HBO’s Boardwalk Empire is one of the most sprawling and involved shows on TV, with a cast the size of a beer barrel (or at least equal to The Wire). So all this season, the show’s fourth, we’ll be breaking down the 10 most bloody and boozy (and booby) from every season, beginning with last night’s premiere, “Resignation.”
No lie: I want a punching telegram from Michael Shannon. More on him later.
Nothing in Kessler’s story is particularly bloody or boozy, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t take notice of the man who can barely pour his boss’s tea, but still demands pride and respect. Kessler gets it, too, after Nucky denies his resignation: the most stable (figuratively, not literally) man or woman in Nucky’s life will no longer be cooking breakfast and fetching underwear; instead, he’ll…well, we’re not sure what his new responsibilities are exactly, only that he has them, and that he’s looking over Nucky’s affairs while he’s in Florida. PARTY AT KESSLER’S. And all it took to receive the promotion was getting shot in the leg and nearly dying. THANKS OBAMA.
Rub and shake Chalky’s head like a Magic 8-Ball, and your future will read, “DEAD.”
There’s no topping Gyp Rosetti. The man was all physical presence. He was big and loud and not very wise but powerful enough that he didn’t have to be. Dr. Valentin Narcisse is the complete opposite. He’s not immune to violence, as Cora learned the hard way, but he prefers to resolve situations through words, not wounds. It’s impossible to not be drawn into the ways he speaks, with his intoxicating, thick Trinidadian accent and habit of speaking in Bible verses, and what comes out is intelligent and precise and sharp. “One looks down in secret and sees many things. You know what I saw?” Narcisse asks Chalky. “A servant, pretending to be a king.” After only five minutes with Chalky, he’s able to find the exact words to cut the man to his core quicker than any knife could. He’s the best decision the Boardwalk Empire writers could have made. But what kind of doctor is he…?
Richard’s had enough. He’s tired of being the guy who creeps out of the shadows, the hired gun who takes care of other people’s problems. Mostly, though, he’s tired of being the half-faced angel of death, come to let you sign a birthday card for your son before shooting you in the heart. He doesn’t “want any more of it,” and can’t even bring himself to end the family dog’s suffering. Unfortunately, he leaves behind a past due bill at the office of the man he was supposed to kill, a letter that was later picked up by the man who ends up finishing his dirty, deadly work.
Just when he thought he was out, they pull him back in.
Stephen Root’s Gaston Bullock Means only speaks in honey-dripped riddles, and the world is better off for it. Nucky’s also better off with having him in his life, too, especially when he needs information on “hayseeds” like Agent Knox. He’s paranoid about this man’s seemingly crystal clean-cut existent, and as we learned last week, rightly so.
GROWLING MICHAEL SHANNON. GROWLING MICHAEL SHANNON. GROWLING MICHAEL SHANNON. Poor guy takes a beating when Capone forces him to join his rough-riding, baseball bat-wielding gang. They take their talents to a political rival’s headquarters, where more than one bystander, men and women alike, gets clocked in the head with what appears to be a wooden piano leg. Also: GROWLING MICHAEL SHANNON. GROWLING MICHAEL SHANNON. GROWLING MICHAEL SHANNON. To us, it was horrifying; to him, it was cathartic, an opportunity to let his guilty rage run wild without the use of a hot iron for once. Good thing he has a sofa to come home to.
One of these days, I’m going to pit Michael K. Williams’s scowls against Dean Norris’s to figure out who’s the most scowly motherf*cker in the land. Until then, let’s appreciate everything about Chalky and Nucky’s meeting with the stately Narcisse, who wants what he’s owed for Dicky’s untimely death. Narcisse wants to do business with Nucky because “only kings understand each other,” which is a fairly understandable demand when Chalky, who’s still learning how to live the life of a wealthy businessman, is snarling and threatening violence from across the room. It’s likely we’ll see a lot more of Narcisse and Chalky together this season, but what I’m most interested in is if/when he’ll invade Nucky’s life again. He’s an intelligent man, and his dealings with Chalky are mere pretense to meet with the higher-ups, guys who have the power, guys like Nucky. We know what Narcisse is capable of; now we’re waiting to find out what he wants (could he turn Chalky against Nucky?).
To paraphrase the immortal words of one Mr. Bob Belcher, “Oh, hey, J. Edgar Hoover.” Betty Draper’s brother is introduced as a very-young Hoover, and he gives a far superior, much quieter performance than the one Leonardo DiCaprio gave in J. Edgar. Boardwalk Empire tells me that he’s the Acting Director of the Bureau of of Investigation, much to the disgraced Agent Elliott’s dismay, while Wikipedia adds he often fired FBI agents, singling out those he thought “looked stupid like truck drivers.” Once a Draper/Hofstadt, always a Draper/Hofstadt.
An educated, wealthy black man lynches a pretty white woman who falsely accused another black man of raping her? Boardwalk Empire is nothing if not equal opportunity. And terrifying. So, so terrifying.
