BOARDWALK EMPIRE SEASON FINALE SPOILERS AHEAD YOU WAITING FOR THE RE-AIRING/ON DEMAND/MARATHON ANTICIPATING/MUST HAVE BOX SET FIRST MOTHERFUCKERS, YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!!!
I'll tell you all right now that B-Boy Dram E. Dram doesn't throw around "The Greatest Show of All Time" moniker lightly. Sopranos shot their chances all to hell with those last two seasons of pretending the show had deeper meaning than it did. That allowed The Wire to lay temporary claim to the title but at the end of the day The Wire couldn't match the show in show out, season in season out consistency of Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad is currently "The Greatest Show of All Time" but before that final mind fuck of a season they were trading punches pretty evenly with Boardwalk Empire, and since Boardwalk is on going it has a chance to rise and of course to fall. Tough to give a show the title of greatest when it's still on going as the Sopranos taught us all how easy it is to lose the path and shit the bed.
That all being said Boardwalk Empire is the only show on T.V that I would bet is going to be able to complete it's run without fucking up and thereby giving it a chance of taking the crown from Breaking Bad. Sure to be a really interesting battle considering how different the shows are. Breaking Bad was a visceral action packed day at the amusement park every single episode. If you like the first episode, you like them all. Boardwalk is a much slower boil. Some people didn't realize they liked it until many episodes into season one.
But trust me you have to stick with it. Everything pays off eventually and not much is left hanging season after season. Take for instance the last episode of season 4. The episode is very fittingly called "Farewell Daddy Blues", and really and truly one way or the other this episode is all about fathers, father figures and their children.
Nucky the father figure of both his organization and his extended family, especially given his (contested) mentorship of his brother Eli's son. Eli trying to save his son from a prison term at that cost of ratting his brother out to the feds. Chaulky despite all that's happened trying to go to his daughter's wedding hoping that he can trade the "adopted" daughter of Dr. Narcisse for safe passage. One daughter for another only to see both man lose on that account. But despite those many serious circumstances the greatest tragedy of them all entailed the last story line of Richard "Half Face" Harrow.
Harrow despite being a cold blooded killer of the highest order was always seen as tragic character but more importantly as the series moral lynch pin. In this episode we see him succeeding in finally ensuring that Tommy the son of his best friend Jimmy will not be returning to the custody of his bat shit crazy grandmother. Harrow now married was to raise the child with his new wife but to do so he had to prove that Tommy's grandmother was actually a murderer having killed a boy and claiming it was Jimmy who died so that she could take position of all of Jimmy's shit including his son.
The only way Richard Harrow could prove all this was to find Jimmy's actual body and the only way to do that was to make a deal with the man who killed Jimmy, Nucky Thompson. This unfortunately is the beginning of the end as Richard has to agree to one last job, the killing of an enemy of Nucky's. Taking aim in a very well crafted scene. Richard pauses showing a new found lack of killer instinct he checks his hand which was previously injured but we know that's not the reason. He now lacks the cold heart his job requires. He aims again, fires, and kills the wrong person, Chaulky's daughter who walks into the shot as trigger is being pulled.
A shoot out follows and Richard is mortally wounded and after a scene showing him with his face healed and walking "home" to his loved ones we see Richard dead on the beach under the boardwalk by the ocean where he first made sweet sweet half faced love to his wife. His mask laying discarded on the beach as if he knew he wouldn't need it anymore.
That shit was crazier than Kanye West fuckin a chick with no ass in the ass. Who in the fuck is going to be the moral centre of this show now? Where are we going to find the empathetic characters? All the stars are monsters. Nucky killed Jimmy and was going to kill his own brother. Eli was going to snitch out Nucky and have his own brother sent to the big house. Gillian is an incestuous murdering pedophile drug addict. At least Al Capone...wait he's fuckin Al Capone, not a nice guy. Richard "Half Face" Harrow was essentially the Old Dirty Bastard of the show. Who the fuck is going to be for the kids now?
R.I.P RICHARD HARROW
We Knew You Well, Though We Never Knew You at All.
Salute!