Michael "Omar" Kenneth "Little" Williams, Steve Buscemi, and ehhhhh Michael Pitt in Martin Scorsese's BOARDWALK EMPIRE

I want to get invited to one of Nucky's parties.

eh. this is fairly entertaining thus far, but it's not exactly great.

i like Buscemi, but he feels miscast here. not believably charismatic enough to be a successful politician, not tough or intimidating enough to be a gangster. the scene in the last episode when he notices a spot on a glass and flips the table in a rage sent home the latter point. Michael Pitt is very pretty, but he's a damn boring actor. each episode seems to have a certain T&A (thanks Paz) and violence quota. often feels gratuitous. the show's too conservative, no real interesting plotlines, just standard gangster shit we've seen 100x before in a fancy new setting. it all feels a bit shallow.

also thought that Chalky scene in last episode was a little hammy, tbh. *ducks*

i'll stick it out, it's rarely boring and it COULD be something great, i'm just not exactly all that impressed with it at this point.

each episode seems to have a certain T&A (thanks Paz)

Was feeling the T&A on Jimmy's ill-fated Chicago squeeze, she reminded me of a younger sexier Jennifer Jason Leigh.

I pretty much agree entirely with circa. Moreover, I don't feel like I'm on anyone's side yet. Yer Don Drapers, Walter Whites, Dexter Morgans and Tony Sopranos are all pretty repulsive in their own ways, but their respective shows had you rooting for them pretty much from the off. I'm guessing Margaret is supposed to be filling that role, and she's growing into it but hasn't reached that point for me yet. Her exchange with the anti-Suffrage guys was her best moment yet, showing her as more than a sobbing victim.

margarets got some nice gams

I thought that was the best episode yet, everything had a bit more breathing space. And I'm glad Nucky and Margaret cut to the chase at the end, things should start heating up plotwise now.

Michael Pitt is still the weak link, but the actress who played Pearl was pretty good. Her trajectory was predictable, but she sold it very well I thought.

Yeah, been done a lot before but what was still good (mantra for the show, perhaps?). Nothing as good as the Nucky/Margaret stuff at his birthday from last week but still very solid and moving along nicely. If we get more Chicago shenanigans next week I'll be happy.

Eli's speech was a very funny sequence.

Michael Stuhlbarg has been consistently killing it in all his scenes.

Don't mind the opening credits that much... Brian Jonestown Massacre gets some $$$$

this is great, really enjoying it now. god those anti booze people are annoying tho

Anybody not on board with this show yet needs to get real. The Jimmy/Capone stuff is really great.

Yeah, I don't see anything wrong with this show, totally love it.

I loved Pearl though, miss her already.

Margaret/Nucky stuff has been moving fast but handled so well.

Completely loved Pearl yeah, :(

everything is moving fast; plus it def feels like theres a quota of nudity & violence, which is fine imo, im sure these were naked, violent times & ppl

This show is finally getting my attention

two weeks behind. should catch up tonight.

every time i see this thread title this image pops into my head:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/images/kenneth_williams1_gal.jpg

It's really hitting its stride now. Good stuff.

I'm digging how the storytelling is very straightforward and unpretentious.

is a great show...really liking it now. the capone/jimmy storyline is played out so well. all the tensions between characters are, in fact.

Yeah, this show's really coming together for me. I was starting to lose interest, but the last two eps hooked me again. Michael Stuhlbarg's Rothstein is mesmerizing in every scene he's in. Van Alden's an awesome character, and Michael Shannon has the most amazing face. I loved the glimpse at Capone's home life, and Margaret's becoming an interesting, complicated character. The portrait of the bickering 'Professional Irishmen' at the St. Patty's day dinner was great.

ttly agree re: rothstein - hope he gets more screentime

We know remarkably little about Nucky's past and inner life for a lead character. Maybe that will change, or maybe it's deliberate and we never will.

Between this show and seeing A Serious Man recently, Stuhlbarg is rocketing towards the top of my "must watch everything he does" list.

Yeah, same. I actually caught A Serious Man recently too, due to loving him in this, and he was possibly the highlight of it for me.

He's Houdini's brother... but he's just as good!!

haha! I couldn't stop thinking about Buscemi in Fargo at the night club with the hooker when he said that.

Brian Jonestown Massacre gets some $$$$

― Stockhausen's Helicopter Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Thursday, October 21, 2010 6:17 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

is that who that is

hate the credits but <3 the tune

have been kinda shocked by some of the violence. capone with the shotgun & g-man guttin the blown open guy both stuck around in my head longer than i would have liked.

I'm digging how the storytelling is very straightforward and unpretentious.

― A brownish area with points (chap), Monday, October 25, 2010 4:04 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark

yeah im really digging that the shots are in focus and the actors remembered their lines

The sex scenes in this are ridiculous.

I love it when they show people boning in the middle of a scene-establishing pan.

it is v violent yeah, pearl getting her face cut was a bit "oh jaysus" as well

that and a certain pool cue scene in sons of anarchy s2 filled my wincing quota for the week

thinking of omar's lynching story and the cunny story this week: in both cases, two of three lines in i am bored, i can see the punchline but i feel like i've got to sit through another minute of "aria" writing to get to it, i don't believe the other character's reaction, and i'm thinking about the writer not the show. it's shitty writing that ruins suspension of disbelief. i don't have a problem with speeches in drama per se. maybe these two just sucked.

did michael pitt have one to the his prostitute gf last week too? i don't remember that one bothering me. maybe it was just those two.

i liked the omar story...i agree it was obvious where it was going but it still felt real to me.

thinking of omar's lynching story and the cunny story this week: in both cases, two of three lines in i am bored, i can see the punchline but i feel like i've got to sit through another minute of "aria" writing to get to it, i don't believe the other character's reaction, and i'm thinking about the writer not the show. it's shitty writing that ruins suspension of disbelief. i don't have a problem with speeches in drama per se. maybe these two just sucked.

otm. i feel like the people singing halleluias over Chalky's monologue were watching a different show than me (probably The Wire).

Every episode I've seen I always get thrown by the close-up of Buscemi in the title sequence:

http://imgur.com/0HpE6.jpg

Sure I can't be the only one. It's like he's CGI or something.

i don't believe the other character's reaction,

agree w/ this re: the omar story, but still liked it

michael pitt's 1 was bad cuz the acting was shitty imo

thinking of omar's lynching story and the cunny story this week: in both cases, two of three lines in i am bored

that should have read "two or three lines"

remind me what the michael pitt one was about? maybe that one sucked too.

otm. i feel like the people singing halleluias over Chalky's monologue were watching a different show than me (probably The Wire).

maybe i'm misremembering, but i don't remember the wire having many big set piece anecdotes? or do you just mean people saw omar and got confused into thinking it was good?

The Chalky monologue was great.

Chalky's speech did bore me, I was hoping they would do something interesting with that setup but it went exactly where I expected. I don't have a problem with speeches or storytelling, and it's possible that people used the exemplum in everyday speech more often back then, but it just has to be a little more interesting... for instance I liked Rothstein's story about the guy who swallowed billiard balls (I wondered if it was a reference to Frank Norris's McTeague, later adopted by Erich von Stroheim as Greed, which is the kind of movie that seems like a possible stylistic influence or antecedent to this show - anyway, there's a weird scene in it where a couple of guys have a contest to see who can fit more billiard balls in their mouth)

the michael pitt 1 was his memory of going out on a boat owned by some dude his mom was dating on the 4th of july when he was a kid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zweq4ZabNd8

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwn

i think part of the point with chalky was that the klansman knew the punchline too. which isn't to say you couldn't suffer too, just because the dialogue was weak.

i completely lost track of pitt's story to the prostitute about being on a boat or whatever halfway through, and it didn't seem worth a rewind

totally didn't believe the klansman's reaction.

paz's reaction was even less plausible though.

feel like they told those two actors that the speech they were about to hear was impressive and they should act accordingly.

not quite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhwsks02qRw

but getting there

le clip oscar

Honestly, the entire subplot with Chalky and the Klan felt like something designed to flatter modern sensibilities.

Paz's reaction in re: Schroeder's speech worked for me though, because she reacted with impatience to a speech that was designed to wrest away control of the conversation and also provide a sick burn - it's not like her jaw dropped and eyes bugged out, she was just like 'whatever' IIRC