The American Film Institute also recognizes television (despite its name) and has released a top ten for TV:
AFI TOP TEN TELEVISION PROGRAMS OF THE YEAR
Not bad- pretty cool to see The Americans get some recognition. And it looks like they don't quite think Mad Men has gone downhill the way some people have.
Well, this was a very good episode tonight. More than made up for what was (to my mind) a fairly lackluster one last week. Lots of excitement, suspense, exotic locales- everything that Homeland should really do more often, frankly.
We open with Saul being escorted to a padded prison cell, where they are now holding Alain, Mira's agent boyfriend. The feds have apprehended him and Saul needs his help to arrange for Brody's new extraction plan. Alain refuses, but Saul threatens him to make it happen with his contacts in Tel Aviv, to provide for some assets on the ground. Brody's being interrogated now (and he has hair again, yay!) after what must have been some time since Javadi got him out of the prison. He's sticking to his cover story about wanting asylum, and denies the interrogator's questioning whether he has AIDS, because of his needle marks. Javadi's there too, putting up a front, pretending to question his sincerity for the cameras that are recording him. Brody asks for a break but is denied, as they keep going.
Meanwhile, Carrie arrives in Tehran with a new hairdo (she's now a brunette/redhead) and gets herself set up in hotel room, looking around suspiciously at everyone surrounding her in the lobby. I know she's supposed to be good at this but she always looks SO obvious when she's undercover at these things. When the attendant leaves her alone in the room, Carrie sets off on her own to presumably get things in order for Brody's new extraction plan. Javadi, meanwhile is called into General Akbari's office (the assassination target), while Carrie meets up with Fara's uncle. Despite his unhappiness to be involved with this plan, she convinces him to cooperate by giving him a picture of Fara, and then he gives her a phone to communicate with the CIA.
Akbari questions Javadi about Brody, which gives him an opening to set up the meeting between Brody and Akbari, by convincing him to meet Brody himself to see whether he seems honest about his intentions. Akbari buys it and Javadi looks to be in the clear. Carrie calls Saul to tell him how it went with the uncle, while he tells her to be expecting two assets on the ground thanks to Alain. While on the phone we find out Brody's gone through three days of interrogations without cracking (how'd he grow so much hair back already?), but Carrie is suddenly distracted when she gets a look at herself in the mirror and sees her now visible baby bump. As always, she appears conflicted, but hey, I guess she's having it now- I mean, there's no turning back at this point, plus she seems to be growing a super soldier in there who can survive smoking, drinking and gunshot wounds.
The next day she meets up with the two Tel Aviv guys, who are skeptical about the plan and want to know more details, so Carrie tells them everything except who the assassin is. One of the guys provides the murder weapon for Brody to use (it's a cyanide device), for which he has to get extremely close to be able to pull off. The plan is for them to create a diversionary explosion long enough for him to get away in the chaos. When Carrie get back to her hotel two men confront her and escort her down some stairs and through a back alley way where Javadi is waiting to retrieve the device from her. He tells her Akbari seems to have set up a meeting with Brody for the next day and Carrie hands the cyanide over to him, planning for the operation to now go into action. Javadi's not thrilled about all the effort they're going through to extract Brody, because as far as he's concerned, this is all about taking out Akbari, with Brody getting away being "optional."
Saul gathers the CIA crowd in a meeting where he explains what's supposed to go down, and as usual this season, everyone will be watching from a control monitor. Brody is set up with the device and everything he needs to complete the task, while Quinn asks how come Carrie hasn't left Tehran since she already put everything in motion. Saul explains that she thinks she needs to be there while it happens, and Quinn looks a bit dubious (he's so going to tell Saul about the baby). The next morning Brody is woken and dressed, wraps the cyanide in his sleeve (yeah, great hiding place), and heads out with security to a car. Carrie and the Tel Aviv dudes are watching from down the street, but the plan seems to have changed, as Brody is now being transported somewhere, instead of Akbari coming to him, as was the setup.
Carrie follows the car as it heads to a busy, populated area, while the guys at the CIA watch in confusion. The car eventually pulls up to a wide open street and the roads are cleared by Akbari's security, with Brody being pulled out and seemingly ready to meet Abari in the open space, who's also pulled up to the spot. Carrie wants to follow through with the diversion plan, but one of her assets thinks they should pull back. She refuses, as it looks like they're still going to meet. Brody and Akbari face each other and Brody slowly walks over to him, openly clutching the cyanide in his hand (seriously, how does no one see that? it's not that small), but at the last minute, Akbari gets in the car and takes off. Brody is ushered into the house behind him and placed in front of a woman who turns out to be Abu Nazir's widow. The CIA is baffled back at HQ, along with Carrie, but this is just another test of Brody's allegiances.
Brody sits down for tea with the widow, who observes that he seems to be a hero now. Brody tells her about Dana trying to kill herself and having lost everything, and she reassures him. I think we're supposed to wonder if he's being sincere here, but the truth is, I never for one second believed Brody was turning on the CIA in this episode. He comes out in the streets and is hailed by the people as their hero, where he faces the crowd and explains how he wants asylum in Iran. Carrie comes out and joins the people, looking bewildered herself as Brody gets in the car and is told by a security guy that he's a big man in Tehran now. As the car heads back he leans his arm out the window and crushes the cyanide device, letting it fall to the ground in pieces. But yeah, I still didn't buy that he'd given up.
Not so much back at Langley though, as it's now 6 days later and apparently Brody is all over youtube and the news, giving speeches about his new allegiance and insulting his home country, which worries Lockhart, who's come to see Saul about this. The president that we've never seen wants this issue dealt with, and Lockhart and Dar Adal think it's time to take Brody out. They don't know if he's actually turned, but even if he hasn't, Lockhart thinks he's unstable and there's no way he's getting close to Akbari, so it's not worth jeopardizing their asset in Javadi (wait, so now Lockhart loves the Javadi plan?). Saul basically agrees and calls Carrie to give her the bad news. Except that he doesn't do it, because Carrie is still gung-ho about Brody going through with this and doesn't believe that he's turned at all. Of course. She reminds Saul she's always been right about him, which Saul agrees with but nonetheless tells her to get on a plane and come home. Saul then tells Dar Adal to send in the hit squad for Brody.
Carrie hangs up the phone and is now worried, so she calls Brody even though they weren't supposed to have any contact. He's handed a phone on his way in to the place where he prays, so he takes the call and Carrie tells him she's facing him across the courtyard. Brody stares at her as they talk over the phone, and as the CIA guys are watching over the monitors (how can they not intercept this call?). Carrie tells him she thinks he's in trouble from the CIA and wants to get him out of there. Brody refuses, saying there's nowhere for them to go, but Carrie says they can go and hide someplace using her contacts. Brody is sick of that though and says he won't put her through it. Carrie sees the hitmen coming and begs him to come with her, but Brody hangs up, telling her to get out, and manages to dodge the assassins. Saul, Lockhart and Adal watch this all take place and pretty much see in real time that Carrie warned him, since he "looked like he was on the phone" (lol), and Saul is furious, calling Carrie to yell at her for letting him go.
But Brody runs straight to Nazir's widow and tells her he wants a meeting with Akbari. Why didn't he do this earlier, if it was that easy? She arranges it though, and Akbari's men pick Brody up and take him straight to him. I think what was coming here was pretty obvious, but Lockhart and Adal get word and think Brody is blowing the whole thing by ratting them out. Saul at least looks ambiguous about it. When Brody is taken to Akbari he's left alone in the room with him, as security shuts the door (yeah, that would never happen), and for a few more minutes the show tries to fake you out, as Brody admits to him that Javadi's working with the CIA, along with himself and that he was ordered to kill him. Akbari tells him he's done the right thing by coming to him and then Brody confirms that he spoke to Nazir about him in that very room. Akbari says yes, and Brody is satisfied that "this is the place where it all started," before taking the glass ashtray of the desk and knocking the guy out cold. Even though the body hitting the floor makes a noise, no one comes in (lucky) and Brody then grabs a pillow and smothers Akbari to death in a very painful looking manner. After it's done he grabs the phone on the desk and calls Carrie (how did he know her number?), tells her he killed him and then says "get me out of here." Uh, how the hell is she going to do that? Of course, that's where the episode ends.
Quite a cliffhanger. According to the previews, next week could very well be the end of Nicholas Brody, in fact I'd be surprised if it's not. My guess now is that Carrie will have the baby as a consolation prize for his death so that there's some continuing legacy of Brody on the show, but yeah- I don't see much more of Brody on Homeland after next week. Then again, maybe they'll throw a curveball, but I doubt it. See you for the finale!
Well, it was the night of Paul Rudd and a million cameos, as many of the old cast made an appearance (possibly to rescue the current one from what's been a pretty dismal season?) and he was a good host as usual, but all in all, a pretty mediocre episode, once again.
COLD OPEN: SNL spoofs The Sound of Music in response to the huge ratings from the live stage show on Thursday, with Kate as Maria and Taran as Captain Von Trapp, but Kristin Wiig's baby hands freak makes an appearance as one of the children. Honestly, I've never been a fan of that character, so this sketch did nothing for me (although Kate and Taran are good), but if you like her, then you'll probably go for it. We also get Fred Armisen back as Lawrence Welk, which makes it feel like an episode from last year. I don't know why he was there though, because we don't see him again.
MONOLOGUE: Well, this was the funniest and best thing in the episode, so I hope you enjoyed it. Paul Rudd comes out and makes fun of how every time he hosts he's overshadowed by the musical guest (first Beyonce, then Paul McCartney), and tonight's no exception, as One Direction comes out onstage to join him. But Paul brings out his own gang, the cast of Anchorman, as Will Ferrell, David Koechner and Steve Carell show up for a sing-off of "Afternoon Delight." Awesome.
POLITICS NATION: I don't know what happened here tonight. This sketch is usually good, because Kenan does a funny Al Sharpton, but there just weren't enough jokes in this one. It also ended so abruptly, and after only a couple minutes. Most skits are too long, for some reason this felt truncated.
ONE DIRECTION'S NUMBER ONE FAN: Pre-recorded bit with Paul as One Direction's biggest fan and fighting a bunch of little girls over it while they wait in line. It's mildly funny, which is something that affects a lot of skits tonight.
DIVORCE: Paul and Vanessa as a divorcing couple who can't stop dancing to Fleetwood Mac. It's mostly weird and not funny. Forgettable.
WEEKEND UPDATE: Some lame jokes (that's been a problem with Update lately) and then Vanessa comes on as Jacob for what might be the last time, but I can't say I'll miss him all that much. Jacob can be funny, but he's been way overdone recently. I can't say Cecily Strong's settled into Weekend Update that well- she's still got a fairly average delivery and I'm not sure it's going to go smoothly at all if she's going to be on her own when Seth leaves. Then Taran shows up as 19th century critic Jebediah (I called that, but man that was QUICK!) to review classic Christmas specials. He doesn't seem as funny this time, but maybe they just shouldn't have brought him back so fast- are they really running low on material this season?
MICHELANGELO UNVEILS DAVID: Paul is the model for Michelangelo's statue, who's embarrassed to be revealed as having a tiny you-know-what. Mostly dick jokes, but it's ok.
WHITE CHRISTMAS: An odd trailer for a Christmas Best Man Holiday type movie, but for white people. I honestly don't get what's so funny about this- I guess I don't think the differences between black people and white people in these movies are so drastically different as to be a hilarious joke. It's kind of weird actually.
SANTA'S WORKSHOP: The elves welcome Paul's Santa back to the North Pole after he's lost 150lbs and is now a jerk to everyone with a hot girlfriend. It's middling and could have been a lot funnier, like almost everything in this episode.
MEMORIES: Cecily is an upper class New Yorker haunted by her past lovers, except one, who's Paul as the scruffy, working class cook Victor who won't stop bugging her. It's actually okay, kind of random and odd, but there's some kind of effort here, like an old school SNL skit, at least. Paul's been good with everything, he just hasn't had much to work with.
BILL BRASKY: Yay! A classic SNL skit is brought back, as Will Ferrell, David Koechner and Taran are the three drunk guys in a bar, and Paul and Kenan jump in to tell stories about Bill Brasky. Just seeing a new Brasky skit is cool, even if it's not as good as the old ones.
And that's it, everybody. Paul does what he can with some very mediocre material. For not having anything too painful (the divorce one was the closest to that), but also nothing too uproarious, I give it a C. Seriously though, I'm wondering if Beck Bennett might be better at the Update desk, given his deadpan humor, than Cecily. Many of the past Update anchors came out of not being great at sketches, and given Seth's imminent departure, I do think they should consider auditioning people just for that position, because I don't think she's nearly ready to go solo there. See you next week, when the great John Goodman makes his return appearance!
The promo for the fourth Downton Abbey Christmas special is here. Airing on Christmas Day:
The WGA nominations for TV are out. The full list of writing nominations in all categories is here, the major ones below. The WGA awards are held on Saturday, Feb. 1st:
Drama Series
Comedy Series
New Series
Episodic Drama
Episodic Comedy
Comedy/Variety Series
Unsurprisingly, Breaking Bad was showered with noms, although I'm shocked that they didn't get one for "Ozymandias" over the three other individual episodes nominated for writing. I mean that was pretty much one of the greatest television episodes of all time, of anything. And I'm always happy to see the great Parks and Rec recognized somewhere, since it pretty much never gets any attention. And obviously there's lots of love for Orange is the New Black, and more proof that Netflix has very unwisely decided to submit it for Golden Globe and Emmy attention as a drama rather than a comedy series, when clearly both the writer's and producer's guilds see it as the dark comedy it is. Seriously, there's no way that show gets anything if they insist that it's a drama, competing against heavy handers like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones. As a comedy though, it's a frontrunner to win. Make the right move, Netflix.
A new 30-second teaser has been revealed for the next season of Netflix's House of Cards, along with a premiere date. The new season drops on Valentine's Day, 2014, so mark your calendars.
The Producer's Guild has announced the nods for television this year, with mostly the usual suspects in play, save for a couple surprising omissions:
Drama
Comedy
Non-Fiction
Competition Television
Live Entertainment/Talk
Sports Program
Children's Program
What's surprising to me were the snubs of Mad Men and Louie in drama and comedy program. In particular, this marks the first time that Mad Men has been left off the list since it debuted, so I guess its time has truly passed. As for other snubs, I'm personally thrilled to see The Daily Show left out of the talk show nominees, maybe that will serve as a wakeup call for them to step it up a little, and I'm so happy that Arrested Development was finally recognized by a major group! The producers seem to have gone for Netflix as a whole, with House of Cards also nodded here. The PGA's are handed out for film and television on Jan 19th.
Even though they have a really excessive number of nominees, the Satellite awards did make some interesting choices this year:
Drama Series
Genre Series of Miniseries
Actress in a Series, Drama
Actor in a Series, Drama
Television Series, Comedy or Musical
Actress in a Series, Comedy or Musical
Actor in a Series, Comedy or Musical
Miniseries/TV Movie
Actress in a Miniseries/TV Movie
Actor in a Miniseries/TV Movie
Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries/TV Movie
Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries/TV Movie
So, this was basically the Zero Dark Thirty episode of Homeland, with the vast majority of the it focused on the botched mission to get Brody into Iran, while everyone else, including Carrie, Saul, Quinn and Lockhart watches from the control room. Was it compelling television? I'm guessing opinions on that will differ, but I'm thinking more along the lines of not so much.
We open pretty good, with Carrie on her way into headquarters, where she bumps into Quinn, who's waiting to apologize to her for shooting her a couple weeks ago (lol). Carrie blows him off, but when they're in the privacy of the elevator he tells her he checked out her medical records while she was in the hospital, so he knows she's pregnant (now four months, by the way). Carrie's furious and Quinn tells her he thinks she ought to sit this thing out, but she refuses, denying that's it's Brody's kid (doubt Quinn believes that, since he was the one spying on them at the cabin last year) and saying it's none of his business.
Brody's camped out in the Iraqi desert with the marines, getting ready for the mission, while Carrie and Quinn enter the control room where all personnel are monitoring the operation. One of them spells out the plan, which is to wait for nightfall and then sneak across the border for Brody to surrender. At the White House, Adal is waiting around with Chief of Staff Higgins (I guess they're going to be briefed on the operation as it happens?), who's concerned about how an international incident will affect the president, but Adal sips his tea (?) and brushes off his worries.
The operation continues to set itself up, with Brody turning his socks inside out for luck and Carrie continuing to be briefed about what's in store for Brody at the border. The marines have Brody go over his cover story again, which he's got down pat, identifying himself as the Langley bomber and teaming up with various terror groups to get himself over the border. A lot of this is waiting around footage, which frankly, is really not that interesting, and that's kind of a problem with this episode, in my opinion. We see Saul waiting in his office, chewing gum, and then a marine asking Brody if he wrote a goodbye letter to his family, which he didn't. Okay, then.
Finally, Saul shows up in the control room and the operation seems to be underway, but there's a technical problem with the drone they sent in, so that's another delay. Sigh. We see Brody praying at sunset, and then at long last, it looks like things are finally happening as the marines get in their car (albeit slowly) and drive off to their destination point. It's nightfall now, and that's another problem with this episode, as things are extremely dark (literally) from this point on. Turns out the border route is blocked off by traffic when the marines get there, so they have to wait on Plan B, which is for Langley to confirm an alternate route.
More waiting occurs, as the guys have to wait for the drone fix- it finally happens, and then Carrie asks Saul for some of his apparently "lucky" gum. Suddenly Iraqi police pull up to car and approach the vehicle, not buying the marines' cover story. They get too close and the guys have no choice but to kill all three of the cops, which causes Brody to freak out, jump out of the car and start running away until a marine chases him down and yells at him to be tough and pull himself together. Brody is shaking and cries out that he's scared, but the marine guy (I can't distinguish any of them by name, sorry) straightens him out and says he either shapes up or they all die. Brody calms down and they get back in the car, confirming to Langley that he's all right. Carrie doesn't buy it and is concerned for him (as always).
Higgins is panicked at the White House over the incident that he didn't want to happen, but Dar Adal tells him not to tell the president and not to panic about it. The car now goes down the alternate route to the border, as Higgins sends Lockhart and the J-SOC commander over to "advise and observe" the operation. Lockhart seems a little softer than usual though, telling Saul that now that the operation's underway he has no choice but to hope for its success since he's eventually going to own it anyway. Saul agrees and lets Lockhart in the room, where he asks Carrie about her shoulder and she gets snappy about it, especially when he mentions her sales prowess in convincing Brody to go through with this (did he look at her medical records too, I wonder?)
Back in the dark, dark desert, the guys have to split up because there's Iraqi patrol in the area, so it's now just Brody and the one marine (whose name I still don't know but it's the guy who yelled at him earlier- from now on he's Marine 1) and they take off in the hummer. They drive over a bumpy road with Marine 1 trying to make conversation, and Brody insisting he's fine now, but it goes south when they suddenly hit a landmine and the car appears to blow up in a puff of smoke. Carrie's terrified and the cryface starts to intrude, but everyone in the room spends what seems like an interminable amount of time staring at the monitor. The patrol car of course starts heading in their direction, but Higgins is more freaked out now and wants to call the president or the Iraqis at least.
Higgins then calls the control room and tells Saul to send the drone in to bomb the area and take them out so no one will discover them. Carrie's angry and screams at him but Saul quiets her and refuses to order a strike on his own men. As they go back to the monitor screen there's finally movement in the vehicle, as both Brody and Marine 1 are still alive. Brody's the one who's fully intact though, as he pulls Marine 1 to safety, and sees that he's lost his leg in the explosion. Carrie is relieved and happy, practically crying actually, as Brody calls in to confirm he's ok and the other marines are ordered in to get them. Brody treats Marine 1 for shock and tries to stem the blood (boy, he really did shape up in the last ten minutes) as the rest of the guys get there to help him out. But of course, the patrol gets there too and starts firing at the marines, making the whole mission an unqualified failure.
Saul's left with no other choice but to abort the mission to get Marine 1 and the rest of them out alive, so he gives the order and leaves the room in disappointment. Lockhart is fairly nice about it, apologizing to him for the bad luck, and Carrie tries to console him as well, telling him Javadi's still in play at least. After Saul leaves, the guys are still under fire and now trying to get out, but Brody refuses to abort, saying he's going to get into Iran anyway on his own. Of course, the control room gives Carrie the mic, so she can talk Brody out of it, but Brody still refuses. She tells him he'll have no support system, extraction plan or sanction, and he'll die there. Brody still won't back down, telling her she'll find a way to get him home, and he has faith in her. He hangs up and makes a run for it, crossing through the gunfire and diving into the rocks.
The rest of the guys make a run for it the other way, except for one of them (he's now Marine 2), who dives in to help Brody, saying he'll buy him thirty seconds, but it's too late, as both of them have lights shined upon them by what turns out to conveniently be the Iranians. Brody gives his cover story and says Marine 2 is his accomplice. They buy it and take them prisoner, and Carrie and Quinn are both in stunned relief. Carrie goes to see Saul in his office to tell him the good news. Saul is shocked, but Carrie is more than happy, telling him he's still in the game with Brody okay in Iran. Okay is a relative term of course, as he and Marine 2 sit in a prison cell for the moment. Brody tells Marine 2 that he will probably break under torture, just like he did, and he'll likely only last 7 days. That sucks, but Marine 2 is a real good sport about it, telling him he'll last as long as possible for Brody to get the job done.
Carrie goes to see Fara (hey, where's she been?) in a random office, to ask her to let them use her uncle in Tehran to provide Brody a safe meeting place to extract him. Fara really doesn't want to do it, understandably, but Carrie manages to talk her into it, calling Brody a "brother agent" in the field (ummm- doesn't Fara still think he bombed Langley?) Back at the prison, an Iranian guard walks in with Javadi, who I don't think Brody knows (does he?) and he tells him he's seeking asylum in the country. Javadi shoots poor Marine 2 instantly (aww, I liked him), and Brody cries out, but Javadi tells him to calm down and asks if he's ready to go with him to Tehran.
And that's it, folks. I wasn't wild about this one- I know it was a bottle episode on purpose, but to me this wasn't the most exciting hour, as it was just Brody getting into Iran, which we all knew he would, so there wasn't a whole lot of suspense there. Next week looks better, as it appears Carrie goes into Iran to find him, where of course, problems ensue. What's the over/under on Brody dying in the finale? I was thinking he would, but now I'm starting to waver on that. No particular reason, really, just a feeling. How about you? See you next week!
Boardwalk Empire wrapped up its fourth season on Sunday and in typical Boardwalk fashion, all the story threads were pulled together and set up for the following year, some character arcs wrapped up forever, while others were surprisingly kept in tact to continue further. There's no show on TV right now that's so intricately plotted and planned from year to year, and it's kind of a shame that despite the first season love and acclaim that was more based on big name recognition than anything else (hello Martin Scorsese), the show has really only gotten better with each passing season. For now it remains a treat only for its devoted fans who stuck with it, and for that they have been duly rewarded.
This year, Nucky took a bit of a backseat, as the two big storylines of the fourth season involved his brother Eli and fan favorite Chalky White (Michael K. Williams). It was a banner season for the latter in particular, as Chalky finally got the A-plot stories that he deserves, after three seasons hovering around the fringes as a kind of back up tool for Nucky's designs. But this time it was all Chalky, as he got to run his Atlantic City nightclub and face off against the series' new antagonist, Dr. Narcisse, played with delicious fervor by Jeffrey Wright (sure to be an Emmy nominee next year). Narcisse was a villainous immigrant who set out to take everything that was Chalky's and nearly did, as Chalky managed to miraculously escape death no less than three times in the climactic episodes. Much to my delight and surprise, Narcisse was not killed off in dramatic fashion ala last year's Big Bad Gyp Rosetti, but looks set to stick around for quite some time under the thumb of the notorious Jay Edgar Hoover, who was introduced this season as the director of the newly formed FBI.
Which leads to the season's other main antagonist, who did meet quite a bitter end, in the character of the ambitious FBI agent Knox (Brian Geraghty), who proceeded to make the lives of Nucky's loyal followers a living hell, first with poor Eddie (Anthony Laciuria) who didn't survive the season, and then with Eli (Shea Whigham) who just barely got out. Geraghty did a great job in creating a very unctuous, obnoxious character, and the final, painful fight to the death between he and Eli should have proved satisfying for any fan who hated Knox with a passion. This storyline also provided the pay-off for the very lengthy set-up this year involving Nucky's nephew Willie (Ben Rosenfield), who seems positioned to be the new Jimmy Darmody, which doesn't bode well for him in the years to come, but Boardwalk likes to surprise us, so we'll see what happens.
As well as these stories were set up this year, it did leave some characters short shrift, not least of all Nucky himself, who felt placed in a sidelined position, and whose only real plot of his own involved his new romance with obnoxious tough gal Sally Wheet (Patricia Arquette), whose performance I frankly did not enjoy. I've never been much a fan of any of Nucky's girlfriends though, so it's a good thing they never seem to last too long. Others we barely saw this year include Arnold Rothstein (still charmingly played by Michael Stuhlbarg) and Margaret (Kelly MacDonald, who remained second billing despite appearing in just 4 episodes). As disappointing as that was, they did take the time to set up the two of them for a potential storyline together, which I cannot wait to see unfold next season, as even the tease of it holds real promise for those often under served characters.
Finally, Gretchen Mol got some meaty stuff to do, as she was duped by a new love interest in the person of Ron Livingston, and forced to give herself up for the murder of the innocent boy she killed last year, and at long last, Richard Harrow, a beloved favorite for many years, met his end in the final scene of the finale- a beautiful and poignant moment made sadder by the nagging thought that he really didn't have to go so soon. Showrunner Terence Winter insisted that he did though, despite the anger and sadness from virtually all fans of the show, saying they didn't want to keep him on without having anything more for him to do, and that is one of the strengths of Boardwalk as a whole- its total willingness to be unpredictable and not kowtow to fans' expectations, as sad as it may be to see the awesome Jack Huston depart (his marksman Richard Harrow will be legendary in this show's legacy).
And in the sprawling ensemble cast that is this series, after all that action I'm still leaving out one other group, and that's the Chicago mobsters, who this season fully integrated Michael Shannon's former government agent into the fold as a full on gangster, and it was consistently hilarious to see him embrace his true destiny as a killer by Al Capone's side (Shannon can continually and smoothly pull off any task that is asked of him). They also skewed close to the facts here, as Johnny Torrio finally retired to Europe, leaving the business to Capone entirely, and here's hoping this marks the rise of the notorious Al Capone history knows all too well, and gives Stephen Wright the material he deserves in the coming years. Wright's been fantastic as the young Capone for four seasons in what's been a limited role, but I can only imagine how great he'll be at what's surely coming.
All in all, a really good season of Boardwalk, marred only by the relative absences of Rothstein and Margaret, but I now trust this show so much to deliver the goods when they can that I'm sure we'll be more than compensated for their lack of screentime next year. I can't wait till it comes back- Boardwalk Empire is alive and well, even if Richard Harrow is gone forever.
Grade: A-
The Movie Seasons
Use this site for movie and television recommendations throughout the year- we have picks for the changing seasons, holidays, and moods, along with new releases and recaps of the best shows on TV
