The original post: /r/television by /u/Dowie1989 on 2025-12-18 19:47:05+00:00.
After posting a thread on underrated actors and actresses earlier today, there were a LOT of people from Boardwalk Empire that got picked. Shea Whigham (top rated), Michael Stuhlbarg (my pick), Gretchen Moi. I would even include Michael Shannon, Jack Huston and Anatol Yusef.
So with a pretty awesome cast, why isnt the show as critically acclaimed and well remembered? In my mind its good but I likely wont rewatch it.
I have thought of a few reasons
- It peaks too early. Season 2 is (potentially by a good margin) the best season and the show seems to suffer after Michael Pitt leaves. I get that some of it is by design, especially with the cast issues. However, you can see the cracks starting to show
- Nucky is kind of a dull main character. Like he is fine but other times you want to see more of what Rothstein, Lucky, Mayer, Capone etc are up to. Again, this also comes down to Jimmy getting killed. Maybe the show would have been better with multiple main characters like The Wire?
- The time skip. They leave sooooo much good stuff out like Rothstein’s murder, all the Chiacgo drama, the utter bonkers Remus story, lots of fun Gaston Means plotting. Also leads into needing a wider pool of main characters.
Any other thoughts?