So it used be the case that I'd watch Homeland first every week but in the last few weeks I've switched over to Boardwalk Empire.

I thought the extended convo at the end was super clunky and trite myself. I found myself thinking 'why did they hold that info back' rather than 'awww ****'.

Not uncommon for BE though. I'm well and truly drawn into it at this point, and I think the characters are great, but there's often a lack of finesse in execution that really holds it back.

pretty good episode. owen's death was pretty obvious, the shovel scene was yawn inducing, chalky stuff was awful and the suicide scene was top notch

This show is amazing.

Interested to see what they do with Nucky/Margaret now...

Legit said that Owen is dead, he was a fantastic character.

another great episode. I'm definitely willing to put BE above Homeland as best show right now, although I understand other people's reservations about the pace/density

I'm gonna take heat for this, but I think I'm liking it more than the Wire. That probably has a lot to do with how the Wire projects most police work gets as futile, since the Game will never disappear. Here in BE we get to see so much more of what happens behind closed doors, whereas the Wire left us on the outskirts of the true corruption at higher levels. For example I would have loved to see a lot more episodes centered around the dealings of Clay Davis and the resulting political ramifications

obv the Wire is still on the top pedestal, but I find the developing storyline in BE so much richer. I'm definitely biased in favor of stories featuring the corruption required to truly control a state or a nation, so factor that in before completely flaming me plz

shouldn't be surprising that the Wire focused on the police work and peeps on the block more so than the politics considering Simon's professional past. Fair point though.

I think the point was to show the underlings. We see a lot of shows about the "important" people. I think the wire was special in that it showed the pawns and their lives. In other movies/shows they focus on the guys on top of the ladder and the pawns are just disposable.

Oh of course I agree with all of that. The Wire is the benchmark for all shows because it set out to do something and did it all so much better than anyone could have expected. In this regard it is unmatched by any other show, at least for seasons 1-4

Other movies/shows may be more geared towards the "important people," but I don't think they capture the reality of such situations anywhere nearly as well as BE. The character development of guys like Nucky and Rothstein through the complications of the game is fascinating, especially with the splicing of politics. The difference in Nucky's discourse with his underlings, perceived equals (such as Rothstein) and conversations where he is at a disadvantage (Mellon) is something that I find uniquely impressive. Again there may be a bias here due to my favoring of understanding true control, as Mad Men also does a fantastic job with social discourse

I thought the way they did Owen's death was cool, at least as of right now. Without seeing Owen's death, we have to essentially visualize it in our minds and try to figure out what happened. Whether or not they show us next week is entirely another issue, but it makes Margaret's reaction to seeing his body better for us. If we knew that Slater had died and was inside the crate (I mean, most of us knew, but we didn't know know), Margaret's reaction seems a lot less effective.

I don't mind Owen's death much, I always thought he was a bit of a douche.

Every extra episode where Harrow isnt stepping up and killing people is pissing me off

Perhaps you should rediscover the ouvre of Michael Bay?

Man this episode made me jump on here and subscribe. This is starting to resemble Game of Thrones where people die left and right as if they were of no relevance. Owen was starting to grow on me big time. Sucks! I swear, if Harrow dies I'm gonna get pissssssssed.

I personally don't see how nuck's gettin outta this ditch. He has no backing especially w/ luciano and lansky partnering with Masseria. It's over for nuck.

Eli's going to Chicago. He'll probably get Capone's help.

yup; ok character, but not someone who you should feel sad about being killed off

Margaret being preggo is a very bad touch tho:/ why does everything seem to happen to that woman

Probably because two guys were shooting their swimmers inside her.

Just a guess.

yeah, that doesn't explain all the other things she experienced within past year or two (?), that might take another woman several life spans to experience.

Given that Nucky has been the central character in this show from day one, and it's been renewed for a fourth season, you're either going to be very disappointed, or you're trolling.

No good deed goes unpunished...

I imagine things get rather interesting if you're married to a guy like Nucky.

Maybe Im just a pussy, but I thought the extended scene between Owen and Margaret was pretty emotional. I also thought it was very well done and seemed different than how we usually see it happen. I really liked Owen and am sad to see him go.

Luciano and Lansky did not have Rothstein's blessing in this deal, which might see him come back to Nucky's side