|
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
|
Positive:
76
Mixed:
9
Negative:
0
|
Watch Now
| Buy on |
|
| Stream On |
|
Critic Reviews
Sep 13, 2012
Season 3 Review:
Put his [Bobby Cannavale's] floridness up against Buscemi's poker-faced acidity and you get fireworks. [24 Sep 2012, p.57]
Season 1 Review:
Boardwalk Empire has everything you'd expect in an HBO drama--sharply drawn characters, large-scale stories intercut with intimate moments and a sense that you couldn't find something like it anywhere else on the guide. It's maybe the best new show HBO has launched in several years.
Read full review
Season 1 Review:
The show is gorgeously produced and spectacularly violent but its success depends chiefly on Buscemi....A brilliant, brutally funny performance. [20 Sep 2010, p.51]
Season 1 Review:
From its breathtaking cinematography to its meticulous period costumes to its smart, snappy dialogue to its talented cast, Boardwalk Empire presents a TV program that's so polished and beautifully executed, each episode feels as rich and memorable as its own little Scorsese film.
Read full review
Sep 5, 2014
Season 5 Review:
You don't need to pay attention to the authentic background characters, or the glorious music, or the exquisite clothes, or even the textured dialogue to appreciation the majesty of Boardwalk. In fact, you can strip away the majesty--which the show loves to do--and still have a killer drama.
Read full review
Season 1 Review:
The show isn't easy to warm up to, to be honest; it's draped in--and at times stifled by--meticulous period detail and too-perfect lighting, especially in Scorsese's premiere. But in episode two, the characters and the script begin to prevail, and the drama becomes more emotionally distinct and fascinating.
Read full review
Season 1 Review:
Boardwalk Empire plays much like Sopranos: The Roots, a malignantly alluring exploration of the emergence of organized crime in the United States. A checkerboard of hazy intrigue and garish violence, of ruthless ambition and easy sexuality, it's an epic tale told darkly and well.
Read full review
Sep 3, 2013
Season 4 Review:
Watching Nucky's frenemies thrive like poison toadstools ringing a tree--that's a grim, gripping spectacle in its own right. [9 Sep 2013, p.42]
Sep 5, 2013
Season 4 Review:
With its huge cast (the new season also adds Ron Livingston as a businessman who romances Gretchen Mol’s Gillian) and sprawling world, Boardwalk Empire could suffer from that desire for more than plenty. Inevitably, though, it reveals itself as a show with a firm grasp on all these disparate people and places, and a clear sense of how to fit them all together.
Read full review
Season 1 Review:
Beautifully rendered as the series is, there's a high-concept conflation of the two shows here in the way it marries the mob melodrama of "Sopranos" with "Mad's" period fetishism. It's a savvy programming strategy but robs Boardwalk of a certain freshness that would otherwise elevate it to the same echelon as those TV classics.
Read full review
Season 1 Review:
For some viewers, even fans of smart, high-quality TV, there may come a point when too many dark, layered television series become just as tiresome as too many look-alike procedurals. We haven't yet reached that point with Boardwalk Empire, but some episodes are more admirable than enjoyable.
Read full review
Sep 3, 2013Sep 30, 2011
Season 2 Review:
Boardwalk is still solid, but it's sacrificed some of its nervy power. [10 Oct 2011, p.40]
Sep 8, 2014
Season 1 Review:
[The first three episodes] contain no evidence that it'll rival or exceed season four, an intricately wrought and unexpectedly spare and bluesy batch of hours whose quality exceeded anything that Terence Winter's gangster saga had given us in seasons one through three.
Read full review
Sep 6, 2013
Season 4 Review:
I can't fault the emphasis on some other characters' stories--including Nucky's valet, Eddie Kessler (Anthony Laciura), and nightclub operator Chalky White (Michael Kenneth Williams)--or the additions of Jeffrey Wright, Ron Livingston and Patricia Arquette to a cast that's already one of the strongest in television.
Read full review
Season 1 Review:
The action is set to move to gangster playgrounds like New York and Chicago, and introduce some dangerous romantic entanglements. If Boardwalk Empire doesn't begin in the most thought-provoking manner, its multiple, ready-to-expand stories suggest many avenues to explore.
Read full review
Season 1 Review:
It's a big production-the first episode alone cost nearly twenty million dollars-and it looks authentic in a way that, paradoxically, seems lifeless. You're constantly aware that you're watching a period piece, albeit one with some vivid scenes and interesting details.
Read full review
Sep 14, 2012
Season 3 Review:
Strangely enough, the only scenes that aren't so dark that you need night-vision goggles to watch, are the ones with the naked ladies. Then, suddenly the lights are finally working properly. Still, there's something compelling about it all--maybe it's the era, or the clothes, or the hint that this could be something terrific.
Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score