Boardwalk Empire: The Complete Fourth Season (2013) [Blu-ray]
Crime | Drama | History

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Tagline: You Can't Be Half A Gangster.

Atlantic City, February 1924: Picking up 8 months after the events of Season 3, Nucky Thompson is laying low at the end of the Boardwalk after barely surviving an overthrow by gangster Gyp Rossetti. But the calm will be short-lived, as Nucky faces new challenges, including a clash with a violent Harlem power-broker, a battle with his brother Eli over Eli's college-age son, and the irresistible lure of lucrative - and perilous - opportunities in Florida.

Storyline: Set in the Prohibition era of the 1920s Boardwalk Empire is the story of Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, the treasurer of Atlantic County, Atlantic City, New Jersey. Due to his relationships with mobsters as well as political contacts, the Federal Government start to take an interest in him. His lavish lifestyle seems at odds with his position, and as well as his connections, there is prolific bootlegging in the area. Written by WellardRockard

4.01 New York Sour - February 1924. Nucky, preferring to stay in his room up in the Albatross Hotel and away from the boardwalk, comes to a peace agreement with Masseria and Rothstein. Richard, on his way home to reunite with his sister, leaves some corpses in his wake. Gillian, still an addict but desperate to get her grandson back, is resorting to prostitution until a stranger shows up with a better offer. Revenue Agent Sawicki's new partner, Warren Knox, isn't as naive as he acts. Chalky tries to coolly run the Onyx Club, but his right-hand man, Dunn Pursley, gets into a mess of trouble with a booking-agent and his wife.

4.02 Resignation - Chalky is pressured by Valentin Narcisse, a Harlem kingpin who knows what Dunn did. At home, Van Alden must deal with his stubbornly middle-class wife; at work, he has to deal with an angry Al Capone. Knox's true boss, it turns out, is J. Edgar Hoover. Before he leaves for Florida to visit an old friend, Nucky has to placate a frustrated Eddie and gives him a promotion. Valentin Narcisse puts an end to the conflict with the booking-agents wife by having her killed by his men.

4.03 Acres of Diamonds - While in Tampa, Nucky becomes intrigued by Sally Wheet, a local bar owner. Roy has Gillian pretend to be his wife. Narcisse meets with Rothstein. For a party at his college, Eli's son Willie tries to finagle some booze from Mickey's warehouse. Richard's sister comes to his aid.

4.04 All In - Federal agents close in on Nucky's ring. Narcisse recruits Dunn. Van Alden learns that Al and Frank Capone are more brutal jokers than O'Banion. Willie's revenge-prank goes horribly wrong. Rothstein's way of dealing with his bad luck at the card table leads Nucky to make Lansky his partner in the Florida scheme. After a night on the town with Ralph Capone, Eddie pays for it in the morning when he's arrested by Knox.

4.05 Erlkonig - Eddie is kept in a room by Knox. Willie, in jail on suspicion over the death of schoolmate Henry Gaines, phones Nucky for help. Gillian, desperate to regain custody of Tommy but losing her grip, turns to Dunn for a fix. Van Alden is enlisted by Frank and Al Capone to intimidate Democrat supporters. Nucky counsels Willie to stick to a prepared story and pays off the Philadelphia DA to free him. Ashamed about betraying Nucky's trust, Eddie kills himself.

4.06 The North Star - Nucky and Margaret have a strained meeting at Penn Station before he travels down to Florida. Eli finds Eddie's key for it but isn't allowed access to the safety-deposit box at the bank. Richard returns and comes across Paul Sagorsky after he's just received stark news from his doctor. Chalky draws closer to Daughter Maitland. Knox, pretending to be a Prohibition agent again, returns to Mickey's warehouse but can't escape Eddie's shadow. Chalky draws closer to Daughter Maitland. In Tampa, Nucky, Lansky, and Luciano meet with a new partner whom Bill's brought in. Julia tells Richard what she needs. Nucky gets into more than just business with a feisty, hard-drinking Sally.

4.07 William Wilson - As news of Leopold and Loeb's arrest hits the papers, Al Capone, still in a raging grief over Frank's death, kills a policeman. Rothstein runs into Margaret at her work, which is not entirely above-board. Dunn deals with the church's concern about his heroin in the community. Willie drops out of college—infuriating his father—and turns to Nucky for work. After Johnny Torrio's arrested in a police raid on a distillery that he just bought from O'Banion, he gives Capone the go-ahead to kill the Irishman. Roy helps Gillian kick her habit but confesses to an obsession of his own. Agent Knox is actually Jim Tolliver, as Gaston Means has secretly known all along. Daughter Maitland reveals that her true allegiance is to Dr. Narcisse—not Chalky—for horribly personal reasons.

4.08 The Old Ship of Zion - Tolliver hears about Willie's evasion of the law and pursues Eli as his means to ending Nucky's empire. Chalky busts up one of Narcisse's drug houses, with two-faced Dunn along for the show. Nucky's unpleasantly surprised when Sally rides up to Atlantic City with the new bootlegging delivery from Tampa. Narcisse employs Daughter Maitland to way-lay Chalky, but she can't bring herself to let Dunn kill Chalky and she stabs Dunn fatally in the back instead.

4.09 Marriage and Hunting - Gillian opens up to Roy; Julia proposes to Richard. Eager to assert his power at home, Van Alden tells Capone he'll kill O'Banion, but old business gets in the way. Narcisse punishes Daughter for her betrayal, pushing Chalky towards a war Nucky refuses to join. After other mobsters kill O'Banion at his shop counter, Van Alden takes $1000 over his dead body. Rothstein negotiates an insurance plan with Nucky. Chalky's daughter Maybelle discovers her father's affair with Daughter. Newlywed Richard asks Nucky for a job.

4.10 White Horse Pike - Sally discovers heroin being slipped into shipments by Luciano and Lansky, at Masseria's behest. Chalky fails to kill Narcisse and is wounded. Margaret does an insider-deal for Rothstein in return for new lodgings. Capone, while trying to nudge Torrio into retirement, is saved by Van Alden from a tommy-gun ambush. Despite Tolliver's turning of Eli, Hoover's still uninterested in scotching the bootleggers' network. Nucky's forced into a deal with Narcisse after learning he's Masseria's partner on the heroin pipeline. Nucky promises Chalky to Narcisse but tells Mayor Bader to have cops slip Chalky out of town; too late, though, he discovers through Willie that Bader is in Narcisse's pocket. Chalky and Daughter narrowly escape the cops' clutches; Narcisse eyes Maybelle; Nucky, Eli, and Willie gather to decide the Thompsons' next move.

4.11 Havre De Grace - Chalky and Daughter arrive at Havre de Grace to stay with Oscar Boneau, his old mentor. Gillian says goodbye to Tommy and looks forward to a life with Roy when he proposes to her. Knox pressures Eli to set up a meeting between the East Coast bosses in the network. Chalky wakes to find Daughter gone; some of Narcisse's men descend on the house, killing blind Oscar before being killed by his men. Gillian is tricked by Roy, who is actually a Pinkerton agent, into confessing to her killing of Roger. Nucky agrees to the peace-brokering meeting that Eli suggests but he realizes Knox is the "skunk in his cellar" that Gaston Means had referred to in a phone call, and that he's turned Eli.

4.12 Farewell Daddy Blues - Chalky confronts Nucky at gunpoint and demands they get rid of Narcisse. Richard asks Nucky to disclose the location of Jimmy's body to keep Gillian in jail; in return, Nucky employs him for a hit. Richard sends Julia, Tommy, and Paul to his sister's. Nucky tells Narcisse that Chalky wants to meet. After an attempt on Torrio narrowly fails, he hands over his entire operation to Capone. Knox/Tolliver sets up an eavesdrop for the big meeting but no one shows; Eli's called to the Albatross, where Nucky puts a gun to his head until Willie intervenes. Tolliver confronts Eli in his home; they fight and Eli beats him to death. Chalky meets Narcisse at the Onyx but his bluff of providing Daughter's whereabouts is met by Narcisse's revelation that he has his daughter Maybelle. From his sniper position, Richard hesitates long enough that, when he pulls the trigger, Maybelle has moved to the table and into the shot; she is killed and Richard is mortally wounded by one of Narcisse's men. Narcisse is arrested and turned by Hoover into an informant on Marcus Garvey. Chalky retreats to Havre de Grace. Nucky sends Eli off to Chicago, where he is met by Van Alden. Richard, imagining his reunion with his new family in Wisconsin, dies under the pier.

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Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown, July 28, 2014 -- Boardwalk Empire has long been building towards something. What, exactly, hasn't always been clear, but Season Four aims to clarify matters. Consequence is imminent and Nucky Thompson, no matter how sharp, sly or slippery, isn't about to walk away from the fallout unscathed. Not this time. With his inner circle dwindling, his empire in decline, his skeletons and demons being dragged into the light, and his enemies growing hungrier by the minute, control of Atlantic City suddenly seems open to the highest bidder or gutsiest gambler, with powerful rivals, merciless gangsters and an emboldened U.S. government vying to pull the trigger and put Thompson out of his misery; a misery he still doesn't grasp is one of his own making. It comes as no small irony then that Nucky isn't the focus of Season Four. Far from it. All manner of chaos churns in his wake, but he arguably remains the most stagnant character in the series and the most oblivious to his self-destructive urges. It's those so fiercely fighting for survival in Nucky's shadow -- those closest to him, those itching to take the throne and those desperate to watch his kingdom burn -- that battle and bleed to claim Boardwalk Empire as their own. What began as Nucky Thompson's story has become so much more, positioning the series for an explosive fifth and final season every bit as shocking and stunning as its finest episodes.

Boardwalk Empire chronicles the life and times of Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (Golden Globe winner Steve Buscemi), the undisputed czar of Atlantic City who rose to power as Prohibition fostered the rise of organized crime in America. Season Four picks up eight months after the end of Season Three, in February 1924... the year jazz "really came into being." Buscemi's co-stars include Michael Kenneth Williams as Nucky's ally Chalky White, leader of the city's African-American community; Shea Whigham as Nucky's brother Elias, whose attempt to steer his son clear of Nucky's influence sparks tensions; Michael Shannon as former Federal Agent Nelson Van Alden; Jack Huston as disfigured war veteran Richard Harrow; Kelly Macdonald as Margaret, Nucky's estranged wife; Stephen Graham as gangster Al Capone; Michael Stuhlbarg as gangster Arnold Rothstein; Vincent Piazza as gangster Lucky Luciano; Paul Sparks as Mickey Doyle, head of Nucky's bootlegging operation; Gretchen Mol as Gillian, battling demons from her past as she seeks custody of her grandson; and Anthony Laciura as Eddie Kessler, Nucky's longtime valet. New cast members include Jeffrey Wright as Valentin Narcisse, a violent Harlem power broker who tries to muscle in on Chalky's action; Ron Livingston as Roy Phillips, who grows close to Gillian; Patricia Arquette as Sally Wheet, a Florida speakeasy owner; Brian Geraghty as Federal Agent Warren Knox; and Domenick Lombardozzi and Morgan Spector as Al Capone's brothers, Ralph and Frank.

The second-season murder of Jimmy Darmody has proven more problematic for Boardwalk Empire than I suspect Winter and company anticipated. It was a twist that pushed the story in compelling new directions, sure, but one that deprived the series of its most complex and captivating relationship. It was a daring corner to write themselves into, but also a very difficult corner to escape. Nucky, and more so the show, took a hit square on the chin, leaving the gripping gangland drama less stable and sure of itself than before. Season Four represents something of a return to form, even though Darmody's death continues to produce increasingly convoluted and ill-begotten subplots. (Chief among them Gillian's irritating, bafflingly contrived arc; the low point of an otherwise excellent season.) Where do the latest twelve episodes excel? Chalky's increased role in the series and all that comes with it. Eli's struggle to reconcile his brother's business with his family's needs. Narcisse's sheer presence, made that much more unnerving by Wright's chilly command of the screen. Harrow's search for meaning and purpose... or, more specifically, any and every scene featuring Huston, up to and especially including the finale. The smartly cast Capones' smartly penned rise to power, which frankly could have sustained its own series. Van Alden's difficulties in finding his place in the world. Laciura's performance and, of course, "Erlkonig," a magnificent episode all around. Geraghty's ability to steal entire scenes from established characters and veteran actors, with a volatile straight arrow every bit as dangerous as Al Capone. On and on and on, with stronger and stronger episodes as the season progresses.

There's a lull early on that weighs down the first four episodes, and small issues throughout as a handful of key characters fail to enrich the series. (Again, my mind drifts to Mol's Gillian, who ropes Livingston's Phillips into what becomes one of the most disappointing plotlines of the season.) That all changes with "Erlkonig" thankfully, and continues right up through "Havre De Grace" and "Farewell Daddy Blues," a two-chapter finale that builds towards several unforeseeable, heartwrenching deaths that will have a lasting impact on all those who survive. Winter also wisely shies away from ground covered and re-covered by The Sopranos and, in one crucial sequence late in the season, avoids what could have been a distracting Godfather parallel by the skin of its teeth. Nucky isn't Tony Soprano or Michael Corleone, and the gap between Boardwalk Empire and other mobster classics continues to widen, allowing Empire to carve out a place all its own. Watching Winter weave fiction and non-fiction, fabrication and history, the operatic and the authentic, is the lifeblood of the series and it's no small feat that the show retains the element of surprise at all times. Cultural barriers, shifting political and socioeconomic tides, race and gender hurdles, and other challenges unique to 1920s America provide fertile soil for all the seeds the showrunners plant, with the subsequent conflicts and clashes offering real dramatic nourishment. The series isn't beholden to history, yet respects it above all else, creating a slightly heightened world of illusion and reality as cinematic as it is revealing.

Boardwalk Empire embraces a proud tradition of mobster movies and gangster sagas, yet does so in a way uniquely its own. It isn't The Sopranos or The Godfather or Once Upon a Time in America. It draws inspiration but never forgets to carve out its own path, and the series is better for it. Season Four sets the stage for a climactic final season (due to begin this September), expanding its focus beyond Nucky to the colorful cast of characters slowly pressing in toward the throne. By season's end, it's apparent any lost momentum has been regained as Boardwalk Empire hurtles into an exciting and uncertain future, where Nucky's sins demand payment and the consequences of his actions come to collect. HBO's Blu-ray release of The Complete Fourth Season make it even easier to get lost in the series, with a terrific video presentation, first-class DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, and a full complement of special features that delve into the development and production of the show's penultimate season.

--- JOYA ---

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