The best show on TV is back. After an upsetting cliffhanger, the show's third season premiered on September 16th on HBO, and will ultimately focus on Nucky Thompson's evolution from politician to full-fledged gangster.
As you can see above, one thing that really interested me in this episode was that all of the gangsters that have been at each other's throats since the beginning (Rothstein, Lansky, Remus, Luchiano) are all here relaxing together on new year's eve and casually discussing business. But the narrative purpose of this meeting was to show how Gyp Rosetti, a newly introduced character, is a loose cannon and will definitely cause endless amounts of trouble this season. It only took about four minutes to commit the first murder of season three, and all over a can of oil. And by the way, never tell a native Italian what "regina" means.
We get to see some of our favorite characters interacting with their new surroundings, two of which stand out the most. Richard Harrow, who's two best and only friends were murdered in the season two finale, tries to fit in as an enforcer at Jillian's club. She lectures him for trying to remind Tommy who his real mother is. Next is obviously the lamming "George Mueller," a.k.a. the notorious Nelson Van Alden. For those of you who dislike Van Alden, you will be pleased to see his new life is not quite working out. He's doing a nightmarish job--selling irons door-to-door on new year's eve to support two infant children. Yes, you heard me. Two. He had another child with his Dutch house keeper from season two. It's a boy. He has an interesting interaction with Al Capone where he unwittingly helps a store keeper repel Capone away. This interaction will definitely be narrative fodder for later in the season when Van Alden is desperately strapped for cash.
One of my favorite characters, Eddie Cantor shows up to perform at Nucky's new year's party, and he's not alone. He's got a beautiful accomplice, who I must confess I've got a serious crush on, Lillian Kent. She's a performer, and at the end of the episode, it's revealed that she has been Nucky's gumar (as Tony Soprano would put it) for an unidentified period of time. Although I'm a fan of Nucky+Margaret, it's definitely going to make things interesting if the affair ever comes out in the open.
Speaking of Margaret, she is handling married life seemingly well. She took the NJ road money as a stepping stone toward the life of total philanthropy, and it's shown as she is given a tour of the new Margaret and Enoch Thompson wing of the hospital. She's being so generous because she's trying desperately to atone for her sins and the sins of her partner, shown in dense themes of religion and Catholicism in season two.
I've been a fan of Manny Horvitz since his first appearance, and especially with what he brought to the proverbial table of religions. I don't know much about Judaism, but Boardwalk gives more attention to the Jewish faith than any other show/movie/book that I've ever seen or read. It's nice to see strong characters representing true Jewish values that aren't the awful stereotypes that are rampant in the few representations of Jewish characters in The Sopranos and The Wire. So seeing a huge amount of screen time dedicated to Horvitz gave me high hopes for this character in season three. My justification was that now that Jimmy and Angie are dead, they've got to divide plot lines evenly among less protagonistic characters. But these hopes were dashed when, early on January 1st, 1923, Richard Harrow shows up and shoots Horvitz in the face with a shotgun. It was shocking to see this, especially when I was hyping Horvitz to myself throughout the entire episode. But I definitely don't blame Harrow--Horvitz was directly responsible for the death of the woman he loved, Angela Darmody, and indirectly responsible for the death of his best friend, Jimmy Darmody. Horvitz had it coming, but this was a little soon.
I tout Boardwalk Empire as the best written show on TV and the most detailed historical portrayal I have ever seen, and here's to hoping that season three will be able to carry on without Jimmy.
Much as I wanted to hate this season due to my dissatisfaction with the killing of James Darmody, I really loved this premiere damnit..
ReplyDeleteRichard is my new favorite...I see him having more screen time this season raising that boy right, regardless of his crazy grandma Jillians influence. Richard is showing the boy his mothers paintings...this is the right thing to do..oh why did they have to kill off Angela and Jimmy?!
I watch this show for its historical accuracy, its visual beauty and its intellectual stimuli. It never fails. I will keep watching till they kill off every character
Well put, Jimmy spent the first two seasons as my favorite character by far, and I wasn't sure how they would pull it together after his death. But if there's any TV writer that could do it, it'd be Terence Winter. I'm glad that they didn't try to do a direct follow up to season two, but rather had context clues (apart from the obvious 1923 new years sign) to imply that a significant amount of time had passed since Jimmy's death. I agree with you about Richard and Tommy as well. I found myself becoming furious with Jillian when she began talking to Richard about what not to do with Tommy. But especially after the murder at the end of the episode, I'm really looking forward to seeing how Richard will fit in to the new BWE universe.
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