Boardwalk Empire on HBO (pt2)

Ordered S4 Blu-Ray with a Target GC I got for my birthday last month.

C'mon September 7th!

 

Received my copy of season four today just in time for the long weekend with my wife out of town. Time to catch up!

 

Well, I binge-watched season four over the long weekend and here are some thoughts:

• Gillian's story line was pretty much a waste of screen time. The ending of that plot was also completely ridiculous. How did they know she would react the way she did to the fake murder? How did they know that would then cause her to confess? How did they know to be there to hear it? Honestly she should have died at the end of season three from the heroin. Her entire plot seemed only to serve as an eventual way to give Richard leverage in the deal to assassinate Narcisse. And then just when you think they've wrapped her story at the end of season four, now I see she's going to be in season five! Yeesh.
• Season four wasn't quite as climactic in the end as season three, but I think that was fine because season three was so intense that the show needed a tiny bit of a breather season.
• Eli was an idiot for not going to Nucky immediately about the feds.
• Margaret's story also seemed a little tacked on, though it barely took up any screen time, plus I love her character, so it didn't really bother me the way it did with Gillian.
• I'm really disappointed that season five is the final season and it's also only eight episodes. Plus jumping ahead to 1931 is going to bypass some major events like
  Spoiler

  Arnold Rothstein's death in 1928
  and the market crash in 1929. I'm just sad to see the show end already and wish it could have found more of an audience.

 

well won't that be a pisser!

also, i agree with all of your points. well said.

 

Yes, it is a disappointment that those two historical events are not going to be shown on the series. They certainly could have done them in one season and then do the final season that they are about to do. There would have been wonderful opportunities for dramatic tension with those events.
P.S. Is the reason why the show is coming to an end because of poor ratings? Too costly? I have not heard the official reason for it's premature cancellation. It is a shame since it is one of my favorite television series.

 

I know they are jumping ahead, but is it confirmed that they're already ahead to 1931 from the first episode?

I suppose it's also possible we'll see your spoilered character in a flashback. It would seem a shame not to have a farewell of sorts.

 

It looks like season five, episode one will begin in 1931, yes. I think it's already been confirmed that

Spoiler

part of this season will be flashbacks to a young Nucky, who is the young boy seen in the trailers. Not sure about Rothstein, though.

 

I read a review of the first few episodes that confirms it's set in 1931.

 

Okay, so it does still sound possible (although unlikely) that we'll see that particular storyline, in some manner.

 

Margaret has really been marginalized the last 2 seasons-I really hope we see more of her. Gillian's storyline has been beyond absurd, and is almost certainly going to end badly (they're all going to end badly-who are we kidding?). We need more Chalky!

 

Wow. Discussion of Season 5 ep. 1 in spoiler.

Spoiler

Talk about glossing over Rothstein's death. Last time Nucky and Meyer met was at "AR's funeral." That was it? Hopefully they discuss it at some point. Good episode, though. I enjoyed the Nucky as a child flashbacks. Chalky is certainly a 'bit' angry.

 

I may be mistaken, but a Mickey Mouse cartoon would never play before The Front Page as that was a United Artists release.

 

I guess it's time for me to bow out of this thread again until the season five BD comes out in about a year. Dang.

 

Good point. As far as I know you are correct. These are the kind of slips that are just unnecessary.

And by fast forwarding so many years they probably eliminated what I thought was a great character-Al Capone. By 1931 he was awaiting trial and soon to be safely tucked away at Alcatraz.

 

What year were we in at the end of last season?

I'm unsure what I'm supposed to make of Nucky running into Meyer Lansky. I get he was with an escort, but did Meyer try to have Nucky killed? If so, why would he bump into him first and pretend an escort was his wife? It's not as if Nucky would think any less of him or care that he had a mistress.

If I had a magic time machine, pre-revolution Cuba is one of those time/places that would probably be in my tip five destinations.

 

Late summer of 1924.

 

Quick thoughts on the season opener...

• Not a fan of the Nucky flashbacks. The previous seasons gave us enough bits & pieces of Nucky's home life and his latching on to the Commodore. No need to rehash it with obligatory "abusive father" and "dying sister" melodrama. With only 8 episodes this season they are wasting valuable time looking back rather than ahead.
  
• I like the decision not to fill in the details of why Chalky's imprisoned. No doubt he will now return to AC to find Narcisse running things on Chalky's side of town. I hope he buys his new sidekick diction lessons.
• Seems odd that Margaret would wait three years after Rothstein's death to snoop around in "Redstone's" file, since she apparently had the key all that time. Will they bring AR back from the dead for a flashback with Margaret? Pass the milk and cake.
  
• Glad to see Luciano get more to do. The Masseria hit was pretty accurate to real life, so no, they didn't base that scene on The Godfather - in fact it was the other way around.
  
• The most interesting sub-plot from the end of S4 is Capone and Van Alden/Mueller, yet they're MIA. Instead we get 20 minutes of Sally bleeping Wheet. Grrrrrr...

 

I agree with most of your points, particularly the young Nucky seciton which I really find a waste given the short season. I don't have a problem with the Sally Wheet sections, as they can take all the time in Havana they want. I just love the setting.

 

In 1931 Al Capone was in the middle of a tax evasion trial that would bring him down. I don't think he is going to resurface on this show.

 

I'm pretty sure I've already seen him in promo materials for the season. His plot line for the season probably will be his tax evasion trial and being sent off to Alcatraz (just speculating).

 

Hopefully Elliot Ness will be involved too.

 

My favorite part of the episode.

Be Honest and True by George Birdseye

Be honest and true, boys!
Whatever you do, boys,
Let this be your motto through life.
Both now and forever,
Be this your endeavor,
When wrong with the right is at strife.

The best and the truest,
Alas! are the fewest;
But be one of these if you can.
In duty ne’er fail you
Will find ’twill avail you,
And bring its reward when a man.

Don’t think life plain sailing;
There’s danger of failing,
Though bright seem the future to be;
But honor and labor,
And truth to your neighbor,
Will bear you safe over life’s sea.

Then up and be doing,
Right only pursuing,
And take your fair part in the strife.
Be honest and true, boys,
Whatever you do, boys,
Let this be your motto through life!

 

With you pretty much all the way, though I'd like to know why Chalky was imprisoned. And I'm sure Capone and Van Alden will return.

 

Comcast On Demand has two or three trailer/teasers and Capone is shown. He will definitely be shown in Season 5.

Those chain gang scenes were pretty grim. What a tough life.

I kind of liked the Nucky flashbacks, but I think I agree that it takes a lot of time away from a short season.

They kind of discussed the initial effect the stock market crash by the managers suicide and the reaction of his (I'm assuming) boss. Even though we are two years into the depression, I believe these acts were characteristic of what happened right after the crash.

 

Not really. From The Washington Post in 1987:

The suicide rate which, surprisingly, had been rising steadily through the prosperous '20s, actually peaked in 1932 when 17.4 of every 100,000 Americans took their own lives -- an all-time high.

Such statistics tell quite a different story from the "suicide wave" portrayed in contemporary newspaper headlines. The suicide rate in New York City for the first several weeks after the Crash was in fact lower than it had been during the summer of 1929 when the bull market was still raging, and likewise lower than for the same period the year before. When New York City's chief medical examiner produced these mortality statistics, they flew in the face of conventional wisdom -- a New York Times headline from Nov. 14 read: "City's Suicides Fewer; Figures Refute Tales of Increase Owing to Stock Losses." ​

The market was still in freefall in 1931 after a "dead cat bounce" off the '29 crash lows.