoyed it and will watch again.
Boardwalk Empire is the latest HBO series made by Martin Scorsese and Terence Winter (The Sopranos). That was a pretty early indicator that the show would be good – the fact that the show is also executive produced by Mark Wahlberg and stars Steve Buscemi doesn’t hurt either. Boardwalk Empire takes place in Atlantic City in 1920. Prohibition has just come into effect and gangsters are figuring out how to profit from it. Steve Buscemi’s character, a corrupt politician/gangster named Enoch “Nucky” Thompson is based on a real person, and other real-life gangsters, including Al Capone, are in the mix as well. The reason I can tell I’m going to like this show is because even though Nucky is a “bad guy”, I’m rooting for him. Just like how I root for people who are morally questionable in my other favorite shows like The Wire, Dexter and Mad Men. (I never watched The Sopranos, but obviously that’s a good example as well.)
Another reason to love the show is the snappy dialogue. After Nucky gives a struggling woman one of his many wads of cash and she offers to name her son after him, he replies with “Enoch? You couldn’t possibly be so cruel”. Later, when the woman’s husband finds out about the cash he beats the crap out of her and Nucky visits her in the hospital. The visit gave the show just the right amount of suspense – I want to see what will happen, or if anything will happen, between these two characters.
Other fun things include flappers, midgets boxing and the fact that Omar from The Wire showed up (I think his part gets bigger in future episodes.) Oh, and then there’s killing. Lots and lots of killing. The show is racy, because it’s on HBO. There’s a lot of sex, there was a naked corpse and, again, the killing. So the show isn’t for everyone, but it was extremely entertaining. And it makes me want to throw/attend a 1920s theme party.
