Is anyone even watching Boardwalk Empire?

[Lighthousekeeping]

I very nearly didn't because I was so put off last season but it's bloody brilliant!

YES I am! But as usual, struggling to understand all that's going on.

I plan to find some kind of forum or site today to explain it all more clearly.

Love Nucky, even though he's a wrong 'un

I missed the very first season (well actually- DP deleted it from Skyplus)- how can I watch it?

No, we gave up last season. So worth another try?

I never liked last season. The last episode was good though. I'm really enjoying it this time. Very sinister.

Yes, I love it. The final two episodes of last season were fantastic and this season is keeping up to standard.

I like it, but I agree, I didn't like the last season much either. I didn't think Gyp was a good character. I thought he was like a pantomime villain. But on every other discussion site people rave about him.

Was sad about Owen. Not at all convinced by his affair with Margaret. She seemed too old and boring for him.

I struggle to keep up too. I forget character's names and faces unless they're in it all the time, so I'm always forgetting who the politicians are.

And I didn't get until last week that Chalky can't read. When he got the band player to read Narcisse's letter I thought: 'Hang on! They've made a mistake. He was reading David Copperfield in prison in series 2. There was a whole thing about it.'

I googled and realised I'd missed the point of the scene. He was pretending to read and Dunn caught him out.

I wouldn't mind but I've seen that episode at least twice.

Is Margaret still in it?

Yes, but not yet

Tragic, wasn't it?

It is dh's favourite problem. I really liked it to start with. But lady season I just didn't enjoy it do much.
This season seems ok. Just.

Poor Eddie, I thought he'd shoot himself though. I don't get how/why George is getting sucked into the gangster thing. He's on the run isn't he? Evading the FBI, yet can't seem to get away from organised crime so a bit more high profile than an average joe blogs job. I can't follow the stories either. But keep watching cos Steve buschemi is so good in it.

I really disliked last season, but am still intending to give it a chance and try the new season.

Agree about Margaret's affair as not convincing. Though I got the impression (wrongly?) that Owen might not have joined her in running away had he lived.

Yes I felt sad for Eddie. And poor Willie's room mate

Can't understand why the Capones want George on side - surely he's the most reluctant & ineffective henchman ever

Willie is a wee shite. Nucky's new protege in training. Jimmy mark II.

Yes Tension that's what DH & I said!

I think George can't escape. O'Banion and the Capones won't let him go because he's too useful. They might kill him if he tried to walk away.

Plus Al Capone finds him funny to have around. Wouldn't find him so amusing if he knew George was going to shoot him in the back.

His lifestyle is too expensive for an ordinary job. His wife over spends. Aside from his 'wages' by keeping in with the Capones he's allowed to sell the acquavit the hatchet-faced Sigrid makes in the bath.

She's really turned the tables on him because when he first employed her as a nanny she was really meek and then she beat that man to death

What's the deal with all the drugs? I might be being ignorant but I wasn't aware that drugs were such a big part of the gangster scene back in the 20s. I thought it was all liquor/moonshine being bought and sold during prohibition.

I forgot about the wife/nanny killing that guy. See, stuff happens, it doesn't follow a set story or sequence and then you forget about it, or can't make sense of it in the context of something else that happens. It's bloody confusing most of the time. And yet, I still watch...

Heroin was already in use in the early 20th century and causing problems then. But I think you could buy it and cocaine in some states or definitely get it prescribed. Then about the time the show starts the US started enforcing federal controls which made it more difficult to get hold of legally.

Gangsters who were already making millions out of selling alcohol through Prohibition moved into drug dealing because it made sense. It's the same pattern of trade as illegal alcohol and a much more portable and profitable product.

Prohibition is the reason why the US has such a problem with organised crime because they allowed criminals to amass enormous wealth selling something that lots of people wanted and didn't see as bad.

Once you've got that massive war chest you can move into anything - like political corruption where you can really make money. It's the argument for legalising or decriminalising drugs and allowing the state to control quality and tax their sale.

I don't necessarily agree with it but I can definitely see the argument.

I did a school project on Prohibition and the rise of organised crime btw.

The exercise was on aspects of the US I think. I think the teacher had how the West was won in mind but she didn't mind.

After the Godfather films came out there were masses of books in the '70s cashing in on the interest and my dad had loads of them so it was interesting and I didn't even have to go to the library for research.

That's quite interesting and informative limited. I've just realised that I think my reference point was the godfather films hardly a bastion of historical record. I've always thought drugs/illegal dealing was something that kind of exploded in the 70s. I did try googling Al Capone to see if there was reference to him taking or dealing drugs and couldn't find anything. Mind you, it was just a brief scan.

I loved the Godfather films. Al Pacino helped. They're very sentimental though. Vito Corleone's a nice chap who's just trying to do right by his family But then again Nucky's a nice person, mostly.

There was quite an interesting detail in Boardwalk where Nucky insisted with Narcisse that the heroin trade will be confined to black people. And Gillian goes into the black barber's to buy it. Vito Corleone does the same thing, but it's the '40s, not the '20s.

I know the Vito character was based on at least three gangsters - Charlie Luciano, someone called Frank Costello and someone else I forget and it could be the person Nucky is based on. I wondered whether that was a specific reference or just a common prejudice.

I realise I'm coming over as a nerd here

For my project I even did an illustration on the front of a foaming tankard transposed on a '20s car and a Tommy gun. It was very artistic, even though I do say it myself. I traced it from one of my dad's books. But when praised I shamelessly claimed it as my own work.

My teacher was quite amused by my project, I think. At least it gave her a break from reading about pioneers and the railroads.

I do detect a bit of passion there! Honestly, I think I keep hearing Corleone with that gruff al pacino gurn "...(cos I can't remember the 1st bit)... And they pulled me back in" or something like that from godfather III which if I recall correctly was all about the mafia moving into the drugs trade when the racketeering wasn't as money spinning as it used to be. And that was the 60s. I think.

I might just go and do some actual reading on the topic.

I've just finished watching the last episode of the season and it's a corker!