Boardwalk Empire (19 Sep. 2010)

January 1920. On the eve of Prohibition, Atlantic City's Treasurer, Nucky Thompson, condemns alcohol at a Women's Temperance League meeting, where he is noticed by Margaret Schroeder, a ... See full summary »

Director:

Martin Scorsese

Writers:

Terence Winter (creator), Terence Winter,

Stars:

Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Kelly Macdonald

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Steve Buscemi	...	Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson
Michael Pitt	...	James 'Jimmy' Darmody
Kelly Macdonald	...	Margaret Schroeder
Michael Shannon	...	Agent Nelson Van Alden
Shea Whigham	...	Elias 'Eli' Thompson
Aleksa Palladino	...	Angela Darmody
Michael Stuhlbarg	...	Arnold Rothstein
Stephen Graham	...	Al Capone
Vincent Piazza	...	Lucky Luciano
Paz de la Huerta	...	Lucy Danziger
Michael Kenneth Williams	...	Chalky White
Anthony Laciura	...	Eddie Kessler
Paul Sparks	...	Mickey Doyle
Dabney Coleman	...	Commodore Louis Kaestner
Greg Antonacci	...	Johnny Torrio

Storyline

January 1920. On the eve of Prohibition, Atlantic City's Treasurer, Nucky Thompson, condemns alcohol at a Women's Temperance League meeting, where he is noticed by Margaret Schroeder, a pretty, pregnant housewife who comes to him for help in getting her abusive husband Hans a job. Later that evening, the duplicitous Nucky privately tells his ward bosses about the opportunity to make huge profits selling bootleg liquor. At a countdown-to-midnight blast at Babette's Supper Club, he assures Jimmy Darmody, a recently returned WWI vet, that his appointment as "Man Friday" to the new Chief Clerk of the Fourth Ward, Paddy Ryan, will lead to bigger things. Jimmy, meanwhile, has higher aspirations and ends up making an alliance that could have dire consequences for both him and Nucky.

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Plot Keywords:

abusive husband | pregnant | alcohol | prohibition | treasurer | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 September 2010 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Home Box Office (HBO), Leverage Management, Closest to the Hole Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

72 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Real life gangster Arnold Rothstein would later be immortalized in F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous novel 'The Great Gatsby' where Gatsby introduces the narrator, Nick, to a friend and business associate of his called Meyer Wolfsheim, a Jewish gangster and gambler who had 'fixed the World Series' just as Rothstein did in real life.

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Goofs

The Dunn Pernsley character refers to the subservient black kitchen hands as "Uncle Toms" . The term 'Uncle Tom' did not become a coined derogatory term with African Americans until the Black Power movement of the late 1960's. Mainly amongst Black Militant groups of the late 60's. It is arguable that the Uncle Tom character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel was still a widely regarded positive character in the early 1920's.

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Quotes

Eddie Kessler: I heard screaming. Are you all right? May I enter?
Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson: No! What do yo want?
Lucy Danziger: Steinman's on the wire.
Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson: Oh, Christ!
Lucy Danziger: What?
Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson: All right!
Lucy Danziger: He is always interrupting us! Jeez Louise! Arggh!
Eddie Kessler: What?
Lucy Danziger: Screaming? We were fucking, Eddie! Fucking!

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Connections

References The Godfather (1972)

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Soundtracks

"Avalon"
(1920) (uncredited)
Composed by Al Jolson, Buddy G. DeSylva and Vincent Rose
Performed by Bill Murray

User Reviews

Pretty good start, but far from perfect

Broadwalk Empire has been the most awaited new show of the season, simply because it has an impressive cast of movie stars and has Martin Scorsese under it's wing. What did I think?

The Pilot was certainly stylized as one would expect. The sets, costumes, and the cinematography are all very impressive, and one can see this show is one that cost a lot of money. Saying that, it is expected from Scorsese as a director, but the Pilot was pretty much what one would expect as well. The episode was fast-paced, introducing a lot of characters, and it did entertain for most of the episode. However, it also remained distant and cold in it's approach, maybe because it was a little too fast-paced and had way too many plots going on. It remained interesting always, but not always as engaging as I would have thought from seeing the critical acclaim it has garnered. Steve Buscemi is pretty good, but I actually think he was the weakest of the cast. To be honest, none of the cast impressed me much, it all seemed like it was clearly an exercise in 'acting'. Actually, the real stand-out to me was the most unknown from the main cast, which was Michael Pitt. He is fantastic and held up most of the Pilot for me.

All in all, I will continue watching, but it already seems like the series is overdoing it, and it was surprisingly not as impressive as I would have thought. Let's just see where it goes from here.