Quote :

"Do you mean in terms of quality or the style of the episode?"

style of the episode

12/5/2011 12:45:35 PM

The scene with him banging his mom is clearly to set up a scene where someone calls jimmy a motherfucker.

12/5/2011 1:51:56 PM

Funny, I thought it was to explain why he threw away Princeton and why he would resent his mother enough to strangle her when she talks shit about his dead wife.

Quote :

"I predict Jimmy and Nucky burying the hatchet by Jimmy killing the broad lawyer and a bunch of other people."

Why would they kill the "broad lawyer"? What good is that going to do for Nucky's case? Kill the fat cop and Eli. With Van Alden gone, that's their entire case for the capital charge they're pushing. I doubt it will be that simple and it wouldn't suprise me to have the season end with Nucky heading in the direction of prison/the chair.

12/5/2011 2:14:16 PM

it also set up the dynamic between Jimmy/Angela/his mom. Jimmy's mom always came between Jimmy and Angela, playing the role of confidant that Angela should have occupied. You could tell there was a lot of tension between Jimmy's mom and Angela, but Angela was too much of a free-spirited bisexual pushover to do anything about it. What she couldn't get from Jimmy, she found elsewhere in the form of female companionship.

12/5/2011 2:23:36 PM

Just watched last night's episode, and I know it's not the finale, but i just want to say that this season has been phenomenal. Wow.

12/5/2011 9:22:47 PM

That might have been the episode where the show transitions from good to great.

12/6/2011 3:04:52 AM

^Completely agree. I think it made "the leap" with this latest episode (possibly depending on what happens in the finale). Now they just need to figure out how to make the first half of Season 3 as good as the second half (or at least keep us interested beyond just hoping that the season will get better), something they've failed to do in the first two seasons of the show.

[Edited on December 6, 2011 at 3:27 AM. Reason : /]

12/6/2011 3:26:20 AM

Jimmy is surrounded by death. His wife is killed because of him, he kills his dad, tries to kill his mom, attempted to kill his father-figure. Who's next?

12/6/2011 9:14:21 AM

Harrow blames Jimmy for Angela's death...Jimmy is forced to kill (or at least tries) Harrow...so Jimmy kills brother?

12/6/2011 9:32:40 AM

Finish Him!!

12/7/2011 12:41:39 AM

Holy shit!

Sebso lives.

12/9/2011 3:07:47 PM

Holy shit. That was great!

12/9/2011 4:48:57 PM

Afucking+ bravo Sebso Bravo.

[Edited on December 10, 2011 at 10:55 AM. Reason : .]

12/10/2011 10:54:41 AM

Quote :

"Van Alden gone"

Gone? You really think all this development of the character was just to get rid of him?

12/10/2011 12:53:10 PM

^ you should read that in context again.

12/10/2011 4:36:57 PM

^x5 That. Fucking. Ruled.

This is equally awesome, same dude: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCx8xjHMt_M&feature=related

[Edited on December 10, 2011 at 5:53 PM. Reason : d]

12/10/2011 5:48:11 PM

^^ but killing Eli and the other deputy won't solve anything, not for nucky at least, remember Van Alden has much more info (he knows from his conversation with miss Schroeder nucky had a hand in killing Hans) than he has told the lady lawyer and has been covering for the widow Schroeder- plus if he can get them to stop looking at him for murder (all they have is some personal items and the word of a couple of lowly negroes anyhow right?) he now has a reason to cooperate with her investigation.

[Edited on December 10, 2011 at 6:52 PM. Reason : Maybe I am remembering it differently]

12/10/2011 6:49:49 PM

^ all that plus he shot that motherfucker in the foot and fled. seems like they have a little more than the word of some negroes

12/11/2011 6:08:59 PM

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that optmusprimer hasn't seen last weeks episode yet

12/11/2011 6:15:38 PM

30 minutes in and this is already the most badass episode of the entire show.

12/11/2011 9:38:31 PM

Dude went from banging a chick over his desk to having his brains blowed out. Damn.

12/11/2011 10:01:42 PM

^^ forgot that bit

Anyhow, this episode, geez. I mean, ugh where to go from here.

12/11/2011 10:02:26 PM

Margaret should be the next to take a bullet to the head.

12/11/2011 10:24:44 PM

nucky's dumbass should have never dumped paz

a good lay is always better than a lady w/ morals when you are a crime lord

12/11/2011 11:02:37 PM

kick ass episode. I'm glad to see characters killed off.

12/11/2011 11:53:51 PM

My favorite characters were jimmy and the half face dude....wtf

12/12/2011 12:03:51 AM

fuck that shitty ending.

12/12/2011 2:15:06 AM

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/interview-boardwalk-empire-creator-terence-winter-post-mortems-season-2

After reading this it just makes me that much angrier at the SoA finale.

12/12/2011 2:22:56 AM

Michael Pitt on to bigger and better things I guess...

12/12/2011 7:24:06 AM

^^ good read - clears a few things up for me

also, good for anyone still wondering about chalky's literacy

12/12/2011 8:24:30 AM

The wedding scene super imposed on the execution of Nucky's enemies was a blatant ripoff of the baptism scene in Godfather I. What a crock of shit, the writers of this show are so much smarter than this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caWZF00no50

12/12/2011 8:27:44 AM

i'm pretty sure they knew what they were doing... i don't see it as a ripoff - probably more like them paying homage to a great movie

12/12/2011 8:33:02 AM

^this


Terence Winter is not that stupid.

12/12/2011 8:37:13 AM

Quote :

"i don't see it as a ripoff - probably more like them paying homage to a great movie"

12/12/2011 8:47:40 AM

Ripoff, homage, whatever. It's the lack of originality that I found to be a cop-out. I don't have the impression that Winters thought this would fly under the viewers' radar, there's just no way. But to take a series-defining scene like Margaret's marriage to Nucky and the eradication of his enemies and make it a one-to-one copy of similar scene from another notable work in the crime genre, that's just poor form.

12/12/2011 9:03:01 AM

You missed the whole point of the scene then.

12/12/2011 9:12:37 AM

And everytime you see an orange something bad is about to happen

12/12/2011 9:42:36 AM

Yep...loved this season.

12/12/2011 10:19:07 AM

The good: This season, with that finale, put this show in the discussion for the top 5 shows of the last year. Season 2 was a near-masterpiece (and I only say "near" because the first 4 or so episodes were a bit shaky. The last 8 were flawless.).

The bad: The show's best character (played by arguably its best actor) is gone, one of the other most interesting characters (Richard Harrow) is rendered almost completely irrelevant, and the show's main character is now completely indefensible and totally detestable.

To me, this was worse than Ned Stark getting beheaded. Jimmy wasn't the main character, but he may as well have been this season since all the best stuff revolved entirely around him. There was no other logical conclusion for his character this season (he said as much himself in that final scene), but at the same time, it is hard to imagine Season 3 and beyond being nearly at the same level as this season.

I'll continue watching obviously, that's a no-brainer, but I didn't stick with the show up to this point for Buscemi as Nucky; I watched it for Michael Pitt as Jimmy Darmody.

[Edited on December 12, 2011 at 1:08 PM. Reason : d]

12/12/2011 1:05:40 PM

Quote :

"To me, this was worse than Ned Stark getting beheaded."

There are no Boardwalk Empire books this show is based off of.

The GoT scene had absolutely no other direction to go.

12/12/2011 1:49:25 PM

Actually, Boardwalk Empire is based on a book, a nonfiction book:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boardwalk_Empire

Quote :

" The show was adapted by Emmy Award-winning screenwriter and producer Terence Winter (of The Sopranos [1] ) from a book about historical criminal kingpin Enoch "Nucky" Johnson by Nelson Johnson, titled Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City."

Most of the characters, including Jimmy Darmody, are based on real-life people from that book. I don't know whether or not Darmody's real life counterpart died in a similar way, though.

Regardless, I don't see what that has to do with the comparison between Stark's death and Darmody's. If anything, Darmody's is worse because they DID have some semblance of a choice and they still killed him.

12/12/2011 2:10:51 PM

I'm not saying it is better or worse. I'm saying it is completely different entirely. For BE, the writers have the freedom to do what they want with the characters. In GoT, GRRM already wrote it out for them. I'd wager that >50% of the viewing audience already knew in advance that Ned Stark would die. That wasn't the case for Jimmy.

12/12/2011 2:18:21 PM

Quote :

"The show's best character (played by arguably its best actor) is gone,"

Really? I find his acting extremely flat and unconvincing. I mean, he squints a lot, sure, but I don't find myself believing his character based off of his acting. I find him the least compelling actor (though not the least compelling character).

12/12/2011 3:19:46 PM

^I think he's dynamic and brings new dimensions to Jimmy's character. As I often do, I agree with something Alan Sepinwall said in his blog review of this week's episode:

Quote :

"He knows how this story ends - probably even welcomes it - and where some people might view his parting words to Nucky (about how killing a man will make him feel) as a bitter taunt, Michael Pitt plays it more as the last bit of friendly advice he has to offer the man. He knows Nucky needs to kill him, and he wants Nucky to understand what that will do to him. "

This is a really good example of what Pitt did so well as Darmody IMO: he has lines that, in the hands of a lesser actor, might teeter on the brink of sappy or sentimental, but he delivers them in a unique, refreshing way with that sad, detached stoicism of his. I didn't really care about Pitt at all before this show (only movies I'd seen with him were Bully and Funny Games, both of which I thought were OK but nothing special, same with Pitt in those movies), but I really, really liked his job in this show. I just feel like this character was right up his alley and he came into his own.

Plus, (quoting Sepinwall again):

Quote :

"the camera loves Michael Pitt, and some of the most striking visuals from the life of this series have involved framing him interestingly and just letting him stand there. There were a few of those tonight, like Jimmy smoking in his undershirt as Nucky and Owen pull up"

This. For whatever reason (and this is obviously more of a credit to the cinematography crew and costume crew than Pitt as an actor), he just made for some really interesting shots in his time on the show. The cherubic face, the broad Dwight Howard-esque shoulders, the haircut; he just had the look that fit the character perfectly. He was definitely my favorite thing about the show and I'm definitely going to miss him.

12/12/2011 3:42:56 PM

Quote :

"My favorite characters were jimmy and the half face dude....wtf"

12/13/2011 1:19:54 AM

Quote :

"Really? I find his acting extremely flat and unconvincing"

Don't confuse actor with character.

12/13/2011 7:01:22 AM

They made it a point for Jimmy to say that he would inherit his father's estate and Tommy would if he died so perhaps in the next season Jimmy's mother will be using Tommy's money and assets to try and get revenge on Nucky or something like that?

Only thing left for Richard to do now to stay relevant is to become one of Nucky's henchmen... might result in an epic bromance with Owen.

[Edited on December 13, 2011 at 8:43 AM. Reason : ]

12/13/2011 8:42:47 AM

He's obviously going to become the enforcer for Jimmy's mother

12/13/2011 9:16:26 AM

Quote :

"He's obviously going to become the enforcer for Jimmy's mother"

^Given the ease at which he is manipulated and and Gillian's the degree to which Gillian excels at manipulating men, I'm thinking this is spot-on.

12/13/2011 9:36:31 AM

Quote :

"Don't confuse actor with character."

Which is why I bolded what I was responding to: "(played by arguably its best actor)" and even went on to say that I felt that the character itself was compelling.

12/13/2011 9:42:01 AM