HD Highlight: Boardwalk Empire (Season Five Premiere)

Boardwalk Empire: SoHo, 8.30 Monday

“The nonstop party that was the Roaring Twenties is over on Boardwalk Empire, as the HBO drama surges ahead into the Great Depression,” observes Entertainment Weekly, which says the fifth and final season opens tonight with “all guns blazing”. The bad news is there are only eight episodes instead of the traditional 12 but Variety reckons if the “first three hours are any guide, Boardwalk looks like it’s heading toward a finish worthy of what preceded it–one that might not be black and white, but will at least provide a sense of where all the bodies are buried … What really makes the three previewed episodes sizzle — and creates a powerful sense of building toward the culmination of Nucky’s tale — are those flashbacks to his youth, featuring an impressive kid actor (Nolan Lyons) portraying Nucky’s younger self, taking those first furtive steps into a life of graft and corruption. Not only are these scenes beautifully executed, but they bring a different look to the boardwalk with their late-19th-century trappings, both in terms of literal design and general flavour.” Critics were pleased that creator Terence Winter is ending the Prohibition saga by taking “a deeper dive into what makes Nucky Nucky”. As Time magazine said: “Boardwalk Empire’s marginal characters have been its been most interesting. Its final season tries to make gangster-businessman Nucky just as compelling.”