Boardwalk Empire on HBO (pt2)

Thanks. So the depiction of a wall street suicide in 1931 was actually accurate.

 

Still a lower suicide rate than the male rate now for the US, or the overall rate for Japan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

 

Man, I've had such a hard time remaining fully vested in this show post-season 3. The sense of tension just feels manufactured and repetitive.

I keep watching to see what Omar will do next.

 

Regarding Arnold Rothstein:

I thought that last little tidbit was interesting.

 

I'm speculating that Margaret got closer to AR after he bought her the apartment and was feeding him tips and info up until his death. Since he was trading with her firm under a false name, she may have continued handling his accounts after he was killed and pocketing the proceeds herself. That would explain why his file (which she was interrupted trying to steal) was still there active in the locked file cabinet.

 

I thought it funny to see Joe Masseria's (Ivo Nandi) part near the end of Broadway and then have him walk right out with the camera in his face in Sons Of Anarchy 2 days later. He had one of the strongest Italian accents I'd ever heard. Arguably over-the-top.

 

I liked the second episode of the season. The flashbacks to Nucky's childhood were more intense, and actually seemed to help explain why Nucky became who he was. I loved the part where the sheriff told the Commodore to go pay his respects to Nucky's father on the death of their daughter, "because he votes." Such effort to get one vote!

This episode provides an example of what Eli told Jimmy in an earlier season: "Nucky is smarter than you, and more dangerous." Nucky shows in this episode that he is smarter than Meyer Lansky, and more dangerous--or at least as dangerous.

While it was said to be so crucial for Van Alden and Eli to replace the missing $20,000, I couldn't tell if Al Capone and his bookkeeper even noticed when Van Alden dumped it into the big pile of money. So two men died for basically nothing? Al Capone's runaway ego, given full flower--it was chilling in a way. He seemed less unsettling when he was still coming up in the ranks, to me. I have read this week that the Variety interview scene is based on a Variety interview which actually took place and was printed.

The scene in the elevator with the older women with the dog and the big feather that kept getting in Eli's face--that was funny. The show has never had much of that kind of humor, and might have benefiited from more of it. It reminded me of the scene in Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" when the assassins are right there in the elevator with Cary Grant, his mother and other ordinary people.

To me, it is a strength of the show that it can depict a man like Joe Kennedy, and give him a credible humanity, so that he seems like a distinct character, even as I kept thinking, "there's John F. Kennedy's father!"

The fact that Will Thompson could overcome the trouble of last season, and then go on and complete law school, and become a member of the Bar, with its character requirements--what a tribute to the power that Nucky has to manipulate things behind the scenes.

Nucky's need to have some confidant was poignant to me. He lost Eddie, and Owen--now he is reduced to talking to a thug who doesn't understand him--or so we are led to believe right now. One can never be sure on this show.

 

Beautifully acted and visually splendid. Great degree of historic realism. My choice for best show on TV.

 

Agree, still my favourite as well - great acting and great storytelling in an outstanding setting.

 

I didn't catch that at all. Who or where was Joe Kennedy in the episode? I don't know much about that family, so I might have heard the name but not made any connection at all.

 

Right after the meeting where Nucky tells the "smoke filled room" about his rights to market Bacardi after repeal. Nucky and JK exchange words in the lobby.

 

I'm a fan. Love the show.

 

Kennedy tells Nucky that he's just made the same deal with Dewars...

 

Unless that's going to be part of the storyline for the season...

 

Okay, thanks I remember the scene. I don't think I caught the name and didn't know that was supposed to be an actual historical figure.

 

Here is a summary bio of Joseph Kennedy. It reveals that the actor on Boardwalk Empire looks somewhat like the real person.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_P._Kennedy,_Sr.

It also reveals that Joseph Kennedy did in fact obtain the distribution rights to Dewars and Gordon's Gin n the U.S. upon the repeal of prohibition. It is interesting to me that Franklin D. Roosevelt's son James traveled with Joseph Kennedy to obtain those rights, when Franklin D. Roosevelt came out in favor of repeal of Prohibition in his successful 1932 Presidential campaign.

Also, in Episode 3, we find out that Joseph Kennedy made a lot of money by manipulating the stock market, which was technically legal at the time, which causes Nucky to call him a crook to his face. This Wikipedia article reveals that Joseph Kennedy was appointed as the first Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which was set up to stop stock market manipulations.

In Episode 3 Nucky and Joseph Kennedy are talking about Kennedy's eight children. Kennedy says "almost enough for a ballteam--the ninth is on the way." The ninth was Edward "Ted" Kennedy, the U.S. Senator from Massachusetts for many years.

 

Spoilers below:





I had completely forgotten about Mabel-thank God for the internet, otherwise I would not have known who that girl was. I actually thought it was Gillian at first until she said her name. And this needs to be said-the guy playing the young Commodore has Dabney Coleman's voice nailed.
I thought they dwelled too long on Chalky's home invasion-and you knew he was gonna kill his partner eventually. But they only have 5 episodes left to finish this story-and too many characters to juggle. Let's focus on Nucky-I honestly don't care about Gillian, Will, Eli, Van Alden, Margaret, Capone, Lucky and Meyer, or Chalky.

 

Indeed

 

Could somebody break down for me what was going on with last week's flashback portion in regards to *SPOILER* (I guess) the girl that winds up dead in the room where l'il Nucky goes to deliver the flowers? I must have missed something somewhere, because I still have no idea who she was or why she was killed, and all the capsule reviews I've read of the episode on sites like AV Club didn't mention anything about that whole sub-plot.

 

His (Dabney Coleman's) mannerisms, too. I kept wondering whether Coleman's voice was dubbed in.

 

I was surprised that they didn't get Coleman back again, and make him younger with CGI, like they did with Michael Douglas and Matt Damon in that Liberace movie

 

I love this show, too. I'm only about halfway through Season four, although I still know most of what's been going on this season.

The one character I'd like to see get whacked is Eli. I can't stand him.

 

boy is this show dark ,I mean the lighting

 

I thought it was just my TV-interior scenes are very dark.

 

This was once the best looking show on TV (season 2)