Steve*
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Ok this thread is to discuss the new series begining on Sky Atlantic tonight at 9?
Is anybody else going to be watching? Im really looking forward to it as its directed and written by the same people that did the Sopranos.
For anybody who doesnt know what its about heres a summary.
Boardwalk Empire, HBO's latest ambitious project poised to join the ranks of epic television like Deadwood and Sopranos, puts Hollywood movies on notice by getting Martin Scorsese to direct the pilot and put his unique brand of filmmaking on the small screen.
The end result, while at times uneven, delivers more story, and character in its 70 minute run-time than most two-hour feature films. Boardwalk is more than just "Al Capone: Year One". It's the story of Prohibition set on and around Atlantic City, a place home to glizty vice and overcast skies. A place where men like the semi-fictional treasurer Enock "Nucky" Thompson (Steve Buscemi) keep a vice grip on the underworld that bank rolls bootlegging operations; when he's not kissing babies, he's taking their lolipops. And serving illegal booze for three dollars a glass to their parents.
Prohibition has just been passed, which rings the dinner bell for every other mobster to want control of all the profits to be had. Nucky uses and abuses his political influence to emerge as the first man in line, much to the ire of fellow gangsters like the pin-striped Arnold Rothstein (A Serious Man's Michael Stuhlbarg) and arrogant "Lucky" Luciano (Vincent Piazza).
Quickly, the feds soon get on Nucky and Company's tail, and the very Purtian, and potentially creepy, Agent Nelson Van Alden takes point.
- HBO
"And then I said, "Mr. Pink? Sounds a lot like Mr. Pu!@#.' I'll be Mr. Purple. And he said...'"
I like the pilot, a lot, but didn't love it. The pilot seems to be chasing something; a sense of greatness it thinks its earned but not just yet.
Scorsese's fingerprints are all over this thing, in a good way. From an elaborate single-take shot establishing the geography of the boardwalk to his use of freeze frames and source music, Scorsese establishes the tone and aesthetic of the series while simultaneously raising the bar for cable productions.
Helping him to that end is the impressive roster of character actors at his disposal. Michael Pitt, who plays a former war hero turned Nucky enforcer, does a solid job handling the challenge of being family man in one scene, and new best friend of Al Capone in another. Pitt, like the rest of the cast, blend into the world and become as much a part of Boardwalk as the figures found in the faded pictures that inspire it.
Buscemi stands out from this ensemble more than he should. A character actor used to blending in has been put center stage ("Hey look, it's Mr. Pink!") occupying the role of a heavyweight that feels like it needs an actor with more presence, with more weight, similar to those anti-heroes in other HBO shows in this genre. Buscemi's performance, while more than servicable, never quite feels like he truly is the character, the way Gandolfini is Tony Soprano, or Ian McShane is Al Swearengen.
But should Nucky's arc involving a woman (the great Kelly MacDonald) that the gangster befriends find more play as the season progresses, Buscemi may find himself in a role that ranks up there with the best of his career and the best of HBO's anti-heroes.
- HBO
For a pilot with so many moving parts and expensive everythings, Scorsese and Boardwark's Executive Producers (and former Sopranos contributors) Terence Winter and Tim Van Patten effortlessly juggle a feature-film cast and the technical means to satsify their stories.
It sets up several plot threads that will be fun to see play out as the first season takes on the real historical events and filters them through Nucky's unique perspective. But setting up lawman Van Alden as the white hat gunning for Nucky's operation, a character this close into stepping into creepy "Jude Law from Road To Perdition" territory, is off-putting, as is the casting of problematic Michael Shannon in the role.
It's fine that the show desires not to have an absolute hero, but with only various degrees of "bad guys" to root for, and none of which as charming or engaging as those that embody HBO's other successes in the genre, the pilot presents an interesting challenge of sorts for audiences trying to figure out how long they want to stay with it.
Boardwalk Empire is an inspired production and it has the makings of a great series operating on the scale of a feature film. The show's slow burn approach toward how crimes and their consequences play out may prove to be a sharp contrast to the sudden ultra-violence that punctuates its final moments. But as violent and ****** as this world gets, Boardwalk aims to be a show less about who gets killed and more about why the triggers had to be pulled at all.
Is anybody else going to be watching? Im really looking forward to it as its directed and written by the same people that did the Sopranos.
For anybody who doesnt know what its about heres a summary.
Boardwalk Empire, HBO's latest ambitious project poised to join the ranks of epic television like Deadwood and Sopranos, puts Hollywood movies on notice by getting Martin Scorsese to direct the pilot and put his unique brand of filmmaking on the small screen.
The end result, while at times uneven, delivers more story, and character in its 70 minute run-time than most two-hour feature films. Boardwalk is more than just "Al Capone: Year One". It's the story of Prohibition set on and around Atlantic City, a place home to glizty vice and overcast skies. A place where men like the semi-fictional treasurer Enock "Nucky" Thompson (Steve Buscemi) keep a vice grip on the underworld that bank rolls bootlegging operations; when he's not kissing babies, he's taking their lolipops. And serving illegal booze for three dollars a glass to their parents.
Prohibition has just been passed, which rings the dinner bell for every other mobster to want control of all the profits to be had. Nucky uses and abuses his political influence to emerge as the first man in line, much to the ire of fellow gangsters like the pin-striped Arnold Rothstein (A Serious Man's Michael Stuhlbarg) and arrogant "Lucky" Luciano (Vincent Piazza).
Quickly, the feds soon get on Nucky and Company's tail, and the very Purtian, and potentially creepy, Agent Nelson Van Alden takes point.
- HBO
"And then I said, "Mr. Pink? Sounds a lot like Mr. Pu!@#.' I'll be Mr. Purple. And he said...'"
I like the pilot, a lot, but didn't love it. The pilot seems to be chasing something; a sense of greatness it thinks its earned but not just yet.
Scorsese's fingerprints are all over this thing, in a good way. From an elaborate single-take shot establishing the geography of the boardwalk to his use of freeze frames and source music, Scorsese establishes the tone and aesthetic of the series while simultaneously raising the bar for cable productions.
Helping him to that end is the impressive roster of character actors at his disposal. Michael Pitt, who plays a former war hero turned Nucky enforcer, does a solid job handling the challenge of being family man in one scene, and new best friend of Al Capone in another. Pitt, like the rest of the cast, blend into the world and become as much a part of Boardwalk as the figures found in the faded pictures that inspire it.
Buscemi stands out from this ensemble more than he should. A character actor used to blending in has been put center stage ("Hey look, it's Mr. Pink!") occupying the role of a heavyweight that feels like it needs an actor with more presence, with more weight, similar to those anti-heroes in other HBO shows in this genre. Buscemi's performance, while more than servicable, never quite feels like he truly is the character, the way Gandolfini is Tony Soprano, or Ian McShane is Al Swearengen.
But should Nucky's arc involving a woman (the great Kelly MacDonald) that the gangster befriends find more play as the season progresses, Buscemi may find himself in a role that ranks up there with the best of his career and the best of HBO's anti-heroes.
- HBO
For a pilot with so many moving parts and expensive everythings, Scorsese and Boardwark's Executive Producers (and former Sopranos contributors) Terence Winter and Tim Van Patten effortlessly juggle a feature-film cast and the technical means to satsify their stories.
It sets up several plot threads that will be fun to see play out as the first season takes on the real historical events and filters them through Nucky's unique perspective. But setting up lawman Van Alden as the white hat gunning for Nucky's operation, a character this close into stepping into creepy "Jude Law from Road To Perdition" territory, is off-putting, as is the casting of problematic Michael Shannon in the role.
It's fine that the show desires not to have an absolute hero, but with only various degrees of "bad guys" to root for, and none of which as charming or engaging as those that embody HBO's other successes in the genre, the pilot presents an interesting challenge of sorts for audiences trying to figure out how long they want to stay with it.
Boardwalk Empire is an inspired production and it has the makings of a great series operating on the scale of a feature film. The show's slow burn approach toward how crimes and their consequences play out may prove to be a sharp contrast to the sudden ultra-violence that punctuates its final moments. But as violent and ****** as this world gets, Boardwalk aims to be a show less about who gets killed and more about why the triggers had to be pulled at all.