Fall TV Preview: Boardwalk Empire Is HBO at Its Finest

Get our reviewer's take on HBO's Boardwalk Empire: Should you watch or pass?

When we heard a fine, young up-and-comer by the name of Martin Scorsese (Skohr-says-ee) was directing a new series for a fledgling network called HBO starring some guy called Steve Buscemi (who?), we figured, what the hey, let's give it a shot!

And my, are we glad we did...

Boardwalk Empire (HBO)

Premieres: Sunday, Sept. 19, 10-11 p.m.
Cast: Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Kelly Macdonald, Michael Shannon, Dabney Coleman
Status: We've seen the first six episodes.

You've heard of event films? Well, HBO's Boardwalk Empire is an event series. The pilot was directed by no less a figure than Martin Scorsese and cost a reported $20 million. Steve Buscemi stars as Nucky Thompson, the political boss who ran Atlantic City, N.J., during the Prohibition era and who turned it into an early 20th-century mecca of gin-soaked sin.

But as much as Boardwalk leans on the usual exploitation common to HBO series—expect everything from naked women to close-range shotgun wounds—the narrative sophistication and production values set it apart from the likes of Entourage and Hung.

Boardwalk is basically about the corruption of the American Dream—earnest college boys like Michael Pitt's Jimmy Darmody go away to the Great War and come back unflinching killers, and sweet immigrant housewives like Kelly Macdonald's Margaret Schroeder are seduced into concubinage—but just like in the real Atlantic City, the glamour and glitz are more than enough to compensate for a little messy immorality.

We've watched the first six episodes, and while the pilot didn't totally hook us, we were sold after the first few. This series may require a little patience.

Verdict: Watch.

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Fall TV Preview 2010: Boardwalk Empire

Boardwalk Empire?

Watch

Watch

68.1%

DVR

DVR

23.3%

Pass

Pass

8.6%

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