ayase
State Alchemist
I've just polished off Season 4 of Boardwalk Empire, which I've been watching at a rate which has probably not been great for my productiveness elsewhere.
This show really was not what I expected. It's much bigger in scope and the way all the different plot lines weave together and around each other is really quite something. The writers must have employed pin boards the FBI agents (though it was just the BI back then, I think) in the show would be jealous of. I certainly didn't expect from the synopsis that a show ostensibly about prohibition era gangsters in Atlantic City would also criss-cross the United States featuring so many historical underworld figures including Stephen Graham's wonderful Al Capone whose introduction is one of many great little "ah-ha!" moments so I'm loathe to spoil it.
As far as the real-life gangsters go, while their stories are still engaging (helped by some truly excellent actors) and awash with period charm, I also know how most of them are going to end up so have often found myself more invested in the stories of some of the show's invented characters - Prohibition agent turned accidental member of the Chicago Outfit Nelson Van Alden particularly, whose comedy of errors could have been a show all of itself. With all the disparate plot threads though, I found I couldn't help but pick favourites and wish the action would go back to certain characters and stop dwelling on some I found a bit too slow or uninteresting. The plots involving Gillian Darmody in particular (an invented character whose main role was being the mother of another invented character and who ceased to be of any real importance at the end of season two) had started to drag something terrible by season four. Also a thoroughly horrible person, all I was really interested in was seeing her get her comeuppance, which took far too long to arrive.
Overall though, it does a very good job of balancing the known historical events and creating suspense via the fictional elements and characters whose fates aren't so certain. At times it's been quite shocking, and has done an amazing job of creating a cast of characters I find myself really rooting for, hoping for their downfalls or being concerned for their futures. That's the kind of world these characters (and real people) inhabited, one where any kind of brutality could befall them at any moment, deserved or not, and it is quite edge of the seat stuff.
This show really was not what I expected. It's much bigger in scope and the way all the different plot lines weave together and around each other is really quite something. The writers must have employed pin boards the FBI agents (though it was just the BI back then, I think) in the show would be jealous of. I certainly didn't expect from the synopsis that a show ostensibly about prohibition era gangsters in Atlantic City would also criss-cross the United States featuring so many historical underworld figures including Stephen Graham's wonderful Al Capone whose introduction is one of many great little "ah-ha!" moments so I'm loathe to spoil it.
As far as the real-life gangsters go, while their stories are still engaging (helped by some truly excellent actors) and awash with period charm, I also know how most of them are going to end up so have often found myself more invested in the stories of some of the show's invented characters - Prohibition agent turned accidental member of the Chicago Outfit Nelson Van Alden particularly, whose comedy of errors could have been a show all of itself. With all the disparate plot threads though, I found I couldn't help but pick favourites and wish the action would go back to certain characters and stop dwelling on some I found a bit too slow or uninteresting. The plots involving Gillian Darmody in particular (an invented character whose main role was being the mother of another invented character and who ceased to be of any real importance at the end of season two) had started to drag something terrible by season four. Also a thoroughly horrible person, all I was really interested in was seeing her get her comeuppance, which took far too long to arrive.
Overall though, it does a very good job of balancing the known historical events and creating suspense via the fictional elements and characters whose fates aren't so certain. At times it's been quite shocking, and has done an amazing job of creating a cast of characters I find myself really rooting for, hoping for their downfalls or being concerned for their futures. That's the kind of world these characters (and real people) inhabited, one where any kind of brutality could befall them at any moment, deserved or not, and it is quite edge of the seat stuff.
