wwe7961 Review of Boardwalk Empire

Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014)

A brilliant crime story filled with flare, emotion, and memorable characters.

[10/10 · 6 December 2010]

I am not a big TV lover. Mostly I watch South Park, but this show has gotten me interested in more live-action shows. It tells its stories with the same quality as a normal theater film for each episode making it feel like a massive crime drama experience. I have been waiting for a while now to review it, and now that the first season is over I can make my honest opinion clear. I live on a barrier island in New Jersey named Long Beach Island. It is about an hour drive away from Atlantic City so as you can guess I've been there a few times. My favorite part about Atlantic City is the boardwalk. Since this show is named Boardwalk Empire it should do a good job at showing what it looked like back in the 20's. Simply put it captures the 20's perfectly. The show is directed so well I felt like I was transported back to those days. They also capture the feel of the 20's in other ways by showing historic events such as the World Series scam. In the end though it best captures the spirit of the 20's on the boardwalk. As for the plot it is set in the 1920's. Prohabition has begun starting a whole decade of illegal alcohol smuggling. The Treasurer of Atlantic City Nucky Thompson is starting a smuggling business that results in some bloody consequences. Along the way he meets a woman named Mrs. Schroeder, deals with an oncoming election, and more. It is a very well told story. It manages to tell several different stories throughout the show, but none of them feel underdone. They all are extremely well put together story lines. You have the main alcohol smuggling story, the story of Nucky and Margaret, the story of Jimmy, the story of Capone, the story of Lucky, the story of Eli Thompson, the story of Agent Nelson Van Alden, and many more. All these different stories keep things fresh. The emotions that are shown in the episodes are powerful. As the episodes go on emotions get stronger like layers of an onion. Something that is also present in this show is flare. Every gangster flick needs that style to it. It needs to have that gangster feel. While this show doesn't have a lot of that when it happens it is really cool. Now I end this review on the acting. Everybody does a swell job. Buscemi is great as usual, and everyone else is great. The person who I'm most interested in is Michael Pitt who is a relatively unknown actor, but here is great and I would like to see him other things. He could make it real big. Overall I love this show. I will be a viewer of the next season for sure.