I watched the first series of
Boardwalk Empire this week.
A good if not outstanding show set in 1920's Atlantic City amid the back drop of prohibition and the rise of the Mob.
Steve Buscemi was outstanding as Atlantic City's corrupt treasurer Nucky Thompson, and the rest of the cast was also uniformly excellent from Michael Shannon's religiously immoral Federal agent to Michael Pitt as Nucky's protege to Gretchen Mol, who at the moment is sadly underused, as Pitt's mother. Jack Huston is outstanding too as a disfigured war veteran wearing a tin mask over half his face. Huston evokes sympathy, even has he assassinates people for the mob.
The Atlantic City boardwalk was built from scratch for this production and looks immense as does the whole of the production design from sets to costumes - the lot.
Also what i do find fascinating is the way the series depicts the rise to power of the American gangster such as Arnold Rothstein, Al Capone (Scouser Stephen Graham...who woulda thought it'?) 'Lucky' Luciano, 'Bugsy' Siegel and more. The Prohibition era (1920-33) was completely to blame for the rise of the mob in the US thanks to the trafficking of illegal alcohol.
After watching the film
Atlantic City starring Burt Lancaster for the first time quite recently i've found this series regarding the growth of the place quite fascinating and at times been amazed seeing the connections the series had to the film in regard to the mob. So far with one series down (out of five)
Boardwalk Empire is good, if not great, but i do expect that greatness to arrive quite quickly.