Boardwalk Empire: The Complete Third Season (2012) [Blu-ray]
Crime | Drama | History

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Tagline: You Can't Be Half A Gangster.

Atlantic City, 1922: The Roaring '20s are about to begin in earnest and despite a booming economy, alcohol is scarce and gangster violence is heating up. Amidst this backdrop, Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), whose marriage to Margaret has become a sham after she signed away his highway windfall to the church, faces the challenge of mending old relationships. Nucky also encounters new competition from a hair-trigger gangster who builds a strategic bulkhead between New York and Atlantic City in an effort to siphon off Nucky's alcohol business. The conflict brings out the best and worst in Nucky as new and familiar faces undergo compelling metamorphoses within the third season of this Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning series.

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

3.01 Resolution - It's New Year's Eve 1922. Gyp Rosetti is introduced as a violent, easily offended Sicilian mobster from NYC. During a meeting with Nucky he receives some bad news regarding business from Nucky and his new exclusive partnership with Rothstein. In retaliation, he racially insults everyone in the room and storms out. Nucky attends meetings and deals with Margaret over involuntarily making him a philanthropist, throwing away millions of dollars worth of New Jersey landholdings. Van Alden is working as a clothing iron salesman in Chicago when he stumbles into a dispute between Al Capone and Dean O'Banion. Jimmy's death has left Richard as his son's caretaker, but Gillian refuses to let him learn the truth about his parents.

3.02 Spaghetti & Coffee - Eli gets out of jail and has trouble accepting his brother's plans for him and the new reality at home. Nucky meets Harry Daugherty's bagman in NYC, Gaston Means. Displeased by Nucky's refusal to sell alcohol to anyone but Rothstein, Gyp takes over the strategic small town of Tabor Heights, NJ and blockades the alcohol shipments between AC and NYC. Margaret's interest for the sanitary conditions at St. Theresa's hospital is met by resistance from both patients and doctors, and Chalky argues with his daughter over their conflicting plans about her future.

3.03 Bone for Tuna - Nucky is set to receive an award by the Catholic Church for his charitable work, but is suffering from insomnia and disturbing dreams connected to Jimmy's murder. Richard hears that Mickey is taking credit for one of his killings, while Nelson visits a speakeasy with coworkers. A young Benjamin Siegel is roughed up by Joe Masseria's men. Margaret negotiates a woman's health clinic in an audience with the Bishop. Gyp, having negotiated a temporary deal with Nucky, takes offense to an innocent farewell greeting.

3.04 Blue Bell Boy - Owen's increasingly prominent role in the bootlegging operation is met with jealousy from Nucky when they both end up hiding out in the house of a precocious liquor thief. Al Capone, whose son is being bullied at school, takes out his frustrations on one of O'Banion's men. Charlie Luciano sits down with Masseria, who muscles a high tax on Lucky's growing business and tells him to be wary of his Jewish partners. Mickey receives a menacing phone call from Rothstein and, over Eli's objections, ignores Nucky's instructions to not transport liquor through Tabor Heights, which leads to grave consequences.

3.05 You'd Be Surprised - Van Alden comes clean with his wife, but this backfires when they are visited by a Prohibition agent, forcing him to return to O'Banion's place. Margaret suffers setbacks while trying to promote her Women's Health clinic. Gillian seeks Leander's counsel in financing her bordello, for which she must either change her business model or let go of the past. Nucky enlists a reluctant Eddie Cantor to help Billie move up in the world. An attempt is made on Gyp Rosetti's life.

3.06 Ging Gang Goolie - Nucky maneuvers to avoid taking a political fall for the Attorney General, getting arrested in the process. Eli and Mickey visit Tabor Heights. Richard befriends an older veteran and his daughter, Julia. Gillian takes on a young lover, who she names "James". While her son longs for a male presence in the house, Margaret rekindles an affair with Owen.

3.07 Sunday Best - Nucky, Eli, and their respective families bond over Easter dinner. Richard takes young Tommy to dine with the Sagorskys, and Julia accepts Richard's invitation to the local Carnival. In danger of reprisal over his actions in Tabor Heights, Gyp brokers a deal with his boss, Joe Masseria. Gillian comes to terms with the death of Jimmy.

3.08 The Pony - Arrangements are made for Nucky to attend a private club, where he makes a proposal to the Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon. Torrio, fresh from an Italian vacation, gives Al a larger role in business operations. Nelson, now indebted to O'Banion, is forced to work for him after hours, while at the same time facing problems in his day job. Nucky and Billie argue about the nature of their relationship. Margaret decides to take a stand on birth control and looks for a birthday pony with Owen's help. Gillian cuts ties with Luciano, giving Gyp a tip in the process.

3.09 The Milkmaid's Lot - Taking refuge in the Ritz, a wounded and feverish Nucky struggles to be the man in charge with the help of his family and closest accomplices while they plan his next move. Gyp returns to Tabor Heights and starts his own importing operation with the blessing of Joe Masseria. Richard takes Julia to dance and Gillian blames him for Tommy's latest misadventure. George Remus is arrested for violation of the Volstead Act.

3.10 A Man, A Plan... - Nucky and Owen plan a move against New York, pursuing Masseria first. A middle-man who could expose both Nucky and the Attorney General is targeted. Nelson's new sales job gets him into trouble with Capone. Richard and Julia's relationship takes a step forward. After being rejected by Rothstein, Luciano, and Lansky go into business with Masseria. Margaret reveals a development to Owen, after which their future plans are thwarted.

3.11 Two Imposters - Gyp and his crew move into Atlantic City. Nucky goes on the run; he and Eddie turn to Chalky for help. Lansky advises Luciano to be cautious in their new heroin operation. Gillian turns on Richard, evicting him from the house. Eli brings an ally in Nucky's fight to hold onto his boardwalk empire.

3.12 Margate Sands - It's a full-scale war in Atlantic City, and bodies are piling up on both sides. Nucky, operating out of a lumber yard, seeks to weaken the Rosetti/Masseria alliance while struggling to keep peace between Capone and White. In New York, Luciano is forced to align with both Masseria and Rothstein after the latter reveals his connections. After striking a deal with Rothstein to break Gyp Rosetti, Nucky uses a political connection to settle a grudge. Gillian's attempt to save the house backfires, while Richard gives Tommy a new home, sacrificing his own relationship with Julia in the process.

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Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown on August 17, 2013 -- (Spoiler alert: The following assumes that the reader has watched the first two seasons of Boardwalk Empire. If you have yet to finish The Complete Second Season, proceed at your own risk. A review of the first and second season sets can be found here and here.)

Whereas The Sopranos charted the fall of a New Jersey criminal kingpin, Boardwalk Empire charts its Jersey kingpin's rise; a riveting ascent coursing with a very palpable sense of dread, and a promise of the inevitable fall that will one day come. No, Season Three is not that day, despite escorting Steve Buscemi's Enoch "Nucky" Thompson closer to the brink of destruction than ever before. But after the second season's jaw-slackening finale, all bets were off. The blood on Nucky's hands was now fully his own, his damnation suddenly a certainty. Thankfully, showrunner Terence Winter's third season doesn't afford Nucky much opportunity -- or desire -- to wallow in guilt or remorse. If anything, he's far more comfortable in his skin and profession, making for a much more frightening force of gangland nature than was the scheming politician we first met three years ago. He was once too calculating, perhaps too cautious, to overindulge his ego. To embrace his demons. To reach too high or grasp too low. Now, though, Nucky is beginning to buy into his own myth, and every obstacle in his path is becoming a target in his sights.

January 16th, 1919. The 66th U.S. Congress ratifies the controversial 18th Constitutional Amendment, prohibiting the "manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors." October 28th, 1919. The House overrides President Woodrow Wilson's veto of the Volstead Act, a bill designed to grant authorities the power necessary to uphold the 18th Amendment. October 29th, 1919. The U.S. Senate agrees. The Volstead Act becomes law and the now-infamous Prohibition era is born. January 17th, 1920. Six armed men steal a shipment of medicinal whiskey valued at over $100,000. February 22nd, 1920. Bootlegging and liquor trafficking explodes. Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey are the only states in the Union that still refuse to ratify the 18th Amendment. August 11th, 1920. Organized crime and government corruption, both state and local, are at an all time high. The United States learns that Prohibition doesn't curb crime; it fosters it.

New Year's Eve, 1922. It's been sixteen months since the increasingly dangerous Nucky Thompson (this season a more menacing Buscemi than we've ever seen) executed his former protégé, Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt), and living the life of a career criminal in politico's clothing hasn't gotten any easier, particularly in the shadow of Prohibition. Trouble soon follows when Nucky agrees to sell exclusively to Jewish mobster Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg), a shrewd move that puts Nucky at deadly odds with an easily offended New York gangster Gyp Rosetti (Bobby Cannavale), a block of a man as brutal as he is volatile. It's a conflict that quickly spills out of control, beginning with a transport route blockade that threatens profits that leads to a botched hit and, eventually, all-out war. It's Nucky vs. Rosetti, Jersey vs. New York, and every mobster, criminal and two-bit crook in town scurries out of the woodwork.

Caught in the middle is Nucky's estranged wife Margaret (Kelly Macdonald), who's come to loathe her husband and all he represents; Nucky's firecracker mistress, a flapper named Billie Kent (Meg Chambers Steedle); and his world-weary brother Eli (Shea Whigham), recently released from prison after being convicted of election rigging. Meanwhile, enemies and allies, new and old, align on either side of the fight: racketeer Albert "Chalky" White (Michael Kenneth Williams), Chicago gangster Al Capone (Stephen Graham), Prohibition agent turned fugitive Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon), ambitious heavy hitter Charlie Luciano (Vincent Piazza), bootlegger Dean O'Banion (Arron Shiver), Jimmy's old partner Richard Harrow (Jack Huston), Jimmy's mother Gillian Darmody (Gretchen Mol), con artist Gaston Means (Stephen Root), a young Bugsy Siegel (Michael Zegen) and New York crime boss Joe Masseria (Ivo Nandi), among many, many other upstarts, shooters, assassins and pawns.

Boardwalk Empire's third season centers around a slow-brew series of bloody cause-and-effect confrontations that, late in the game, amass a bodycount so high that the final stretch of the season borders on being disjointed from the first ten episodes. Winter and directors Tim Van Patten and Allen Coulter keep a tight grip on the reigns, though, and even at its most intense, the show never drifts too far off the character-driven course. There are scenes of achingly complex, masterfully restrained human drama involving Nucky, Margaret, Richard, Eli and others, and entire episodes in which everything important occurs just beneath the surface. There are also scenes of startlingly devastating consequence and shocking hits courtesy of the likes of Rosetti, Capone, Siegel and, yes, Nucky, who falls into both camps. The contrast between the two classes of gangster -- the wolves and the lions -- hinges on a delicate balance; a balance that's only tipped to unfortunate extremes on rare occasion. (Van Alden's torment at the hands of his co-workers and his eventual breakdown are redeemed only by Shannon's performance. Handled with a brief but almost cartoonish heavy handedness, the at-times irritating subplot is undone by a sales office packed with cruel, on-the-cheap character actors.) Season Three is sometimes a bit more akin to Goodfellas than The Godfather, but even during the most visceral carnage and chaos, the showmakers never lose their heads.

The series also remains a sumptuous, richly designed, utterly convincing period piece that boasts stunning production design and costuming. I'm not often distracted by the craftsmanship and fully realized research entailed in a series like Boardwalk Empire, but it's difficult to focus solely on an episode when a show looks this good. From top to bottom, script to screen, this 1920s Atlantic City. The authenticity is astonishing, the dialogue expertly penned (and so much more than mere tough-guy chit chat), the little, seemingly innocuous details flawless, the performances as studied as the set decoration, and the sum total the airtight illusion executive producer Martin Scorsese envisioned from the start. Even when one of the series' storylines wears thin or grows tiresome -- which isn't often -- the world, the cinematography, the music... it comes together beautifully, and without a hint of the cancerous modernization that afflicts many a period drama. The action is sometimes too stylized for its own good, sure. The explosive violence a bit contrived, or the brutish intimidation a bit thick in the jowls, I'll concede. And Season Three doesn't always feel itself. I noticed too. But bullet for bullet, bottle for bottle, Boardwalk Empire is something special and continues to stand as one of the most absorbing series on television, as well as yet another award-worthy HBO triumph.

Boardwalk Empire is unlike any other series on television. From its magnificent production design to its period authenticity to its gripping gangland drama, it remains one of the finest shows around. Season Three isn't as strong as Season Two -- the Nucky v. Rosetti storyline isn't as suspenseful or unpredictable as its Nucky v. Jimmy predecessor -- but it's hard to look away, and even harder to wait to see where the series goes in Season Four. HBO's Blu-ray release of The Complete Fourth Season is about as perfect as they come, though, thanks to a stunning video presentation and terrific DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. The lone asterisk to the "perfect as they come" label is the second season's supplemental package. It's loaded with content, sure, but only six of the season's twelve episodes sport commentaries, and there isn't any Picture-in-Picture goodness to speak of. Still, it's tough to top an HBO Blu-ray release, and the 5-disc killer that is The Complete Third Season is yet another example of the premium cable network's edge over the competition.

[CSW] 8.2/10 - This season did a lot better at surprising me. I don't seem to sense almost every plot twist and turn well in advance making for a much better season.

--- JOYA ---


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