If they’re following history, it was Frankie Yale, on the orders of Johnny Torrio.
In the show, he was one of the guys to which Al Capone delivered the Canadian Club, no?
btw…loved the show. Set things up beautifully. Great pilot.
I thought it was pretty good. Good enough to keep watching. Even the really good shows are never really at their best in the pilots. Pilots are setups. I though enough of this worked to make me hopeful.
Buscemi is very good (no surprise there), and I think some of the supporting characters have promise. I like the interaction with real historical characters, and it looks like a lot of attention has been made to historical accuracy. The recreation of the boardwalk itself is quite stunning. The use of period music is thoughtful and effective (though maybe a little overused in the pilot). Kelly McDonald is a good actress. Michael Pitt’s character may go somewhere (I kind of feel like he’s being set up as the “Christopher” of the show), and I found the little Italian butler/henchman/whatever he is to be hilarious.
That old-timey standup comic sucked, though.
Question:
I’m a little confused about the liquor theft/sale. Rothstein was the guy in charge of the boats, right? So Nucky was going to give the money to Rothstein, but Jimmy and Capone stole it from them before the deal was made, split it somehow, Capone took his portion back to Chicago, and Jimmy sold his portion and gave Nucky a cut? He would have had to have given him $25K, since that would have been what he was making on the sale. Plus he wouldn’t have anyone to bring the liquor over if that’s the case, so I’d imagine he’d be pissed if I’m not off on what happened.
Anyone read the book that that inspired the show? I’m woefully ignorant of this era so I’m considering brushing up.
Just finished it. Nothing special. I’m not sure what all the uproar is over. It was a pretty pedestrian period piece.
I’ll watch another episode or two. Hopefully it gets better.
I liked it a lot - great period piece; excellent costumes, sets, music, cars - very cool indeed.
The story moved slowly, but I sort of liked that - sets it up to start caring for the characters.
I have the feeling this is a show this going to grow on me very quickly.
OK, if anyone else was a bit confused about alliances/the booze theft, here’s a good wrap up with some other interesting tidbits about the show:
Awesome. That actually clears up quite a bit for me.
And I want that guy’s job.
I thought it was good, but a bit too much of emphasis on trying to make the filming to appear as a period piece, with the fade outs and fade ins. Also way too much of the period music.
Nucky seems to be a corrupt politician, but not full blown criminal, yet. Jimmy looks like he’s going to take him there.
I noticed that they didn’t show Jimmy turning down the offer to become a Federal agent. So perhaps he’s going to be an undercover one?
I’m going to pass on this one and wait for the final reviews to come in. I can’t see Steve Buscemi pulling off this role convincingly, and, like others, I detest Michael Pitt. Buscemi is a great character actor, who plays great weasely, somewhat scuzzy guys who are basically losers. He may do well in this for all I know, but it’s not worth $15/mo to find out, especially with the iffy reviews I’ve seen.
I liked it, the key to these things is the character and story development and the pilot is usually the worst episode to judge a series like this by.
I think Mr. Horseshoe is going to keep watching for the cars alone. 
Also, everything else about it!
I had to Google Michael Pitt. Why the hate? I don’t think I’ve seen him before…
What was up with that “incubator” place with the premature babies? Why would you put such a place right on the Boardwalk, instead of, say, near a hospital? Did they charge admission for passersby to come in and see the babies?
The article linked to above said that it was both a hospital (although it seemed more like a standalone NICU) and a tourist attraction.
Jimmy is the impetus for Nucky taking the next step up to full fledged gangster from dishonest politician. The pilot was setting up the relationships and had a lot to do.
It was well done.
What the hell kind of name is Nucky.
I did not see who the Commodore is in the mix. I also did not recognize he was Dabney Coleman.
Short for Enoch.
I believe he’s supposed to be Louis Kuehnle, who was the political boss before he went to jail in 1911. Nucky took over for him.