Ramblings Concerning Nothing

Boardwalk Empire S2E7 “Peg Of Old”

I had a weird night.

I started by memorizing about 300 vocabulary words. Then I watched the 4th quarter of the Giants-Patriots game. Then I watched District 9. (Man, that last act was conventional.) My DVR was ready, back from the Comcast store earlier this week, and I had recorded Walking Dead for a super-duper recap. Alas, the DVR suddenly decided not to work tonight, which threw off not only Walking Dead, but my plans for Hell on Wheels. (My chat with the typically unhelpful Comcast technician ran too much into the 10 o’clock hour, in particular.) 

So those will have to wait until after the GRE. I say all that to explain that my television got progressively better as my mood lightened up. During Hell on Wheels I was infuriated with Comcast and the episode did little to help; Walking Dead found me eating some Jello and liking the show’s stately pace; and finally, Boardwalk Empire capped the night with what I thought was a great episode.

All of these episodes tried to have Important talks. Rewatching Mad Men, in particular, shows how to do an Important talk well. Almost every conversation in the pilot is Important without being overbearing. Contrast that with the main conversations in Hell on Wheels, including Colm Meaney’s groan-and-laugh-inducing finale. (I’m not sure if I love or hate him yet, but that speech was overly goofy.) Similarly, take Rick’s conversations with Herschel about his role as leader, and Shane’s eulogy. Better, setting up things later or paying off past events, but still fairly surface. Boardwalk Empire, though, does great dialogue better than any drama on the air right now. Whereas Walking Dead focuses on twists for a lot of excitement (like last week), Boardwalk usually telegraphs exactly what will happen. Everything around it is just so good, it doesn’t matter - it’s still shocking.

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Boardwalk Empire S2E6 “The Age of Reason”

After last week’s barnburner, we all knew this was coming. We knew for having so much fun and payoff, we’d have to go in the confessional and talk it all out this week.

Part of this is due to the structure of television - there can’t be a huge climax every week. We need slower episodes. But the biggest problem with “The Age of Reason” was it took everything that made the last few episodes thrilling and put them in the backseat - and put the show’s least-popular characters front and center.

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Boardwalk Empire S2E5 “Gimcrack & Bunkum”

Yes, I copied and pasted that title.

The most common complaint about Boardwalk Empire is that there’s not enough action. Some people combine that with another complaint, that the show is slow, but those are really two different things. Tonight’s episode, while high on violence and action, did no more than usual to advance the plot. To avoid spoilers, let’s jump earlier than usual.

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Boardwalk Empire S2E4 “What Does The Bee Do?”

This season of Boardwalk Empire comes at a weird time in television. It premiered just as Breaking Bad began its breathless race to the finale, emphasizing the differences in the two excellent shows. There’s no doubt that Breaking Bad is more exciting, but Boardwalk lets viewers take in the sights a little, bask in a slow burn, and really go deep with all of these characters. At this, point, it’s not even a slow burn. More like a car in rush hour traffic.

Particularly, as AMC’s dramas have gotten the praise over HBO’s offerings the past few years, Boardwalk hasn’t been praised nearly as much as I expected. Sure, every critic loves it, but I never see people talking about it on Twitter. Small comment sections seem to bolster this opinion. (Comparing the number of comments from the AV Club on the third episodes for both shows this season, BB has 850 comments and BE has 161.) I think this has something to do with where we are as television watchers. A commenter somewhere (sorry, unidentified person) said that BE was like eating his brussel sprouts. I feel the same way sometimes when I watch immediately after BB (as did the first three weeks), but looking at it on paper - Boardwalk Empire is gorgeously shot, has strong characters, and never fails to keep my attention. Breaking Bad may have me breaking out in sweats each week and Boardwalk Empire may have me lounging in sweatpants. But both types of shows are equally necessary.

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