Tuned In

Boardwalk Empire Watch: The Swearin’ of the Green

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HBO

Brief spoilers for Sunday’s Boardwalk Empire up next:

Between AMC’s Sunday finales and a large-ish print-magazine piece that I’ve been on deadline for, I didn’t get around to reviewing the very strong Boardwalk Empire episode, “Nights in Ballygran.” I’ve read elsewhere on the web that this was the show’s most Sopranos-esque episode yet; but to me, despite the Mob and Terence Winter’s Sopranos background, it was much more Deadwood-esque.

And that’s a compliment: in truth, this is not simply a mob story but, like Deadwood, a sprawling examination of how changing times and the building of fortunes affects people at every stratum of society. (Sidebar: I suspect that this is the root of at least some criticism of the show—it’s less of a straight-up Mafia story than some viewers were anticipating.)

“Ballygran” was the series’ best episode yet at casting this sweep, from the pols who run Atlantic County to the little people who entertain them to the women seeking political influence to the prostitute made collateral damage in a gang war, stopping in between to expand the stories of many of Empire’s side characters. (A couple favorite subplots: Elias’ resentment of Nucky—who is probably rightly more successful but also hurtfully condescending—and its roots in their family dynamics, and the contrast not only between the American-born and Irish-born Irish, but between the romanticized St. Patrick’s Day Ireland and Margaret’s memories and experience of actual modern-day Ireland.)

That’s all I have time for today, but please join in. On a related note, HBO’s sent me five more episodes of Empire (I’ve already seen next week’s), but I may hold off on watching them for a while; I don’t always have a chance to re-watch the episodes, and it’s tougher to review thoroughly when I’m writing from notes a month after I’ve watched an episode. It’s going to be hard to restrain myself, though.