[Spoilers] Boardwalk Empire - Season 3 discussion thread

[Paladin of Ice]

Well it was Doyle telling Eli about Manny so take the source into account but he said Nucky didn't know who killed Manny and that was why he wasn't seeing anybody except by appointment (there's also Billie though, of course).

Nucky also talked to Rothstein about Manny's death.

[red snow]

He's a minor charecter at best but I like a guy who's first reaction upon having his cheek slashed is "that other guy has it worse then I do and I'm a medical student let me see what I can do"

I'll say this for Eli he's a terrible peace officer and brother but a good enough father. I'm sorry his family doesn't get more play

Totally agree. I saw Eli in a whole new light when we saw his interactions with his family. I guess it makes sense, given that his own father was a shit that he may try and make amends for that. It's just odd that he hates his own brother so much when Nucky is always implying he held the family together. Given the revelations of Nucky I wouldn't be surprised if Nucky is cherry picking his role as surrogate father and hasn't really screwed Eli or his dad over at some point.

I noticed that Eli's departure from prison was also very reminiscent of Nucky in the titles. They did this with Rosetti as well. I don't know if it's just a stylistic thing or maybe a suggestion these characters are important this season.

The producers have said that the whole reason for Rosetti's inclusion is to highlight the increasinglt violent nature of the boot-legging business. I do agree with others though that it makes little sense that given the implied power of Rothstein and Nucky, they wouldn't just wipe out Rosetti and his operation. He seemed to be running his own show so it seems odd he can throw his weight around like this? Maybe they are trying to make him an Omar (chalky in the wire) character where he operates on a small scale making him hard to track down but Rosetti seems to be very out in the open. I hope we get to see the fat sherriff get his come-uppance - how stupid was he to take a higher bid from Rosetti and then rub it in Owen's face? I'd have cut him some slack if Rosetti had strong-armed him but he fell into bed with him very easily.

Nucky's relationship with Billy is already damaging his partnership with Rothstein. That scene with them refusing to answer the phone I'm guessing wasn't a co-incidence when Owen got no reply, so thanks to Nucky's ifatuation/insecurity a shipment of Rothstein's has been lost. I'm not sure what Nucky could have done but Rothstein may not be happy that nothing was even attempted. Maybe the Rothstein-Billy connection is just so that he can have her killed for the good of the business?

I lke that no-one has figured out Harrow's role in Manny's murder. It could be quite funny if they pin the mirder on others and he inadvertently causes a massive shit storm. Hopefully we'll get to see him next week. I agree that it's better to have a solid focus on characters every couple of episodes than to try and shoehorn them in every episode.

[Crazydog7]

I lke that no-one has figured out Harrow's role in Manny's murder. It could be quite funny if they pin the mirder on others and he inadvertently causes a massive shit storm. Hopefully we'll get to see him next week. I agree that it's better to have a solid focus on characters every couple of episodes than to try and shoehorn them in every episode.

This is the part of the plot that for me doesn't make any sense. I'm confussed beyond belief that no one questions either Manny's wife or the strangers on the street. I mean a guy in a face mask carrying a shotgun down the street is going to make an impression

[Ouroboros]

This is the part of the plot that for me doesn't make any sense. I'm confussed beyond belief that no one questions either Manny's wife or the strangers on the street. I mean a guy in a face mask carrying a shotgun down the street is going to make an impression

Assuming there were any witnesses.

[red snow]

I think the only person who may have seen was his wife and I guess she was too busy dealing with the husband's death but yeah, Harrow is pretty easy to recognise. Otherwise I reckon non-one saw him. The way things are I imagine on hearing the gunshot most folk stay indoors and try their hardest not to get involved.

[Paladin of Ice]

I lke that no-one has figured out Harrow's role in Manny's murder. It could be quite funny if they pin the mirder on others and he inadvertently causes a massive shit storm. Hopefully we'll get to see him next week. I agree that it's better to have a solid focus on characters every couple of episodes than to try and shoehorn them in every episode.

The wife was off to the side in another room when Harrow did the shot, by the time she comes back and is in a position to see Harrow, all she's going to see is the back of a man walking away.

, at around 25 seconds she starts to pick up the hat box and turn to take it into another room, she doesn't come back into the area of the doorway until around 36 seconds, by which time Richard is already on his way, and she's kind of focused on her husband's body.

It's possible there were no other witnesses, since this happened sometime after midnight but it's likely that anyone who did see it is pulling the old "I didn't see nothing, I didn't know nothing, it's not my problem" routine and keeping their heads down.

It might also be that Nucky knows or suspects that Richard is involved, but either doesn't care or is deciding how to approach the situation, or even is just too busy with other things at the moment.

[red snow]

Can't argue with them facts :)

Yeah, in many ways picking midnight on new year's eve is a pretty clever time of committing a crime in the sense everyone is out at a party and Manny's street didn't seem to be having any parties.

I still think Nucky may be aware of who it could be as well.

[7V3N]

Not to mention I am sure a lot of people were drunk. Plus, given Manny's criminality, people probably knew he would be involved in things like this. So they probably just played ignorance. Remember Jimmy's hit on him? That was probably late afternoon at Manny's butcher shop. I am sure that could not have been kept silent.

[Francis Buck]

Something I thought was interesting that a TWoP poster pointed out was how Rosetti seems to play dumb with people. He apparently didn't know what 3-and-1 was, or "scale"...but then he also questions the waitress about spaghetti and meatballs. Perhaps it's just his way of sizing people up and looking for a weakness? If so then I must say it makes his character comparatively more interesting than before.

[Queen Regent]

I was a little under-whelmed with tonight's episode...hopefully it's setting up for a better one next week

me too. I told my husband that if this was how Season 3 was going to go, I was going to turn off HBO until March!!

[Crazydog7]

I'm still expecting HBO to pull a Deadwood with this.

If they can keep it going for little longer they'll have Remus until '25 and Arnold Ramstein until '27.

[Crown]

I'm still expecting HBO to pull a Deadwood with this.

If they can keep it going for little longer they'll have Remus until '25 and Arnold Ramstein until '27.

Ramstein...

[red snow]

My problem with Remus is that his only personality trait so far is calling himself "remus" all the time. I hope they do a bit more with him before he dies/is jailed.

Surely the ratings would have to drop a lot for the show to do a "Deadwood"? Also wasn't it more a case of David Milch losing interest in his own show after being given a mini season to wrap things up. The ratings and interest of the showrunners still seem high for Boardwalk.

[Crazydog7]

Ramstein...

Ok I was obviously thinking about something else.

[7V3N]

Deadwood's cancellation is still pretty mysterious. The thing I have heard/read that seems to make the most sense is contract issues with some of the bigger actors. But Deadwood was incredibly popular at the time of its cancellation.

[Wun Drop]

I miss Deadwood. :( What good writing.

[Lord O' Bones]

Deadwood's cancellation is still pretty mysterious. .

Is it really? I'm pretty sure Milch was told by HBO that he could continue Deadwood or start John from Cincinnati. Milch chose poorly.

That's it.

[7V3N]

Is it really? I'm pretty sure Milch was told by HBO that he could continue Deadwood or start John from Cincinnati. Milch chose poorly.

That's it.

From what I've been able to discover after a few years of dying to know what happened is that Milch was going to close Deadwood after its cancellation with two two-hour movie-episodes, and would have continued writing Deadwood before its cancellation. But something happened before they were able to lock down contracts for the movies and nothing ever came of the idea. Contract issues with some good side characters (the actor for Dan was one IIRC) was what stalled the show and eventually cancelled it. That is what I have found from hours of googling, but as I said it is still pretty mysterious.

[Lord O' Bones]

You are putting the cart before the horse.

[red snow]

sorry for continuing the thread diversion but it sounds from the info presented here that the show was still effectively cancelled if they were offered mini-movies to wrap it up? The contract problems surely arose because of the initial cancellation? I know the likes of Ian McShane were quite vocal in wanting the show to continue. I've never seen cincinatti and I never tried Luck after the werid horse-death cancellation. I still wonder whether that was the entire reason the show was cancelled - although i guess it would be hard to do a show about horse gambling without any horses in it.