Steve Buscemi and Stephen Graham front HBO’s new Mob drama TV series.
Boardwalk Empire is a period drama like few others and it’s been impressing since it first aired in early 2011 on Sky Atlantic, but the new Mob epic was creating ructions long before it came out. With Martin Scorsese in the director’s chair for the opening episode, expectations and media attention was high for its launch.
Steve “my neck is bleeding like a French aristocrat post guillotine and I may get mulched in a bit” Buscemi (Fargo, Monsters University) plays the main character, Nucky Thomson, a political high climber who rises to prominence in prohibition era Atlantic City in the 1920s. The character is based on real the real life story of Enoch “Nucky” Johnson, a well known political boss and racketeer during the the roaring twenties.
The show has also cast Stephen “psycho eyes” Graham (This is England ’86) as Al Capone, which is an impressive move for the British actor who is best know for his role as Combo in Shane Meadows’ This Is England. There’s not really enough of him in the trailer to be able to tell how well he actually pulls off the role, especially the accent, but with his previous form and acting skill, he makes the gangster mafia boss ferocious.
Michael Shannon (Take Shelter, Man of Steel) brings his acting might to bear on the series too, as cop on the run, Nelson Van Alden, and his bootlegging alias, George Mueller.
Set during the onset of alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, Boardwalk Empire has a lot going for it. Visually stunning, it looks like it could easily be a film with the quality of its sets, special effects and costume, but the whopping budget and success of The Sopranos probably helped to set the series in the right direction.
The show is now in its 4th season and appears to be going from strength to strength. It’s become a bit of a flagship programme for HBO and Sky Atlantic, and if it keeps it up it’ll end up being just as much of a fan favourite its more modern equivalent, The Sopranos, became. It’s sort of to be expected considering the fact that Terence Winter, creator of Boardwalk Empire, was previously executive producer and writer for the James Gandolfini show too.
