Boardwalk Empire, Season 2: Final Thoughts

Boardwalk Empire just completed the second season, a season that was met with much critical acclaim. The Onion AV Club gave five of the episodes this season A- or better ratings, and believe me–they don’t dole those out liberally. For comparison, the beloved show Modern Family only has one A or A- rating this season. Curb Your Enthusiasm earned 4 A or A- grades out of their most recent ten-episode season. So how did the season go? What’s left to be said before we put the show away for a few months? Here are my final thoughts on the second season. Caution: spoilers ahead for the entire season. If you haven’t seen the whole season, I highly recommend that you do not read this.

Takin’ Hollywood Down to South Park

You’ve no doubt seen the results of the various South Park character generators on the internet. I spent some time monkeying around with one of them the other day and had a blast. While it’s not necessarily anything new, it was still a lot of fun. The generator I used to create these can be found at www.sp-studio.de. Feel free to visit and play around with it. Here’s what I created:

The Boardwalk Empire Collection
Nucky Thompson, Jimmy Darmody, Chalky White

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Ten Great Moments from the First Season of Boardwalk Empire

I had been doing synopses/discussion of each episode of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire but at some point, it became a little bit cumbersome. I was so busy frantically scribbling down notes that I was missing the meat of the show. Sure, I was getting the mechanics of it, but I wasn’t enjoying it to the maximum degree. So around episode 7, I bailed on the idea and figured I’d re-visit the show later with a “Ten Great Moments”. But I’m too impatient. Even with two episodes left in the season- plenty of time for another great moment to be piled on here- I’ve opted instead to post my list early. Here, in my opinion, are the ten best moments from the first season of Boardwalk Empire.

Boardwalk Empire Season 1, Episode 7: Home

Boardwalk Empire Season 1, Episode 6: Family Limitation

Image copyright HBO

Boardwalk Empire, Episode 4: Anastasia

Sunday night’s episode of Boardwalk Empire was perfectly named- “Anastasia”. We’ve only gotten bits and pieces of development of Margaret Schroeder. This, despite the fact that she’s obviously going to play such a crucial role in the series, serving as the primary female protagonist. Her story in that episode was brilliantly written, starting with her reading about Anna Anderson. She describes it to her children as being “like a fairy tale princess”. No doubt, this is how Margaret views herself

Boardwalk Empire, episode 3: Broadway Limited

We’re now three episodes deep into Boardwalk Empire and the one thing that I’m starting to enjoy as much as anything is the humor. We got a taste of it right away in the most recent episode.

Boardwalk Empire, episode 2: The Ivory Tower

First things first- last week in my comments about the first episode of Boardwalk Empire, I mentioned the thrilling world of midget boxing. But I neglected to include a photo of said midget boxing. So let’s right that wrong here. Without further adieu, I present midget boxing from the pilot episode:

Quite possibly one of the best moments in TV history.

Boardwalk Empire: First Episode, First Impressions

[3ZZJKWUEDPBC]  I’m not sure I can remember being as excited about a new TV show as I have been in recent months anticipating the first episode of HBO’s new venture, Boardwalk Empire. Rather than setting all of this up with a fat preamble like a skilled writer would do, I’m going to just come on out and say it. After one episode, I’m going to go bat-shit bonkers for this show.