Boardwalk Empire - S1 E01 – “Boardwalk Empire”

I think most reviews of the show are probably going to start with the time and place, so why not: Atlantic City, 1920. If you need a brief introduction to the plot, Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (Steve Buscemi) is the gangster in charge of Atlantic City politically and his brother Eli (Shea Whigham) runs the police. Prohibition has just started and these men are getting into the illegal liquor business in a big way. Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt) is recently back from overseas in the Great War, used to go to Princeton, and wants to be a bigger part of the business, but Nucky has relegated him to chauffeur for the moment. Two big things happen in this episode plot-wise. First, Nucky meets Margaret Schroeder (Kelly Macdonald) a pregnant woman with an abusive husband and two kids. Her husband is a drunk, beats her and kills her baby, so Nucky has him killed. In the other part of the episode, we are introduced to some big real-life players during this time with Arnold Rothstein, Lucky Luciano, Al Capone, and Big Jim Colosimo. Jimmy Darmody and Capone rob Nucky’s shipment for Rothstein, at the same as the Feds try to crack down on one of Nucky’s liquor operations. They found out about the operation through Jimmy.

My first impression is that the pilot was weak, but most pilots are weak. There is a lot of exposition, stock characters that ask the right questions so we know both what is going on and what is going to happen. My thought throughout most of the episode was “no surprises here”. That is not necessarily a bad thing as it is beautifully crafted, from the music to the visuals, listening to a stand-up comedian of the era, the Model-Ts, etc. The acting is superb as well, especially considering the weakness of the script in places. I have never been a big fan of Steve Buscemi, not because I do not appreciate his skill, but because his acting ticks do not appeal much to me. He frequently talks too much in movies without seeming like he has a lot to say. Yet, I found him very charming in the role of Nucky. For once he did not talk much, and when he did it was always with a point. Truthfully, he probably spoke the most out of anyone this episode, as he is the main character, but his words always seemed well crafted, as a politician’s should be. He is not the gangster of Tony Soprano’s age. He is more an Al Swearengen type, and hopefully we will get to see a political side to the show as well.

Really, all of my hopes for this show lie with Steve and what he is able to do with Nucky. There are many different ways that they could take this show. After all, shows about the Prohibition Era are not that common. There is a lot of room for depth here, but they can only focus on so many things. The gangster part is obviously going to be important, but I am honestly less interested in that. The Feds were probably the least interesting aspect of the episode. But again, this is just the pilot. We’ll get a much better feel for the show within the next two to three episodes. Hopefully by then the characters will have more substance and the story will be more nuanced. For right now, even with its weaknesses, I am enjoying the introduction to the Roaring Twenties.