Wordy Old Men on Boardwalk Empire: Season Four, Episode Eight "The Old Ship of Zion"

Shit, well, shit hits the fan this week as Chalky addresses the influx of heroin to the community by way of Dunn Purnsley and Dr. Valentin Narcisse sans subtlety. Narcisse counters the public airing of dirty laundry with an attempted hit on Chalky. Tolliver/Knox moves his attentions to Eli. Nucky gets his first shipment of rum from Florida with Sally Wheet sitting shotgun when the trucks pull in.

Old Man Duggan: Normally I'd work up to this, but let's get down to brass tacks. Much as I surmised last week, Dunn wasn't long for this world. Of course, Daughter Maitland's lapside rendition of "The Old Ship of Zion" sure had me doubting myself for at least a minute or two--especially given the revelation of Chalky's relationship to the song--so bully for Cristine Chambers, Howard Korder, Timothy Van Patten, and Terence Winter for the misdirect.

Wordy Ginters: Some sweet and sour tension in that scene. Powerful. Did Daughter know that Chalky knew he was being double-crossed? Shit was complex. Chalky thinking about his own family, his father's funeral, his children, his infidelity, his problems. Daughter maybe actually loving Chalky and torn at the thought of aiding his demise. Who knows what was behind the pooling tears in those beautiful soulful eyes? Was Chalky able to put the puzzle together by the way she sang the song? I loved his line about Daughter's singing, "...that sound like you tying up a secret."

OMD: Also as predicted Daughter Maitland chose Chalky over her keeper, though the scene played out much better than I could have hoped. I loved the framing and the distance between Dunn and Chalky, pitted against each other in rooms opposite each other. As the distance between the two closed, the tension mounted spectacularly. It would have been anticlimactic for Chalky to go down this early in the season, especially at the hand of Dunn, not Narcisse, but when Dunn was choking the life out of Chalky, my heart was in my fucking throat. Luckily for Chalky, Daughter Maitland chose the potential for freedom that was behind Door Number Two and plunged that knife square into the middle of Purnsley's back. Something about his trying to reach to the knife that was just out of his grasp was humanizing in his last fateful moments. It was really quite a turn for Erik LaRay Harvey, who got to stretch his legs quite a bit more this season. In that final moment, the hope draining from his eyes was palpable.

WG: One of two centerpiece scenes in the episode. I really didn't have any idea which way it would break. For a moment, I thought Chalky was so depressed at the realization that he had been thoroughly undone by Narcisse's scheming that he preferred to let Daughter kill him softly with her song, so to speak. So satisfying to see Chalky fight back. Stabbed him in the mouth with a piece of splintered wood. Sweet revenge for Purnsley being a dick about Chalky's illiteracy way back when. He's been a shadow of his former bad-assed self for most of the season. White patrons patting him on the head. Narcisse making him look like a rube. His daughter's fiance's family thinks he's gauche. He's got everything he always wanted in the Onyx Club, but appears to have less clout than ever. With Purnsley out of the way, things get tight as a drum. What happens to Daughter?

OMD: I can't imagine she doesn't end up being collateral damage. Narcisse will likely see through her when she tries to lie about Dunn's demise.

While we'll likely have to wait until the finale before Narcisse actually dirties his own hands on Chalky White, it's safe to say at least part of him feels like maybe a re-evaluation is in order. It ultimately came down to Chalky's bond with Daughter Maitland, but he still came out on the other side, and all this while punking Narcisse out in front of his incredibly dull play. I can tell you this much: I enjoyed Harlem By Torchlight a whole helluva lot more than Ominira.



WG: I'm with you on that one. Loved watching Narcisse mouth his own dialogue with such sincere pride. "Its symbolism was beyond them." The failed playwright's lament.

OMD: By the way, the Harlem By Torchlight was standoff was fantastic. It really did a nice job of ratcheting the tension up, with Chalky's sneer driving me to maniacal laughter. It felt so good to have him one-up the Doctor.

WG: For me, the trash can lid heroin bonfire represented the best of what Boardwalk Empire can offer. TVP is the go-to guy when it comes to directing episodes that need to reel in plot pay-off. Chalky riffing on The Warriors "come out and play" bottle clinking by banging on the trash can, and then recouping his rep and tarnishing Narcisse in one monologue and a pile of burning smack was magic.

OMD: Moving to the other side of town, wouldn't you like to know what kind of arrangement Eli and Tolliver/Knox came to? Obviously Eli is pissed at Nucky for stepping over the line from uncle to father, but would Winter & Co. really go down the fraternal betrayal road again? I doubt it. My guess is Eli decided to play along with Tolliver/Knox to get a hold on what his angle is. We'll find out soon enough, and if Eli is, in fact, choosing to screw his brother over again, at least this time it will have been in an attempt to protect his son. Something tells me that maybe Tolliver/Knox ends up wrestling with the gators, coming out, well not coming out at all.

WG: It appears that Eli has chosen saving his son over protecting the family biz, but it most definitely could be a holding ploy. Maybe it does boil back down to the sibling rivalry thing. In retrospect, it's like a boil that has never been lanced.

OMD: I loved the look on Shea Whigham's face when Tolliver's compatriot tried to shove him in. Can we give him the Emmy for that? Hell, that whole scene, the intensity on his face followed by his non-verbal sussing out of his options? Fucking great. And the look on his face as Nucky and he come together, Nucky reassuring him--we're to assume that he's turned on Nucky given this expression, though again I wouldn't jump to that conclusion quite yet--and then watching his family have fun while only he knows what's to come, that look is brilliant.

WG: The acting on the show is fantastic. Buscemi may be the weak link, but he's not required to do much other than to look askance at the morons he's forced to tolerate. Shea Whigham is nails. Fucking Knox.

OMD: Perhaps the most shocking turn of events in the episode was the fact that somehow I felt bad for Mickey Doyle, if only for a moment. When Nucky cracked him in the forehead with Kessler's cane, I sort of felt bad for him. What the hell is going on here?

WG: Seeing Nucky get physical is like watching Billy Butler steal a base. Hard to believe on any level. I thought Mickey was pretty solid in the episode. Loved the mindless yammering anecdote about the twins (which may have been allegory about the prohee's, and the difference between Knox and his predecessor), and the stereotypical numbskull math that equates spending money on dates with sexual favors. His awkward reaction to literally getting caned by Nucky was pretty brilliant, too. I thought Sally Wheet was chatting up Mickey just to get Nucky jealous, but her brazen cleavage is as unpredictable as it is independent. Another great character. She was most definitely on top in that scene where the noisy sex woke up young Willie, right? Winter was involved with The Sopranos, so when I heard the heat and the clatter, I imagined Sally treating Nucky the same way Janice treated Ralph Cifaretto, i.e., femdom assplay.

OMD: Oh yeah. She was definitely in control.

We've now got three different times in which Ragged Dick has come up, if I'm not mistaken. Horatio Alger's rags-to-riches story was first used way back in Season One, when Nucky was saying that Jimmy Darmody once reminded him of Ragged Dick. Last season, Gyp took Nucky's copy of Ragged Dick from his desk after he'd run Nucky from the Ritz Carlton. Now [presumably] that same copy returns, this time with Nucky giving the book to his younger self, Willie, as Willie packs up to return home.

WG: Ooh, that's good. I had totally forgotten about the Darmody occurrence. I definitely remember when Gyp lifted it from his desk. I've never read Horatio Alger, but obviously Winter is trying to tell us something.

OMD: Lifting oneself up by the bootstraps. The American Dream (and perhaps a Pynchonian take on it). Roughly half a century after it was published, and the people trying to actualize the rags-to-riches fairy tale are dropping like flies because they're doing so on the wrong side of the law, the concern for the means by which it is achieved being less than an afterthought.

So the theme tying this episode together would certainly seem to have been betrayal by one's right hand. Dunn ends up dying on account of his attempted power play. Eli, painted into a corner by his brother and son, would seem to have been forced (again, not an entirely safe assumption, as a second betrayal would all but guarantee his death) to turn on the man whose side he has served at. Is the bond of blood thicker than the resentment that symbolic servitude breeds? I guess we'll find out soon enough.

WG: Way to put a bow on that mofo. How about some Lou Reed?

OMD: Picture that shit burning atop a garbage can for Sweet Lou.

Man on Film: Zero Dark Thirty

So I started this entry right after I saw the film last January. The next two paragraphs are what I had started way back then.

Coming off the phenomenally suspenseful 2009 Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow had some pretty lofty expectations to meet with her next film. Zero Dark Thirty exceeded any of those expectations.

While the two films dealt with the War on Terror, The Hurt Locker just takes place in Iraq and is an agnostic character study of a soldier who has no place in the world but where he is. Zero Dark Thirty is strangely also a very personal story, tracking a single lead for the most part, but its scope is much larger. Thankfully (and as usual), I do not need to delve too much into the plot. We all know where it was going.

Back to the present-day, this film has begun making the rounds on the premium cable movie networks, so that should give you an idea as to how long ago this should have been completed. Rather than extrapolate further on a film that's been out so long, I'll simply say that I remember quite liking the film, and I found the primary point of contention regarding the film doubling as torture-porn care of some mild detractors to be largely unfounded. It may have been rough at times, but at this point aren't most action films? Give me a visceral, graphically violent action film any day of the week, especially when it's as compelling and well-directed as Zero Dark Thirty.

Oh yeah, Jessica Chastain and Jason Clarke were both particularly fantastic.

And this concludes your Friday night Man on Film entry dump.

Here's the Italian trailer:

Wordy Old Men on Boardwalk Empire: Season Four, Episode Seven "William Wilson"

Welcome once again as Wordy Ginters and I lead you through this week's episode of Boardwalk Empire. Gillian gets clean. Willie drops out. Margaret has a run-in with Arnold Rothstein. Knox gets Hoover's backing, though Hoover steals the credit for his work. O'Banion swindles Johnny Torrio out of half a million. Chalky is too busy getting some strange to notice that the walls are closing in around him. 

Old Man Duggan: As sad as it was for both of us, this episode was unfortunately not about the former Royals speedster, Willie Wilson. Moving past the inevitable disappointment that arose when conclusion of the Edgar Allan Poe short story which this episode bore for a name was read in Willie Thompson's English class, there was quite a bit of maneuvering going on in this episode.

Wordy Ginters: Correct. I too had high hopes that inside-the-park home run fetishist Willie Wilson would somehow inform the episode. But alas, nevermore. Regarding the maneuvering, Boardwalk Empire is almost radical in it's deliberate and languid pacing. When the slow sensuous groove begins to pick up the pace, as it did in tonight's episode, and the plot pay-offs begin to reveal themselves, the erotic anticipation is enough to make me think Sting was onto something with his joyful boasting about tantric sex.

OMD: Much of what was going on revolved around the man with the monogrammed handkerchief. JMT. Agent Tolliver. Agent Knox. The largest favor that Knox brought the audience this week was that we got some more Gaston Bullock Means, though the added bonus of having J. Edgar Hoover prohibit George Remus from speaking in the third person had its value. Means, ever the opportunist and always operating in his own best self-interest, hiding Knox's true identity was a surprise to me, though it certainly makes sense. I love that Knoxiver was drowning his sorrows at a speak, an irony that surely was intended. Do we really think that Means isn't going to see to it that Jim Tolliver doesn't meet an untimely end to get out from under his thumb?

WG: Lots of fucking tonight. Ron and Gillian. Chalky and Daughter. Presumably Willie and Tits McNietzsche. But no one got screwed harder than Knoxiver. Who knows which way Means will twist, but I read him as the "weak link" in the Nucky chain that Knoxiver was working on. You are likely there too, and yes, it's hard to see the an eager little toe-head like Knoxiver getting one over on a veteran operator like Means.

OMD: At the very least, Willie and Tits McNietzsche were petting quite heavily without that pesky clothing getting in the way.

So Margaret is working at what would appear to be a shady land deal place. Can't say I saw that as her future. I'm glad that it brought her face to face with Arnold Rothstein--er, Abe Redstone. A cursory internet search shows me that the is an Anaconda Realty in Anaconda, Montana. Moving right on past the fact that there is a town called Anaconda in Montana, which has to be at least 4,000 miles from the nearest spot in which anacondas are indigenous, you have to think Anaconda Realty is getting the most web traffic they've ever seen. Back to the land trust, what the fuck is Rothstein's game there? He needs her discretion? Is it just that he's using it to launder money and avoid the IRS, or is he up to something a bit trickier?

WG: I have no idea how the Margaret/Rothstein pieces are supposed to fit, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter that much. I'm glad Rothstein is still around. I assumed he would be pushed all the way off the margins after Meyer elbowed him off the Florida gravy train. Hopefully at some point we see Sally and Margaret dressed in white undies having a pillow fight while a drunk Nucky looks on drunk on bourbon and eating fried peanut butter and banana sammiches. Which, by the way, isn't quite as sexist as what passes for a women's rightful place in society at the Eli Thompson household.

OMD: Yeah, Nucky snickering while Eli looked incredulously at his daughter who wanted to *gasp* learn was a little jarring. I bet Margaret and Rothstein coming into contact with one another matters more than we would think initially.

I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop with Gillian and Roy (Ron Livingston). This show is far too dark for her to find a stand-up dude, even if he is divorcing his wife. Is "divorce" Prohibition era code for murder?

WG: Every time Ron kept winding the conversation around to "secrets," I was certain she would blurt out, "I had sex with my own child." Much like Means and Knoxiver, it's hard to imagine Ron coming out of that relationship with his limbs intact. I can't see a hint of darkness in that sweetly chubby face.

OMD: It sure seems like shit is about to hit the proverbial fan in Chalky's life. Daughter Maitland is setting him up. Dunn and Narcisse are lying in wait, well at least when Dunn isn't sticking a blade in deacons who are wise to his heroin trafficking.

WG: Narcisse's smooth moves at the church meeting reminded me of the "Hamsterdam" episode in The Wire. In Hamsterdam, the good people of the Western Precinct were pleading to the police about the many problems they had to deal with in their neighborhood. Bunny Colvin basically told them he couldn't do anything about it. In Boardwalk Empire's meeting however, Narcisse deftly twists the public outrcy to serve his interests. Unlike Bunny Colvin, who had no answers, Narcisse has all the answers. Not only will the neighborhood survive and thrive, but Deacon Cuffy (who looks a helluva lot like Bunny with a Red Sox play-off beard) is whacked, Purnsley grows stronger, and Narcisse sinks his fangs deep into Chalky White and Atlantic City.

OMD: That scene was the yin to "Hamsterdam's" yang.

Back to Daughter Maitland--her backstory--seeing who we later find out to be Narcisse murder her mother should have fucker her up a lot more. I wonder if maybe she isn't playing both sides of the fence hoping to get out from under the vampiric Dr. Valentin Narcisse.

WG: What a creepy scene to close the episode. She was praying not to God above, but to Narcisse. You may be onto something. Another thread that I'm looking forward to unspooling.

OMD: Unnerving to say the least. She's probably so Stockholm Syndromed that she doesn't have the urge to break free, but it could play out that way.

The Sieben Brewery Raid is essentially the final straw for Torrio. O'Banion takes him for $500,000 and sets Torrio up for the fall. It sure seems like O'Banion isn't long for this world. His Wikipedia page supports that assertion. I'm glad that storyline happens to line up pretty well with when this season should end.

WG: Capone is obviously stuck in the anger state of dealing with loss and grief. I love seeing him sniff, hiss, and spit like a bowed-up halloween cat. You're right, history tells us that O'Banion is soon headed for the great potting shed in the sky. The way Al has been bouncing off the walls with rage after Frank's death, I tremble for O'Banion. And he ain't even that likable. What are the chances Al finds out that Van Alden Mueller drew iron on his brother?

OMD: I don't know. I think maybe that's an out for Michael Shannon if he wants off the show, but it's possible that nothing comes of it past Van Alden Mueller coming to terms with who he is now. It does seem like there must be more in store for Van Alden Mueller than that, though, doesn't it?

I'd have loved to see Eli hit Willie with a closed fist. Would have been sweet. It definitely still feels like Willie is going to be Eddie Kessler II, though I'm not sure that I actually want to see that happen, as Willie isn't exactly interesting once you move past the similarities between he and Nucky.

WG: The only reason I like Willie is that it gives Terence Winter a window to playing around with 1920's college stereotypes.

OMD: Fair enough.

Is Dunn long for this world? The karmic balance almost needs to be struck, right? I'm guessing he falls in the attempted hit on Chalky that looks like it's about to go down per the preview for next week.

WG: Dunn has deserved the dirt nap for a long time. I'd love to see Chalky woo him back just to prove that Narcisse isn't supernatural.

Let's keep the real or imagine homage to Hitchcock alive. The show opened with a soon to be popped copper reading a newspaper headline about Leopold and Loeb, a famous Chicago homicide that involved two geniuses (literally) who attempted to carry out the perfect crime. Hitchcock's Rope was based on the real-life events of that case. I'm not as well-versed in Hitchcock as you are, but I've always loved Rope's creepy charm. The central conceit of the film, believing oneself too smart to be caught, a Nietzschean will to power, creative interpretations of morality, the idea of Ubermensch, and generally being King Shit of Fuck Mountain, pairs nicely with some of the egos in Boardwalk.

OMD: As long as I don't have to sit through Farley Granger "acting," I'm fine with Rope playing itself out on Boardwalk. It'll be a bit anti-climactic if a computer-animated Jimmy Stewart ends up putting away Nucky's interstate criminal network, but if that's the way Winter goes, I can't do anything to change it.

Wordy Old Men on Boardwalk Empire: Season Four, Episode Six "The North Star"

Old Man Duggan: The opening note of this week's installment certainly indicated that we'd be seeing a transitional episode. As goes Nucky's camp so goes the action, and with them trying to make sense of Eddie Kessler's suicide, there weren't likely to be a lot of earth-shattering things happening. I liked the opening shot of the quaking cup of coffee. Nucky's still feeling the aftershocks. It is a murky business he's engaged in. Tearing him from his thoughts, an offer for more coffee that sends him into existential contemplation.

Wordy Ginters: Nucky is usually 17 steps ahead of the game, so it's doubly jarring to see him disjointed and off his axis. The cool overhead shot of that opening scene helps establish Nucky's growing discombobulation. But really, if I'm honest with myself, the rippling concussion pools in the cup of joe made me think of Jurassic Park. I was half-expecting Gyp to come roaring and stomping into the station naked with a belt looped around his neck.

OMD: Six episodes in and we finally have a Margaret sighting. She works in Downtown Manhattan. I believe that she and the kids are in Brooklyn with her brother. I think it's safe to qualify their relationship as estranged. Nucky is alone, as implied by the overhead crane shot of him sitting back down at the table alone, after his other former confidant brusquely cuts the pleasantries as soon as she's reminded of the world she's left with his off-hand remark about not sending Teddy anything living in a box.

WG: Without Eddie and Margaret, Nucky no longer has a compadre in any sense of the word. The off-hand remark about not sending anything living in a box was a nice way to remind the audience of Owen Sleater's appearance in a box at the end of Season Three. Or was it boxes?

OMD: I think it was just one box.

I, for one, am glad that Winter & Co. went the route of showing that Hoover's Bureau of Investigation cares very little about the Prohibition-spawned criminal underworld that's burgeoning under their noses. Apparently Agent Knox is tilting at very real windmills without a Sancho Panza. I sure as hell hope that Eli still has Kessler's note. Something tells me there's a bit more going on than Knox let on. It would certainly appear that either the inaccurate and truncated translation or the embroidered letters "JTM" on the kerchief that Knox hands Eli will be his undoing.

WG: The scenes between Agent Knox and Eli provided some nice tension . Knox--A.K.A. Mr. Big Roundballs--brazenly sniffing around to see if anyone had caught on to Eddie's informing ways was the shit. Initially, I wasn't entirely clear whether Eli and Mickey knew what was going on, or if they were just tough-guy fronting. I feel bad for Eli. He's pretty much in the dark about his son's shenanigans at Temple, and he's inadvertently thrown some more red meat to Knox in the way of additional deposit boxes. We haven't seen the last of the kerchief. I hope Eli gets his head out of his ass in time to get it sussed out. I'm curious as hell to see what the note really says. It has to have Anti-Semitic undertones at the very least.

OMD: I'm still not sure that Eli's not trying to evaluate Knox, and I don't remember how damaging the information in the deposit boxes was (if this was established), though I'm sure we'll find out next week.

After a round of drinks at a speakeasy in which Mr. Sagorsky gets existential (existential crises are apparently the daily special at The North Star) and tells Harrow he came back for a reason, it looks like Harrow is back in the fold at the Sagorsky household. There is something that I find ultimately satisfying in seeing Richard Harrow, Julia Sagorsky, and Tommy Darmody together trying to form a nuclear family despite the fact that they're all damaged goods. Hopefully they can fit together in such a way as to make each other whole.

WG: Like Harrow's face, there is no whole to be made. Only a simulcra of normalcy. I can't imagine that Harrow's past plus Sagorsky's family history can equal anything but damage for Tommy. I'm definitely rooting for them though. Harrow is probably one of my all-time favorite TV characters. I'm a sucker for brown eyes and quiet dignity.

OMD: Daughter Maitland (who I've seen referred to as Narcisse's daughter elsewhere, but I don't think "Daughter" is anything other than a stage name) sure sunk her teeth into Chalky. He is standing in a field, the grass up to his chest, and snakes are fucking everywhere.

WG: Chalky is fucked. I was kind of bummed to see him cheating on his wife, but Narcisse knew exactly what he was doing when he tucked Daughter Maitland into the fold at the Black Onyx. Did you notice the way Chalky's face changed expressions when she was singing that mournful blues ballad? He went from white-hot carnal to pissed to wounded in the span of 60 seconds. Good stuff from Michael K. Williams. Between the adulterous strife, trying to mesh with his soon-to-be uppity in-laws, and Purnsley siphoning power out from underneath him via the smack trade, it's only a matter of time until Chalky gets got by a 12-year-old in a convenience store while trying to score a soft pack of menthols.

OMD: The Pierce/Petrucelli is a nice little bit of foreshadowing for the ultimate fate of Luciano's relationship with Joe Masseria. I doubt the series ever gets to that point, as Bennie Seigel doesn't off Masseria until 1931. Regardless, ratcheting up the tension between Lucky and Masseria is a good thing. I like that the business all went down at the weird-ass gator fight. They hash out the details with gators hissing in the background, working on two levels: first, showing how weird and lawless Florida was; and second, with gators taking each other out because higher powers pit them against each other.

WG: Nothing says lawless redneck savagery like a gator fight. The cultural contrast between the boys from up north, and the Duck Dynasty yahoos fighting gators is the kind of regional stereotyping that led Lynyrd Skynyrd to pen "Sweet Home Alabama."

OMD: Eli's existential break was also a nice touch. Shea Whigham's work is too often overlooked, but he really does have to cover more range than most in this series are called upon to, given that he has to balance his work-life with his family life. I liked him breaking down with Knox. I hope the weakness he showed in Kessler's room isn't the way in for Knox wedging himself in between the Thompson brothers.

WG: Eli has always seemed more vulnerable, breakable, and human than most characters on the show, primarily because of his family ties. You know Knox just realized he's found a weak spot he can push on.

OMD: While we got two standing-and-fucking sequences in the final 15 minutes, the one with Nucky and Miss Wheet definitely worked better for me. It may have borrowed a page from Californication, though the punching was before the fucking, not during, but Nucky needed his bell rung. Maybe he's not happy now that he's running a criminal enterprise, but the show needs him to stop wallowing for its momentum to go forward and if Patricia Arquette needs to punch Buscemi in the face to make that happen, so be it.

WG: Arquette landed a blow for the viewership. Nucky was whinging up a storm during his first visit. I was glad to see Sally knock the self-pity out of his head. I'm generally not a fan of punching between humans unless it's sanctioned by the World Boxing Association or other similar organizations, but I'm definitely a fan of standing-and-fucking. It screams of a desire that shan't be delayed. Just when I think Boardwalk Empire has exhausted the world of sexual fetishes, they go and find another dark corner to exploit. And of course, standing-and-fucking is exactly the kind of sexual fetish that led Lynyrd Skynrd to pen "Gimme Three Steps."

Wordy Old Men on Boardwalk Empire: Season Four, Episode Five "Erlkonig"

Agent Knox takes Eddie Kessler to an abandoned chair-stacking center, while Gillian tries to get her fix, and Nucky is fixing Willie's boner.

Wordy Ginters: Boardwalk Empire borrows from Goethe for the episode title and for key dialogue that serves as the fulcrum upon which Knox breaks Eddie. What other series has the nards to trade in this kind of dusty English major territory?

Old Man Duggan: I wish that I could say that my degree in that field of study did me good here, but I did not study Goethe in college. I do love when literature rears its formidable but oft-ugly head in my programs.

WG: Goethe's "Erlkoning" is about a father who fails to believe and protect his son from a supernatural monster. Who are the fathers and who are the sons in this episode?

OMD: Well, it seems that Eddie was a father and a son. A father who strayed from his family, who then supplanted his family with a relationship that alternated between being the father and the son with Nucky. Obviously, he tended to Nucky as his valet and chauffeur--the nature of the care provided perhaps skewing a bit more towards the maternal than the paternal but still intrinsically parental--but when looking at the emotional elements of their relationship, Eddie yearns, or rather yearned, for the approval of Nucky--who was the provider of his security of a more pecuniary nature--and it isn't as though Nucky is simply his employer, as he was actually putting a roof over Mr. Kessler's head. Really, though, isn't Nucky everyone's father? At least everyone living on the Monopoly board. And while Nucky is off tending to another in his flock, the one who cared for him the most came into harm's way while he was absent, unable to protect him because another son (and the odds-on favorite to replace Kessler) got himself into trouble.

WG: Is Capone being a coke fiend historically accurate? Van Alden Mueller's face after the toot from Capone's spoon was almost too good. It was so funny it almost ruined everything. Too discordant for the character and the setting.

OMD: So apparently there is an Al Capone biography, Capone: The Man and the Era, by Laurence Bergreen, that asserts that Capone was a long-time cocaine abuser, an assertion that requires a level of speculation that causes some to bristle and one that has no eyewitness accounts to back up the corroborate it, though it is consistent with the perforated nasal septum and his erratic behavior. As for Nelson-George, the look on Michael Shannon's face was amazing. Most interesting actor out there. While funny, I do think it fit because we have seen the beast that lives deep within him. Even if it didn't tap the beast directly, there is an intensity to Van Alden that runs in the veins.

WG: Speaking of obscure references, did you catch Frank refer to Al as "Garibaldi?" If wikipedia is to be believed, and I can't think of a single reason why it shouldn't be, then Garibaldi was an Italian General and politician who kicked much ass, literally around the globe, back in the late 1800s. So yeah, the reference works. As long as we're at it, I'm pretty sure Gillian was name checking Captain Beefheart with her "Abba-Zaba" schtick, and not the taffy candy bar with the peanut butter center. What horrors did she have to commit to acquire that candy bar?

OMD: I caught the Garibaldi reference but had no idea who he was. Surely, they are talking of their fellow countryman. As for the Abba-Zaba, not only did it look like she'd been doing untoward things to that wrapper, but one has to think that Tommy will never be able to eat a candy bar for fear that he'll become a junky like his dear old Mima.

WG: Nice touch placing a rumpled flag in the background of Willie's dorm room as Nucky calmly explained that blood and family power trumps everything, and not to worry too much about a few innocent folks getting steamrolled along the way. It's ugly to see, but all too true. Apple pie and all that. Clayton Campbell, All-American rube. Welcome to the 99%.

OMD: So Clayton Campbell has to be related to Pete Campbell, right? Disgraced uncle? Father perhaps? Can we assume that Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire exist in the same world of historical fiction given Weiner and Winter's connection on The Sopranos? I'm going to go ahead and answer my rhetorical question in the affirmative. 99% indeed.

WG: Was there a male character in this episode that Gillian didn't offer herself too? Waiting for the man is such a bitch. I thought there was a chance she was going to hit up Tommy with a sexual offer in return for his milk monies. Considering her history, not out of the question. She has to be the most vile and least sympathetic character in the series. I'm curious to see how twisted Ron must be to display such understanding towards her at the end of the episode.

OMD: If she lives to see the day, I'm sure she'll throw herself at her grandson. She's so wretched. I hope that Livingston's character is a sadist, and she gets her just deserts.

WG: How bad-ass did Purnsley look getting his shoes shined? The man can convey some cool, evil menace. He's the black Lawrence Tierney. Is his kingly perch meant to convey his growing influence and power via the heroin trade, or does it show weakness that Gillian can so easily find him in the masculine holiness of the barbershop?

OMD: I would assume that King Sweetback, a man who doesn't even need a name to be recognized, is enjoying his newfound clout. I'm guessing he doesn't feel like he's vulnerable having been found by Gillian in what we presume are his new junk-slinging digs, but if Gillian can find him this easily, it can't be good in the long run. One has to assume that Dunn and Chalky's relationship is about to get strained.

WG: Lots of flashy cinematic camera work. The whole episode was shot in shadows or awash in a pale blue-grey patina. From Frank's epic death (shades of Miller's Crossing), to the newspaper rustling in the windows right before Eddie broke, like his last gasp, or the empty window after he jumped, Boardwalk Empire once again matches it's literary pretension with stunning visuals.

OMD: I'm glad I didn't do my due diligence on Frank Capone because, if I had, I'd have known he was about to get pumped full of lead. Regardless, your boy Van Patten brought it again. Hell, even the scene in the hallway in the school and all of the gauzy scenes while Gillian in a heroin-induced haze looked great. I liked the framing in the scenes with Knox interrogating Kessler. Knox occupies the left side of the screen in medium-close one-shots, while Kessler occupies the right in alternating medium-close one-shots, suggesting an oppositional relationship, one forcing against the other. When Kessler breaks and accepts his cane back from his BI captors, he sits on the left side of the frame, having flipped. I don't think it's insignificant that in the Eddie's final moments, he looks into the mirror, which is framed again on the right side of the screen, sees a reflection of himself back home on the other side of the fight, and knows that he has only one path he can take given his transgression. The shot of Kessler going out the window isn't one I'll soon forget. You'll be missed, Eddie.

Wordy Old Men on Boardwalk Empire: Season Four, Episode Four "All In"

This week we find Nucky striking deals, Kessler cutting loose, and seemingly everyone making moves.

Old Man Duggan: I don't know about you, but it really felt to me that there was a sense of foreboding hanging over this whole episode. The first 40 minutes or so felt relatively light, but there was no goddamn way Winter & Co. was going to let that make its way to the end of the episode. Where to begin?

Wordy Ginters: Definitely not with that sad excuse of limp day old daisies Van Alden Mueller pawned off on Capone's "bloater" convalescing in the hospital. Never deal from the back end of your inventory with business partners.

OMD: Thematically, this episode seemed to be all about transitions. Nucky trying to extract himself from Atlantic City with the Tampa Gambit. Nelson-George Van Alden-Mueller semi-unwillingly switching from Camp O'Banion to Camp Capone. N-G VA-M completing the transition to full-fledged (though still gun-shy) thug. Eddie Kessler leaving the tasks of the chauffeur and personal valet behind. Meyer Lansky passing Arnold Rothstein by, at least in Nucky's esteem. Dunn Purnsley doing dirty work for Dr. Valentin Narcisse, not Chalky. It seems like all the pieces on the chess board weren't just moving, but half were switching colors.

WG: Not only switching colors, but characters trying on new roles. Eddie obviously too green for the valet-to-bag-man promotion and a soft touch to boot (I do hope we get some side stories involving his sons and the Nazi party before Hoover scissors him to confession). Dr. Narcisse playing Shari Lewis to Purnsley's Lambchop. I liked the Jedi mind trick that resulted in Purnsley carpeting the stairs with that pimp. Narcisse proceeded to sample the goods, right? Although the episode was a little heavy on the predictable side, I'm digging the sinister vibe that Narcisse has going. Shades of De Niro in Angel Heart.

OMD: I really loved the way the Nucky/Rothstein/Lansky plot line played out tonight. Rothstein--who had up to this point almost always seemed cold and composed showed weakness, at his precious poker table no less--gets an offer that at first he is hesitant to accept. He wants to test Nucky's mettle on the felt--believing that he can't truly know a man without having sat across the table from him--but actually exposes his own weakness, removing himself from Nucky's consideration and getting his ass handed to him while he was at it. "Everything you want from me tonight is on the table." Indeed. Meyer Lansky, the same man who lived to be 80 years old and never served time despite being neck-deep in organized crime for the better part of 60 years, sees his opportunity while watching his mentor lose his cool and snags what had been Rothstein's deal.

WG: Always good to see a character throw a new wrinkle. Rothstein on tilt. I thought he looked more pale than usual. I hope this doesn't mean less A.R. going forward, but I would imagine it does. Were they playing Texas Hold 'em? I know Tim Van Patten didn't direct the episode, but perhaps it was a nod to nephew Vincent Van Patten, aka, the Vin Scully of the World Poker Tour. I could have used a little more tension in that poker table showdown. Initially, since A.R. has generally showed impeccable instincts and discretion, I thought for sure he was baiting Nucky for a big score. Then, I thought maybe it was a backhanded way to get Nucky the $500K buy in for the Tampa project. In the end, he's the sad-sack gambling addict, chasing the thrill of the play because the money doesn't inflame his loins.

OMD: Nelson, Nelson, George, what are they going to do with you? O'Banion clearly doesn't value Van Alden-Mueller and is somehow more unstable than Al Capone. How he ends up choosing between these two guys is beyond me. Perhaps more importantly, though, did he miss out on the lapskaus? I hope Sigrid saved him some. As for Michael Shannon himself, the discomfort he is able to show is really quite astounding. I really don't know that there is an actor I am more captivated by than Shannon.

WG: His face is the perfect canvas for multiple shades of despair. I think he does heartburn best. His mild discomfort is strong. I completely agree. Shannon is a compelling SOB on the screen. "I do have a sense of humor". That line is a bitch to pull off unless you are a stud like Shannon. I regret that I haven't seen much of his movie work, something I'll be correcting. His bug-eyed homicidal Jesus/justice freak schtick was a major part of what pulled me into to Boardwalk Empire back in Season One. It's been interesting to watch him drift from a man with a fucking capital "P" purpose to being cast in the breeze, buffeted back and forth between selling clothes irons, a flower delivery guy, and reluctant muscle for O'Banion and Capone.

OMD: Is it just me, or did Jerry Flentje's neighbor in 1C (actress Maggie Fine) have a Maura Tierney thing going for her? I'd take a bite out of her apple. Will they at least come back and leave a note?

WG: I think that sadistic fuck Capone gets harder at defenestrating slow paying customers than womanizing. And what is with all the Capone brothers? Of course, all of my Capone knowledge came from The Untouchables, and what I took from that movie is that Kevin Costner is a dick. How about brother Herc Capone in a bad toupee? Apparently, Herc is the one with the social skills. I did get a kick out of Al's orgasmic coke-fueled machine gun murder. Serious joie de vivre. Eat that Wyatt Earp.

OMD: While I'm on the look-alike tangent, Clayton (Willie's roommate, actor Owen Campbell) has to be related to Vincent Kartheiser, right?

WG: Jesus. Nice call. Clayton's has the potential to be as snakey as Pete Campbell.

OMD: So Willie sure slipped Hank a killer cocktail, huh? He shat himself something fierce, a la George Brett. Of course, then he puked his guts out, more literally than those words are muttered. Willie, what is Old Man Conwell going to think?

WG: I typically try not to get too fucking bent with predicting things or letting implausible plot twists gnaw at me. Maybe it was because of the ricin schtick from Breaking Bad, but you knew Willie was going to fuck up the recipe when he went Drugstore Cowboy in the badly-lit chemistry lab. I think the ramifications of dealing with a dead rich boy is going to set up some interesting action, and soon.

OMD: Well, Dunn certainly took it to that "duppy" on the stoop, didn't he? I thought it was interesting that Narcisse saw that form of vampirism as potentially harmful to the "Libyan" race as it ultimately turned out to be, or at least as it would have appeared from his point-of-view. It'll be interesting to see how this Narcisse incursion into Chalky White's turf plays out, especially in regards to Dunn.

WG: Purnsley is most likely fucked. It's pretty apparent that Narcisse holds Dunn in even less regard than the duppy. Although he'll get some good mileage out of Purnsley before he disposes of him. Did you pick up on the Marcus Garvey reference? Another cool historical angle that makes Boardwalk Empire so damn good. I don't know as much about Garvey as I should, but damn, there used to be some radical mofo's running around back in the 20's Between Garvey, Gene Debs, Bob La Follette, and straight up crooks like Harding, these guys make the political movers and shakers to today look like milquetoast.

OMD: Totally missed the Marcus Garvey reference, though, like you, I don't know enough about him in the first place. The instant Eddie took a drink with Bottles, you knew it was as good as over for him. If there's one thing characters in this show can't have, it's a good time. The instant someone smiles, you know they're fucked. Maybe Eddie doesn't fall completely, but he's definitely up Shit Creek now. For a while, I was worried that the gun up his sleeve was going to discharge, but that was mostly because I'd forgotten about the Bureau's strategy meeting until I saw Agent Knox in the train station. Eddie, you dear, dear bastard, I hope you make it out of this.

WG: He's got a chance if he sobers up. His loyalty may trump his inexperience, and prevent him from saying something stupid. But obviously Hoover isn't fucking around, and Knox has already demonstrated he's crazy. Eddie may get torn apart like a soft Bavarian pretzel.

OMD: Thoughts?

WG: Whither Margaret?

OMD: Apparently she went the way of the Nets and the upper middle class in Manhattan: Brooklyn. I'll be damned if we've seen her, though.

Breaking Down: Breaking Bad Season Five, Episode Sixteen: "Felina"

Stan Earnest: Golf clap.

Craig Scholes: I have mixed feelings on it.  I don't know what I was expecting, but I didn't love it.  I liked it; I’m not disappointed.  But I don't think it’s the best finale ever.

SE: So tell me what finale was better?

CS: Friday Night Lights.

SE: I take it Landry lives in that one? I should say kills.

CS: Yeah, but that’s not what made it great.

SE: Here is what made this great: Walt wins, and Jesse wins. Everybody wins.

CS: Walt didn't win.

SE: Walt was going to die anyhow. This way he saves Jesse and finds a way to get money to his family.

CS: I think it was a Plan B. It wasn't how he wanted to go out; it’s just the compromise he settled for.

SE: I'm pissed that Jesse doesn't have a barrel of cashola in the back of that El Camino.

CS: I hope Jesse goes "home.”

SE: Home is where the Hartwell is.

CS: I loved the fantasy of him woodworking.

SE: Ways it could have been better: 1. Bill Burr. 2. Walt crushes some blue with the butt of the M60 and snorts it pre-battle. 3. Walt actually fires the weapon. 4. Jesse leaves with money.

CS: I absolutely loved the erector set assassin kit. Lego Mindstorm will be releasing their version next fall.

Meth Damon's reconstruction of the train robbery

SE: I honestly don't see a better ending to this thing, other than the fact that Jesse could have had Andrea waiting for him.

I just realized that "Baby Blue" is in reference to the meth, first Tommy James and the Shondells and now Badfinger? How many songs about blue meth are there?

CS: Well since blue meth isn't really a thing outside of the Breaking Bad world, probably zero.

SE: If ricin really takes four days to kill, then Lydia still has time to do some damage to Walt's family right?

CS: I thought it was two days.

SE: All I know is that they had to pay Laura Fraser a Walt barrel to remove her makeup. Was that Charlize Theron from Monster?

CS: I didn't think she looked that bad. I think it was part of the character because she was so concerned with how she was perceived, and at that point she was as vulnerable as she could ever be.

SE: And watch out Dwight Schrute, the Walt barrel is giving the Schrute buck a literal run for its money.

CS: I thought it would have been hilarious if Skyler just kept blowing smoke in Walt’s face telling him to die.

SE: I was hoping Beneke would be there chilling on the sofa watching Friends.

CS: I really don't get your obsession with Beneke.

SE: He should be dead for messing around with Heisenberg's woman. But hey, another quaalude and she'll love me in the morning.

CS: I would have liked to have seen a scene where Walt is at a stop light in the Volvo and Beneke shoots by blowing into a tube to make his wheelchair cross the street.

SE: Fantastic. Damn you Gilligan, not all loose ends were tied up! I wanted to see Huell all bugged out eating a rack of ribs in Robert Forster's dungeon.

CS: I hope Bill Burr becomes a sketchy henchman for Robert Forster now.

SE: Tell me it wasn't genius to bring Badger and Skinny Pete back into action. Walt probably found them at Jesse's place still ripping on Chekhov's bongs.

CS: I think we have an opportunity for another spinoff: the Badger and Skinny Pete assassin service.

SE: Walt's plan with Gretchen and Elliot was superb. I couldn't help but to be full-on rooting for Walt at that point. All those riches can't make up for missing out on that big ass Walt cock. Take that Gretchen! Of course, she has had Elliot's ears to hang on to during cunnilingus over the years.

CS: Boy was I wrong about them getting ricin'd. Walt's pride really was his undoing.

SE: I called the Marty Robbins shit though. I put the over/under on days in a row I listen to ole Marty at 7 and I'm taking the over.

CS: If you put those odds for me and set them at half a day. Take the under.

SE: I feel like my dad and I put together the soundtrack for Breaking Bad. For every random new track, there was a splash of white-old-man-grew-up-in-the-70s twinge thrown in, fucking Boz Scaggs.

CS: But on the other hand they had that amazing song by Jose Gonzalez in the teaser for the last episode. And that Lydia ringtone was fucking creepy.

SE: Even if you just take these last eight episodes as the final season, I don't see any other final season that was better. Breaking Bad started as my own special show during Seasons One and Two, and then morphed into the best television show ever. This would be like if I was a fan of the Cleveland Browns since the 1950s and they suddenly won like ten Super Bowls in a row. Thank you Breaking Bad. It was a wild ride.

CS: Overdramatic much?

SE: But maybe I just feel this way because the most recent last season I remember is Dexter, the most blasphemous final season of a show ever. That shit made the Sopranos ending look like the final ten minutes of The Godfather: Part II.

CS: I'll get around to watching the last season of Dexter, but I’m not looking forward to it.

SE: When it comes to Breaking Bad, I just associate with a man eviscerated by his surroundings while trying to play fair.

CS: Play fair?  How did Walt ever play fair?

SE: Exactly, once he stopped playing fair a whole new world opened up for him. That fantasy world he was so good at.

CS: “I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it.”

SE: That's what I tell my wife when I play fantasy football. Very similar worlds.

CS: That's basically my excuse for procrastinating.

SE: You mean procrasturbating?

CS: I never put that off.

SE: Can we get a show about how to pull off Breaking Bad stunts hosted by Richard Dean Anderson? Maybe this is how I'll describe Breaking Bad to folks that haven't seen it: It's like MacGyver meets Scarface meets Everybody Loves Raymond.

CS: Everybody Loves Raymond?

SE: Everybody Loves Walter Hartwell White. Yeah, in the small segments of that show I've seen his wife is always busting his balls.

CS: I've never really seen it, so I'll take your word.

SE: You called it last week with Walt not being adept enough to fire the M60, so it stays true to the show’s nature that Walt would blind the Nazi's with science.

CS: I do like him putting the last bullet in Uncle Jack’s dome. So do you have any last gushings about how your life won't be the same without this show anymore?

SE: Well, I could really use the ten hours a week I have been dedicating to the Bald Move podcasts and Sepinwall columns.

CS: Now what?  Do we start writing about Zero Dark Detroit, or Low Winter Scrotum, whatever the fuck that fucking show is called.

SE: Every week the same three-word column: "This show sucks." And then we just start talking about how much we miss Breaking Bad.

CS: I'd just have to assume it still sucks, because no way I actually watch any more of it.

SE: Walter could still become a zombie that runs into post-apocalyptic Jesse. The new Walking Dead season looks like it needs a new direction.

CS: I think I’m done with that show.  I hate basically every character on that show.

SE: Yeah, that show needs a Tuco. That reign of Cadillac trunk fire reminded me of a Fourth of July when one of my narcissistic buddies unwound like 1,000 packs of Black Cats into a bucket and then smoked around them, and they all went up in a two-minute hellfire blaze.

CS: I think it would have been awesome if Walt let off the trigger before he ran out of ammo to trick someone into standing up, and then finished them off with the last few rounds.

SE: Then we wouldn't have the audience gifted Todd's murder by Jesse. That thing was wrapped with more ribbons than a Christmas Day Lexus.

CS: We still could have had that, Landry ain't bright. Are we not gonna talk about Flynn wearing Timberlands with Zubaz?

SE: Nah, let's just end on that image of Walt watching him enter that apartment and close the door behind him. That is where most lackluster shows would end it.

CS: What would have been the "Scooby-Doo" ending for Breaking Bad?

SE: I was just wondering what the Stephen-King ending would be. The Scooby-Doo ending would have Mike coming back to kick out the crutches underneath Flynn, proving him to be the real mastermind as he tries to run away.

CS: Flynn rips off his mask and turns out to be Tuco the whole time and has been maintaining an abandoned amusement park. The Stephen-King ending would have been aliens.

SE: An alien army of 1,000 Marie's on the crystal blue.

So even though guns were not ablaze for the full hour and a half, we still love this episode right? I mean, nothing touches "Ozymandias," but this was a nice solid home run while "Ozymandias" was the grand salami.

CS: Like I said, I liked the episode, didn't love it.  It was a really good last season, but not the best last episode for me.  I have no complaints with it.  I think Gilligan did the show right.

SE: You’re goddamn right.

Tube Steak: Broadchurch Series One

Wednesday night saw BBC America's turn at airing the much-heralded Broadchurch--a show that is as much a small town drama as it is a murder mystery--come to an end. For those who did not watch or don't even know what Broadchurch is because it's on BBC America, its initial run was fucking spectacular.

Written almost entirely by creator Chris Chibnall--the only other writer with an "Written by" credit was Louise Fox, who co-wrote the sixth installment--Broadchurch is expertly plotted out, magnificently shot, and superbly acted. Chibnall, who has worked on Doctor Who, Torchwood, Law & Order: UK, and Life on Mars, crafted a tightly-woven whodunit set against the backdrop of the titular small seaside community on the south coast of England. Centered around the murder of an eleven-year-old boy, Danny Latimer, the murder shakes the quiet town to its core, as Broadchurch had been untouched by violent crime up to then. What unfurls as the Latimer family tries to come to grips with the murder that has befallen them, as the police try sift through the details to find the killer, as the town begins to turn on itself, is a fantastically compelling eight episodes of television.

The acting, particularly the two detectives on the case, played by Olivia Colman and former Doctor Who David Tennant, and Danny's parents, Jodie Whittaker and Andrew Buchan, is top-notch. As Danny's murder starts to tear at the fabric of their marriage, Whittaker and Buchan shine. They imbue their characters with such an innate humanity that putting yourself in their shoes is effortless. As DS Ellie Miller (Colman) and DI Alec Hardy get deeper and deeper into the case, the initial conflict between the two resulting from their starkly different points-of-view begins to dissipate as his distinctly more pessimistic and world-weary philosophy begins to inevitably permeate her viewpoint, not by his influence but by the toxic nature of the crime that they are investigating. To delve too much deeper into the superb acting would be to give away far too much, but as anyone who has seen the series can attest, they all have their moments to shine, and shine they do.

And with seasons British television directors James Strong (Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Hustle) and Euros Lyn (Doctor Who, Torchwood, Sherlock, Upstairs Downstairs) as the steadying hand at the helm of each episode, the episodes are filmed in such a way as to bring you into the headspace of these characters and into the world of Broadchurch. The camera direction deftly conforms to the larger psychological undertones of the scene, with no shot standing out more magnificently than the fateful scene where the murderer is finally revealed. Chibnall and Company clearly had a very specific story they were going to tell, and the machine had to click on all cylinders for it to all come together.

Holy shit, did they ever succeed.



Broadchurch can currently be streamed legally, but for pay--$2.99 per episode in HD ($1.99 for standard definition), $22.72 for the season ($15.12 SD)--here. It's also on YouTube for $1.99 per episode, but it appears as though there is not an HD viewing option. As it was broadcast in the UK by ITV and not the BBC, I have no idea if and when it will be available for purchase or streaming by subscription service in the US.