Boardwalk Empire
 

Is going to rock. Steve Buscemi, Scorsese directing the pilot, etc. Releases in Sept.

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Holy shit, this looks like it will be amazing.

I'm ready for this, here is to hoping it is the next great HBO series.

I've also been enjoying Treme.

New trailer.

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Starts in two weeks (Sept 19th, specifically).

Yep! I cant wait.

I'm looking forward to this.

Sigh. I'm going to be forced to get HBO again. ****

Looking forward to it. I just hope they concentrate more on the story than they do on showing blood and gore and people getting blown up (like The Pacific).

I love HBO. One day I should actually, you know, get it. And I've rarely actually seen an HBO series. Still, I love almost all of them. HBO has an incredible brand.

Early word from AICN's hercules on it:

It'd be hard to not get excited about this.

EW: "A big, enjoyably nasty piece of work . . . . What bodes well for Boardwalk as a weekly endeavor is that its Scorsese-fancy pilot is the weakest (the showiest, the slowest) of the episodes I've seen. The production becomes more sleek, emotionally complex, and sly in its subsequent hours. . . . Unfortunately for Buscemi and Boardwalk, there are important precedents to which it should be compared. Is this show better than William A. Wellman's The Public Enemy (1931) or Howard Hawks' Scarface (1932), both Prohibition-era gangster tales? No, it's not. . . . B+"

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20419665,00.html

'Boardwalk Empire,' premieres 9PM ET Sept. 19 on HBO: This tale of Prohibition-era Atlantic City is everything you expect of a marquee HBO drama: It's fantastically acted, gracefully written and visually arresting. Martin Scorsese (who directed the first episode) and ex-'Sopranos' writer Terence Winter expertly bring this panorama of America in the 1920s to vivid life, and Steve Buscemi and Kelly Macdonald are mesmerizing as the drama's lead characters, corrupt politician Nucky Thompson and striving immigrant Margaret Schroeder. 'Boardwalk Empire' is not just the fall's best drama, it's 2010's best new show.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/09/09/best-fall-shows/

Winters on Scorsese's influence:

"TW: No. He just directed the pilot, but he's also one of the executive producers of the show as well, so he is involved. He reads all the scripts, he weighs in on our casting decisions, he watches all the cuts of the show. Up until the time we wrapped a couple of months ago, he and I had a standing Sunday afternoon conversation where we would just review what went on during the week. He'd watch the dailies, he would have comments and suggestions along the way. So he is definitely involved in the show, but he has only directed the pilot, he got us launched and then went off to do another movie."

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/09/10/boardwalk-empire/

Winters on the importance of the historical context of the series:

" In 'The Sopranos,' one of the first things Tony says is, "I feel like I came in at the end of something." And this is really the beginning of something. It's the beginning of a lot of things.

There's a real feeling of opportunity, a real attitude, particularly with the election of Warren Harding, of putting the past behind us, moving on, getting back to normal. The war is over, there's just nothing but opportunity out there. Wall Street was about to boom and big business [was getting underway]. We had just come out of a war and it just sort of was like a new dawn.

Young people were really coming into the forefront, and it was a time of great change, and a lot of change was for the better, or what people thought was for the better. I mean, Prohibition obviously didn't work, but I think a lot of people thought this was going to be a good thing. And women got the vote and then radio came in and all these exciting changes were happening. It was really a thrilling time. Certainly a thrilling time to write about. "

(Same link as above)

....

I think it's a really different time now, in comparison. We haven't just ended and won a war. We're still in a long war, and very uncertain about it. The perception is not so much that big business is starting to boom and bring great benefits as it's largely failing and been propped up by the public and/or business is being inhibited to grow by government. The reality is that we are in a tremendously rough economic situation.