“They’re not so special. All they have is money. Ways to find that, I reckon.”
That quote above is how a young Nucky Thompson describes the rich and corrupt of Atlantic City to his dying sister, Sue, back in 1884, and almost fifty years later, Nucky certainly has found money through numerous different ways, even as he, like the rest of America, suffers through the Great Depression. That’s right–we aren’t just flashing back during the fifth and final season of Boardwalk Empire. As it has been widely reported, the series has jumped ahead seven years in time to 1931, and we see that while a great deal has changed in the lives of the show’s characters, not much has changed about Boardwalk Empire itself.
With only eight episodes (seven, after this season premiere) left of the show, it appears that Boardwalk Empire creator Terrence Winter understandably wanted to focus the final season squarely on the show’s main character, Nucky, which is why get double the dose of him through his dealings in Cuba, alongside Ms. Sally Wheet (Patricia Arquette), and also in the flashbacks to his childhood that show how the poor son of a fisherman became Atlantic City’s most notorious gangster. And while Steve Buscemi is undeniably great in the role of Nucky Thompson (he’s been doing great work for the past four seasons as well) and Nolan Lyons, who plays the younger version of Nucky, is also solid, Boardwalk Empire has always proven throughout its run that it’s a show that is at its best when its main character is pushed into the background rather than the foreground.
For example, last season of Boardwalk saw the ascension of Chalky White (Michael Kenneth Williams) from supporting player to second lead next to Nucky, which provided fantastic results, culminating in what may have been the best season of the show to date. However, in this first episode at least, Chalky seems to be off in his own isolated story, jailed for an unknown crime, until he and a fellow inmate escape during a major riot. Similar to the lack of Chalky, the complete absence of Jack Huston’s Richard Harrow, the hero and heart of Boardwalk Empire who met his own tragic end during the season four finale, is very much felt, and the characters that we are asked to primarily focus on instead (such as Nucky and Charlie Luciano) are either uninteresting or underdeveloped.
One major bright spot of the premiere is the return of focus on Margaret (Kelly McDonald), who I know some fans may not like, but who I have always found incredibly engaging as a character. Margaret was barely in any episodes last season, but it looks like she will be much more at the forefront of things in this final year of Boardwalk, as she tries to deal with not only the suicide of her boss but (if that file that she was looking at is any indication) also with the consequences of her past dealings with the now deceased Arnold Rothstein (the dearly missed Michael Stuhlbarg), who we saw Margaret meeting with near the end of season four.
Ultimately, I find Boardwalk Empire to be a difficult show to evaluate on a weekly basis. With each season, especially the show’s third and fourth, every episode unfolds like the chapter of a novel, with many dangling parts not making sense at first, until they all tie together in a magnificent crescendo by season’s end. To put it simply: this is a show that is best reviewed as a whole, when the entire season has concluded, instead of by episode.
As a first chapter in the final “book” of the Boardwalk Empire saga, “Golden Days for Boys and Girls” wasn’t bad nor was it great, but it did what it needed to do. The series did a solid job at catching viewers up on the important events that happened in the past seven years and also was mostly successful in its efforts to provide more depth to the backstory of Nucky, as we saw him do whatever he could to not only help himself but his family, despite the vicious verbal and physical abuse he received from his father.
Additionally, Nucky’s goal of fully breaking free from his gangster lifestyle (something he’s wanted since season four) to become a legitimate business man by bringing Bicardi rum to the United States, after Prohibition ends is also an intriguing storyline and reflects the opening lines of the premiere, as an unknown woman (possibly Nucky’s mother?) recites, “Be honest and true boys, whatever you do boys, let this be your motto through life.” It’s been quite a while since Nucky Thompson has been honest and true in his life, and if there are more people out there trying to kill him, like the hit man who failed to take him out in Cuba, he may not have much time left to live out that motto.
Other thoughts:
– Luciano certainly seems to be moving up in the ranks after helping to organize the hit on Joe Masseria. That development, plus the fact that Lansky was in Cuba (obviously not with his wife), right before Nucky was almost taken out, is quite suspicious, right? Perhaps the two of them will fill the “Big Bad” role against Nucky this season.
– While I definitely enjoyed the flashbacks to Nucky’s childhood, as we were able to see how he first met and worked for the Commodore, I wish the editing between the present day scenes in 1931 and the flashbacks to 1884 had felt more seamless. They just appeared to be randomly placed throughout the episode, without much regard to the scenes before or after them.
– More Chalky? Yeah, we definitely need some more Chalky.
– No Capone, Van Alden, or Eli this week, but don’t worry. You’ll be seeing them very soon.
– No spoilers here at all, but I’ve seen the first three episodes of season five and I definitely have to say that the premiere is the weakest one of the bunch. By the end of episode three, I was quite excited to see where exactly this final season seems to be heading.
What did everyone else think of the premiere?
Photo via HBO
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