BOARDWALK EMPIRE (HBO) - Everything you wanted to bootleg about the Show!

[scottyrocks]

The actual sex acts certainly dont need to be there in such graphic detail. There are other more film-traditional, less obvious ways to do it, thats for sure. Either way is not a deal breaker for me, though.

 

[Doctor Strange]

The graphic sex is only there to keep screaming WE'RE HBO, NOT BROADCAST OR BASIC CABLE! It's unnecessary and actually wastes time that could be better used for storytelling, but I'm sure it's been mandated by senior HBO management who are (wrongly) convinced that it's the most important thing setting them apart from other stations...

 

[Doublegun]

The graphic sex is only there to keep screaming WE'RE HBO, NOT BROADCAST OR BASIC CABLE! It's unnecessary and actually wastes time that could be better used for storytelling, but I'm sure it's been mandated by senior HBO management who are (wrongly) convinced that it's the most important thing setting them apart from other stations...

Exactly! It takes away from the story.

 

[Tomasso]

How do you know this?

Well, I know real when I see them and this article explains the scars and gives some insight into her personality, which makes me doubt the use of collagen.

Better yet, WHY do you know this?

[huh]

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

I've watched every episode but I am starting to grow weary of the sex. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a prude but I think the show almost features that stuff when it should be incidental to the plot/story. The violence, I can understand but not the sex which seems to be there primarily to satisfy purient interests.

Sounds funny. I didn't see much of the series yet. I wait for the DVD release and watch them in a row.

Sex and violence. In real life I would know what is worse (or what is actually good) ;-) But I understand it has nothing to do with the story. A short hint would be enough to know that they "do it". It's the same old in and out after all.

 

[PADDY]

Van Alden is battling so many demons inside himself, he's on a railroad to self destruction which I dare say he'll interpret as self salvation when his time arrives. Poor guy. The River Baptism scene was just ...very, very strange. Akin to the ducking of witches during the English Witch Trials - nobody wins.

Just finished watching last Sunday's episode and really enjoyed it. Can't wait until this last one on Sunday.

 

[rcfko]

I'm loving how crazy van Alden is getting. I do feel bad for agent Sebso. I was hoping that he would last a few more episode now that he is on Nucky's payroll. I hope they don't try to kill of Margaret, but who knows after Nucky and his brother's fight.

 

[Heater]

Mistakes?

Sebso's shoulder holster was way too modern, 50s or 60 vintage. There's a good shot of it when he takes it off at the river baptism before Van Alden drowns him.

 

[Unlucky Berman]

I've started to watch it and well, it's interesting. I even can learn how to swear better. Does the series have a higher age rating? A lot more swearing and cursing there than we normally see here from american tv shows. The costumes and setting is overall a good thing, even while some seem not 100% accurate for the early 1920s. But seeing young Al Capone and Lucky Luciano is quite nice. Is there a chance that my nick patron Abbadabba Berman has also an appearance?

 

[PADDY]

So many gripping questions waiting to be answered, so HOLD TIGHT as we 'all' wait expectantly for next year's gripping follow-up...

Is Jimmy going to be a 'turn coat' on Nucky as he 'seems to' plot and scheme his downfall with brother Eli and his estranged father? (or better to keep your enemies closer, and he's the 'insider').

Will Jimmy's wife ever leave him (alive) for her lesbian lover currently flitting around Paris?

Does Margaret (Mrs Shroeder) have the gumption to accept *the sin* she must endure to create a power base with Nucky? (as Nucky said, "We all have to decide how much sin we can cope with."). They would be a formidible team together!!

How long before the Chicago and New York families move in on Atlantic City?

How trustworthy is Chalky White for Nucky? The whiteness of his snow drifted a long time ago, so for now is it a marriage of convenience for both parties that will end in tears?

Van Alden the father? Hard to tell from a woman who could open a Bank based on the male deposits she's had, but 'that' Cheshire Cat grin of hers is enough to make me think otherwise.

How will Nucky push the advantage of having ingratiated himself with the new President of the US?

As for levels of sex and violence (many here have called for less sex and more violence), well...I personally don't think the sex has been overdone, maybe just over exposed (?). As for the violence, I don't think that *more* graphic violence would have improved things. Too many movies..etc, seem to rely on overusage of violence to a point that it has conditioned the public mind to *expect/need* it. Just like public taste buds have been conditioned to expect over salted food!! Doesn't make it better, nor healthier in both cases!
Overall...a BIG WELL DONE to the team who produced it. Remember, it's a fairly small and specialised market audience generally, so they were brave to have a go at this. Bet your bottom dollar it's actually got more folk interested in 'the Era' than there were before it screened on our TV's.

Roll on 2011 for this great Prohibition Era HBO series!!!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Couple of radio-related quibbles with the season finale. Tabletop horn speakers of the sort shown in the Election Night party wouldn't come on the scene for a couple more years -- those who listened to the KDKA election returns broadcast would have done so with headphones.

The radio announcer (who would have been a fellow named Leo Rosenberg, not Frank Conrad) was also far too "radio announcery" for the time. That whole hyped-up Rick Radio kind of voice and style was still far in the future -- announcers at the very dawn of radio were dignified and solemn and articulated carefully to ensure they could be understood over the static and background noise.

And speaking of radio, where is the background music coming from in this show? I enjoy the use of period recordings as soundtrack material, but realistically, even conceding that experimental broadcasters were on the air before KDKA, nobody in this series is the type of person who would have owned a radio in 1920. And I can't see them interrupting their conversations every three and a half minutes to go wind up the never-seen Victrola.

Still, an extremely well-written series, and if Kelly MacDonald doesn't win an Emmy, something is very very wrong.

 

[scottyrocks]

Still, an extremely well-written series, and if Kelly MacDonald doesn't win an Emmy, something is very very wrong.

True, but I did think that this last episode was overdone with too many doleful looks, especially from KM. Regardless, a wonderful series overall. I cant wait til next season.

 

[Tomasso]

A lot more swearing and cursing there than we normally see here from american tv shows.

Salty language is the hallmark of HBO. [huh]

 

[MisterGrey]

And speaking of radio, where is the background music coming from in this show? I enjoy the use of period recordings as soundtrack material, but realistically, even conceding that experimental broadcasters were on the air before KDKA, nobody in this series is the type of person who would have owned a radio in 1920.

Out of curiosity, who would have been the type? Was it a "geek" thing favored by more sciency types? I'd have figured that at least Nucky would have wanted the newest "toy" on the market, what with his red suits and pimpmobile and such.

 

[LizzieMaine]

No "consumer" radios existed in 1920 -- receiving equipment was manufactured only for military or shipboard use. Amateur "wireless operators" would have to build their own equipment from scratch, or scrounge up war surplus. Most of them were teenage boys with a technological bent, sailors who had picked up an interest in wireless while serving on merchant ships, or men who had served as wireless operators during the war.

The first factory built radio set intended for home reception of broadcasts was the Westinghouse Aeriola Jr, a crystal set introduced in 1921.

This was a very fiddly set to operate, and only one person could listen at a time, and Nucky doesn't strike me as the type who'd waste his time fooling around with such a thing unless he could figure out some way to make a buck from it. Maybe someone will give one to the Commodore, though, to pass the time while he recovers from the arsenic...

 

[MisterGrey]

Great information! Thanks!

 

[Tomasso]

The Season Ending Song......

[video=youtube;FheZAB42gT4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FheZAB42gT4[/video]

 

[flat-top]

Looks like Boardwalk's success will inspire other potential cool projects:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/12/tom-hardy-shia-labeouf-wettest-county.html

 

[Tomasso]

[video=youtube;nKU2A70svYk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKU2A70svYk&feature=related[/video]

 

[Drappa]

Article about Boardwalk Empire's wardrobe department and possible influence on mainstream fashion:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/feb/01/boardwalk-empire-wardrobe-fashion