TheAgitator.com
Firing up the DVR Now
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010I hadn’t heard about this show:
In Martin Scorsese’s new HBO series Boardwalk Empire, Steve Buscemi plays the de facto political boss of Atlantic City during the dawn of Prohibition. He’s involved in everything: glad-handing, gaming, bootlegging, and the violence and women that come along with those things. Like almost every role Buscemi has ever played, his character is neither likable nor despicable. Like all his memorable characters, Buscemi plays the miserable hero. A guy so desperate, so uncomfortable, so disappointed in virtually everyone else around him that you can’t help but root for him — no matter how many people he orders killed, no matter how badly he treats his mistress.
Sounds fantastic. More here, including a promising-sounding new Will Arnett/Mitch Hurwitz joint.
Clip from Boardwalk Empire:
They’ve been running a promo for this before True Blood. It seemed interesting when I first heard about it and the more I see of it the more I want to check it out.
I’m looking forward to it!
HBO has rocked with The Sopranos, Deadwood, True Blood, and this looks to be another in the same vein.
I could just puke. Another gritty look at the unseemly underbelly of (politics/marketing/organized crime/bored housewives). Well-made, well-acted, but ultimately a dull evolutionary improvement on its predecessors.
I wish HBO would put together a science fiction series with this kind of artisan attitude. If only they’d gotten hold of Firefly instead of Fox.
I usually enjoy HBO series, and I’m really looking forward to this one because I’m an unabashed Steve Buscemi fan.
(I liked Rome, The Sopranos, and Deadwood a lot more than I like True Blood, honestly.)
AND Omar (Michael K Williams) from The Wire is in it!
I do enjoy a good Buscemi vehicle.
Well-made, well-acted, but ultimately a dull evolutionary improvement on its predecessors.
Remove stick-type object from anal region. Agree about a cool HBO sci-fi series though, that kinda sounds badass.
But given the subject matter, the network, and the personnel involved, this one looks pretty damn compelling to me.
But Rhay, what if I enjoy that stick-type object up– never mind, I think we’re straying into Oz territory now.
And I have no doubt that it is compelling. Like I said, well-made, well-acted. It’s just I get tired of the same old mentality in television. TV entertainment is like shopping at a mall: too many clothing stores and not enough Radio Shacks.
Oh. My. God. Steve Buscemi AND my pretend girlfriend Kelly Macdonald in the same flick? Fantastic.
I think we’re straying into Oz territory now.
Shut up, prag.
Yeah I guess to me, the “same old mentality in television” unfortunately is more accurately represented by “Real Housewives” sort of crap than actual good content, even when the latter might feel a bit familiar.
Not Sci Fi per sey, but A Game of Thrones is coming in either Spring or early summer of 2011 .
As an addendum, a brief look at the real deal~
http://www.philly.com/philly/video/VideoArchive.html?vgenre=g=mob-scene
Actually, Chris (#11), you could argue that Game of Thrones is “another gritty look at the unseemly underbelly of politics” – with a heavy dose of fantasy. I haven’t read the books, but I have gotten the impression from online discussions about it that many of the characters are pretty unlikeable.
A TV series where uncut product is smuggled into the country, cut with poison, and then sold by street-level thugs? Dirty cops looking to game the system for a cut of the action? Politicians behaving as feudal lords? It’s a darn shame that there’s no modern parallels for a shameful chapter in our society’s history that we’ve so obviously evolved beyond.
Oh yeah, Game of Thrones is a War of the Roses with a fantasy bent. That said, I’m very curious what they will do with it.
Looks awesome. I’ll probably love it as long as the music doesn’t sound anything like that.
” A guy so desperate, so uncomfortable, so disappointed in virtually everyone else around him that you can’t help but root for him — no matter how many people he orders killed, no matter how badly he treats his mistress.
Can’t really say without knowing more about the people he orders killed or what his mistress is like but it sounds like I might be rooting for someone to put this guy out of his misery.
I know it’s the wrong city, but I’d like to see Smedley Butler as militarist enforcer of prohibition.
Michael Pitt can play a creepy murderer (see Funny Games), but should not be cast as a gangster.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised though. Scorsese after all cast someone named “DiCaprio” to play an Irishman!
I have been watching Sopranos on DVD and Buscemi does the commentary about Pine Barrens (which he directed). Terrence Winters does a few commentaries too about shows he wrote for the Sopranos.
These guys are very good.
Yes I suspect this mini series will rock.
So that means that more than likely, HBO will cancel the series after only 1 season.
I guess you think you’re… you know, like an authority figure, with that stupid fuckin’ uniform, huh buddy? King clip-on-tie there, big fuckin’ man, huh? You know these are the limits of your life, man. The rule of your little fuckin’ gate here. Here’s your four dollars, you pathetic piece of shit.