Boardwalk Empire
Season One
Episode Three
'Broadway Limited' - 8.5
 |
| Steve Buscemi's had some work done |
What is striking about 'Broadway Limited' is the violence and the sex. Ok, well there is only one instance of either, and the sex isn't actual intercourse or anything, it's just nudity, but there are still quite extreme cases of both. I have no issues at all with either, though I did loudly exclaim when the gruesome act occurs, but we will get to that later.
In the first scene of the episode, the surviving victim from the Pilot's massacre is brought in, his insides just visible through the large hole in his fat belly. I should definitely not eat dinner while watching TV. Anyway, it's been three days he's been out in the environment, and he is infected and dying, but he isn't completely gone yet. Before too long, the wonderfully deranged Prohibition Agent Nelson Van Alden struts into the hospital and orders the man placed into his custody, but when getting a warrant apparently fails he winds up forging one and kidnapping the witness. With the man surely bleeding all over the back seat - Van Alden is attempting to take him to New York or something, closer to Rothstein - they end up stopping at a dentist to try and get something out of him before he dies.
The dentist scene quickly went from farcical to disgusting. At first the man, who has been awakened with a dose of cocaine to the mouth, only gives a few angry Yiddish words that seriously offend the dentist's current patient and his mother. According to the poor classy lady his sentence roughly comes to 'you should fuck your grandmother with your little faggot penis'. It was pretty funny, but then everything turns to horror when a quietly furious Van Alden jams his hand deep into the man's gunshot wound, giving us a full view of his arm sticking out of his belly. His screams are not understated, but they are perfectly understandable - I ended up making a very weird sound myself. Sure enough the tactic is fairly effective, and Van Alden gets one name before the poor lad carks it; Jimmy.
I don't know how necessary such violence is, but it definitely left its mark, and I sure won't forget it anytime soon. Such acts are unrealistic, but I am not complaining, simply because it was a truly surprising moment. It is also hard to deny Michael Shannon's abilities as the twisted prohi, and he actually affords a degree of sympathy, if not from any of the characters around him.
For Jimmy, the news that he's been fingered is both unwanted and surprising. Nucky is intelligent enough to force him to flee Atlantic City, but he lacks any regard for Angela and Tommy, though he actually sounds forlorn as he describes the younger, more idealistic Jimmy that never returned from the war. Like Shannon, Steve Buscemi is able to evoke sympathy for a character who would be largely hated in real life, who allows people to fall at his side as long as he gets to keep standing. The very next scene, as Jimmy packs his bags for Chicago, it's Michael Pitt and Aleksa Palladino's time to act, with both performing as well as each other while their quasi-relationship crumbles under Jimmy's rashness, both in the shooting and in his assumption that Angela had an affair with the guy at the photo store. I was honestly bewildered by how well Palladino did, but that was mostly due to her clear lack of use over the last few episodes and I hope we still get to see her often, despite Jimmy's leaving.
Things get rough for Chalky White, who is employed by Nucky as the new distiller after Mickey Doyle got caught by the FBI in the pilot. Chalky's business seems to be going fine at first, but when he driver is lynched and the words 'Liquor Kills' scratched into his car door, it looks like his story is about to take off. Chalky is more intelligent than his grammar makes him seem, and he demands a higher cut of the takings from Nucky, who in turn is allowed to do as he wishes to hide that crime from the media; in this case he makes it look like a revenge killing for a supposedly false adultery. Later as Nucky makes his way to the lift at the Ritz-Carlton, he glances back and looks at the muddy footprints he's traipsed over a very expensive looking rug. Exactly what this represents is seemingly up for interpretation - I think it shows that he does consider the consequences of his actions and the trail he leaves behind him, he just chooses to ignore it when he can. Don't know though, never been particularly good at that stuff. I find symbolism a bit trite most of the time, but it wasn't too stupid in this case, not like butterflies representing condemnation or some shit. You know what I mean.
Anyway, there were a couple of other scenes I'm sure will become important later; for one, Rothstein sends Luciano to track down and possibly kill Jimmy in retaliation for the massacre, and for another Doyle gets himself in some hot water with his business associates, who he can no longer pay due to the loss of his business to Chalky. The latter scene could have been a little precursor to the lynching of Chalky's driver, especially if he's making liquor at the same place Doyle was. There was even a good conversation between Margaret Schroeder and Nucky's mistress Lucy Danziger. Margaret was given a job at a clothing store on the boardwalk, one that is frequented by the slutty princess, who saunters in expecting to be pampered by the Irish lass who doesn't really know what she's doing. It was funny and kind of sad, for both of them. Lucy seems like a character who's only role is to crash and burn, while Margaret is clearly going to suffer heartbreak after heartbreak until her heart... breaks.
All in all it was very similar to the previous episode, with possibly the tiniest bit more plot development added for good measure. Unfortunately none of the characters get the proper fleshing out that they received in 'the Ivory Tower', and the plot was more continued than changed, but I'm not too worried, it was still a top episode and the show isn't showing signs of slowing down yet. On a weirder note, I appreciate the nudity and the violence, as almost any other channel shies too far away from these grotesque displays of human realism, and I just adore them. I love to shocked, and I'll admit I'm loving this show right now.
In the first scene of the episode, the surviving victim from the Pilot's massacre is brought in, his insides just visible through the large hole in his fat belly. I should definitely not eat dinner while watching TV. Anyway, it's been three days he's been out in the environment, and he is infected and dying, but he isn't completely gone yet. Before too long, the wonderfully deranged Prohibition Agent Nelson Van Alden struts into the hospital and orders the man placed into his custody, but when getting a warrant apparently fails he winds up forging one and kidnapping the witness. With the man surely bleeding all over the back seat - Van Alden is attempting to take him to New York or something, closer to Rothstein - they end up stopping at a dentist to try and get something out of him before he dies.
The dentist scene quickly went from farcical to disgusting. At first the man, who has been awakened with a dose of cocaine to the mouth, only gives a few angry Yiddish words that seriously offend the dentist's current patient and his mother. According to the poor classy lady his sentence roughly comes to 'you should fuck your grandmother with your little faggot penis'. It was pretty funny, but then everything turns to horror when a quietly furious Van Alden jams his hand deep into the man's gunshot wound, giving us a full view of his arm sticking out of his belly. His screams are not understated, but they are perfectly understandable - I ended up making a very weird sound myself. Sure enough the tactic is fairly effective, and Van Alden gets one name before the poor lad carks it; Jimmy.
I don't know how necessary such violence is, but it definitely left its mark, and I sure won't forget it anytime soon. Such acts are unrealistic, but I am not complaining, simply because it was a truly surprising moment. It is also hard to deny Michael Shannon's abilities as the twisted prohi, and he actually affords a degree of sympathy, if not from any of the characters around him.
For Jimmy, the news that he's been fingered is both unwanted and surprising. Nucky is intelligent enough to force him to flee Atlantic City, but he lacks any regard for Angela and Tommy, though he actually sounds forlorn as he describes the younger, more idealistic Jimmy that never returned from the war. Like Shannon, Steve Buscemi is able to evoke sympathy for a character who would be largely hated in real life, who allows people to fall at his side as long as he gets to keep standing. The very next scene, as Jimmy packs his bags for Chicago, it's Michael Pitt and Aleksa Palladino's time to act, with both performing as well as each other while their quasi-relationship crumbles under Jimmy's rashness, both in the shooting and in his assumption that Angela had an affair with the guy at the photo store. I was honestly bewildered by how well Palladino did, but that was mostly due to her clear lack of use over the last few episodes and I hope we still get to see her often, despite Jimmy's leaving.
Things get rough for Chalky White, who is employed by Nucky as the new distiller after Mickey Doyle got caught by the FBI in the pilot. Chalky's business seems to be going fine at first, but when he driver is lynched and the words 'Liquor Kills' scratched into his car door, it looks like his story is about to take off. Chalky is more intelligent than his grammar makes him seem, and he demands a higher cut of the takings from Nucky, who in turn is allowed to do as he wishes to hide that crime from the media; in this case he makes it look like a revenge killing for a supposedly false adultery. Later as Nucky makes his way to the lift at the Ritz-Carlton, he glances back and looks at the muddy footprints he's traipsed over a very expensive looking rug. Exactly what this represents is seemingly up for interpretation - I think it shows that he does consider the consequences of his actions and the trail he leaves behind him, he just chooses to ignore it when he can. Don't know though, never been particularly good at that stuff. I find symbolism a bit trite most of the time, but it wasn't too stupid in this case, not like butterflies representing condemnation or some shit. You know what I mean.
Anyway, there were a couple of other scenes I'm sure will become important later; for one, Rothstein sends Luciano to track down and possibly kill Jimmy in retaliation for the massacre, and for another Doyle gets himself in some hot water with his business associates, who he can no longer pay due to the loss of his business to Chalky. The latter scene could have been a little precursor to the lynching of Chalky's driver, especially if he's making liquor at the same place Doyle was. There was even a good conversation between Margaret Schroeder and Nucky's mistress Lucy Danziger. Margaret was given a job at a clothing store on the boardwalk, one that is frequented by the slutty princess, who saunters in expecting to be pampered by the Irish lass who doesn't really know what she's doing. It was funny and kind of sad, for both of them. Lucy seems like a character who's only role is to crash and burn, while Margaret is clearly going to suffer heartbreak after heartbreak until her heart... breaks.
All in all it was very similar to the previous episode, with possibly the tiniest bit more plot development added for good measure. Unfortunately none of the characters get the proper fleshing out that they received in 'the Ivory Tower', and the plot was more continued than changed, but I'm not too worried, it was still a top episode and the show isn't showing signs of slowing down yet. On a weirder note, I appreciate the nudity and the violence, as almost any other channel shies too far away from these grotesque displays of human realism, and I just adore them. I love to shocked, and I'll admit I'm loving this show right now.
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