'Boardwalk Empire' recap: Inventing the mob story

One of the things that's really working for me on "Boardwalk Empire" is the fact that the show is so fearless about showing people in their most private of moments. Aside from a couple of big mob moments in Sunday night's episode, "Family Limitation" spent most of its time showing us these people in small meetings between two or three of them. We got to see them around the dinner table with family or in the arms of their lovers post-coitus. I think a lot of the viewers who decry the show for being too slow-moving or too predictable are lamenting this very fact: The show isn't constant twists and turns and mob violence. I think there may have been an expectation from some corners that the show was going to be big and bloody and absolutely unpredictable, but Terence Winter has always been a mob-movie classicist.

His episodes of "The Sopranos" were always among that show's most intriguingly off-kilter. Certainly David Chase was the primary creative force behind that series, but many of the episodes that featured the biggest mob moments were written by Winter. He had a fondness for portraying classic moments you've seen a million times before in a mob movie and placing them in a slightly new context. Think of the elimination of an FBI informant in Season 5's "Long Term Parking" or the increasingly disastrous attempts to wipe up a big mess in Season 3's "Pine Barrens." Winter loves the basic template of the mob movie -– a template we're all familiar with -– but he also loves to take it apart and see what makes it tick. "Family Limitation" isn't the best episode of the series so far, but it's the one that best focuses on this particular skill of Winter's. (This episode's script is credited to Howard Korder, yet since Winter is the David Chase of this series, he'll get much of the credit for the series' general direction.)

This is the episode in which we start to see Winter's take on some of these classic motifs, only this time, we're seeing them as they first existed, not as a response to other mob entertainments. Let me explain: "The Sopranos" took place in the shadow of "Goodfellas" and the "Godfather" films. The characters there were highly influenced not just by mobsters that came before them but by fictional mobsters they aspired to be like. The characters in "Boardwalk Empire" don't really have a similar frame of reference. They're making up the rules as they go along, and if that means that they re beginning the process of setting these classic story lines in place -- well, so much the better for us. It's this element that some of those disappointed in "Boardwalk" are responding to, I think. "The Sopranos" was a post-modern mob show, in which everybody was sort of aware they'd come in at the end of an era. "Boardwalk," however, is a pre-modern mob show, in which everybody is building the beginning of that era.

Take, for instance, Jimmy striking back at the Irish mob, the better to help clean up a mess his friend Al made. It's a pretty classic mob ambush scene, but it's shot through with a visceral sense of excitement. The Chicago portions of the show have been fairly slow-moving up until this point. There have been some excellent moments -– I really liked the character of Pearl, for instance -– but the overwhelming sense has been of things sort of crawling along toward a pre-determined conclusion, in which hot-headed Jimmy’s hot-headedness gets him sent packing back to Atlantic City. Instead, Sunday night's episode shows how Jimmy, like his former boss, Nucky, possesses the talent to make his own way out of a problematic situation. Your employers have a problem with a rival mob? Jimmy knows just the way to shoot his way out of that situation. Again, it's an ambush you've seen before, but in terms of what it tells us about the Jimmy character and how intelligent he is, it's thrilling.

Meanwhile, back in Atlantic City, there are plenty of other stories going on, but most continue to be of the "marshaling forces" variety. Nucky continues to misread the situation with the Atlantic City version of the Italian mob (our sympathies here lying with the Irish), thinking that Lucky Luciano is behind it when he doesn't even have his eye on the fact that his problem stems from Mickey Doyle's friends from Philadelphia. He's also, apparently, a good Catholic boy who wants to do the right thing in regards to his lady friends, but he keeps succumbing to his own baser instincts. In that regard, he's again painted as the mirror image of Agent Van Alden, a man who flagellates himself after looking over information about his latest obsession, Margaret Schroeder. (Well, both men are taken with her, but Van Alden seems unlikely to do anything about it.)

Over in Margaret-land, meanwhile, Nucky has moved her and the kids into a nice, big house, where he apparently expects them to sit around and wait for him, a ready-made family that he doesn't really have to work for. And although we get to see the thrill of Nucky's and Margaret's early relationship -– and, also, the terrifying aspects, what with Margaret, er, cleaning herself with Lysol after one of their encounters (ouch!) -– we also get to see how he's bound to let her down, when he breaks their date to see Houdini's brother (just as good!) to frolic with a prostitute. Margaret's intelligence seems a bit inconsistent from week to week here. She is smart enough to tell off Lucy in highly entertaining fashion, but she is apparently shocked that this man would stand her up? I realize everyone believes in the perfection of their own love, but this seems like something she should have seen coming.

Unlike the last two episodes, "Family Limitation" lacks a clear, unifying theme at its center, but it's still a very good episode. And in those quiet moments the show lets us see, we begin to get a sense of who these people are in their most private moments. The cast is still too large for one episode to easily accommodate everyone -– among the characters we don't see this week are Chalky and Angela -– and there's still a sense that some of the characters are floating along in their own series -– Rothstein being a good example. But the overall impression "Boardwalk Empire" leaves after its first half-season is that of a show moving confidently toward a picture we can't fully see just yet. Whenever it gets there, I'm more and more certain it's going to be thrilling.

Some other thoughts:

-- This is the last episode I have on screener. Things may end up being pretty late from here on out, though I'll see if HBO can send some more over.

-- I'm actually not a huge fan of the whole flagellation scene. I get that it happened and continues to happen. I get that some men saw it as a good way to tamp down their sexual desires, but it's the sort of thing that's just never differently portrayed. Any time you try to picture a flagellation scene, it looks pretty much like this one.

-- A really nice scene: Al and Jimmy have a talk about their lives after getting into a barely-veiled series of insults toward each other. I also liked the little detail of Al's son being deaf and Jimmy realizing it.

-- Todd VanDerWerff (follow me on Twitter at @tvoti)

Photo: Al Capone (Stephen Graham) has less of an exciting home life than you'd imagine. Credit: HBO

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Comments

[nfrucht.]

Alas, the show is no "Soparanos" and never will be. Tony Soprano was a complex character who made you shudder at his violence and at the same time empathize with him. No easy feat. The acting, quite frankly, in "Boardwalk" is awful and some scenes --those with the actor who plays the FBI agent come to mind-- are so bad we found ourselves laughing. In addition, as has been pointed out, the story line is ponderously slow and none of the characters resonate with us.

[Mister E.]

Been following your reviews from the beginning and I can't think of anything I disagree with. The two episodes before last night's were the best so far and I'm guessing the series will pick back up to that pace. I wasn't sure if I was going to like this show after I saw the first couple episodes. Here's some random points:

* I'm still of the belief that the character of Nucky would have benefited more from a more "unknown" actor.

* The flagellation scene? This was predictable (just like Pearl's suicide last week) and let me down. Reminded me too much of Carnivale.

* I'm looking forward to Rothstein getting more screen time. Stuhlbarg's definitely one of the best actors on the show.

* MVP of the episode goes to Stephen Graham. Great job on displaying the menacing Capone's "soft" side.

* Great seeing Margaret's being sexy and adorable, but I agree with the review in that her character is turning out to be very inconsistent. I didn't understand why she went to temperance leader to talk. Where does her affiliation truly lie?

* I enjoy any scene featuring Greg Antonacci. I like how they're showing bosses when they don't even really realize that they are bosses.

[Rob S.]

The female characters took a turn for the worse. Margaret's character is deeply inconsistent. The women were all treated like dogs in this episode. The dialogue in the scene at the dress shop was utter garbage. I liked 4 and 5 was fantastic. But this was a let down in every way. Liked the deaf son subplot being included. That scene was well directed as was the shoot out. The writing overall was too clever by half. In fact all the writing felt over written. I feel I have given six hours watching this and I am done.
Women are either being screwed, slashed, killing themselves, whores...
Am I the only guy who finds this really offensive. What is with the creator Terence Winter? And HBO? And Scorcese? Sorry. But the continual abuse of women "in the name of history" feels like a personal agenda. Episodes 1 and 2 by Winter were creepy with this. Then it got a little better. This latest episode feels truly twisted and not in a good way. I can't imagine the rest of the series won't be in the bidet as well.

[Jack]

Rob, Todd, Margarets character is in no way inconsistent. She showed true strength by quitting that job of hers. It showed just how strong she is as character. Is she intelligent? Yes. Is she a bit naive? Yes. Is she intelligent? Yes.

[Rekster]

I believe the show "Jumped the Shark" in this episode, with the Van Alden Self Flagellation scene. We all know he is a bit "strange" but what was the point of this????

[MindyM]

I love, love, love this recap! This is the first time that any of the recaps I have read online has taken notice of the fact that Nucky continues to misread the attacks on his man and Chalky's driver. It is driving me absolutely crazy! He can't see the forest for the trees. Why doesn't he think about Doyle wanting to get revenge for him taking the business away from him and giving it to Chalky? Now he thinks it's Lucky Luciano backed by Rothstein. For a guy as smart and sharp as Nucky, this is baffling.

I also loved the mention of Jimmy engineering the shootout with the Sheridan gang, showing his intelligence. That is exactly why I loved it. The guy has the brains, cunning and guts to pull off this coup. Even Al Capone feels threatened by Jimmy's bravado and panache. I am not sure how they are going to successfully integrate the Atlantic City characters and story lines with the Chicago ones. That is one of the big challenges facing the creators of this show. It almost feels like two different shows. Will Jimmy ever go back to Atlantic City? Will Luciano ever find out that he is in Chicago? Somehow this has to be interwoven into a cohesive whole.

I liked the scenes with Pearl, because it gave a human face to the cost of these mob wars. I also loved the scene in which Jimmy tells her a story from his childhood. I did figure out that she would kill herself when he left to wash out his clothes. After she asked him to kiss her and he ended up having to pull away, I think she finally realized what her life had become. No man would ever be able to love her again. It was almost too predictable, although I thought she would overdose on laudanum, never thinking she would get his gun and shoot herself in the head. She touched something vulnerable in Jimmy and his revenge is palpable.

I also truly loved that scene with Al Capone and Jimmy bonding over his son's deafness. The story Al Capone told about how he puts his son's fingers to his throat so he can hear the vibration, even though it doesn't mean anything to him, was quite moving. I wasn't surprised that Jimmy figured out that his son was deaf. Jimmy is perceptive, sharp and has a lot more to him than what we have seen.

Finally, I am sick to death of people trying to compare this show to the Sopranos. Thank God I never watched that show, so I don't come to this one with any preconceived notions or biases. This is NOT the Sopranos, Part Two, people!

I love this review. It's the first time that I feel someone has really gotten what this show is about and understands the complexities of the characters, stories and plots. Great job!

[Dan]

Perhaps never has there been a series in the history of television with such a grand, spectacular ambition and such an absolutely hollow core.

This is a series so obviously written from the outside-in, by writers who know everything about their location and time, and nothing about the forces motivating their one-dimensional characters. It's an absolute embarrassment to watch- particularly when it tries to get EDGY.

(Hey- wow! "Good guy" authority figures who are secretly self-flagellating religious perverts- wow, I haven't seen on TV in WEEKS! Why, now that "Pillars of the Earth" is off the air, I can get my fix for such SHOCKING CONTRADICTIONS from Boardwalk Empire!)

Some have had the courage to admit that the series is miscast, particularly with Steve Buscemi- the Coen brothers favorite go-to-guy for hilarious bit-part creeps- as THE SERIES LEAD. With his whiny, nasally, three-octaves-too-high-for-gravitas voice, he just can't center the series. He doesn't have the mass, the substance, to give us a great, weighty, conflicted-ridden anti-hero.

Jimmy is hardly better cast. We simply can't connect with him- despite the fact that the script so desperately wants us to do so.

But a series can overcome poor casting choices- with nimble writing. Too bad these damn show is the textbook example of a PLODDING PLOT.

"Mad Men"- with only a fraction of the budget and far less ambitious goals- has achieved something infinitely richer, by giving us truly original character who surprise us constantly and who- even when misbehaving- give us a sense for the desperation that motivates their self-destructive behaviors...

"Boardwalk Empire" just shows us the self-destructive behaviors- grabbed from a bag of writer-room clichés- and then moves on to the next arbitrary plot complication. How is it possible- which such an incredible interesting potential backdrop- that they have managed to bungle the execution so horribly that- even these half-dozen episodes in- there isn't a single character to root for, there isn't a single plot we cling to, musing about, worrying about.

How is it possible that "The Untouchables"- written and directed decades ago- manages to tackle the era with so much more spark and freshness- and succeeds wildly IN SPITE OF the flawed casting of Kevin Costner? How did is manage to cram so much more story into two hours than this series has crammed into six? Why did I care more after twenty minutes of that movie than I do after 18 times as much time spent in the world of BoredTalk Empire?

HBO's descent into self-parody is perfected in this series. This and porny-soap-trash like "True Blood" exemplify the absolute creative bankruptcy of the network. And the sooner they stop believing the raving, trash-hungry critics, the sooner they might be able to turn a corner and put something decent out again. It doesn't have to be a brilliant as "The Wire", or even "The Sopranos"... Even another B-tier series like "Deadwood" would be an improvement over this crap.

[MindyM]

It is unfortunate that self-styled know-it-all, pseudo-critics like Dan think that they really understand this show. So now we have someone else throwing in "Mad Men" as a point of reference and comparison. This is getting to be some kind of pathetic joke. This show must be compared to someone's pet show, either still on air or done, and found wanting one more time.

I wonder what some people are watching, or if they are watching at all. If they did, then they would see Steve Buscemi become Nucky Thompson, body and soul! I guess we were supposed to see the typical casting with James Gandolfini or his twin, in the title role. Buscemi has taken the opportunity to be the lead character and is running with it. They cast him deliberately to go against type. To read some of the nonsense being spouted here, one would think that the readers are actually in Hollywood producing and writing. Buscemi's cruelty, menace and corruption has come across even more powerfull simply because he looks like a guy who couldn't hurt a fly. That is the dynamism at work and the contrast.

I wish people who don't like the show would just stop complaining and simply, stop watching! Then let the rest of us who ARE involved with the compelling characters, the blend of real and fictionalized people, to sit back and watch this show without listening to these inane rants.

I am particularly galled by the reference to "Mad Men". It took me three seasons to finally get into this show. I couldn't stand it and every time I tried one more time, I thought to myself - what on earth do people see in this show? To each their own! At times I still have issues with Mad Men, but have managed to stick with it. It hasn't taken me nearly as long to get hooked on Boardwalk Empire. I am actually amazed that I have become as emotionally involved with some of the characters, given that there have only been six episodes.

I had no trouble connecting with Jimmy. He is compelling and fascinating. Michael Pitt has done an outstanding job of showing us a young man scarred by his war experiences, someone trying desperately to feel comfortable once again in society, a lost young man, intelligent, shrewd, perceptive, yet not sure who he wants to be, what he wants out of life. Michael Pitt has a baby face with the eyes of a lost soul and he has been spot on since the very beginning. I love Margaret Schroeder trying to find her way in a man's world, believing that women were meant to do more yet settling for being the mistress of a powerful man simply out of necessity. I love seeing the famous mob figures as they were when they were just coming into their own. I love the writing, the production values, the history of the ill-conceived law that ushered in Prohibition, thereby creating a cottage industry of crime.

It's too bad that some simply just do not get it. It's their loss.