I don’t think the reviews are that iffy. Metacritic has 27 out of 29 positive reviews right now, with a score of 88. And FWIW, I think Buscemi absolutely nailed it in the pilot.
Well that’s good news. Reviews I read said that it smoothes out in later eps, but I still think I’ll wait a bit.
I think it would have been a lot better without so much involvement from Scorsese. I feel like he has a very small bag of tricks that he has used too many times. Also, as a grumpy pregnant lady, the whole story line about the pregnant woman and her abusive husband made me want to vomit. I feel like Scorsese is using it as emotional porn rather than any kind of valid storytelling device.
Steve Buscemi is a great actor, but I can’t believe that someone with his looks and voice could be a successful politician.
Also, I couldn’t help feeling that Michael Pitt is cast not as Jimmy, but instead cast as Leonardo di Caprio cast as Jimmy.
I don’t think Scorsese is “fun” enough to do this setup, this look, this set, and this cast justice. We need Tim Burton instead.
Disclaimer: I haven’t seen this yet. And I hope this isn’t too much of a hijack.
I want to be excited for this, I really do. But doesn’t anyone else get the sneaking feeling that these shows are beginning to get a little formulaic? I’m thinking of Deadwood, Rome, the Sopranos, and now this. And I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting a few more examples. Deadwood was one of my favorite shows of all time, but it’s really starting to feel that this has been done to death, and I know exactly what to expect of this show:
-Set in some time in the past
-Main character is a violent criminal, but sympathetic enough that we end up rooting for him while being simultaneously repulsed by his behavior
-Lots of surprising, and surprisingly graphic, violence
-Many many bad words
All these recent HBO shows have most, if not all of these attributes. I just can’t really bring myself to expect to be surprised by this latest incarnation. I suppose I’ll wait for the reviews.
Seems like you can easily have all of those things and still have the shows be nothing like each other in essence. I don’t think you could fairly describe Deadwood as “Rome, but in Montana.” Sure they might have a few things in common, but overall the feel of the shows was completely different, at least to me.
Anyway, I’m really excited about Boardwalk Empire and I think it started out well. I’ve always watched HBO series on DVD, this will be the first one I keep up with as it airs. This way, when they cancel it without wrapping up the story, I can be enraged right along with everybody else. I can’t wait.
They’ve already renewed it for another season, so you can delay the enragement for a least another year
Clearly you’ve never been to a town council meeting in Jersey.
Why would Buscemi’s face be less believeable as a successful politican than as a successful actor?
I don’t believe he’s really a politician – at least not an elected one, though he is a political boss and fixer. If I understood the pilot correctly, his official position is as some kind of city treasurer or something.
Because there’s such a thing as a character actor, but not such a thing as a character politician?
I thought it was fun, though kinda uninspired. I felt like I was watching “Godfather: The TV series”, especially at the end where Enoch is going about his day while opera is playing and a bunch of people are getting murdered. All they needed was a baby getting baptized.
One review I read described it as “homework,” which I thought was accurate. Maybe it will get livelier, but the pilot had a history-class feel to it. I guess I just have to wonder too whether there’s really anything new to be done with gangsters at this point.
Plot question: Why did Nuck let Jimmy off the hook for screwing up his deal?
Because he has a heart of gold and is only half a gangster… the nonviolent half.
[spoiler] Sattua’s answer might be a little cliche, but its not far from the truth. Nuck isn’t really a mobster like Capone would be or Lucky Luciano is. He’s a corrupt political boss, which means business comes first, not vengeance. He’s known Jimmy since he was 12 years old. He knows Jimmy is a smart bastard and moreover he likes him. He could justify having him killed easily, but at the end of day, all thats gonna happen is that he’ll down a man with the smarts and the balls to get things done for him. Problem is the trust factor takes a hit.
Furthermore Rothstein doesn’t know it was Jimmy that took the booze. He might suspect it, but if I recall correctly Johnny Torrio, Luciano, and Big Jim Collosimo were also present when Nuck and Rothstein made the deal. Could have been any one of them that done the deed. Of course this is all fanwank after the fact. Who knows. [/spoiler]
I got the same impression. All Pitt’s mannerisms, choices, facial expressions, accent, etc. seemed consciously modeled on DiCaprio. It was like he kept asking himself “what would Leo do” before every scene. All it did was make me keep thinking, “this would be a lot better if Leo DiCaprio was playing Jimmy.”