Exactly. For the most part people didn't use modern swear words the same way we did in the latter 1800's like they showed in Deadwood, but seeing Al Swearengen saying "Gal Darn" instead of cocksucker just isn't going to translate to the modern viewer all that well. Pretty much the same here and I think they did a brilliant job.
Who said this??? <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anachronistic" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anachronistic</a> I think the point was that while we knew the music fit both the time and mood of the era in the show, there was just to damn much of it! It felt like an old timey song came on every six minuets. I didn't see one post that said the music was out of place, although it mind have been cool to watch Jimmy hunt and kill that guy in the woods to Ghetto Boys "Damn it feels good to be a gangster." I'm not as good as you at spotting things that should not belong in a 20's era setting (christ KIMaster you have probably seen about 100 films made before 1955) it looked quite real to me. I go to Atlantic City five or six times a year so to see it represented over seventy years ago is amazing. I thought the black businessman said "Tell Gnocci I don't got all day." "It ain't what you takin', it's who you takin' from, ya feel me? How you expect to run with the wolves come night when you spend all day sparring with the puppies?"
Really? I think the only time I even noticed it was when Nukki was checking out the incubator shop. The rest of the time, it just blended in seamlessly with the scene itself, which is the mark of good musical selection. Despite utterly ruining the mood of the work, that would have been absolutely hilarious. Maybe it's a good thing I haven't watched "The Wire" yet, and don't have such powerful associations with the actor playing that role.
I don't think anyone has mentioned yet that his character on BE is named Chalky White. I know it's juvenille, but I find that hilarious.
No, I think he was sniffing the Irish women's ribbon. Religious? No. Creepy? Dear god yes. Speaking of wich that guy is a great actor, he already captured the straight edge agent perfectly. I thought the best part of the episode was Rothstien's story about the man who swallows billiard balls, I love that character, best criminal on the show. Also you really have to appreciate the 1920's nervous gangster laugh on the Mickey character they are really doing a great job with this show.
Yea this sealed the deal for me with the guy playing Capone, totally awesome. Agreed. I think what makes him so good is that hes very unnerving. His approach to everything is calm and sophisticated, a definite departure from the usual hotheaded gangster you would see in other shows and movies. I cant wait to see how this guys story plays out along with Luciano. They could make an entire series based around that guy alone.
Overall, a good episode. Steve Buscemi was absolutely cracking me up with his delivery and facial expressions on some of those lines. Terrific stuff. So much for the idiots who claimed he couldn't handle a leading role. I like that they had both Rothstein AND Van Alden pick up on the silly framing of Hans Schroeder. However, the idea that Nukki would blatantly disrespect Rothstein like that was preposterous. Especially coupled with his punishment of Jimmy. Either he cuts Jimmy loose to the wolves at that point, or humbly professes ignorance at what transpired. Most everything else was solid; the scenes with Rothstein and Capone were very good, and Jimmy's turn from exultation to desperation was handled well. The scene with Nukki gambling away the money left me with a bad taste in my mouth; it was so damn predictable, although the smarter, more powerful thing would have been for him to win the bet, then give Jimmy his three grand back. Great ending, though; not only was it hilarious, but it neatly wrapped up a detail dropped in the middle of the episode.
This character has a lot of force during his scenes. He's obviously a very competent detective as well as being a stalwart morals man(as far as we know). I give props to the actor as well, he really delivers in his scenes. Over all the show hasn't kicked into high enough gear for me to totally enjoy it yet. Honestly I could care less about Nukki's dead wife problems as well as the Irish girl from NCFOM. Im also not digging the whole man servant/driver of Nukki's, the joke wore thin last episode. I think Michael Pitts character Jimmy has the most potential outside of Buscemi's begrudging crime boss.
I disagree, I think having him lose the money was an attempt to put Jimmy in his place. We have seen enough of the benevolent Nukki. Hell you could probably even say he went soft on Jimmy over the heist. He busted his ass to scrape together that money but to Nukki while being an amount he was willing to kill over on principle it was still merely chump change that could be frivolously thrown away.
Thing is, Nukki either needed to absolutely crush Jimmy/give him away to Rothstein and company, or else use him as his own personal executioner/soldier. Instead, he completely humiliated Jimmy, causing intense resentment on the latter's part. That's neither a smart nor predictable move with all the other sudden enemies Nukki has acquired in episode 2, as well as Van Alden floating around.
I think Van Alden's going to end up being one of the major characters in the series, maybe as important as Jimmy. This is good because the guy playing him seems like he can act. Is it just me, or is the picture of Nucky's dead wife Molly Parker aka Alma Garret from Deadwood? I also agree that the show hasn't picked up yet, but that doesn't mean I haven't enjoyed it. I remember not being completely absorbed by the Wire until I was a few episodes in, and today it's easily one of my favorite shows of all time. Nucky's bad moves are interesting. For me, having him bet the $3000 on roulette and win just to give it back to Jimmy would feel like a cop out. It's more exciting to see Nucky start to bury himself, building enemies and alienating his friends, because it means he'll be forced to seriously reconsider the way he operates in the near future.
It just doesn't mesh well with his previously established character. In every part of the other two episodes, Nucky goes to extremes to be friendly and helpful towards other people, no matter how much he despises them, even the crazy old spinsters of the Women's Temperance League. Even when the other person presents a problem to him (like Rothstein taking him for $93k at his casino in the pilot), he doesn't respond aggressively. And it makes sense, too; a la Machiavelli, you either crush people (Hans Schroeder, the partially insane bootlegger set up by Jimmy), or you're decent towards them. Thus, I had a hard time believing that such an intelligent kingpin would make an enemy of the biggest gangster of the day, Arnold Rothstein, and utterly humiliate his loyal agent Jimmy for no reason.
I could well be proven wrong by later episodes, but I feel like you might be reading too much into the things Nucky's done thus far. Nucky seems to me more of a streetwise sharp hustler, local thug, rather than a scheming Machiavelli. Nucky helps people because in turn they [unwittingly] keep him in control of his little empire of graft. And while he did crush Schroeder, he was just being practical distancing himself from the other guy. This show is moving slowly enough that I don't think we can come to any kind of conclusion about any of the major characters yet, though. Regardless, I'm glad the characters seem like they're going to be deep enough to warrant this kind of conversation.
I see where you are coming from; however think that may have been the way it was to lead to Nukki having underestimated Jimmy.
I think a big part of this and the show in general is the transition of Nukki from political boss to underworld boss. As far as I understand, Prohibition really made the mafia. It existed in some areas before, but prohibition made it necessary to be everywhere and therefor made gangsters out of folks who would have been happy just taking bribes for political favors before. In this situation Nucky is too benevolent for his own good because he should have just fixed his Rothstein problem with his Jimmy problem, but that would have been more ruthless than he is capable of being right now. Instead, as you said, he just created two or three separate problems to deal with. Jimmy's bridges are really burned all over the place. It seems like all his eggs were in the basket of making that one score and thus proving to Nukky that he deserved more responsibility. Now that he has completely blown that and Capone is obviously not his biggest ally, I am really interested to see how he makes money.
It's spelled "Nucky". You see it on the wreath that he sends to Colosimo's funeral at the start of the last episode. Also, this.