Boardwalk Empire - Thread #2 (apparently this evolved into a SPOILER thread behind my back)

[Bronn Stone]

RE: Imagery

Goya perhaps? Definitely some famous surreal painting from that era. I am terrible at such.

Edited to change title, because I peeked in and got a massive spoiler from Trebla.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

RE: Imagery

Goya perhaps? Definitely some famous surreal painting from that era. I am terrible at such.

It's very reminiscent of Magritte, but not identical, I don't think. Son of Man et al have the subject facing the camera, and without a moon ( or two other Nuckies) it isn't really enough like The Mysteries of the Horizon. I wouldn't be surprised to see that they're influences on that shot, though.

[Jacen]

Yes, I suppose Son of Man must have been what it reminded me of...but I still seem to vaguely recall something that feature a guy in a bowler hat with his back towards the viewer. Oh well.

[The Iceman of the North]

There's this early Magritte that I don't know the name of, and also Decalcomania.

If you do a Google image search for Margritte, you'll find several images that match the theme of the opening sequence.

[The Imp's Advocate]

Damn, when Van Alden falls, he falls big. It sort of stretches the boundaries of coincidence that the random slutty broad he first set eyes on was Lucy though. I thought he was trying to get information about Nucky from her.

Richard Harrow is adorable and heartbreaking. And good for Margaret, including him in the reading session.

Meyer Lansky impressed me in this episode. I mean, I know he's going to be a huge, successful gangster later on, but his little quips in previous episodes never really sunk that in. I can see it now. The look in his eyes when those other two guys would NOT SHUT UP... :facepalm:

Capone's subplot was handled well, I thought.

[Sheep the Evicted]

Is anyone else still shocked every time Jimmy does something so cold and psychopathic. I have no idea why, after the premier it was pretty clear Jimmy has no problems taking a life but there is just something about him that is particularly horrific. Maybe because he is so warm and normal around other people ?

Decent episode but I feel with the material it had it should have been better.

[Bronn Stone]

My favorite part was Harrow's dream sequence. The horror of it ending with the shriek of young Miss Schroeder was perfectly done. Rothstein and Luciano dressing down Doyle and the D'Alessio brothers was also briliant.

Van Alden is the only clunker in a great series for me. He's more ridiculous every episode. A series full of characters with real depth and on top of it you throw one nonsensical caricature straight out of a bad pulp novel. It is truly jarring.

[Stone-Made-Soft]

Van Alden is an alright character. I get the impression that he was use hard-drinking and hard-living before he found the Lord. Van Alden impressed me when he sent the money to Angela instead of stealing it for the fertility treatments his wife desperately wants. Van Alden’s time is running out, especially if Nucky finds out about his bizarre fascination with Margaret.

[Stego]

Between this show being as mediocre as it is and The Walking Dead being such a letdown, am I the only one terrified for Game of Thrones?

[Sheep the Evicted]

Nah, acting/directing/and visuals with the other two has been pretty good. The writers promised to be faithful to the books so most of WDs problems go away and as for pacing - well we can only hope.

[The Imp's Advocate]

Between this show being as mediocre as it is and The Walking Dead being such a letdown, am I the only one terrified for Game of Thrones?

Well, The Walking Dead is AMC, so I don't know how it impacts GoT other than being an adaptation of nerdy material on TV.

As for Boardwalk Empire, I'm enjoying it. The set design and costuming is ridiculously beautiful and intricate (Which bodes well for Game of Thrones), the acting is good, the writing is good, and the directing is really top-notch. The plot is meandering, but it's getting tighter.

[Stego]

Does no one have a problem with casting?

The 'tough guys' in this show are about as believable as Justin Bieber would be as Conan. Jimmy looks like a porcelain doll, not a trench warfare survivor. (How does one return from a war where heads were shaved weekly to prevent the spread of lice... with a foot of pretty blond locks?) This actor would have been better cast in Disney's Tangled.

The women have been well cast, granted. Gretchen Moll steals the show, though every female has been wonderful.

It's just the men who suck. Every single one of them (sans Luciano) and most particularly one of my favorite actors; Steve Buscemi. He's awful as Nucky.

Van Alden is the exact same character as the preacher from Carnivale. He sucked in that, too.

[Scion of Valyria]

The 'tough guys' in this show are about as believable as Justin Bieber would be as Conan. Jimmy looks like a porcelain doll, not a trench warfare survivor. (How does one return from a war where heads were shaved weekly to prevent the spread of lice... with a foot of pretty blond locks?) This actor would have been better cast in Disney's Tangled.

Addressing the exaggerations of Jimmy's hair; I don't know if the show presented something different, but I assumed he would have returned when the war ended, which gives him about a year and half, if not more, to grow his hair out a bit. Also, what exactly does a survivor of trench warfare look like, you think? All sorts of Americans found themselves in the trenches, I don't think they all came back as muscled, scarred up brutes. Saying someone doesn't look like a trench warfare survivor is fucking ridiculous.

And tough guys can't be pretty? There are plenty of good looking monsters. You want you're killers to fit the hideous archetype, go to fairy tales.

I think the casting is great, both for the men and women. I love Buscemi as Nucky. Capone is pitch-perfect, if only a little too short. Whoever plays Van Alden, while not having the most interesting character, certainly can handle the evangelical pervert thing.

Anyhow, I thought the last episode was pretty good, especially the bit where Nucky confronts the guys who had been trying to take him out for Rothstein.

[Stego]

Saying someone doesn't look like a trench warfare survivor is fucking ridiculous.

Not a war vet, are ya? Don't know any, do ya? It's ridiculous to the ignorant, perhaps. Sorta like evolution or magnets.

Tough guys can be pretty, I suppose. But they can't be little fops, like the guys they cast so as not to overshadow Buscemi's milquetoastishness too much. Last night, for instance, Photographer boy would have tossed Gimpy McBarbie all around the boardwalk. We're supposed to believe that this unmuscled physical nothing picked up the larger man and threw him bodily through a window that started at waist height with only the one leg to push off of? Laughable. He would have a hard time throwing his son through that window.

[Scion of Valyria]

Not a war vet, are ya? Don't know any, do ya? It's ridiculous to the ignorant, perhaps. Sorta like evolution or magnets.

Nope, never served. Yes, I knew a few veterans of Korea and one from Vietnam. Only one met the criteria you've listed as what a veteran should look like. As to vets of the more recent wars of the 1990s and 2000s, you're right, I don't know any. But that doesn't mean I'm just going to believe they all look like the Hulk. Anyhow, that doesn't really make a difference. Any veteran of a war fought in the past twenty five years (the ones I'm assuming you're familiar with/served with, correct me if I have you're age too young) also served under different conditions, with more physical training, and are all volunteers (assuming you served in the US military forces). Vets of WWI were more likely conscripted, spent a short period of time undergoing basic training, and then fought till they got to come home. Poor nutrition and too much time sitting around in trenches, as well as illness, would have slimmed them down, not built them up. Jimmy looks like young man in the 1920s. Thus, he meets the description of a survivor of trench warfare.

A volunteer army is going to be different than a conscripted army. It takes a certain kind of person to enlist when its not compulsory. So the attitudes of the soldiers are going to be different. The conditions you served under are different than those of ninety five years ago. Its ignorant to assume the vets of that war are going to look the same as the vets of more recent wars. Its obnoxious to pretend your service (and my lack of) gives basis to your over-generalized claim.

As to his ability to beat the photographer's ass, the guy seemed pretty lanky to me, maybe a bit taller, but he was caught off guard, disoriented, wholly unprepared to fight, and Jimmy was seeing red. Adrenaline, all that shit. He's got the advantage. I guess throwing him out the window like that with a wounded leg could be a bit too difficult, but I'll leave that to artistic license.

[Ran]

Don't even get into it, really. You can explain anything provided you have a common basis for understanding. If one doesn't, one needn't bother.

For my part, Jimmy sucker punched the guy, so who the heck cares?

In any case, great show, though I felt Margaret's story dragged a bit here. But the D'Allessio's, Van Alden, Jimmy and Al, and especially Chalky..

Jimmy beating up Robert was such a wrong thing, too. Like I said before, he hardly deserved such treatment, since at most he tried to have a relationship with Angela. Damned kid and his unclear identification of the "kissing friend".

[jurble]

I liked this episode, "I wasn't going to, but you kinda talked me into it." is the coolest line I've ever heard.

[Crazydog7]

Between this show being as mediocre as it is and The Walking Dead being such a letdown, am I the only one terrified for Game of Thrones?

I'm liking Boardwalk Empire and if I ever get lonely for quality programming I break out my Wire DVDs.

I quite literally have no expectations for Game of Thrones, so if it proves itself to not be utter crap I'll be pleased.

I'm sorry this isn't the age of the smart miniseries (Lonesome Dove, Shogun, I, Claudius) and recently books have not transferred well to the medium of TV or even film. It will manage to piss more then a few of the Martin purists off because I don't know John will have red hair instead of black hair or Arya and Bran are a little older then they are in the books. And HBOs general target audience will not know what to make of the show. Twilight for example will always have the lonely housewives who want to make it with a vampire Game of Thrones wouldn't be able to draw in that demographic.

[Galactus]

Jimmy looks like a porcelain doll, not a trench warfare survivor.

Remember, Hitler was a trench warfare survivor. Hardly an imposing specimen of physical might.

[drawkcabi]

Loved Chalky in last night's episode, how can anyone say the actor portraying him he was not a good cast choice? Say what you will about Jimmy being a pretty boy and all, I don't find it all that difficult seeing him as a tough guy. When the one guy asked if Jimmy was going to shoot him, I loved the expression on Jimmy's face and the way he said, "I wasn't going to, but you talked me into it." That was my favorite moment of the show.

I'm positive Van Alden knew who Lucy was when he sat down with her in the speakeasy. He's fallen hard from his moral high ground, but he's still going to be going after Nucky. He's using Lucy for two purposes, to satisfy his base urges but also to get information from her.

Right now Sunday night is the night I look forward to all week for television. I love Boardwalk Empire and Walking Dead has me intrigued enough to want to see where it's going.

Of course I've never been much of a drama show guy, I never watched a single episode of Sopranos, Deadwood, The Wire, The Shield, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Rubicon, Terriers, and a bunch of others.

I'm not worried about the AGOT series, first of all my enthusias for anything ASOIAF has cooled to lukewarm due to the long wait between books, and second, I know the story from the books, it will be interesting to see it all come alive on television but there won't be any "Can't wait to see what happens next" factor in it for me. If it ends up not being good no real loss to me personally, if it ends up being good, then that's great for GRRM and I'm happy his story will have the opportunity to reach people who otherwise wouldn't read the books.

/thread drift