Boardwalk Empire ’21’: Much Ado About Not Much

(Every Monday, Processed Media will recap and review Sunday night’s Boardwalk Empire episode.)

After a promising first season, Boardwalk Empire returned for its second season last night, amidst much fanfare after multiple Emmy nominations and wins. Last season ended by placing a seed for this season’s conflict: the assault on Nucky Thompson’s empire by The Commodore, his sun Jimmy, and Nucky’s brother Eli.

As the second season begins, not much time has passed since season 1’s conclusion, but a hell of a lot of situations have. Jimmy and Angela are married, the Commodore is healthy again, and Van Alden is skimming money from Volstead busts to keep the pregnant Miss Danziger happy (and let’s not forget that Jimmy’s mom is clearly turning into a weirdo, with her baby penis-kissing and whatnot). Of course, some things remained the same: Rothstein is still hearing about the World Series, and Richard Harrow still has a real fucked up face. This episode really didn’t do much expect allow us to re-enter the lives of our characters after a short time jump. There isn’t much excitement to be had – save for the brutal attack against Chalky White and his crew, surprisingly the only occurrence of brutal violence or any real plot action – but I think it did a solid job of setting us up for the episodes to come.

The Commodore pointed it out quite blatantly: taking down Nucky is a complicated process, one which carries some pretty heavy political maneuvers, and I imagine a lot of this season is going to feel like a whole bunch of set-up, until the dominoes begin to fall in the last quarter of episodes. This may be hard to do while introducing a slew of new characters (including the insistently arrogant 3^rd person talk of George Remus), but I’m glad there wasn’t too much time-wasting introducing new players, because I’m sure there will be a lot more introduced in the next couple weeks (we’ve already heard mentions of Cincinnati, Cleveland, the New Jersey’s state attorney’s office).

What was nice to see was some early Chalky White time; Boardwalk Empire’s biggest fault from its first season had to be its under appreciation of the talents of Michael K. Williams (except of course, for the ‘daddy’s tools’ speech, a high moment of the first season). Chalky White may be strong, but he’s no Omar, and the strained frustration and barely contained depression and anger are always engaging to watch sweep across William’s face. It’s clear Chalky is going to be a bigger part of this season – especially considering the growing racial tensions, which are not being helped much by the growing influences of the Klu Klux Klan (partly in thanks to the Commodore).

The one thing I found completely flatlined in the beginning of this season is the Nucky/Margaret love story. I was surprised at the end of last season when she returned to Nucky, and it’s clear here she knows she made the wrong decision. I’m hoping this doesn’t turn into an arc where they don’t break up until the finale, because I feel like we’ve already heard both sides of the argument, and the moralities of both Margaret and Nucky are in danger of becoming artificial if they continue to be together – that is, unless the exploration of their histories helps explain why they continue to be attracted to each other. Remember, there was the immigration information about Margaret (which read “pregnant, vomiting, vaginal bleeding”) in addition to a number of references in this episode by Nucky to his shitty childhood. Let’s just hope it doesn’t continue to slog along like it did in this episode (I could’ve done without Margaret’s sad face at the end of the episode, we’d already seen it in the beginning).

All in all, it was a promising open to the season, but I think it will take three or four episodes to really get out of the slog of introduction and exposition. Right now, the stakes aren’t clearly defined for the season, and won’t be until all the political alliances are worked out. The Commodore is up to something slimy, and while Nucky smells something brewing on Jimmy, he really has no idea what’s going on. He is losing control, as his arrest at the conclusion of the episode suggests.

What did you think? Everyone catch the Uncle Joe cameo in the funeral parlor (rocking some serious muttonchops)? Check back next Monday for a recap of episode 2!