'The Ivory Tower' - Boardwalk Empire, Season One

Boardwalk Empire

Season One

Episode Two

'The Ivory Tower' - 10.0

I've been a naughty boy

While the first episode had trouble maintaining all its weight, 'The Ivory Tower' shows that Boardwalk Empire can handle a meaty cast, focusing on the characters we have already met without bombarding us with new faces or plot lines. Almost everyone we know is expanded upon in an terrific episode that is a clear improvement over the little issues that arise in the pilot.

'The Ivory Tower' enforces some terrific aspects of this show; first, it has incredibly strong characters with a cast that can accommodate the harder roles; second, it isn't afraid to crack a joke or stick its tongue in its cheek; third, despite its sense of humour it is largely a serious and very intelligent drama.

Even though it was mostly an expository episode that aimed to develop the characters, there ended up being way too many events to simply recap them. Unfortunately that means I have to pick and choose the more important or impressive scenes, and exclude some of the more ponderous or irrelevant ones.

Following the murder of crime boss Big Jim Colosimo at the conclusion of 'Boardwalk Empire', one would have assumed that there would have been big repercussions. However, only one character seems concerned by the event, that being New York king pin Rothstein. Rothstein summons the apparent assassin of Big Jim, and gives the murderer a terrific speech about an unfortunate man who swallowed one too many billiard balls. In that one analogy, Michael Stuhlbarg manages to show the gangster as both charming and threatening, while still appearing entirely sincere. Oddly enough, I think Rothstein quickly became a favourite character of mine, along with his ambitious and slightly naive assistant Lucky Luciano.

Meanwhile, Jimmy enjoys the spoils from his heist last episode, buying his family numerous expensive gifts, including a 'vacuum sweeper' which got a sweet reaction from young Tommy, who'd no doubt never experienced such a machine. We also meet Jimmy's mother, a woman who looks no older than him and who works as an exotic dancer. Nonetheless, she was an immediately striking character, and not just appearance-wise. While I can't recall her name, her personality was outgoing and her manner of speaking was unreserved and over-affectionate, but by no means unintelligent or assuming. She had a sense of knowledge and wisdom, something fostered in her actress Gretchen Mol, obviously a remarkable woman and/or actress if she can leave such an impression after one scene.

Anyway, Jimmy's period of wealth and prosperity is over in almost an instant when Nucky removes him from his employ and demands $3,000 from his take, something he has already spent. In the end, Jimmy is forced to steal his gift to his mother back; a lookalike necklace to the one she sold years ago to pay for their house. The final twist is crueller though, since once he hands the wad of cash over to Nucky, the treasurer puts it straight onto a roulette table, losing it all in an instant right in front of Jimmy. In both of his scenes with Nucky, both Michael Pitt and Steve Buscemi are perfect. Neither of them ever breaks for a second, and you can easily believe that these men are their character; with Nucky irate over the massacre, he chooses to verbally and politically dominate his former protégé, demeaning him in a casino full of people. Jimmy, on the other hand, is smart enough to know how to react to Nucky's cruelty, but still close enough to him to be really hurt. It is a fascinating relationship to see, and it is shaping to be the centre point of the entire show.

In a fairly short scene, Al Capone makes a pretty damn good mark on the viewer as well. When a reporter comes into the bar to inquire about Capone's boss and his involvement in the murder of Colosimo, he loses it. It all happens very quickly, so I actually looked away for a second when Al smashes the bottle over the reporter's skull, but was able to look back as he started kicking and stomping on the poor guy as he lay bleeding on the ground. From the cut to and the cut from this scene, I swear only about a minute and a half passes, but it is enjoyable, and Capone is surprisingly funny for a famous gangster.

We also get to meet the Commodore a bit better, and he is quickly established as a cold, authoritative man who will step over pretty much anyone to get what he wants - something we guessed from the first episode. His treatment of his servant was both smart and disturbingly rough; when Nucky mentions the woman's vote he calls her in and asks her questions about politics she'd never be able to answer. Of course his aim is to demonstrate the apparent uselessness of women in politics, but it was a clever and well acted conversation between Nucky, the Commodore and the unfortunate Louanne.

Van Alden, the Prohibition agent, also got a bit more screen time, and I'm pretty damn sure he's a complete nut case. He is a determined and narrow-minded man, but he also has needs and desires I don't think he understands; after interviewing Margaret over her husband's death, he takes the ribbon that was in her hair and fiddles with it when he is alone, smelling it and presumably using it as some sort of masturbatory aid. Keep in mind this is immediately after he had written the most hilariously horrendous letter ever sent to one's spouse. Not only is Michael Shannon in possession of the perfect monotonous voice for the character, he brings the weirdest and most awkward person on the show both a mildly preposterous personality and a degree of sympathy and understanding.

I had issues with Margaret, I don't think her accent is real. I know that Kelly MacDonald comes from Scotland, which isn't the furthest you could get from the Emerald Isles, but it isn't the same. Accents are difficult, of course, so hopefully this is something that will improve the longer she plays the role.

In a side-plot featuring characters I don't really expect to see again, some minor success named George Baxter takes the girl he's just picked up for a fun day on the town in Atlantic City. He appears in a couple of scenes, never really developing as a character or providing any valuable plot details, but his story does come to a nice climax. After spending the entire episode trying to get the nineteen year old girl to give him some sugar, he ends up getting too frustrated and decides to take her back where she came from. Sick of his pushing, the girl, Claudia, finally gives in and gives the fat man a wristy in the car, right near where the massacre occurred only the episode prior. What happened next was hinted at when the newspapers revealed that there were only four bodies discovered at the crime scene, when five had been killed. Midway through the awkward handjob, Claudia spies a bloodied man stumbling disorientated towards them, soon attempting to scramble up the hood of the car. It is insane and hilarious, with the pair screaming like school girls at the poor guy as the show's signature cheerful jazzy tune plays and the credits begin. I loved the randomness of it all, and I was actually laughing, which was not the only time that happened during 'The Ivory Tower', having found Van Alden's letter surprisingly amusing. Aside from the funny, there is a lot to love here, in aesthetics, plot and characterisation. The story loves to slow itself down, for example the Commodore rings his bell for a good thirty seconds before Louanne comes to get mocked, and Al Capone and the reporter spend a minute of screen time sharing two drinks together before Al beats the guy down. The pacing is perfect, however, and if this review doesn't make it clear how much I liked the episode, I'll make it clearer - I think that Tim Van Patten - tonight's director - may have done a more fine job than even Martin Scorsese himself did on the pilot.