There were so many great scenes in last night's episode. Van Alden is quickly becoming a way more complex character than he appeared to be at first. That brief torture scene was fantastic. The correction from Van Alden's partner - "Actually, he said your little faggot penis" - priceless. Jimmy's argument with his wife and conversation Nucky showed a lot of things about his past, and his development before the show actually starts. Obviously, the war changed Jimmy a lot and those scenes helped explain that Jimmy no longer fit in quite like he used to (e.g. Princeton student now with gangster accent/affect). I also think Omar's storyline is going to be bad ass, you know they didn't cast him without thinking OH FUCK YES WE ARE HAVING OMAR SHOOT PEOPLE. The cease-fire is going to be short lived. All that said, I can't help but feel like I want something more to happen in each episode I watch. Maybe next week I won't feel that way.
I think Jimmy and Nucki are going to square off at some point, maybe even a three way war with NY. From the looks of next week's preview, Jimmy allys with Capone. Its really starting to get interesting where this is going.
I'm a little late to the game, but I love the early the fact Alma is his Nucky's dead wife and they tossed in that "cocksuckah!" shoutout to Deadwood in episode 1. The show is moving slowly, but I'm okay with that, because well they still have 8-10 episodes left this season and some of you are talking like it is a movie with 30 minutes left. The Wire started off slow as well, and we know that turned out to be an okay show right?* I have to agree with all the above on the compliments to the acting. That 5 second scene at the with VA at dinner with his wife was killer. SB is fucking amazing, I love how reserved he is compared to other characters he's played. I also don't think Nucky is a stupid guy, just a smarter than average guy that hasn't had to exercise his brain to the full capacity because he has everything in his little area working so fucking well. Seeing him get challenged and overcome it as he becomes our twisted hero will be a theme of course. They're definitely going to make Rothstein one of the coolest bad guys on TV. Getting tired of his little hot-headed sidekick though, it is annoying. The guy singing at the party with Nucky's girl there, a little too on the nose? It is obvious they are going to put Nucky and Schroeder together, hopefully the way it happens is creative.
Man all sides are gunning for Nucky. Other than the blacks he's doing business with now I think every faction is after him (though he didn't endear himself to them either). NYC, The Feds, the gangsters backing that bootlegger who changed his name, and maybe eventually Jimmy/Chicago. The detective is seriously fucked up. Crazy good performance.
Considering he's off to find and kill Jimmy I doubt he'll be around for too much longer. Although with Jimmy in Chicago I guess it could be a season long story arc.
That character is Lucky Luciano. I think the history makes it more interesting from a dramatic standpoint. Is talking about the characters who are based on real people a spoiler?
I definitely like the historical ties alot of these characters bring to the story (whether they ultimately choose to stay true to reality or not), but it's probably better to keep any of those connections wrapped up in spoiler tags for people that aren't familiar with the history of the time period.
Speaking of reality, Chalky's accent is totally unrealistic to the point that it feels more out of place than anything in Deadwood. What really annoys me is hearing people say things like "swell" and hearing old tymey Vaudeville music and then you've got some dialogue straight out of a Quentin Tarantino movie. Nucky even acknowledges it..."what does motherfucker mean?" I understand they have to keep the dialog modern but Deadwood had a much older time period to work with and every actor managed to keep it sounding like the old west. The dude sounds like his character from The Wire except dressed up in old clothes. That's a minor bitch though. I have a good feeling about this show otherwise.
Well, the two best moments belonged to the near-corpse; the scene of Nucky's brother trying to smother him as his neighbor asks what's happening and he hears footsteps was fantastic. Great mix of tension and desperation. And as others noted, Van Alden getting information out of John Doe was an inspired mix of comedy and violence. Loved that they had Alden's subordinate interjecting humorous comments into an otherwise serious scene. Aside from those two excellent parts, the episode was merely okay. Margaret Schroeder continues to act poorly and have a boring, worthless storyline. The Jimmy and his wife and kid storyline is playing out very predictably. We have yet another scene of Rothstein showing the audience his genius, but this one doesn't make much sense; the other guy, with 22.5k in the pot, goes away for 5k more? Realism aside, it doesn't do much for the kingpin's perceived intelligence if he is outsmarting morons. The guys playing Van Alden and Eli Thompson both proved themselves good actors, as noted above. Chalky White, in addition to learning slang from 60 years into the future, also has the corresponding mismatched attitude. There were no race riots in 1920, or even their possibility, for a simple reason; the police and if need be, military, would squash them all like fucking bugs. So overall, pretty good, but definitely the weakest of the three we have seen thus far.
What am I missing from the end of the last episode. Nucky walks to the elevator and the camera pans out to his footprints. Is that supposed to be blood or mud? What's the cliffhanger here I'm missing?
I took it as symbolic - as if the things he's getting involved in are dragging dirt through his old life.
I took it as symbolic--showing that Nucky is leaving a trail, not covering his tracks. Further, right after the footprints, they showed the elevator cage closing in front of him--but it was shot in a way that suggested prison bars closing in on him. They're either 1) foreshadowing that Nucky is going to prison or 2) showing that Nucky is getting worried about the FBI.
You missed one more part, that was the nude scene with Nucky's flapper girlfriend. My god she is smokin hot and has a perfect body I would also guess that she would probably be much curvier if it was really 1920. You couldn't be more dead on about the Irish widow. Why does every HBO show have to follow the same formula? Does every show have to have spin off storylines about minor characters? Unless Nucky starts dating her she has no business even being on the show. I have zero interest in anything she does, (except helping Nucky's girlfriend undress) As for Chalky Black, I am not going to disagree but I do have a question. Is it his accent or the use of words like motherfucker? I mean should he sound like a step and fetch it 1920's black guy or something? "Yes um suh, I'll split 35 pehcent wich you" That's what I keep thinking every time I see you guys complain about his accent. Is it to street?? Anyway I am hoping the show picks up a little. Jimmy goes to hang out with Capone that should breathe some life in the story.
I think the Irish widow will come into play when the elections draw closer- i.e. "Vote Republican". Maybe influence her friends and that feminist alcohol hating group.
I don't care about his accent so much as the dialog. "Imma take a drop of blood outa allay'all asses" or "As a babies ass, mothafucka." No one else on the show has East Coast 1920's accents so I'm not knocking the dude for talking similar to how he probably talks in real life, like every actor on the show. The dialog is straight out of a hood movie though...to the point where I almost expected to see some dudes in the background drinking 40's and blasting Easy-E. Totally inconsistent with the entire mood of the show.
For me, it's both. ObviouslyBeliever covered the unbelievable dialogue, which is completely the fault of the writers and director. However, the actor definitely needs to tone down the Ebonics a bit; while not authentic, the way that the other characters talked doesn't sound that much different than the vocal inflection of people during the 1920s. Meanwhile, Chalky's speech is about as jarring as a character speaking Engrish. Even the audience is well aware that no one would talk that way for another 60 years. Obvious prediction for next episode- Jimmy pays Capone a visit, and Al wants nothing to do with him. Jimmy says the Feds are after him, and if he goes down, so does Capone. (Al can't kill him because it will draw suspicion to the location) Jimmy gets saddled with pulling off dangerous jobs.
Just to let a few people know (I've studied the history of Organized Crime): Spoiler Luciano becomes the biggest mob boss of all time. He is the guy that brings the New York Families together, along with creating a national syndicate. None of this happens until well after Prohibition, but during Prohibition, he learns everything he knows from Arnold Rothstein. Also under Rothstein is "Bugsy" Seigel and Meyer Lansky, so I am sort of hoping to see those two show up sooner or later. Those who have studied these things know that Seigel is kind of a loose cannon, and even more willing to kill than Luciano. That fucker is borderline crazy. Lansky, meanwhile, is a lot like Rothstein in that he is smarter and more of the brains behind the scenes. Lansky's thing was gambling, though, so I sort of doubt he'll show up, but I am hoping. Luciano took over because he was a very no-nonsense sort of gangster. Rothstein was the guy who would talk, think, and intimidate, which he helped impart somewhat to Luciano, but Luciano was significantly more willing to kill people than Rothstein was. Rothstein was more 'old school' in his belief in respect of the rules, while Luciano and Seigel come along and change the rules somewhat. This is all sort of an over-simplification, but I expect Luciano to become a bigger character as the series progresses. As for Al Capone, he is KNOWN as a Gangster. You think gangster, and most people think Al Capone. He was borderline psychotic, but he was also exceptionally charismatic, which makes him a really, really interesting character. Personally, so far, I find the characters based on real people (Capone, Luciano, Rothstein) to be much more interesting than the fictional characters, with the exception of Nucky. This series has been great so far, although I find myself consistently annoyed with the Margaret Schroeder character (personally, I have never, ever liked Kelly Macdonald in anything I've seen her in, and the only thing I can say for her here is that at least she is really Irish so the accent is real) and storyline, and her acting just seems exceptionally wooden. It is like watching a robot. I realize her character is supposed to have just gone through a lot of shit (her husband beat her, caused her to have a miscarriage, and then was killed), but Jesus, emote a little for fuck sake. The rest of the series has been fantastic, though. I'm willing to overlook the minor gripes (like language that is clearly not right for the time period) as long as the storylines continue to be compelling and otherwise well written.
Spoiler I read somewhere that Siegel and Lansky are going to show up later on. Ill try to find a link. The Capone thing is great, there really setting the stage for some great story telling. Shit, I wish they would go do a spin off just about him or Luciano. Its a little bizarre that the main character is fictional (well sort of based on someone) when the ancillary characters are real. Im much more interested in the historical ones over Nucky.
Why is that weird? Terence Winter wanted to tell his own, original story without being constrained to a real historical criminal's biography. And as much as I like the historical figures, they're all one-note minor characters at this point. Rothstein is the calm intellectual mobster. Luciano is the violent hothead mobster. We have yet to see either of the two ever display anything else. Capone is a bit more well-rounded, but really, the true intriguing characters here are Nucky, Jimmy, and Van Alden. It's just that not every scene features those three beating up/threatening/swindling someone.
Right, like I said, I like Nucky as a character, and his storyline has been awesome. Jimmy is okay, but his storyline has been predictable thus far (he goes to Chicago, has issues with Capone, etc). I just think that Luciano and Rothstein, along with Capone, have a lot of potential to be developed into really interesting characters, which isn't difficult, given the fact that they're really interesting in real life. Spoiler It'll be interesting to see Luciano get a little more aggressive and start angling for a boss position, and to see his relationship with Rothstein change over time. Same goes for Capone, who I want to see them develop more into his real persona. He was fairly well liked amongst Chicagoans, even though they KNEW he was a gangster who kills people. He had a public, charismatic side to go with his private, very dark and borderline psychotic side. Honestly, if I didn't KNOW about Capone, Luciano, and Rothstein already from taking a class and reading about them, I wouldn't necessarily find them that interesting on the show. The fact that I know so much of their real back story is what makes them more interesting to me. Those that don't know the story probably won't find those characters as interesting, and I fully realize that, which is why I am hoping the writers flesh those characters out a bit more in the coming episodes, and don't just make them into 1-trick ponies.