'Ging Gang Goolie' - Boardwalk Empire, Season Three

Boardwalk Empire

Season Three

Episode Six

'Ging Gang Goolie' - 6.5

'I want incest you so bad'

Did anyone else get 'Ging Gang Goolie' stuck in their head after the scene at the Boy Scout function? It's an awful, awful song but it's just permanently engrained in my mind, and is sadly about the only thing that remains from the as-such entitled instalment of Boardwalk Empire.

Now, admittedly, it is always difficult to justify a negative review of Boardwalk Empire. It looks damn good, the acting is superb, blah blah blah intelligent, blah blah. The show, like Game of Thrones or Buffy the Vampire Slayer can almost be considered objectively good - of course I could say your mileage may vary, but I hold fast to the belief that for any of these three shows, if you don't like them then you're kidding yourself and/or don't watch enough television to appreciate actual quality. Too much of ‘the Vampire Diaries’, perhaps, that you've forgotten what makes a TV series different or interesting.

Maybe the focus on Margaret and Nucky's relationship was a mistake, as well as the absence of the most interesting character right now, Gyp Rosetti, who is obviously recovering from the attempt on his life last episode. Nucky gets put in jail and fined $5, all because his former ally Attorney General Harry Daugherty needed a temporary scapegoat, and wanted to teach our protagonist a lesson. I know we've met Daugherty, but I am not overly familiar with him. I couldn't remember his name when he first showed up tonight, and in the end he has little effect on the proceedings other than inspiring his enemy to take Remus (the guy who says his own name a lot) down, and possibly Daugherty himself. I don't know.

At least Gillian got a sex scene in, although it was with a man who looks an awful lot like her son. I often feel a bit sorry for Gretchen Mol, as even though she plays the role with strength and ability, she still portrays a thoroughly unlikeable and strange woman, who has an incestuous fixation on her own (deceased) son. There is a depressing factor here in that he's dead and such, but it's still creepy and I wish she'd stop it. 

Did anyone understand what was going on with this gypsy/vagrant lurking near Margaret's house? I hear that he starts a fire early on, but 'gypsy', as Teddy calls it, is terribly close to 'Gyp', and he does say that the gypsy lived somewhere else and has only just come to town. It's eerie and suspenseful, but doesn't lead anywhere but to Margaret and Owen Sleater hooking up in the greenhouse. 

You know who I like? Gaston Means. His actor, Stephen Root, plays him as confident and with a degree of cheesy flamboyancy, and it is all appreciated. Means is hilarious no matter what he's saying or doing, and even though he should be subordinate he still owns his superiors with seemingly helpful quips that are equally belittling. He's fantastic, and just as good to watch as Gyp Rosetti, if for different reasons. His presence tonight was entertaining, as always, and the prospect of him joining up with Nucky to take down his own boss is an exciting prospect. Means for President!

'Ging Gang Goolie' was nowhere near as memorable as the song it's named after, and in reality was just as evasive as the show always gets. I can see that Boardwalk Empire is a complex show, but maybe twelve episodes is too many. They end up introducing all these unnecessary and uneventful side plots that it later feels it needs to resolve. I reckon there are easily two episodes worth of scenes that could be removed to make the show breezier and simpler. Yes, of course intelligent is good, but I can't always follow this show and it's starting to really piss me off. I'm just waiting for someone to pull out a gun and shoot everybody, then I'll be happy.