Boardwalk Empire
Season Three
Episode One
'Resolution' - 9.5
After last season's giant ending almost shat on top of the
first season finale, Boardwalk Empire has gone in the best direction it could
have; forward. Far forward. Rather than continuing directly from where we left
off, we are treated to a jump a full year or so into the future.
The very first thing that I noticed was that many of the main cast who were featured in the credits are no longer present. Michael Pitt is the most obvious absence, though I do feel the loss of Aleksa Palladino. Paz de la Huerta will surely leave a very curvy and wet hole in the show, while Dabney Coleman I probably won't even notice. He didn't actually appear particularly often.
Interestingly, in our first scene we get an introduction to a new player in this game; Gyp Rosetti, a Sicilian up and coming gangster. He does make a hell of a first impression, suffering a flat tire in Tabor Heights, New Jersey and then fucking shit up. A man and his dog who've come across the convoy on the side of the road ask him if he'd like to have some '3-in-1', which Rosetti doesn't understand. Dog-man makes a grave error when he tells Rosetti that it is oil, 'what else would it be'. After giving the tires a dab, the gangster follows the man back to his car, before whamming him over the head with what I think is a tire-iron, before beating him to death right there on the road and claiming the dog as his own.
Rosetti reminds me of Lucky Luciano, who threatened a doctor who was treating his STD early in the first season, except unlike Rothstein's protégé, this new guy doesn't have to answer to anyone.
So how has Nucky changed since murdering Jimmy? Well, as his former protégé told him in the very first episode, he can't be half a gangster. In Nucky's first scene, he, Mickey Doyle, Owen Sleater and Manny Horvitz are interrogating a thief who had stolen from Mickey's warehouse. Nucky spends a while telling the robber that he was only doing his job by stealing, and that it was Doyle's fault when he went to the toilet and left the warehouse unguarded. When the relieved prisoner happily reveals his mystery accomplice's identity, Nucky smiles, tells Munya to untie him, before adding 'Oh, but before you do, put a bullet in his fucking head'. I love this show, and I love the idea of a hardcore Nucky.
It is New Years Eve, with 1923 only a couple of hours away. Margaret prepares her home to accommodate her husband's party, which is being decorated in an extravagant Egyptian theme. Gillian Darmody, who has now claimed Tommy as her son and has opened a brothel in the Commodore's old home, prepares the whores for the drunken louts about to come into the establishment. Van Alden, who now goes by the name George Mueller, is working as an iron salesman - as in clothes irons, not the metal - and is trying to earn himself a few more sales before the New Years so he can win a big prize as his company's best pitcher.
The best thing about a jump forward is that it's like starting all over again. We get to meet these characters for a second time, discovering how they've changed in the year that we've missed and what's gone on in their lives.
One of the events from last episode that I was eager to learn the repercussions of was Margaret's donation of the land Nucky wanted to the church. The ramifications of this act take a while to come through, but they become incredibly apparent after the party.
Margaret and Nucky have donated a large amount of money to the paediatric centre of the local hospital, but when Margaret visits the new wing she witnesses a woman having a violent miscarriage right in front of her. When she asks a doctor about it, she's berated for paying for paediatric care but not pre-natal education, which could have saved this woman's child. She later inquires about pre-natal care with the director of the hospital when he arrives at the party, but she is berated once again when the man believes that he's being insulted. Luckily Nucky comes and defuses the situation, but once everyone's left he digs into his wife for embarrassing him, blaming the entire situation on her gifting of the land to charity. It becomes clear that Nucky and Margaret are no longer together, with the two putting up a facade for the public and around the children, but constantly getting into each other's throats behind closed doors. Nucky even has a new chick, Mr. Kent, who was a singer at the New Year's Party.
Mr. Rosetti is also present at the party, looking to score five hundred cases of rum from Nucky. Sadly for him that arrangement will never be, as Nucky is changing his tactics and is now selling only to A.R Rothstein, who then redistributes the merchandise himself at an inflated price. Rosetti is definitely not happy about this new deal, and comes within a hair's width of threatening Nucky, a no doubt fatal choice that he thankfully doesn't make. He does however shout a lot and give his dog to Margaret (?).
Looks like Van Alden is moving towards becoming a gangster, as he is offered a job by some lesser criminal in a florist. Or something. I think I've lost the plot a little, the point is that he saved the gangster/florist from being beaten on by Al Capone, and flongster asks him if he wants a less salesperson-y role than he has now. Alden, or Mueller or whatever, at first appears to say no, but then he gets back to his headquarters to find he's lost the competition because of some bad information. Ouch. He'll be back in no time surely.
And yes, we do lose one recurring character tonight, with Richard Harrow finally avenging the murder of Angela Darmody. It wasn't too surprising, and though Munya is kind of cool, he didn't look like he'd have much to do now that he's Nucky's personal assassin-for-hire (redundant, I know). Anyway, he opens his front door to go out and kill some guy, when who should be standing there but angry burnt-face guy, who lifts up his shotgun and BOOM! No more face for you Mr. Horvitz. Ha!
Boardwalk Empire looks and feels as good as it always has, and the acting is never flawed or abrasive. In terms of story, the plot of this season is already building to be a bit edgier and more shocking than the last, with Rosetti being a very intriguingly insane antagonist, and I'm really looking forward to watching Nucky squirm under a man who wages war without strategy. I often win chess by just doing whatever, and you end up beating people who always try to counter your moves simply because you don't do what they expected. Hopefully the same practice can work here - not that I don't like Nucky, I just think some more change would be well appreciated.
The very first thing that I noticed was that many of the main cast who were featured in the credits are no longer present. Michael Pitt is the most obvious absence, though I do feel the loss of Aleksa Palladino. Paz de la Huerta will surely leave a very curvy and wet hole in the show, while Dabney Coleman I probably won't even notice. He didn't actually appear particularly often.
Interestingly, in our first scene we get an introduction to a new player in this game; Gyp Rosetti, a Sicilian up and coming gangster. He does make a hell of a first impression, suffering a flat tire in Tabor Heights, New Jersey and then fucking shit up. A man and his dog who've come across the convoy on the side of the road ask him if he'd like to have some '3-in-1', which Rosetti doesn't understand. Dog-man makes a grave error when he tells Rosetti that it is oil, 'what else would it be'. After giving the tires a dab, the gangster follows the man back to his car, before whamming him over the head with what I think is a tire-iron, before beating him to death right there on the road and claiming the dog as his own.
Rosetti reminds me of Lucky Luciano, who threatened a doctor who was treating his STD early in the first season, except unlike Rothstein's protégé, this new guy doesn't have to answer to anyone.
So how has Nucky changed since murdering Jimmy? Well, as his former protégé told him in the very first episode, he can't be half a gangster. In Nucky's first scene, he, Mickey Doyle, Owen Sleater and Manny Horvitz are interrogating a thief who had stolen from Mickey's warehouse. Nucky spends a while telling the robber that he was only doing his job by stealing, and that it was Doyle's fault when he went to the toilet and left the warehouse unguarded. When the relieved prisoner happily reveals his mystery accomplice's identity, Nucky smiles, tells Munya to untie him, before adding 'Oh, but before you do, put a bullet in his fucking head'. I love this show, and I love the idea of a hardcore Nucky.
It is New Years Eve, with 1923 only a couple of hours away. Margaret prepares her home to accommodate her husband's party, which is being decorated in an extravagant Egyptian theme. Gillian Darmody, who has now claimed Tommy as her son and has opened a brothel in the Commodore's old home, prepares the whores for the drunken louts about to come into the establishment. Van Alden, who now goes by the name George Mueller, is working as an iron salesman - as in clothes irons, not the metal - and is trying to earn himself a few more sales before the New Years so he can win a big prize as his company's best pitcher.
The best thing about a jump forward is that it's like starting all over again. We get to meet these characters for a second time, discovering how they've changed in the year that we've missed and what's gone on in their lives.
One of the events from last episode that I was eager to learn the repercussions of was Margaret's donation of the land Nucky wanted to the church. The ramifications of this act take a while to come through, but they become incredibly apparent after the party.
Margaret and Nucky have donated a large amount of money to the paediatric centre of the local hospital, but when Margaret visits the new wing she witnesses a woman having a violent miscarriage right in front of her. When she asks a doctor about it, she's berated for paying for paediatric care but not pre-natal education, which could have saved this woman's child. She later inquires about pre-natal care with the director of the hospital when he arrives at the party, but she is berated once again when the man believes that he's being insulted. Luckily Nucky comes and defuses the situation, but once everyone's left he digs into his wife for embarrassing him, blaming the entire situation on her gifting of the land to charity. It becomes clear that Nucky and Margaret are no longer together, with the two putting up a facade for the public and around the children, but constantly getting into each other's throats behind closed doors. Nucky even has a new chick, Mr. Kent, who was a singer at the New Year's Party.
Mr. Rosetti is also present at the party, looking to score five hundred cases of rum from Nucky. Sadly for him that arrangement will never be, as Nucky is changing his tactics and is now selling only to A.R Rothstein, who then redistributes the merchandise himself at an inflated price. Rosetti is definitely not happy about this new deal, and comes within a hair's width of threatening Nucky, a no doubt fatal choice that he thankfully doesn't make. He does however shout a lot and give his dog to Margaret (?).
Looks like Van Alden is moving towards becoming a gangster, as he is offered a job by some lesser criminal in a florist. Or something. I think I've lost the plot a little, the point is that he saved the gangster/florist from being beaten on by Al Capone, and flongster asks him if he wants a less salesperson-y role than he has now. Alden, or Mueller or whatever, at first appears to say no, but then he gets back to his headquarters to find he's lost the competition because of some bad information. Ouch. He'll be back in no time surely.
And yes, we do lose one recurring character tonight, with Richard Harrow finally avenging the murder of Angela Darmody. It wasn't too surprising, and though Munya is kind of cool, he didn't look like he'd have much to do now that he's Nucky's personal assassin-for-hire (redundant, I know). Anyway, he opens his front door to go out and kill some guy, when who should be standing there but angry burnt-face guy, who lifts up his shotgun and BOOM! No more face for you Mr. Horvitz. Ha!
Boardwalk Empire looks and feels as good as it always has, and the acting is never flawed or abrasive. In terms of story, the plot of this season is already building to be a bit edgier and more shocking than the last, with Rosetti being a very intriguingly insane antagonist, and I'm really looking forward to watching Nucky squirm under a man who wages war without strategy. I often win chess by just doing whatever, and you end up beating people who always try to counter your moves simply because you don't do what they expected. Hopefully the same practice can work here - not that I don't like Nucky, I just think some more change would be well appreciated.
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