Review - Boardwalk Empire - Season 1, Episodes 1-3

Back in the early 2000's, HBO had a stranglehold on cable drama with such shows as Six Feet Under, Oz, The Wire, and of course, The Sopranos. Since those shows have ended, the network has struggled to find anything that clicks with audience other than maybe Entourage, which has been dragged out 3 years past its expiration date. They've tried with well-reviewed shows such as Treme, The Pacific and Big Love, but nothing resonated with people the way those earlier shows did. However, the network may have finally hit a home run with Boardwalk Empire, which according to the Wiki, garnered the most viewers for any HBO drama premiere since Deadwood back in 2004

The show focuses on Atlantic City at the start of the prohibition era in the 1920's. Steve Buscemi plays the lead character Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson, based on the real life Enoch Johnson. Thompson is the treasurer of Atlantic City, and all business runs through him. He gets a cut of everything. As prohibition begins, this opens up yet another area for Thompson to rule the city and fatten his wallet. The man lives like a king, not a civil servant. While Nucky rules the city with an iron fist, he has shown to still be pining for his wife, who lost her life at an early age. He has taken to a young mother, Margaret Schroeder, having her abusive husband killed after she was beaten to the point of miscarriage, and giving her money and arranging for a job while she recovers and struggles to raise her other two children. It will be interesting to see where the relationship between Nucky and Margaret goes and if it stays platonic, though Nucky's girlfriend/mistress is already jealous of the two.

There are two other main characters. The first is Jimmy Darmody, a young father who has just returned from World War I and is working as Nucky's lackey, having known Nucky his entire childhood. Desperate to prove his loyalty, Jimmy and a young Al Capone (real-life gangsters are featured prominently alongside fictional characters here) arrange for the theft of a wagon of liquor. The robbery is botched though, and 5 people are killed, though one is able to point out Jimmy's identity before he dies. This gets back to Nucky, who at the end of Episode 3 has Jimmy leave town, abandoning his family in the process. What Nucky doesn't know is that the FBI has made an offer to Jimmy to help rat him out, and it's almost a certainty that Jimmy will return to Atlantic City at some point. Whether he will be helping the feds or bringing opposition to Nucky (he has headed to Chicago, home of an up-and-coming Capone) remains to be seen.

The other main character is FBI agent Nelson Van Alden. He knows Thompson is dirty but getting anyone to speak on it and give him evidence is another matter. The people love Nucky, continually re-electing him. And Van Alden is always seemingly a step behind, as Thompson has plants everywhere. But Van Alden knows that Jimmy was involved in the murder/robbery, and knows (or in this case, thinks) that Thompson hired him to do it.

For all the great acting and intricate plot lines though, the real star of this show is the visuals. From the clothing to the decor, and culminating in the actual re-creation of the Atlantic City boardwalk, the visuals are stunning. This show was made for HD. The crew, led my the legendary Martin Scorcese, have nailed everything about the era, and no detail seems too small to be forgotten. While I worried about a longtime character actor like Buscemi being able to handle the lead, those worries are quickly forgotten. The rest of the acting is superb, and you can sense that the writers already have plans in place to make sure that all the plots are logical and yet not predictable. There's really not much more you can ask for out of a show. So far, HBO has hit a home run on this one.

Grade: A