Boardwalk Empire - Final Season Discussion

[Pay Per Ghost]

Am I the only one who is bummed this is ending?

Anyway, got around to the first ep. Good stuff and since it is the last season a lotta loose ends will be tied up.

Spoiler

Joe's gone kids!

Also the flashbacks from Nucky's past have me kinda wondering where its going.

 

[jmt225]

I was actually disappointed in the premiere. At this point, who really cares about Nucky's childhood? I sure as hell don't. I also didn't care for the Cuba stuff either.

Then you have the whole Masseria ordeal... could that have been more anticlimactic? They built him up into this big figure, and to have him whacked like that was lame in my opinion, especially since he humiliated Luciano in the final episode of season 3. I just thought there would have been a better pay off regarding all that.

And I can't believe they're still wasting time on Margaret. It's like they're trolling us with that crap.

Chalky in prison was the high point of the episode.

I'm sure things will pick up very soon, but it's just a shame that this final season only has 8 episodes and they pretty much used the season premiere as a throwaway episode.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

With Boardwalk it all kinda leads somewhere in the end.

I didn't know there were only 8 episodes, damn.

I expect more deaths.

And I miss Richard

 

[nightmare]

Yeah, I dont see the point in having Margaret around. This isnt a love story where she is gonna end up with Nucky and live happily ever after, so what is the point of her being on screen still?

I was not excited about the first ep either and I hope things pick up quick. The stuff with Chalky was good & interested to see where the thing with Meyer will go, but other than that it kinda fell flat.

 

[jmt225]

Ugh... this season sucks so far.

Read a theory that hobo #9 could be Jimmy's son, that'd make things interesting.

I just hope things pick up in the next episode. After next week we'll already be halfway done. Come on....

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

I missed the first episode but finished season 4 yesterday.

Eli has gradually become one of my favourite characters in the show as he always seems to have an interesting story arc going on. The beating he gave the FBI agent in the final episode was brutal but his uttering of "My son... my son..." afterwards was heart-breaking. His face-off with Nucky just before that was pretty solid too and re-inforced that Eli is always thinking about his family.

Rothstein being marginalised in the 4th season was a bit annoying as he's a really intriguing character.

Spoiler

Someone mentions in the second episode of S5 that he's dead though!? Say it ain't so, please!

I'll probably watch the 3rd episode today at some point but it is kinda gutting that it's only 8 episodes. I take it they aren't splitting the season like Breaking Bad did? 8 episodes now then another 8 a couple months later?

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

One can hope thats the case, get upto speed and we shall discuss much later and ye, dont touch the spoilers here:

Spoiler

Well we finally see Nucky edging towards the dirty deed, Commodore and Gillian, I actually think getting Marinzano (?) killed was a part of Nucky's plan anyway. But since he did that at Luciano's behest it camouflages his motive.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Watched the 3rd and 4th episode this afternoon. The flashbacks are really hit and miss for me but they are disrupting the meagre momentum the season has so far.

Van Alden/Mueller's 30 second speech to save his skin was great as it showed one of the few times that he's been fully authoritative and confident in the whole show then his reaction in the lobby about soiling himself had me cracking up.

Spoiler

Poor Patricia Arquette

Read a theory that hobo #9 could be Jimmy's son, that'd make things interesting.

I just hope things pick up in the next episode. After next week we'll already be halfway done. Come on....

Shit, I never even thought of that. I'm getting a sense of the time that has passed but not paying close enough attention as no-one, aside from Capone (Al), looks like they have aged at all. Eli I guess has deteriorated in looks as the show has gone on but the guy has been through a lot.

If hobo 9 does turn out to be Darmody Jr then I'll be so happy if he kills off Mickey by throwing him off a balcony.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

I'm sorry... Hobo#9...?

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Episode 4 when Nucky recommends to Mickey that he pick up some guys from the railyard to help him with loading up booze. He's the 15 year old who pretends to be 18 and promises Mickey half his pay-check?

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

Ohhhh, hey ye....

Spoiler

And goddamit how could they kill Mickey like that! I mean he totally got on my nerves but come the fuck on!

 

[nightmare]

I was looking forward to seeing Chalky mix things up a bit to add some damn action to this season, but nooooooo....


Thanks for killing that dream HBO.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Spoiler

Van Alden!

The dude playing Nucky as a young officer has captured the Buscemi mannerisms pretty well though.

 

[jmt225]

I would have liked the finale better and the final season better as a whole if we got to see the 1927/1928 years go down in a season before this and then got this for a final season. Plus it being rushed like this led to a lot of flaws in certain characters endings (Chalky just so coincidentally meeting up with Narcisse the same night Daughter shows up there as well , and William just so coincidentally getting kidnapped when he and Eli meet up for the first time in years... that's network television level shit right there).

Boardwalk Empire fans were robbed, period. Whoever is responsible for this, whether it's HBO, or Terence Winter because he wanted to do his stupid rock-n-roll series, should be really ashamed. They ruined a truly great thing.

 

[Viola Moonlight]

The final season should have been given a few more episodes to flesh out everything better and killing Jimmy off so early in the show took away from the impact that was the finale but they did a very good job considering it was only 8 episodes.

The Darmody legacy has been completely ruined by Nucky (like a lot of people in the series), a poor kid from a broken home that had ambitions to go good but he by the time he had the chance, his innoncence was already lost and got corrupted by the system, eventually falling in love with money and power. It was a mixture of Walter White's love for the things that made him evil but he wasn't a badass, just a simple man.

I think to truly appreciate it more, you have to re-watch the series. I don't mind the replayability but killing Jimmy off so soon and the less-than-normal season length hurt the show from being one of the greatest like Breaking Bad or the Sopranos.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

Welp, thats it.

I dunno why they would think 8 episodes would be enough to tell the final story but thats what they did. Kinda apt that Tommy killed him but stories like Chalky's family, Eli's family and a few more needed a proper closing.

I'm sad that its over, they could have run a few more seasons for sure but, yeah.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Boardwalk-Empire-Series-Finale-Postmortem-Terence-Winter-1088453.aspx

 

[nightmare]

I agree that another season before this one, showing a bit of the missing years, would have been good.

The flashbacks ended up serving a purpose more than just showing us how Nucky came up & it all came full circle in the end. I do think it was a nice little twist, but it somehow felt off. We have not seen little Tommy in quite some time & things have come a long way since Jimmy getting killed- that it all felt out of place a bit.


We knew how things were going to end up historically with Luciano, Capone, etc. - But the ride along the way is in part what made this show great. Now we came to the end after jumping ahead a few years & it all felt very rushed & pushed aside. I get that the final season focus was on Nucky & that is all well and good, but big parts of the series had us in the mix with the gangster situations. I feel like Winter said "Oh, well you know what happens here, so we will skip all that".


In the end, this really was a story about Nucky & the others were not the stars, but merely a cast of characters. If they would have done some flashbacks throughout the series, the full circle ending may have hit home harder. I still enjoyed the ending, but wish we would have had a few more episodes on the road there.