Boardwalk Empire

[strollingbones]

I don't like Margaret because she is a snake in the grass. She pretends to be this "lady" but wouldn't hesitate to slide a knife in the back of anyone that will keep her from getting in the higher class she so covets. Why else marry the man that is a mobster murderer? She's a snot, but is nothing but what she is...low class wearing a high class mask.

If that were true, don't you think Margaret would have stayed with Nucky for no reason other than financial security? And do you think she would have turned over a fortune in real estate holdings to the Church?


guilt/sin money


the girl has polio she tries to buy god's favor....remember she knows who had her first husband killed....

The only move Margaret ever made in the direction of social advancement was her attempt to create an educational facility for women, which is an entirely unselfish gesture. Aside from that she seemed concerned only with caring for her children and being a good wife to Nucky. And she did save him twice; once by removing critical evidence from its hiding place in their apartment and then by stopping Eli from killing Nucky.

she was fucking owen....and getting ready to leave with him

 

[MikeK]

she was fucking owen....and getting ready to leave with him

Only after learning Nucky was involved with the actress.

Nucky struck the first blow in that situation. If Margaret was just a casually unfaithful wife she would have been satisfied to stay with Nucky while getting it on with other men. But she planned to leave her comfortably opulent nest with Nucky and run away with Owen, who was relatively poor. I see that as a demonstration of good character.

 

[Gracie]

All that she did was for one goal. To get to that coveted upper class system she will never achieve in her own mind. Yeah, she gave that land to the church. Because she would lose nothing and gain much...."respectability" in her eyes. She is no better than Nucky. Except Nucky doesn't hide who he is.

 

[MikeK]

All that she did was for one goal. To get to that coveted upper class system she will never achieve in her own mind. Yeah, she gave that land to the church. Because she would lose nothing and gain much...."respectability" in her eyes. She is no better than Nucky. Except Nucky doesn't hide who he is.

If that were true she would have gained just as much superficial respectability by giving half or one fourth of that fortune to the Church and keeping half for herself. But she gave it all away, a gesture which was a clear act of expiation in accord with her Irish Catholic spiritual values.

What do you think of Nucky for letting her get away with doing that? Can you imagine what would have happened if she did something like that to a man like Rosetti? Her ex-husband used to beat the hell out of her for spending too much money on baby food.

My perception of Margaret is that of a good woman having to care for two children on her own during the Great Depression. What would you have done in her place if a man like Nucky Thompson offered a safe, luxurious, reasonably respectable solution to your problems? Keep in mind that during those years many unwed mothers had to resort to streetwalking prostitution to feed their kids. Those were tough times and there was no such thing as "welfare."

I think you're being a little too critical of the Margaret character and I'm very curious as to why.

 

[Gracie]

I liked him. Fitting there was no song at the very last ending scene.

 

[Gracie]

All that she did was for one goal. To get to that coveted upper class system she will never achieve in her own mind. Yeah, she gave that land to the church. Because she would lose nothing and gain much...."respectability" in her eyes. She is no better than Nucky. Except Nucky doesn't hide who he is.

If that were true she would have gained just as much superficial respectability by giving half or one fourth of that fortune to the Church and keeping half for herself. But she gave it all away, a gesture which was a clear act of expiation in accord with her Irish Catholic spiritual values.

What do you think of Nucky for letting her get away with doing that? Can you imagine what would have happened if she did something like that to a man like Rosetti? Her ex-husband used to beat the hell out of her for spending too much money on baby food.

My perception of Margaret is that of a good woman having to care for two children on her own during the Great Depression. What would you have done in her place if a man like Nucky Thompson offered a safe, luxurious, reasonably respectable solution to your problems? Keep in mind that during those years many unwed mothers had to resort to streetwalking prostitution to feed their kids. Those were tough times and there was no such thing as "welfare."

I think you're being a little too critical of the Margaret character and I'm very curious as to why.

Look, Mike? It's a tv show. Who gives a shit why I don't like Margaret?? I mean, come on. Seriously? Sheesh.

 

[MikeK]

All that she did was for one goal. To get to that coveted upper class system she will never achieve in her own mind. Yeah, she gave that land to the church. Because she would lose nothing and gain much...."respectability" in her eyes. She is no better than Nucky. Except Nucky doesn't hide who he is.

If that were true she would have gained just as much superficial respectability by giving half or one fourth of that fortune to the Church and keeping half for herself. But she gave it all away, a gesture which was a clear act of expiation in accord with her Irish Catholic spiritual values.

What do you think of Nucky for letting her get away with doing that? Can you imagine what would have happened if she did something like that to a man like Rosetti? Her ex-husband used to beat the hell out of her for spending too much money on baby food.

My perception of Margaret is that of a good woman having to care for two children on her own during the Great Depression. What would you have done in her place if a man like Nucky Thompson offered a safe, luxurious, reasonably respectable solution to your problems? Keep in mind that during those years many unwed mothers had to resort to streetwalking prostitution to feed their kids. Those were tough times and there was no such thing as "welfare."

I think you're being a little too critical of the Margaret character and I'm very curious as to why.

Look, Mike? It's a tv show. Who gives a shit why I don't like Margaret?? I mean, come on. Seriously? Sheesh.

I didn't intend to offend you. I'm simply curious about your rationale because it occurred to me I might be missing something about the Margaret character. I explained my reason for defending her.

Yes. It's a tv show. And we are here to discuss it, which is all I'm doing and have done.

 

[MikeK]

Sorry the season has ended. It's an excellent series and I've looked forward to watching it on Sunday nights. But I must say the closing episode has been a hollow disappointment in many ways.

It seems all these season-ending episodes are contrived at the last minute with little thought to how unlikely and/or expedient they might appear. E.g., The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. Disappointing.

 

[rightwinger]

Sorry the season has ended. It's an excellent series and I've looked forward to watching it on Sunday nights. But I must say the closing episode has been a hollow disappointment in many ways.

It seems all these season-ending episodes are contrived at the last minute with little thought to how unlikely and/or expedient they might appear. E.g., The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. Disappointing.

I can't believe they killed off Richard. He was one of the most compelling characters. How long do they think Nucky can carry the show?

 

[martybegan]

Sorry the season has ended. It's an excellent series and I've looked forward to watching it on Sunday nights. But I must say the closing episode has been a hollow disappointment in many ways.

It seems all these season-ending episodes are contrived at the last minute with little thought to how unlikely and/or expedient they might appear. E.g., The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. Disappointing.

I can't believe they killed off Richard. He was one of the most compelling characters. How long do they think Nucky can carry the show?

It does suck, I wonder what the writers were thinking.

 

[Sarah G]

Sorry the season has ended. It's an excellent series and I've looked forward to watching it on Sunday nights. But I must say the closing episode has been a hollow disappointment in many ways.

It seems all these season-ending episodes are contrived at the last minute with little thought to how unlikely and/or expedient they might appear. E.g., The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. Disappointing.

I can't believe they killed off Richard. He was one of the most compelling characters. How long do they think Nucky can carry the show?

Is he dead? I didn't want to believe it, maybe he's still alive.

 

[rightwinger]

Sorry the season has ended. It's an excellent series and I've looked forward to watching it on Sunday nights. But I must say the closing episode has been a hollow disappointment in many ways.

It seems all these season-ending episodes are contrived at the last minute with little thought to how unlikely and/or expedient they might appear. E.g., The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. Disappointing.

I can't believe they killed off Richard. He was one of the most compelling characters. How long do they think Nucky can carry the show?

Is he dead? I didn't want to believe it, maybe he's still alive.

He is dead

 

[Sarah G]

Well they're getting down to zero great characters on that show.

 

[strollingbones]

lets not forget she aborts nucky's baby knowing all he wants is a child....

 

[boedicca]

Sorry the season has ended. It's an excellent series and I've looked forward to watching it on Sunday nights. But I must say the closing episode has been a hollow disappointment in many ways.

It seems all these season-ending episodes are contrived at the last minute with little thought to how unlikely and/or expedient they might appear. E.g., The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. Disappointing.

I can't believe they killed off Richard. He was one of the most compelling characters. How long do they think Nucky can carry the show?

Richard was my favorite character - he had a core of integrity lacking in pretty much everyone else.

 

[boedicca]

Well they're getting down to zero great characters on that show.

It's following a common pattern in modern drama - anyone who has any decency is killed off.

I hate that.

 

[boedicca]

Sorry the season has ended. It's an excellent series and I've looked forward to watching it on Sunday nights. But I must say the closing episode has been a hollow disappointment in many ways.

It seems all these season-ending episodes are contrived at the last minute with little thought to how unlikely and/or expedient they might appear. E.g., The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. Disappointing.

I can't believe they killed off Richard. He was one of the most compelling characters. How long do they think Nucky can carry the show?

Is he dead? I didn't want to believe it, maybe he's still alive.

I'm pretty sure he's dead. The last scene where his face is whole is transcendent.

 

[Sarah G]

I liked him so much. I liked Jimmy Darmody too but they get rid of him instead of his mother so there isn't even a second generation to take over.

I really like Margaret too, btw. She's a strong character and they've begun writing her out of a lot of scenes. I'm diasppointed.

 

[rightwinger]

'Boardwalk Empire' Creator Terence Winter on the Season Finale | Movies News | Rolling Stone


Richard Harrow's death was probably one of the saddest moments on the show so far. How come you decided to kill off the character?

It was really tough to make, but creatively it felt like the absolute right decision. We just felt like that character had come full circle, given the events of Season Three, when he spent the whole season with Julia, then had to pick up the gun and become that monster again. In Season Four, he's a killer for hire and when he finally tells his sister he's had enough, she says, "You need to call yourself into account." We knew, if he picked up a gun again, and we knew he would, that would be the last time.


In some way, he ultimately did get what he wanted. He had that scrapbook of the family and the house and the farm and, at least in his mind, at the moment of his death he became whole again. We just felt it was the best way to go out with him and it really was beautiful.

 

[MikeK]

I can't believe they killed off Richard. He was one of the most compelling characters. How long do they think Nucky can carry the show?

I agree. And the way they did it is childishly unimaginative.

Richard has been portrayed as a supremely efficient killer, an amazingly proficient soldier who prevailed in trench warfare and who wiped out a house full of professional gunmen -- and they have him failing the easiest shot imaginable because of a trigger-finger cramp? The most obvious question is why they have him using a telescope sight under the least appropriate conditions.

In the same way as the writing in the final episodes of Breaking Bad degenerated from exceptionally interesting to nonsensical comic-book simplicity, it seems as if the writers, having labored admirably and exhaustively through the near entirety of the series, grew tired and bored toward the end and chose to expediently wrap it up and go home.

Then there were the two monotonously clichéd last second reprieves of Eli, who is saved by the appearance of his son, and Nucky, whom Chalky believes he has every reason to kill but didn't for reasons which were not made clear. How did Nucky convince Chalky he didn't betray him -- twice? One minute Nucky is ten seconds away from a bullet in his brain, next we see him riding high again in the back of a chauffeured limo -- with little more than hollow presumptions in between.

The only satisfying event in the entire closing episode was Eli killing that disgusting FBI character.