If you haven’t watched Sunday’s excellent episode of Boardwalk Empire yet, do so now. Then come back here, though not before pouring one out, or maybe drowning a Prohibition agent, for the two characters who were gunned down: Chalky (Michael K. Williams) and Van Alden (Michael Shannon).
I’ll have a longer piece later in the week detailing how, despite a rocky start, Boardwalk is putting together a doozy of a final season, so all I’ll say for now is: it’s a shame that just when the writers finally figured out Shannon is really funny (yet still frightening), they killed Van Alden. I still think about “why must it always be pandemonium?!” at least once a week. R.I.P. you fork-faced undertaker.