Boardwalk Empire lends us an ear for The Good Listener.
Here is our review.
ThisBoardwalk Empirereview contains spoilers.
Boardwalk Empires The Good Listener opened on a close-up of an ear.
An extreme close-up of what looked like a very unhealthy ear.
You thought so too.
Just for a second.
CouldBoardwalk Empireexact an eye for an eye and an ear for an orange?
Elis seen happier days.
Waking up to a raid sucks.
Right, Chicago, he was shipped off to gangster school with the ex-federal cop turned sociopathic family man.
Eli Thompson sank to new lows.
He must have gone to drink.
Hes a mess who is working for a boss whos not in his family.
This guy can act.
Whighams double takes to Muellers most basic conversations are revealing and just short of comedy.
I love watching Eli dodge feathers to a bellhops energetic whistling of Happy Days Are Here Again.
Nucky (Steve Buscemi) is all about happier days.
But once you get the taste for better days, your mouth waters for even better ones.
Its like getting that first taste of anisette smuggled from Naples, espresso never quite tastes the same again.
Johnny Torrio (Greg Antonacci) has retired.
Torrios had his fill and wants to enjoy the fruits of his felonies.
Nucky, not so much.
As the camera lingers on the trinkets of contented forced retirement, Nucky realizes happier days still beckon.
Johnny Torrio was a wise man.
In real life he drew up the blueprints that organized crime was built on.
But Torrio also knows that one easy out is a hard way in to another problem.
Shifting loyalties make the whole business into a canoe on choppy water.
Lucky Luciano (Vincent Piazza) and Meyer Lansky (Anatol Yusef) are the whitecaps off the beach.
Salvatore Maranzano (Giampiero Judica) is taking on water.
Instead of Marcus Aurelius, maybe he should be reading Marco Polo.
She was a lovely girl, Billie Kent.
I believe Nucky sat Tonino at that seat as a message.
Al Capone (Stephen Graham) is a celebrity.
Nobodys misspelling his name now as he rules the headlines.
There are movies about him,Little CaesarandScarface, comedies compared with his real life antics.
Variety interviews him in his underwear and hes not even covering up his knife wounds.
Capone did get kick out of his own celebrity.
Napolitano mobsters were very different from Sicilian gangsters.
The difference between a Gotti and a Gambino.
Sicilians play things close to the vest.
Think Johnny Tightlips fromThe Simpsons, I aint saying nothing.
Tell the doctor to go suck a lemon.
Carlo Gambino died an old man of heart failure, not exactly natural causes in the mob.
The sons of Naples enjoy things a little more openly.
They sing like Caruso, full-throated and happily filled with peasant red.
Gotti died in jail and Capone withered away after doing a dime for tax evasion.
But hey, even a guy like Mueller could find it easier to love Capone than despise him.
William Thompson is all grown up.
Im betting that Willie is going to prove to be a slick operator, whichever truth hes peddling.
Deception is a hard habit to break onBoardwalk Empire.
With all the double-dealing, its hard to know who to believe.
There really is no one to trust.
The Boston bootlegger looks happy to break bread with Nucky.
He looks very comfortable, like hes in a familiar territory that hes grown to miss over the years.
Gillian (Gretchen Mol) is doing time in the snake pit making Dr. Cotton happy.
Mol is very effective as that fractured former little girl all grown up and looking for an edge.
She really looks like she needs protection and all shes getting is a little kindness from strangers.
Something she knows she can never rely on.
Intrigue and murder abound.
Nucky is still a gracious enough guest to leave a Welcome To Atlantic City postcard.
Its always pandemonium with him.
The Good Listener was directed by Allen Coulter and written by Terence Winter.
AndGoogle+, if thats your thing!
Rating:
4 out of 5
