More Thrills on Boardwalk Empire

Will the HBO show keep audiences hooked with last week's premiere of season two?

After a reasonably brief hiatus of 10 months, Boardwalk Empire returned to the small screen on Sunday, braced to dispel some of the mixed opinions still lurking from the first season. Though the premiere got off to a bit of a slow start, Boardwalk Empire proved itself a show with a lot of potential going into its sophomore year, mixing just the right amount of style, senseless violence, broken dreams, and crooked politics.

This HBO flagship had a lot of hype coming out of the gates last fall when it first premiered, no doubt due to the massive names attached to it, including: former writer and producer of The Sopranos, Terence Winter; the show’s stars, Steve Buscemi and Michael Pitt; and, of course, executive producer extraordinaire, Mark Wahlberg. Set during Prohibition and the Roaring ’20s in Atlantic City, and featuring characters from all walks of life who scrambled to get rich off bootlegging, Boardwalk Empire is all sex, corruption, and greed. Oh, the American Dream!

For more reviews on The Mark, check out what one film buff has to say about Ides of March. here.

It’s that very dream these characters are chasing, but the story constantly pokes and prods its lead characters, reminding them how far they still are from happiness, power, rainbows, and sunshine. Jimmy Darmody, played by the very cool and sexy Pitt, is the young up-and-comer who answers to no one and seems primed to take over the town, pulling power away from the politician-by-day and booze-hustler-by-night, Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (Buscemi). While it was a questionable casting choice to have the scrawny, aging, and slightly funny-looking Buscemi playing a powerhouse gangster, Pitt, on the other hand, looks the part, and is consistent and cool in his craft, never making the audience work to believe the realness of Jimmy’s character.

Since we last saw Jimmy at the end of the first season, he now has a house, a wife, and a thirst for power – all of his cards are falling neatly into place. At the beginning of the series, we knew him as the brainy, college-bound kid turned all dark and twisty after fighting in the war. He came home from the trenches set on using his brains to rule the streets instead of the classroom. And though Nucky brought Jimmy up in the world, Jimmy demonstrated last season that he’s tough enough to handle the criminal side of Nucky’s operation. And, in the latest episode, he showed he's gunning for Nucky’s political role, too.

Canada embraces the glitz and glam of TIFF every year, but fails to foster a homegrown film industry. One expert weighs in.here.

Jimmy’s sidekick and fellow war vet, Richard Harrow (played by Jack Huston), who (unlike handsome Jimmy) came home from war with a disfigured face, notices this transformation in Jimmy’s world. “How does it feel to have it all?” asks Richard.

Even though Jimmy really does seem to have it all – not to mention that a lot of the show’s stylishness, sex appeal, and intrigue comes from his plot line – there are some undeniable sources of stress and misery in his perfect little world. He’s lost all faith in Nucky, the man who has played father to him his whole life. His biological father is a vengeful, calculating man, but hey, it’s awfully sweet to see him getting along so nicely with Jimmy’s mom, a woman who uses her sexuality to manipulate and intimidate. And Jimmy finally married the mother of his child, who chopped her hair off in protest of his affections, and who may or not be hung up on a former lover (a woman lover, no less … scandal!) who left her for Paris.