I was a HUGE fan of "the Sopranos" but somehow I never really got into "Boardwalk Empire"--and decided it is time to do some catching up, because this show seems to be carving out a niche for itself in the American psyche..

Still don't think I will be tuning in much though

Boardwalk Empire

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Boardwalk Empire

Genre	Crime drama Period drama
Format	Serial drama
Created by	Terence Winter
Starring	Steve Buscemi Michael Pitt Kelly Macdonald Michael Shannon Shea Whigham Aleksa Palladino Michael Stuhlbarg Stephen Graham Vincent Piazza Michael Kenneth Williams Anthony Laciura Paul Sparks Jack Huston Bobby Cannavale Gretchen Mol Dabney Coleman
Opening theme	"Straight Up and Down" by The Brian Jonestown Massacre^[1]
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	36 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Terence Winter Martin Scorsese Mark Wahlberg Tim Van Patten Howard Korder Stephen Levinson
Producer(s)	(co-executive producers) Eugene Kelly (associate producers) John Flavin Christine Chambers Jennifer Ames Pepper O'Brien (co-prod.)
Editor(s)	Steve Kornacki Itamar Moses
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	50–60 minutes
Production company(s)	Leverage Closest to the Hole Productions Sikelia Productions Cold Front Productions
Broadcast
Original channel	HBO
Original run	September 19, 2010 – present
External links
Website

Boardwalk Empire is an American period drama series from premium cable channel HBO, set in Atlantic City, New Jersey during the Prohibition era. It stars Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson. The show was adapted by Emmy Award-winning screenwriter and producer Terence Winter (of The Sopranos^[2]) from a book about historical criminal kingpin Enoch L. Johnson by Nelson Johnson, titled Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City.^[3]
The pilot episode, directed by Martin Scorsese, was produced at a cost of $18 million.^[4] On September 1, 2009, HBO picked up the series for an additional 11 episodes.^[5] The series premiered on September 19, 2010.^[6] On October 2, 2012, HBO announced that the series was renewed for a fourth season to premiere September 8, 2013.^[7]
Boardwalk Empire has received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for its visual style and basis on historical figures, as well as for Buscemi's lead performance.^[8] The series has won twelve Emmy Awards and has received 30 nominations, including two for Outstanding Drama Series. The series also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama.

Series overview

Boardwalk Empire is a period drama focusing on Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (based on the historical Enoch L. Johnson),^[9] a political figure who rose to prominence and controlled Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition period of the 1920s and 1930s. Nucky interacts with several historical figures in both his personal and political life, including mobsters, politicians, government agents, and the common folk who look up to him. The federal government also takes an interest in the bootlegging and other illegal activities in the area, sending agents to investigate possible mob connections but also looking at Nucky's lifestyle—expensive and lavish for a county political figure.

Cast and characters

Main article: List of Boardwalk Empire characters

Main cast

Steve Buscemi as Enoch "Nucky" Thompson – the corrupt treasurer of Atlantic County and its most powerful political figure, based on Enoch L. Johnson.
Kelly Macdonald as Margaret Schroeder/Thompson – a young widow and mother, she turns to Nucky and becomes his mistress, and later his wife.
Michael Shannon as Nelson Van Alden/George Mueller – a former Prohibition Agent on the run after murdering his partner, Agent Sebso. Under the alias "George Mueller," he is a bootlegger in the Chicago area working as the muscle for Dean O'Banion's organization.
Shea Whigham as Elias "Eli" Thompson – Nucky's younger brother and former sheriff of Atlantic County. Now works as part of Nucky's organization.
Michael Stuhlbarg as Arnold Rothstein – a powerful New York gangster who does business with Nucky. Charlie Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Benjamin Siegel work for him.
Stephen Graham as Al Capone – a violent Chicago gangster who is the right-hand man of Chicago crime boss Johnny Torrio.
Vincent Piazza as Charles Luciano – a New York gangster and associate of Rothstein.
Michael Kenneth Williams as Albert "Chalky" White – a powerful gangster in Atlantic City.
Anthony Laciura as Eddie Kessler – Nucky's assistant and butler.
Paul Sparks as Mieczyslaw "Mickey Doyle" Kuzik – an Atlantic City bootlegger. Doyle is based on Mickey Duffy.
Jack Huston as Richard Harrow – a former Army marksman who allies with Jimmy. Disfigured in the war, he wears a tin mask over half of his face.
Gretchen Mol as Gillian Darmody – Jimmy's mother and friend to Nucky.

Recurring characters

Greg Antonacci as Johnny Torrio – Capone's boss in Chicago
Anatol Yusef as Meyer Lansky – a young gangster who is a protégé of Rothstein
Michael Zegen as Benjamin Siegel – 17 years old, a childhood friend of Lansky running the card tables of Meyer & Luciano's business
Ivo Nandi as Joe Masseria – leader of the New York mafia and Rosetti's boss
Kevin O'Rourke as Edward L. Bader – Atlantic City mayoral candidate and (as of the season one finale) Mayor
Erik LaRay Harvey as Dunn Purnsley – a Baltimore criminal who is recruited into Chalky's organization
Heather Lind as Katy – a servant of Nucky and Margaret
Dominic Chianese as Leander Whitlock – the Commodore's long serving lawyer and eventually an adviser to Jimmy
Julianne Nicholson as Esther Randolph – Assistant US Attorney prosecuting Nucky for electoral fraud and murder
Peter Van Wagner as Isaac Ginsburg – Nucky's lawyer who influences him to take his lawsuit to the federal level
David Aaron Baker as Bill Fallon – Arnold Rothstein's lawyer
Stephen Root as Gaston Means – a forger, swindler, and murder suspect who became a Special Investigator for the United States Department of Justice^[10]
Stephen DeRosa as Eddie Cantor – a world-famous vaudeville star
James Cromwell as Andrew W. Mellon – United States Secretary of the Treasury
Christopher McDonald as Harry Daugherty – Attorney General of the United States

Past characters

Michael Pitt as James "Jimmy" Darmody – An honor student who left Princeton for service in World War I; works briefly for Nucky before embarking on his own into organized crime.
Aleksa Palladino as Angela Darmody – Jimmy's wife and the mother of his young son.
Dabney Coleman as Commodore Louis Kaestner – Nucky's mentor and predecessor in Atlantic City; Jimmy's father.
Charlie Cox as Owen Sleater – an IRA volunteer who works for Nucky; also having an affair with Margaret.
William Forsythe as Manny Horvitz – a gangster who partners with Jimmy to bootleg liquor
Paz de la Huerta as Lucy Danziger – Nucky's former mistress
Erik Weiner as Agent Eric Sebso – Van Alden's partner
William Hill as Alderman George O'Neill – one of Nucky's political cronies
Robert Clohessy as Alderman Jim Neary – one of Nucky's political cronies
Max Casella as Leo D'Alessio – a small time Philadelphia gangster to whom Doyle owes money
Edoardo Ballerini as Ignatius D'Alessio – Leo's brother and another small time gangster
Ted Rooney as John McGarrigle – a fund raiser for Sinn Féin
Nick Sandow as Waxey Gordon – a gangster and associate of Rothstein
Billy Magnussen as Roger McAllister – Gillian Darmody's lover
Meg Chambers Steedle as Lillian "Billie" Kent – A New York showgirl and Nucky's mistress
Bobby Cannavale as Gyp Rosetti – a ruthless gangster who challenges Nucky

Production

Main article: List of Boardwalk Empire episodes

Development

Martin Scorsese on the set of The Departed.

Emmy Award-winner Terence Winter, who served as executive producer and writer on the critically acclaimed HBO series The Sopranos, was hired to adapt the non-fiction book Boardwalk Empire on June 4, 2008.^[11] Winter had already been interested in creating a series set in the 1920s, feeling that it had never properly been explored before. For this reason he decided to focus his adaptation of the book on the section about Prohibition.^[12] On September 1, 2009, it was announced that Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese would direct the pilot.^[13] It would be the first time he had directed an episode of television since an episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories in 1986.^[14] The production would be very ambitious, with some even speculating it would be too large scale for television. "I kept thinking, 'This is pointless. How can we possibly afford a boardwalk, or an empire?'" says creator Terence Winter. "We can't call it 'Boardwalk Empire' and not see a boardwalk."^[15] The production would eventually build a 300-foot-long (91 m) boardwalk in an empty lot in Brooklyn, New York, at the cost of $5 million.^[16] Despite a reported budget of up to $50 million,^[17] the pilot's final budget came in at $18 million.^[15]
On why he chose to return to television, Scorsese said "What's happening the past nine to 10 years, particularly at HBO, is what we had hoped for in the mid-'60s with films being made for television at first. We'd hoped there would be this kind of freedom and also the ability to create another world and create long-form characters and story. That didn't happen in the 1970s, 1980s and in the 1990s I think. And of course...HBO is a trailblazer in this. I've been tempted over the years to be involved with them because of the nature of long-form and their development of character and plot."^[18] He went on to praise HBO by saying, "A number of the episodes, in so many of their series, they're thoughtful, intelligent [and] brilliantly put together...It's a new opportunity for storytelling. It's very different from television of the past."^[19]

Casting

"Scorsese is an actor magnet," commented Winter. "Everybody wants to work with him. I had all these pictures on my wall and I thought, 'I'd really better write some good stuff for these people.'"^[15] In casting the role of Nucky Thompson (based upon real-life Atlantic City political boss Enoch L. Johnson), Winter wanted to stray from the real life Johnson as much as possible. "If we were going to cast accurately what the real Nucky looked like, we'd have cast Jim Gandolfini."^[15] The idea of casting Steve Buscemi in the lead role came about when Scorsese mentioned wanting to work with the actor, whom Winter knew well having worked with him on The Sopranos. Winter sent the script out to Buscemi, who responded very enthusiastically. "I just thought, 'Wow. I'm almost sorry I've read this, because if I don't get it, I'm going to be so sad.' My response was 'Terry, I know you're looking at other actors'... and he said, 'No, no, Steve, I said we want you.'"^[20] Explained Scorsese, "I love the range he has, his dramatic sense, but also his sense of humor."^[20]
The casting of Buscemi was soon followed by Michael Pitt, best known for his roles in films such as Murder by Numbers, The Dreamers, and in the television series Dawson's Creek.^[21] He was soon joined by Kelly Macdonald, Vincent Piazza and Michael Shannon, who had just received an Oscar nomination for his role in the Sam Mendes film Revolutionary Road.^[22]

Filming

Filming for the pilot took place at various locations in and around New York City in June 2009.^[23]^[24] In creating the visual effects for the series, the company turned to Brooklyn-based effects company Brainstorm Digital. Says Glenn Allen, visual effects producer for Boardwalk Empire and co-founder of Brainstorm, "It's our most complex job to date. Everything is HD now, so we have to treat it like a feature film."^[25] "Anytime you get to work on a period piece, it's more fun," comments visual effects artist Chris "Pinkus" Wesselman, who used archival photographs, postcards, and architectural plans to recreate the Atlantic City boardwalks as accurately as possible. "We got to explore what the old Atlantic City was really like. The piers were one of the toughest parts because every summer they would change—new houses, new advertisements."^[25] It took two months for the firm to complete all the visual effects for the pilot.^[25] Boardwalk Empire began filming on location at Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island in March 2012.^[26]

Costume design

Designed by John Dunn and tailored by Martin Greenfield, Boardwalk Empire's costumes were based on 1920s tailoring books from the Fashion Institute of Technology's research libraries and examples found at the Brooklyn Museum and the Met. The costumes have also been rented from the Daybreak Vintage Company located in Albany, NY which also exhibits at the Manhattan Vintage Clothing Show. Dunn's designs were meticulously detailed, including a collar pin for Nucky's shirts and even going so far as to incorporate specially ordered woolens for suiting. Dunn told Esquire magazine in a September 2010 interview, "With Marty and Terry Winters, I developed the feel for each of the characters. We all wanted it to be very, very accurate and specific to the period.... I don't like to do boring clothing, but you also have to make sure that you're not suddenly putting somebody in something that isn't going to make sense four episodes from now."^[27] These tailors were supplied by textile importer HMS fabrics and Gladson ltd.

Martin Scorsese's contribution

Martin Scorsese was involved in the filming even before creator Terence Winter. He directed the pilot and established the look of the show, which other directors later emulated for consistency. He is also one of the executive producers of the show. Winter has stated that Scorsese weighs in on the casting decisions, watches all the cuts and dailies. Up until the shooting of the show's first season, Scorsese and Winter would meet every Sunday afternoon to review what went on during the week where Scorsese would have comments and suggestions. Martin Scorsese is expected to continue to be creatively involved in the ongoing production and if the series continues—with proper scheduling—he would like to direct more episodes.^[28]^[29]

Crew

Main article: Crew of Boardwalk Empire

Scorsese and Winter are joined as executive producers by Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson and Tim Van Patten. Van Patten had been a regular director on The Sopranos and also served as a regular director for Boardwalk Empire. Lawrence Konner was a co-executive producer. Konner also wrote for the show and had previously been a writer on The Sopranos. Howard Korder and Margaret Nagle served as supervising producers and writers for the first season. The crew were recognized with multiple Emmy Award nominations for their work on the first season.^[30] Korder returned as a co-executive producer and writer for the show's second season and as an executive producer in Season Three.

Soundtrack

The music used for the opening titles is "Straight Up and Down" by The Brian Jonestown Massacre. It was chosen by series creator Winter to create a sense of the "unexpected."^[1]
The soundtrack is composed of music from the 1890s to 1920s performed by artists such as Regina Spektor, Leon Redbone, Loudon Wainwright III, Martha Wainwright, Catherine Russell, Nellie McKay, Kathy Brier, and Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks Orchestra. Boardwalk Empire Volume 1: Music from the HBO Original Series, featuring music from seasons 1 and 2, was released on September 13, 2011.^[31]
The soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media at the 54th Grammy Awards.^[32]

Advertising

IRT LoV car 5443 advertising Boardwalk Empire's second season

To promote the second season, which started on September 25, 2011, the producers paid the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York $150,000 to decorate and operate a New York Transit Museum train of four Low Voltage cars for each weekend in September 2011. The subway cars used were 5290, 5292 (both built in 1917), 5443, 5483 (both built in 1924). The train operated between noon and 6 p.m. and as an express between 96th Street and 42nd Street-Times Square on the IRT Broadway - Seventh Avenue Line. While the MTA runs "nostalgia trains" each year, this was the first time they had been used for an advertising tie-in.^[33]
HBO also sponsored an Atlantic City beautification project with the tag line "Compliments of Nucky Thompson" and paid for eastbound tolls into Atlantic City on the AC Expressway for the weekend of September 24, 2011.^[33]

Reception

Critical reception

Since debuting, Boardwalk Empire has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Metacritic, the first season scored 88/100^[34] The second season scored 81/100,^[35] both indicating "universal acclaim." The third season scored 76 of 100 indicating "generally favorable reviews."^[34] For its first and second seasons, The American Film Institute named Boardwalk Empire one of the ten "best television programs of the year."^[36]^[37]
David Hinkley of the New York Daily News awarded the series five stars, saying, "Watching HBO's new 'Boardwalk Empire' is like sitting in your favorite tavern and hearing someone say, 'Drinks are on the house.' Friends, it does not get much better."^[38] Paige Wiser of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "... an event not to be missed," and praised Buscemi in particular, calling his performance "fascinating."^[8]
TV Guide's Matt Roush praised the partnership of Scorsese and Winter, saying it "... brilliantly marries Martin Scorsese's virtuosic cinematic eye to Terence Winter's panoramic mastery of rich character and eventful story," and finished his review by stating, "It's the most purely—and impurely—enjoyable storytelling HBO has delivered in ages, like a movie that you never want to end."^[39]
Variety's Brian Lowry praised the show for returning network HBO to top form, saying, "This is, quite simply, television at its finest, occupying a sweet spot that—for all the able competition—still remains unique to HBO: An expensive, explicit, character-driven program, tackling material no broadcast network or movie studio would dare touch ... For those wondering when the channel would deliver another franchise to definitively put it on top of the world, Ma, the wait is over: Go directly to 'Boardwalk.'"^[15]
"One of the unexpected joys of 'Boardwalk Empire,' though, lies in the way the show revels in the oddities of its time, peeling back the layers of polite society to reveal a giddy shadow world of criminals and politicians collaborating to keep the liquor flowing," says online magazine Salon's Heather Havrilesky, who went on to call the pilot "breathtaking."^[40] Roberto Bianco from USA Today said in his review that Boardwalk Empire was "Extravagantly produced, shockingly violent and as cold and hard as ice, Boardwalk Empire brings us back to the world's former playground at the start of Prohibition—and brings HBO back to the forefront of the TV-series race."^[41]
The second season received widespread acclaim. Verne Gay from Newsday stated that "Mad Men, of course, remains the King of the Emmys, while 'Empire' nailed the equally prestigious Golden Globe for best drama last winter. But Sunday begins to build the case for 'Empire,' and build it convincingly."^[42] Matt Roush of TV Guide stated "This is a gorgeous piece of storytelling that requires and rewards patience."^[43] Brian Lowry stated in his review for Variety that: "A few creative flourishes feel a trifle heavy-handed – starting with Shannon's philandering fed. Unlike Nucky, though, 'Boardwalk' isn't campaigning for anything except the gratitude of a pay-cable audience (and award voters) eager to take refuge in its sordid charms. By that measure, the show doesn't just go down smoothly; it's good to the last illicit, intoxicating drop."^[44]

Awards and nominations

On July 14, 2011, Boardwalk Empire was nominated for 18 Emmy Awards that included Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Steve Buscemi) and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Kelly Macdonald).^[45] Boardwalk Empire won a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Writing in a New Series and was nominated for Best Writing in a Drama Series.^[46] In addition, the show won a Golden Globe for best Dramatic Series, Buscemi won Best Actor in Dramatic Series and MacDonald was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television. The cast won the Screen Actor's Guild Award for Best Ensemble in a Drama Series, while Steve Buscemi won the Screen Actor's Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and Martin Scorsese won the Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series. Boardwalk Empire was in The American Film Institute's Top Ten List for TV in 2010.
Boardwalk Empire also won two awards at the 9th Annual Visual Effects Society Awards. The first for "Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program" and second for "Outstanding Models & Miniatures in a Broadcast Program or Commercial." The former was received by Richard Friedlander (of Brainstorm Digital), Robert Stromberg, Paul Graff and David Taritero; the latter was received by Brendan Fitzgerald, John Corbett and Matthew Conner of Brainstorm Digital.^[47] The show's Season One Soundtrack won the Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media in 2012.

Ratings

On its original airing, the pilot episode gained a 2.0/5 ratings share among adults aged 18–49 and garnered 4.81 million viewers.^[48] The episode was re-played twice that night, once at 10:15 p.m. and again at 11:30 p.m. Taking these broadcasts into account, a total of 7.1 million Americans viewed the episode on the night of its original broadcast, and is the highest rated premiere for an HBO series since the pilot of Deadwood in March, 2004. The season finale was watched by 3.29 million viewers, attaining a 1.3 adults 18–49 rating.^[49]
The second season premiere was watched by 2.91 million viewers, down 39% from the pilot and down 12% from its first season finale.^[50]

International broadcast

Country	Network	Series premiere
Latin America	HBO Latin America	Late 2010
(Asia)	HBO Asia HBO HD	January 6, 2011
Australia	Showcase SBS	March 2011 September 2012
Belgium	BeTV (in French) RTBF (in French) Canvas (in Dutch)	February 22, 2011 April 22, 2012 February 15, 2012
Canada	HBO Canada Super Écran (in French) Historia (in French)	2010 2011 2012
Denmark Norway	Canal+ Series Canal+ Film HD	November 1, 2010^[51]
(Central & Eastern Europe)	HBO Central Europe	February 2011
Finland	YLE TV2	January 15, 2012
France	Orange Cinémax Paris Première	December 19, 2010 March 25, 2012
Germany	TNT Serie	February 2, 2011
Greece	Nova Cinema 1 Nova Cinema HD	June 3, 2011^[52]
Israel	Yes Oh	2010
Italy	Sky Cinema 1 Sky Cinema HD	January 2011^[53]
Japan	WOWOW	October 9, 2011^[54]
Latvia	Fox Crime	January 23, 2012
The Netherlands	HBO BNN	November 2011
New Zealand	SoHo	November 2011
Portugal	AXN Black AXN Black HD	May 2011
Russia	Channel One Russia	November 8, 2010^[55]
South Africa	M-Net M-Net HD	February 2011
Spain	Canal+ 1 Canal+ 1 HD	December 13, 2010
Sweden	Canal+ Series SVT	November 1, 2010^[56] October 29, 2011^[57]
Switzerland	RTS Un (in French)	November 13, 2011^[58]
Turkey	Dizimax Vice Dizimax Vice HD	October 28, 2010^[59]
United Kingdom Ireland	Sky Atlantic Sky Atlantic HD	February 1, 2011^[60]