TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (Season 1)

“At some point in your life, you have to decide how much sin you’re willing to live with.”

It’s a question we all have to deal with in our lives, and its the central theme of Boardwalk Empire‘s first season. It’s not as cynical as The Sopranos, and the setting (Prohibition Era) doesn’t always feel as authentic as other period shows, like Deadwood or John Adams. But with a fantastic cast, a limitless budget (the Martin Scorcese-directed pilot cost around $20 million to produce), and an eye for the historical makes Boardwalk Empire another promising HBO drama, with nowhere to go but up.

 Empire starts off with a bang, introducing Atlantic City on the night of Prohibition. What the public saw as the sad end to an era of drunkenness, gangsters and politicians alike saw as an opportunity to make major money. At the center of it all is Atlantic County Treasurer Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), who pulls every string along the boardwalk – as well as most of the East Coast. With his brother Eli (Shea Whigham) as the town sheriff, there isn’t any limit to what Nucky can do for himself and the people around him, both good and bad.

 Things change when he meets Margaret Schroeder (Kelly Macdonald), a member of the Women’s Temperance League, in addition to being a mother and wife to an abusive alcoholic husband. Compelled to act upon her situation, Nucky sets off a chain of events which not only lead him to Mrs. Schroeder, but make him re-examine the changing world around him. At the same time, there are others conspiring to take over Nucky’s illegal businesses, exposing an increasingly brutal side to his personality.

 There is a lot more going on in Empire’s plot, but Nucky’s story is the core of the show, and its most consistent and strongest. He’s a man with one foot in the gangster world and one foot in the business world, and watching his transformation from cool and accepting to ruthless (which can happen in a single breath, sometimes) is breathtaking to watch- needless to say, this is the defining role of Buscemi’s career.

 One of the other show’s strengths is oddly, also one of its weaknesses. Sometimes the 1920 setting feels too authentic and too saturated, and all the costumes and billboards and mannerisms can draw attention away from the complex story arcs – especially in the pilot, where the ending will confuse the shit out of you if you didn’t pay close attention to it. Hand in hand with this setting comes fictionalizations of real gangsters, from Lucky Luciano to Johnny Torio to a disturbingly brutal portrayal of a young Al Capone. It’s a great touch, but like the setting, can expose its artificiality sometimes – especially if you have any familiarity with early 20^th century gangsters. If the audience knows how they really die, there isn’t a lot of drama when their characters are in any apparent danger. It’s a small complaint, but at times, can distract viewers from focusing on who is about to die, into focusing on how they write their selves out of a false situation.

 There are other moments on Empire which ring false: much of the time, Agent Nelson Van Alden exists more as a parody of nutso religious values of the early 1900s, in addition to the creepy entrenchment of church and state in the government of the time (the more things change, the more they stay the same). It doesn’t help the overtly religious, disturbingly obsessed Van Alden is portrayed by the overly intense Michael Shannon, who always seems to delve a little too far into the characters he is given.

 But even through its weak moments, when it relies too heavily on its atmosphere or its weak romantic plot lines, Boardwalk Empire is a great watch. Maybe its the infectious work of Buscemi, Michael Pitt (who plays war veteran and rejected protegé Jimmy Darmody) and Michael K Williams, but when Boardwalk Empire is hitting on all cylinders, it is a thrilling look at the light and dark of human beings, and what happens when the dark side is just too damn enticing. Even a conventional conclusion can’t keep me from getting excited from Boardwalk‘s second season. The continuing transformation of Thompson from business man to gangster lord – and the effects this has on the rest of the world – is just too damn compelling not to watch. If Boardwalk Empire can clean up some of its weaker parts of the first season (and most importantly, inject some life into the female characters), Empire will be a great show for a long time.

Overall: B

Plot: B+

Characters: C+

Production Values: A