I know I should love "Boardwalk Empire" but it's just not clicking with me

[LynneSin]

I mean I think Steve Buscemi is an amazing actor and I know Martin Scorsese is involved. But it's about gangsters and well, that just isn't clicking with me when I watch it.

I hope the show does well but maybe it's just not for me.

Anyone else here a fan of BE?

[uncommon]

1. Really? I love it so far.

The pilot was incredible - last night was good. Maybe it's just the subject matter?

[auntAgonist]

2. I think I'm going to

like it.

The pilot, I thought, was a little slow.

I haven't seen the next episode yet. It does look promising though

:)

aA

[dr.strangelove]

3. Loved the pilot but

It lost a lot of what I liked last night. I don't know what happened, but it sort of went from a movie I had to see to one that is a great story but that I'll wait for the dvd to watch. I'll give it a few more weeks.

[Fleshdancer]

4. That's the feeling I get when attempting Mad Men

So many people love it, but I find it incredibly slow. Another show everyone loved that didn't click with me was The Sapranos. I haven't tried Boardwalk Empire yet, but I'm not expecting to love it. No idea why, but the previews don't interest me at all. I hear the costumes are great though.

[LynneSin]

5. I tried Mad Men and never caught on with me.

I may watch "Boardwalk Empire" on-demand sometime when I know I'm not sleepy

[mnhtnbb]

6. I fell asleep 2/3 of the way through last night...

[AngryOldDem]

7. I admit I'm having trouble following the plot line.

At times I feel like I need a scorecard with all the double-dealing and stuff. But I love it as a period piece.

[LynneSin]

8. That's why I wanted to watch it - because it is a period piece

but the gangster stuff just is killing me.

[old mark]

9. Maybe the best thing on TV right now, IMO...even historically accurate

at least overall...great sets, great acting...so far so good.

But if you are not interested in 1920's gangsters and the parallels to today, I guess it might not be for you...
But remember - Steve's character is a politician!


mark

[Auggie]

10. Same here

For me it's the Steve Buscemi character, or rather the fact that Buscemi plays it. Not endearing. Not a leading actor type, IMO.

[chelsea0011]

11. It is starting to lose me.

The characters seem to become less interesting each week. I can't quite put my finger on it yet, but the sets seem very sterile and overly staged. As good as Atlantic City looks, it seems like The Truman Show...all staged to produce a show but not very authentic looking beyond the buildings.

[lunatica]

12. I love it

Every character is delicious. The Agent guy is a riot with that broom up his ass and he's creepy. First he steals Margaret's ribbon and gets weird looking at it alone in his room, then he kills a man by sticking his fist into a gaping wound to get the man to tell him who shot him.

Nucky's lines are wonderful.

I like the fact that it's history, even down to the premie babies in the store window.

The only thing I would criticize is that there aren't any seagulls or seagull sounds and the boardwalk shops are too clean and new looking. The boardwalk should be teaming with seagulls.

[Demoiselle]

13. I quit Boardwalk in the first episode when a guy started beating up his wife...

in front of their frightened and weeping children. Much later my daughter told me that Buscemi's character had the abuser killed.
Happy though that made me, I don't think I'm going back. It doesn't grab me, somehow.

[MrSlayer]

14. I like it but don't love it. Dexter is still the best thing going.

HBO should never have gotten rid of Deadwood. I'm still fucking bitter about that.

[kwassa]

15. It is growing on me, each episode builds.

It really does improve over time.

I also went online and read up on some of the real life characters in the film.

Arnold Rothstein is quite amazing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Rothstein

Arnold "The Brain" Rothstein (January 17, 1882–November 4, 1928) was a New York businessman and gambler who became a famous kingpin of organized crime, the Jewish mafia. Rothstein was also widely reputed to have been behind baseball's Black Sox Scandal, in which the 1919 World Series was fixed. His notoriety inspired several fictional characters based on his life, including "Meyer Wolfsheim" in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby<1> ; the character who shared his name in the Broadway Musical "Legs Diamond"; and "Nathan Detroit" in the Damon Runyon story The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown, which was made into the renowned musical Guys and Dolls.

According to crime writer Leo Katcher, Rothstein "transformed organized crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big business, run like a corporation, with himself at the top."<2> According to Rich Cohen, Rothstein was the person who first saw in Prohibition a business opportunity, a means to enormous wealth, who "understood the truths of early century capitalism (hypocrisy, exclusion, greed) and came to dominate them". Rothstein was the Moses of the Jewish gangsters, according to Cohen, the progenitor, a rich man's son who showed the young hoodlums of the Bowery how to have style; indeed, the man who, the Sicilian-American gangster Lucky Luciano would later say, "taught me how to dress."<3>

....................

With the advent of Prohibition, Rothstein diversified into bootlegging and narcotics. His criminal organization included such underworld luminaries as Meyer Lansky, Jack "Legs" Diamond, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, and Dutch Schultz

[grasswire]

16. I'm watching....not wild about it tho.

I guess I'm watching it for the setting -- the music, the costumes.

It's hard to find a sympathetic character to root for.

[Kat45]

17. I love it! But I'm a gangster movie junkie.

I absolutely love gangster films and I was so psyched to see this show. So far I've seen the first two episodes. I found some stuff a little confusing but figured it out. My big problem is telling all the characters apart: I always have problems distinguishing one white guy with short brown hair from another, at least until I've seen them enough to recognize each face. It sucks that they put it on opposite Dexter, a great show, but since I only get Showtime I can't watch it in real time anyway. I watch it on demand at my boyfriend's house, since he gets HBO as well. He also loves the show, but he's another gangster movie junkie.

[RZM]

18. I think it's really very good

They have an amazing team -- the writers, directors, and cast are the best money can buy. I'm way into it. Probably my favorite show right now (Dexter is second).