Boardwalk Empire – All In

Season Four: Episode Four

Directed by: Ed Bianchi

Written by: David Matthews

The Spin:  New alliances and showing one’s true colors were the themes of the night as writer Matthews focused on the old plot thickening and director Bianchi provided some clichéd thrills with panache – check out the lighting, sound design and camera angles on that guy getting tossed out of a Chicago window or watch Capone going tommy-gun bonkers on that poor fat bastard who finally met his damnable fate.

In AC, Nucky calls on Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg) to see if he wants in on the Tampa deal.  While waffling, Rothstein shows his true colors at an endless poker match, leaving Meyer Lansky (Anatol Yusef) wide open to strike up his own deal with Nucky.

Meanwhile, a new “good-time” and overly confident Eddie strikes up a friendship with a traveling Ralph “Bottles” Capone only to get pinched after a bender by Hoover’s man in town hell-bent on proving his pet theory on organized crime.

Out in Cicero/Chicago, Muller (Michael Shannon) reluctantly siddles up with Al Capone (Stephen Graham), who convinces him maybe the grass is greener on the opposite side of O’Banion.

Up in Harlem, Dunn cosies up to Narcisse amongst some lovely period design and jazz music.

And lastly, Eli’s dope of a son accidentally kills a dude in a horrible revenge prank gone awry in the season’s “pointless familial complication” plotline.

While enjoying the gamesmanship of the principle characters tonight, one can’t help but feel this season is still missing some of that je ne sais quoi – is it Margaret…the cheeeldrun…or those past great writers Steve Kornacki and Bathsheba Doran?

Wait for Next Week:  Eli’s son is gonna beeeeeee in truuuuuble.  And, you know, some other shit is bound to go down.

Commentary by David H. Schleicher

To my readers and Boardwalk strollers: Thoughts, reactions, comments?