Boardwalk Empire - Season 2

When the first season of Boardwalk Empire aired last year, I was impressed by the quality of its production and enjoyed its variously interconnected characters and sense of humor. I was less enamored by the plot, which was mostly fine but a bit slow-going and nothing too new. That hasn't exactly changed too much this year, but the show definitely felt more confident and original in what it wanted to be, and that along with an extra year of time to deepen and explore the show's ideas and themes resulted in something ultimately more satisfying and exciting to watch. At the very least, my anticipation for what would happen next was more breathless, and the big moments packed a bigger punch.

Although the ending of season one wasn't exactly a complete upheaval in the show's world, it did provide a number of developments which played out over the course of season two. Nelson Van Alden's upright, do-gooder image was tarnished when he started committing crimes of his own and got someone besides his wife pregnant, and this year we spent a lot of time watching that veneer peel away in public, which made him more sympathetic despite him still being a self-righteous bastard. Jimmy and Eli joined forces with the Commodore and other influential men to challenge Nucky's supremacy in Atlantic City, and their back and forth along with the other organizations in other cities that get dragged into it makes up a lot of the season's most overt conflict. Margaret decided to stay with a man she knew was a criminal in order to provide for herself and her children, and this year she definitely struggled with her own feelings on the matter.

On top of these, the show piles on even more little struggles and battles. Chalky's operation is attacked by white supremacists, and he has to manage both his duties to the black community and his loyalty to Nucky. I thought Chalky had the weakest arc of any that really lasted a significant amount of time this season; Michael K. Williams' performance is strong but they just didn't put the time into making me buy how hamstrung he appeared to be. Perhaps most significantly, Nucky himself is charged with a number of crimes, and finds out who his real friends are as he struggles to keep himself out of jail. He was pretty put upon all season, with the law and a lot of his former friends working against him, and really only having the Irish and Arnold Rothstein (still a fun character even if he doesn't have much to do) on his side consistently. By the end of the season though, he's cemented his ability to fight his way out of jams and win some allies when he needs them.

They've done a good job of building him up from a shrewd manipulator of men and money into more of a complete criminal mastermind, not exactly invincible but smart enough to find a solution most of the time. We do see though that there are still chinks in the armor, and I look forward to the continued development of the character. As far as the content itself goes, it seems like they definitely cut back on unnecessary nudity this year, but they increased the violence to compensate. Boardwalk Empire's first season drew a little criticism for being mellow now and then, a complaint that seems weird to me since The Sopranos and The Wire are two of the best crime dramas ever, and aren't exactly dripping with blood from week to week. Boardwalk was definitely more brutal this year though, and I won't deny that the unflinching nature of the violence enhanced the intensity of the show's most shocking story moments. Maybe just a bit over-the-top though, I was watching the show at the same time as The Walking Dead and it was often the former than was the most disgusting. In any case, I still don't think Boardwalk is quite the classic drama it wants to be just yet, but it's still a very fun and often poignant one, using its period setting to highlight issues that cut across centuries, and always trying to get better. I'm easily on board for season three.

Boardwalk Empire - Season 1

The most remarkable thing about Boardwalk Empire might be that its main cast features two Steves and no fewer than four Michaels. Besides that though, the first season, while not quite living up the billing of the great crime dramas of HBO's past, was still a very good show with loads of potential going forward. It was created by Terence Winter, who wrote frequently for The Sopranos, and was executive produced by Martin Scorsese, who also kicked things off by directing the pilot. So it has a strong legacy, and it's no surprise that is was a success out of the gate. It doesn't quite have the magic of a true classic series yet, but I still feel like it could be one. What's most interesting so far is how it mixes together all its elements of politics, business, and crime. Other shows have covered all of these topics, but they're all brought together at once by the central figure of Nucky Thompson, and it's a twist we haven't quite seen before. There's just something intriguing about a man who can influence candidates for national office and then turn around and order an execution, and Steve Buscemi is great in the role. He doesn't have the fire or passion of someone more charismatic, but there's something equally compelling in his cold and calculating demeanor. He rarely lets anger get in the way of a good deal, and its this that makes him powerful yet also keeps him alone. The show might not work without him.

Nucky is just one part of it though, as there's a whole world revolving around him. If I'm being honest, the show feels less like it takes place in 1920 and more like a modern series about what 1920 is like, which isn't really a complaint, just an observation. It takes place mostly in Atlantic City, but also partly in the New York and Chicago of that time, and likes showing a lot of the corrupt politics and criminal dealings that happen around Nucky, as well as rooting a lot of the story in history. Obviously prohibition is the major subject of the show, but there's also women's suffrage, the presidential election, and all sorts of miscellaneous events that come up. It's a wonderful looking series, with its own boardwalk set and endlessly gorgeous cinematography that helps the period feel. The sets and costumes look great, and it all adds up to something prettier than just about any other series. Again, I didn't believe I was watching 1920, but it helps a lot when your series is enjoyable even in moments where very little is happening. This being HBO, of course there's plenty of violence and nudity. There's an almost comical amount of naked women around, and I thought the show might have been going for some sort of record for consecutive episodes with nudity before they broke the string late in the season. The violence serves the story a bit more, and it's usually visceral and shocking when it shows up. There are of course a few Scorsese-esque moments where things get operatic and there are montages of death set against more mundane events, but they are rare and well-earned.

The cast is great, featuring a mix of fictional characters and notable figures from history like various politicians and infamous criminals. I don't want to go through everyone, but I'll mention a few that were particularly interesting. Michael Shannon plays Nelson Van Alden, a prohibition agent and one scary, psychotic son of a bitch. Stephen Graham proves again he was born to play crooks, portraying a perversely likable Al Capone. Michael Stuhlbarg was perfect in A Serious Man, but he proves he has a lot of range as elite criminal moneymaker Arnold Rothstein. Michael K. Williams was underused as Chalky White, and I hope he gets more moments like the tools scene in season two. And while it's kind of a silly character, Anthony Laciura playing Nucky's German butler was always fun. There are plenty of supporting members as well, the most notable probably being Jack Huston's Richard Harrow, a veteran of the war missing half his face who becomes a useful and completely terrifying member of Nucky's network. Most of the characters get a nice arc over the course of the season, as everyone has grown up a little and accepted more of what world they live in by the finale. The set up for next year isn't made too explicit, but it's pretty obvious what the major story ideas going forward will be, and I can't wait to see them play out.

The Incredible Hulk

While 2003's Hulk had a lot of big ideas, it ultimately didn't pull most of them off, and it really wasn't a very good movie. Not a bad one in my opinion, but still a failure. For this half sequel/half reboot, they lowered the bar quite a few notches, and the film managed to clear it. It's a solid action movie, not successful at everything it attempts but its errors feel more like stumbles rather than a complete collapse.

Obviously, they recast all of the characters and reinterpreted the look of the Hulk, so they're kind of pushing the last movie aside. But on the other hand, if you ignore the opening montage and a couple other flashbacks, it serves almost perfectly as a direct follow-up to that film's events, with Bruce Banner hiding from the military and trying to figure out how to fix his condition in South America. I was a bit nonplussed by the whole sequence showing him working in a drink manufacturing plant and his blood contaminating the product which leads to the government discovering his location. It picks up a bit from there, as he realizes they're on his trail and goes on the run again. The scene where he's running from soldiers through crowded streets and across rooftops while trying to not get his pulse too high might actually be the most exciting in the movie, not that I really want to undersell the Hulk scenes which are generally decent.

Edward Norton doesn't really remind you of the Hulk when you see him, but he does a very good Bruce, coming off as more intelligent than Eric Bana's portrayal and also seeming to be weighed down by the stress of being the Hulk. They actually got Lou Ferrigno to do the voice of the Hulk, and pull that off well, with him coming off a bit closer to the comic book interpretation than the other movie's version which only roared outside dreams to my recollection. The Hulk model itself doesn't seem as real as the other one did in 2003, but the focus is less on that and more on him just destroying crap. I've never been very impressed by Liv Tyler, though I do think she has more chemistry with Banner than superior actress Jennifer Connolly ever did. William Hurt doesn't really make that much of an impression as Ross, but Sam Elliott didn't either, and Tim Roth did about as much as he could with kind of a dumb villain.

So the movie goes on this way as Banner tries to avoid the military while trying to find a way to fix himself, as Roth's character gets obsessed with becoming as strong as him. Louis Leterrier's direction is competent, and the script is decent, resulting in a very watchable if unexceptional film. There were a few bits I quite enjoyed, and others I didn't. This time they tied the transformation directly to Banner's pulse rate rather any heightened emotional state, which seemed dumb, but it doesn't really break anything. The special effects are pretty competent, resulting in some pretty good action even if the final match up is a bit of a boring one. The end is a bit muddled, but it's set up for further misadventures with one of Marvel's most vulnerable heroes. I was disappointed to find out Norton won't be returning as Banner in Joss Whedon's Avengers movie, and can only hope they find someone who can pull off the part.

The Wire - Season 5

And so what is probably the best dramatic television series I've ever seen and likely will see for a long time comes to an end, with all the frankness and honesty I've come to expect of it. A lot was said about The Sopranos' strange finale, which cut to black without a real resolution and was probably designed to be talked about more than the story. The Wire completely avoids all stereotypical tricks and flair we're used to seeing in our entertainment. There are no cliffhangers. There are no plot twists that only surprise you at first while making most of what happened previously meaningless. Plenty of characters die, especially in this last season, but part of the impact comes from the fact that they don't play it up at all. There's no dramatic music or slow motion shots, the scene just ends and we move on. The fragility of life and how it can end so quickly while the rest of the world continues without batting an eye is part of the show's realism that makes it so effective. The resolution might not have been as satisfying as I had hoped, but that's just how life is. Things don't always go your way.

Enough with the praise though, as far as actual quality television goes, this season was one of the weaker out of the bunch. That's not to say it's bad, because it's still better than almost everything else. It's just not quite as compelling as it was before, and felt a bit more like the rest of television this time. Every season adds something new, and this time they went with the press, but didn't handle it as well as they probably could have. They could have done some interesting things showing how well or poorly they cover the real issues facing the city they work in, but instead they got wrapped up in these serial killer and Pulitzer side plots and the drug problem on the streets, the crux of the show, was put on the back burner. Stuff was still happening, but it just wasn't tied in well with the new topic du Jour. The second season was in a similar situation, but they managed to link the docks to the main issue by showing how the drugs actually get into the city. The fifth season didn't really do that. It was still interesting, and the huge impact of what actually did occur on the streets helped keep them relevant, it was just a bit disappointing. Still, they did a fine job of gracefully ending a truly spectacular show.

The Wire - Season 4

The fourth season continues the brilliant "visual novel" in fine fashion. A lot of people have called it the best yet, and I'm not sure I agree, although it certainly fits in fine with the rest of the series. The new topic of interest this time around is the education system, specifically the sorry state of the inner city public schools. There are many kids in bad situations, either raised in uncaring group homes or already forced to make a living selling drugs on the streets. You have to feel for them as they have no hope of ever really having a good life. Not that the good guys aren't trying, with former police characters now becoming teachers and working on a new program for the most disruptive kids. Carcetti continues his quest to be mayor, and we see more of the crap that happens when politicians take the gloves off.

The heart of the show is really still the conflict between dealers and cops, although for much of the season the unit that's been so good at catching the big names is hamstrung by a terrible lieutenant and the main characters are working other positions. Season four continues the tradition of great writing and acting the series is known for, and by this point there's really not much new I can say about the show, just that if interested, you should start at the beginning and work forward from there. The emotional investment you get is so much greater when you watch the characters develop and make decisions for such a long time, and deaths, even of somewhat ancillary characters, are truly powerful, tragic moments. The fifth and last season just started, and I expect great things of it.

The Wire - Season 3

The saga continues in the third season, which maintains well the tradition of quality serial television. Stringer Bell is even more prominent as he tries to do things his way and makes some uncharacteristic slip-ups while the police try to pin something on him and his crew. The relationship between him and old friend Avon Barksdale is fleshed out, and comes to a head eventually. There's plenty of new stuff happening too, though. Tommy Carcetti is a white councilman who sees the crime problems in the city and decides to run for mayor in a mostly black city with little chance of winning. While Bell has cut a deal to reduce violence among certain gangs as they share good territory and drugs, violence is still at a high, thanks in large part to the emergence of a new, young dealer who won't agree to play nice, Marlo Stanfield. And an old district chief decides to try a new way to fight violent crime in his streets - restricting dealers to abandoned areas and letting them peddle their drugs their instead of causing problems in more populated neighborhoods. It raises an interesting question - can we allow people to do what we know is wrong if it keeps people safer?

The Wire is still a show about how bad things can be for some people in certain situations. It's very unflinching when it comes to the troubles of ordinary citizens who can't afford to leave their dangerous neighborhoods. But despite being strong with its message, it's still great entertainment. It's really impressive how they manage to balance so many characters. Cutty, the old criminal released from jail who decides to start over and help kids by teaching them boxing. Bunk, the homicide detective who drinks a little too much but is still very good at his job. Omar and Mouzone, two very different kinds of men who still find a common cause. It's just enjoyable to watch, even if you don't care about some of today's real problems in the urban environment.