10. Bill Cutting from Gangs of New York (2002)
Authoritarian, ruthless, and cunning, Daniel Day Lewis’ Bill the Butcher stole the screen in Gangs of New York every time he appeared. His presence alone was menacing enough to make people drop on their knees and pray, and his impeccable skills with the knife only added a flair of danger to the man that already embodied it.
9. Nucky Thompson from Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014)
Nucky’s silver tongue and immaculate looks made him into the most charming type of gangster: the one everyone loves. Thanks to his persuasive skills and the ability to seamlessly blend his legal and illegal businesses, Steve Buscemi’s Nucky controlled the entirety of Atlantic City with few who could — or wanted to — oppose him.
8. Frank Costello from The Departed (2006)
Jack Nicholson managed to make his Frank Costello a proper charmer. This Irish crime lord preferred to largely stay behind the scenes,...
Authoritarian, ruthless, and cunning, Daniel Day Lewis’ Bill the Butcher stole the screen in Gangs of New York every time he appeared. His presence alone was menacing enough to make people drop on their knees and pray, and his impeccable skills with the knife only added a flair of danger to the man that already embodied it.
9. Nucky Thompson from Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014)
Nucky’s silver tongue and immaculate looks made him into the most charming type of gangster: the one everyone loves. Thanks to his persuasive skills and the ability to seamlessly blend his legal and illegal businesses, Steve Buscemi’s Nucky controlled the entirety of Atlantic City with few who could — or wanted to — oppose him.
8. Frank Costello from The Departed (2006)
Jack Nicholson managed to make his Frank Costello a proper charmer. This Irish crime lord preferred to largely stay behind the scenes,...
- 5/12/2024
- by dean-black@startefacts.com (Dean Black)
- STartefacts.com
Boardwalk Empire is one of the most important shows of the first half of the 2010s, unfairly forgotten by both critics and viewers by the end of the decade.
It would be hard to call Boardwalk Empire underrated; it was once adored and appreciated. Big studios just don't do shows like this anymore: historical dramas are now relegated to the miniseries format.
In an era of fantasy and endless nostalgia for the eighties and nineties, the multi-season historical drama looks like both a unique achievement and an echo of the past.
Boardwalk Empire Had the Perfect Cast And Crew
Boardwalk Empire in the early 2010s could only be released on HBO. Only the network that changed everyone's attitude toward television in the 2000s could invite the most important director of our time and so many talented actors for its new project.
The executive producer of Boardwalk Empire was Martin Scorsese himself.
It would be hard to call Boardwalk Empire underrated; it was once adored and appreciated. Big studios just don't do shows like this anymore: historical dramas are now relegated to the miniseries format.
In an era of fantasy and endless nostalgia for the eighties and nineties, the multi-season historical drama looks like both a unique achievement and an echo of the past.
Boardwalk Empire Had the Perfect Cast And Crew
Boardwalk Empire in the early 2010s could only be released on HBO. Only the network that changed everyone's attitude toward television in the 2000s could invite the most important director of our time and so many talented actors for its new project.
The executive producer of Boardwalk Empire was Martin Scorsese himself.
- 4/25/2024
- by zoe-wallace@startefacts.com (Zoe Wallace)
- STartefacts.com
“Goodnight, sweet prince.”
Every fan of “The Big Lebowski” knows that line: The final eulogy for Steve Buscemi’s character, Donny, who loved bowling and exploring the beaches of Southern California as a surfer from La Jolla to Leo Carillo, and on up to Pismo.
But Donny is just one of the many dead characters in Buscemi’s filmography. In a wide-ranging Q&a with Rolling Stone film critic David Fear at the Sarasota Film Festival, Buscemi talked about the particularly high body count in his filmography.
“I learned to try to get parts where your character doesn’t get killed off too early in the film, and to get parts where your character is actually important to the story. Because it’s so easy to get cut out of films. I was cut out of three films in the space of a year. One by Stephen Frears, one by Gus Van Sant,...
Every fan of “The Big Lebowski” knows that line: The final eulogy for Steve Buscemi’s character, Donny, who loved bowling and exploring the beaches of Southern California as a surfer from La Jolla to Leo Carillo, and on up to Pismo.
But Donny is just one of the many dead characters in Buscemi’s filmography. In a wide-ranging Q&a with Rolling Stone film critic David Fear at the Sarasota Film Festival, Buscemi talked about the particularly high body count in his filmography.
“I learned to try to get parts where your character doesn’t get killed off too early in the film, and to get parts where your character is actually important to the story. Because it’s so easy to get cut out of films. I was cut out of three films in the space of a year. One by Stephen Frears, one by Gus Van Sant,...
- 4/16/2024
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Steve Buscemi has been in some of the best films and television series out there, from "Reservoir Dogs" to "Boardwalk Empire." His work spans a multitude of genres, but many of his most notable roles have a single through-line: violence. Buscemi has been cast as many a villainous character in gritty crime dramas, but in more recent years, the actor has moved largely into voice acting for children's animated features like "Boss Baby" or comedic shows like "Miracle Workers" and "Bupkis." What triggered this major career change for Buscemi? As it turns out, one of the best television shows of all time caused the actor to lose his appetite for on-screen bloodshed.
Although he had only a minor recurring role in "The Sopranos," Buscemi was instrumental in the series. Not only was his character a major part of Tony and Christopher's past and one of the show's best characters,...
Although he had only a minor recurring role in "The Sopranos," Buscemi was instrumental in the series. Not only was his character a major part of Tony and Christopher's past and one of the show's best characters,...
- 7/30/2023
- by Shae Sennett
- Slash Film
The HBO period drama, Boardwalk Empire, took audiences on a thrilling journey through the Prohibition era, exploring the corrupt politics and organized crime that characterized the time. At the center of the show was Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (Steve Buscemi), the charming but ruthless Atlantic City kingpin whose life and times were chronicled over five seasons. In Boardwalk Empire‘s series finale, viewers were left reeling by Nucky’s sudden and violent demise, which saw the character meet his end at the hands of an unlikely source. Over the course of Boardwalk Empire‘s run, Nucky Thompson had evolved from a likable and cunning politician...
- 5/2/2023
- by Uwa Echebiri
- TVovermind.com
Boardwalk Empire might have low key been one of HBO’s greatest shows of all time. Of course, other iconic series such as The Sopranos and The Wire will go down in history as the absolute best, but those who love crime dramas — and anything Martin Scorsese touches — will likely agree that Boardwalk Empire is up there with the best of them.
The show starred James Buscemi and Kelly MacDonald, among others, and its premise navigated the Prohibition Era (and the secret underworld of illegal alcohol) in Atlantic City. Produced by Martin Scorsese, the cast and crew alone made the show almost destined to be a hit. But after season one, Kelly MacDonald, who played Margaret Schroeder, went so far as say that working with Scorsese “ruins you.”
Martin Scorsese; Kelly MacDonald | John W. Ferguson/FilmMagic; Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images ‘Boardwalk Empire’ ran from 2010-2014
Why does it seem...
The show starred James Buscemi and Kelly MacDonald, among others, and its premise navigated the Prohibition Era (and the secret underworld of illegal alcohol) in Atlantic City. Produced by Martin Scorsese, the cast and crew alone made the show almost destined to be a hit. But after season one, Kelly MacDonald, who played Margaret Schroeder, went so far as say that working with Scorsese “ruins you.”
Martin Scorsese; Kelly MacDonald | John W. Ferguson/FilmMagic; Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images ‘Boardwalk Empire’ ran from 2010-2014
Why does it seem...
- 4/19/2023
- by Julia Mullaney
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Dwelling on death isn’t exactly healthy if you think about it the wrong way — except TV deaths, which leave special, agonizing scars. Losing a TV character you’ve spent years with hits hard, and can often change the course of the series moving forward. Someone like prickly “Succession” patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox) was integral not only to the narrative, but to how each and every other character relates to one another and to their core attributes and aspirations. “Succession” is simply not the same show without him.
To process (or calcify) our feelings, IndieWire’s TV team collected the 25 biggest TV deaths of the 21st century — deaths that were not only shocking and hurtful, but pivotal to the shows that delivered them. Eligible characters had to suffer a permanent death (also known as the Michael Cordero Clause), die within the series and not before it (the Boo from...
To process (or calcify) our feelings, IndieWire’s TV team collected the 25 biggest TV deaths of the 21st century — deaths that were not only shocking and hurtful, but pivotal to the shows that delivered them. Eligible characters had to suffer a permanent death (also known as the Michael Cordero Clause), die within the series and not before it (the Boo from...
- 4/10/2023
- by Ben Travers and Steve Greene
- Indiewire
TV loves itself some mobsters. There’s no getting around it. From Tony Soprano to Nucky Thompson to Frank “The Fixer” Tagliano, we’re enchanted by the bad guys and what they bring to the table. Shows like “The Sopranos,” “Peaky Blinders” and “Boardwalk Empire” – as well as “The Untouchables” in the early 1960s – have captivated us and generated plenty of awards attention in the bargain.
And now here comes another show with malice in its heart, if a wink in its eye, looking to compete for some Emmy attention: “Tulsa King,” the Paramount+ series that launched its first season last November and is plotting to enter production on season two soon (likely early this summer). It’s a crime dramedy set in Tulsa, Oklahoma that stars Sylvester Stallone in his first scripted starring role on TV.
SEEWill Sylvester Stallone land an Emmy nomination for ‘Tulsa King’?
Stallone portrays New...
And now here comes another show with malice in its heart, if a wink in its eye, looking to compete for some Emmy attention: “Tulsa King,” the Paramount+ series that launched its first season last November and is plotting to enter production on season two soon (likely early this summer). It’s a crime dramedy set in Tulsa, Oklahoma that stars Sylvester Stallone in his first scripted starring role on TV.
SEEWill Sylvester Stallone land an Emmy nomination for ‘Tulsa King’?
Stallone portrays New...
- 3/27/2023
- by Ray Richmond
- Gold Derby
By the time the second season of HBO's Prohibition crime series "Boardwalk Empire" rolled around, its hero was on the outs, deeply in need of muscle as his various criminal enterprises caught up with him.
In a show already teeming with some of the finest character actors around, anybody who arrived to lend support to protagonist Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) would need to make an immediate impression on the audience. The actor would need to compete with known greats like Michael Stuhlbarg and Michael K. Williams, besides being a meaningful foil for Buscemi. Luckily for the show, this actor did.
He might not have had the name recognition of the rest of the show's cast, but Charlie Cox proved a potent screen presence on a show that was drowning in it. As the Irish mercenary Owen Sleater, he gave the show a light sense of charm that could distract from...
In a show already teeming with some of the finest character actors around, anybody who arrived to lend support to protagonist Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) would need to make an immediate impression on the audience. The actor would need to compete with known greats like Michael Stuhlbarg and Michael K. Williams, besides being a meaningful foil for Buscemi. Luckily for the show, this actor did.
He might not have had the name recognition of the rest of the show's cast, but Charlie Cox proved a potent screen presence on a show that was drowning in it. As the Irish mercenary Owen Sleater, he gave the show a light sense of charm that could distract from...
- 12/12/2022
- by Anthony Crislip
- Slash Film
"The Sopranos" features some incredible episodes. It was more cinematic than a gangster show was expected to be in the '90s and, as /Film's Shae Sennett writes, creator David Chase was aware of its potential as a national phenomenon. It was a television show about a Mafia man, of course, but borne of Chase's experiences in therapy, this mob boss would learn everything about himself and change little — a concept that would eventually dominate the wave of prestige TV to come.
For its six-season run from 1999 to 2007, the HBO crime series mostly stayed in northern New Jersey, where the Dimeo crime family would operate with Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) at the top. But some of its most celebrated episodes — Christopher goes to Hollywood, Carmela and Rosalie go to Paris — broke free of the show's own boundaries and gave a chance for the traveler-protagonist to add some depth to their character arc.
For its six-season run from 1999 to 2007, the HBO crime series mostly stayed in northern New Jersey, where the Dimeo crime family would operate with Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) at the top. But some of its most celebrated episodes — Christopher goes to Hollywood, Carmela and Rosalie go to Paris — broke free of the show's own boundaries and gave a chance for the traveler-protagonist to add some depth to their character arc.
- 11/16/2022
- by Anya Stanley
- Slash Film
"Boardwalk Empire" is something of an outlier in the so-called "Golden Age of Television." The show premiered on September 19, 2010 and received robust critical praise. Despite the reviews, "Boardwalk Empire" did not find the audience enjoyed by its contemporaries and it has not yet matched the reputation of its predecessors. One way or another, the story of Enoch "Nucky" Thompson has been outflanked by "Breaking Bad," "Game of Thrones," "The Sopranos," and "The Wire." Consequently, eight years after its expedited fifth and final season, it's time for something of a retrospective.Set during the 13 years of Prohibition, "Boardwalk Empire" spins fact and fiction into an exquisite tapestry of family, greed, lust, and brutal gangster politics. Nucky Thompson's grip on Atlantic City may be the show's center of gravity, but it also captures the zeitgeist of American organized crime in the early 20th century. The real-life figures are too numerous to quantify here,...
- 9/14/2022
- by Jack Hawkins
- Slash Film
Upon the end of HBO drama "The Sopranos," with the falsetto notes of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" still hanging in the air, executive producer and writer Terence Winter was searching for his next project. The massively popular mafia-centric show had concluded at the top of the TV heap, even called "the greatest pop-culture masterpiece of its day" by Peter Biskind. Its complicated leading man Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) was more than the head of an organized criminal clan; he was a husband and a father living in the suburbs, complexities "The Sopranos" explored thoroughly over its six seasons.
Already an Emmy Award-winner for his work on "The Sopranos," Winter was quickly hired by HBO to develop a new series that would fit right in among the network's showy big-budget genre pieces like "Game of Thrones." Upon reading Nelson Johnson's 2002 book "Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City,...
Already an Emmy Award-winner for his work on "The Sopranos," Winter was quickly hired by HBO to develop a new series that would fit right in among the network's showy big-budget genre pieces like "Game of Thrones." Upon reading Nelson Johnson's 2002 book "Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City,...
- 8/21/2022
- by Anya Stanley
- Slash Film
Variations on the phrase "Kill your darlings" have been distributed as a piece of writing advice since at least 1914, when author Arthur Quiller-Couch presented it as a practical rule in his lecture "On Style." For showrunner Terence Winter and the writers' room of HBO's "Boardwalk Empire," however, the idea of jettisoning the most precious parts of what they were writing extended beyond dialogue or individual scenes to include whole characters and the actors who played them.
Anytime you have a crime drama involving gangsters, character deaths go with the territory. As such, the Prohibition-set "Boardwalk Empire" killed off many characters throughout its five-season run, but they weren't only expendable redshirts, as "Star Trek" would call them. In fact, as anyone caught up with the show should know, the death of a major character became something of a season finale tradition for "Boardwalk Empire." In an Esquire interview (with spoilers) before...
Anytime you have a crime drama involving gangsters, character deaths go with the territory. As such, the Prohibition-set "Boardwalk Empire" killed off many characters throughout its five-season run, but they weren't only expendable redshirts, as "Star Trek" would call them. In fact, as anyone caught up with the show should know, the death of a major character became something of a season finale tradition for "Boardwalk Empire." In an Esquire interview (with spoilers) before...
- 8/20/2022
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
Over the course of five seasons, HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" interwove the fictional plot lines of a Prohibition-set crime drama with figures and events from real American history. Though it was based on a non-fiction book, "Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City," series creator Terence Winter took a page from the show's premium channel cousin "Deadwood" about what not to do in that he wanted to keep it from being easily spoiled by reading up on the history behind it. Steve Buscemi's antihero, Nucky Thompson, is only loosely based on politician and gangster Enoch L. Johnson, while other characters such as Nucky's protégé, Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt), were invented out of whole cloth or, at best, nominally inspired by real people.
Winter enlisted the aid of researchers like Edward McGinty to keep "Boardwalk Empire" historically accurate, even as it went about dramatizing situations that never happened.
Winter enlisted the aid of researchers like Edward McGinty to keep "Boardwalk Empire" historically accurate, even as it went about dramatizing situations that never happened.
- 8/19/2022
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
American period drama "Boardwalk Empire" ended its five-season run, plot-wise, with the termination of Prohibition in the early 1930s. Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (Steve Buscemi) and his disreputable associates rose and fell alongside the crest of a nationwide ban on alcoholic beverage sales the decade prior. Speaking to Esquire at the celebrated series' conclusion in 2014, creator Terence Winter recalled Martin Scorsese's involvement in the show, which quickly evolved from producing to directing the pilot:
"HBO told me, 'You're going to go to Martin Scorsese's house and meet him to talk about the show' and I was like a girl going to the prom. What should I wear? [laughs] Literally, I got to his house 20 minutes early and walked around the block. I didn't want to be too early, I didn't want to be too late, I didn't want to appear too eager. This was one of my idols. It's really kind of goofy,...
"HBO told me, 'You're going to go to Martin Scorsese's house and meet him to talk about the show' and I was like a girl going to the prom. What should I wear? [laughs] Literally, I got to his house 20 minutes early and walked around the block. I didn't want to be too early, I didn't want to be too late, I didn't want to appear too eager. This was one of my idols. It's really kind of goofy,...
- 8/18/2022
- by Anya Stanley
- Slash Film
Before he landed the role of the titular superhero in Netflix's "Daredevil," Charlie Cox was already known to some stateside viewers for his appearance in the second and third season of HBO's "Boardwalk Empire." In that series, Cox played Owen Sleater, the Irish immigrant who became a bodyguard for Steve Buscemi's character, Nucky Thompson, only to wind up having an affair with his wife Margaret (Kelly Macdonald).
When Marvel Television came calling for "Daredevil," however, Cox suddenly faced the need to get in superhero fighting shape — and fast. For one thing, he was going to be engaging in an epic hallway fight right from the second...
The post Charlie Cox Didn't Have Much Time To Get Into Shape For McU's Daredevil appeared first on /Film.
When Marvel Television came calling for "Daredevil," however, Cox suddenly faced the need to get in superhero fighting shape — and fast. For one thing, he was going to be engaging in an epic hallway fight right from the second...
The post Charlie Cox Didn't Have Much Time To Get Into Shape For McU's Daredevil appeared first on /Film.
- 5/27/2022
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
It's a well-known fact that Martin Scorsese's acclaimed "The Wolf of Wall Street," which received five Oscar nominations including one for Best Adapted Screenplay, is based on the memoir of Jordan Belfort, the stockbroker played by Leonardo DiCaprio. He's not what you would call a hero: in fact, the whole movie is arguably told from the villain's perspective.
Terence Winter handled the writing chores, and he and Scorsese had already framed an entire HBO series, "Boardwalk Empire," around a gangster named Nucky Thompson. Scorsese also had plenty of experience adapting the biographies of other criminals. We recently examined the true-life origins of "Goodfellas," for example, and he's made other...
The post The Fascinating True Story Behind The Wolf of Wall Street appeared first on /Film.
Terence Winter handled the writing chores, and he and Scorsese had already framed an entire HBO series, "Boardwalk Empire," around a gangster named Nucky Thompson. Scorsese also had plenty of experience adapting the biographies of other criminals. We recently examined the true-life origins of "Goodfellas," for example, and he's made other...
The post The Fascinating True Story Behind The Wolf of Wall Street appeared first on /Film.
- 10/13/2021
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
Michael K. Williams died earlier this month from “acute intoxication by the combined effects of fentanyl, p-fluorofentanyl, heroin and cocaine,” the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner said Friday. The Cme has ruled the death accidental.
The determination comes after Williams, the five-time Emmy-nominated star of The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, 12 Years a Slave and most recently Lovecraft Country, was found dead in his Brooklyn, NY, home on Monday, September 6. He was 54 years old.
A New York Police Department detective told Deadline at the time that Williams “was discovered deceased in an apartment located at 440 Kent Avenue today around 1400 hours. It’s an ongoing investigation and the medical examiner will determine the cause of death.”
The medical examiner’s office said today it would not comment further on the case.
Williams’ death sent shockwaves through the film and TV industry that he rose to fame in after playing Omar, a robber of drug dealers,...
The determination comes after Williams, the five-time Emmy-nominated star of The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, 12 Years a Slave and most recently Lovecraft Country, was found dead in his Brooklyn, NY, home on Monday, September 6. He was 54 years old.
A New York Police Department detective told Deadline at the time that Williams “was discovered deceased in an apartment located at 440 Kent Avenue today around 1400 hours. It’s an ongoing investigation and the medical examiner will determine the cause of death.”
The medical examiner’s office said today it would not comment further on the case.
Williams’ death sent shockwaves through the film and TV industry that he rose to fame in after playing Omar, a robber of drug dealers,...
- 9/24/2021
- by Rosy Cordero and Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
They hear him before they see him, but they know who he is, and they’re terrified. He is whistling “The Farmer in the Dell,” and by the time he swaggers around the corner of the West Baltimore block, a shotgun visibly dangling beneath his trademark grey duster, Omar Little has sent an entire drug crew scurrying. They sprint down a nearby alley, right into the trap the larger-than-life stickup artist has laid for them, and when he gets a look at a gaudy necklace hanging from the leader’s neck,...
- 9/6/2021
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Rollingstone.com
Michael K. Williams, the five-time Emmy-nominated star of The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, 12 Years a Slave and most recently Lovecraft Country, died Monday at age 54.
Willliams’ death at his Brooklyn home has been confirmed for Deadline by a representative of his family.
“It is with deep sorrow that the family announces the passing of Emmy nominated actor Michael Kenneth Williams,” the rep told Deadline. They ask for your privacy while grieving this insurmountable loss.”
The family did not provide the cause of death. A New York Police Department detective told Deadline that Williams “was discovered deceased in an apartment located at 440 Kent Avenue today around 1400 hours. It’s an ongoing investigation and the medical examiner will determine the cause of death.”
Michael K. Williams: A Career In Pictures
Deadline will add details as they come in, but this is a shock to the system, because of his game-changing talent. Williams...
Willliams’ death at his Brooklyn home has been confirmed for Deadline by a representative of his family.
“It is with deep sorrow that the family announces the passing of Emmy nominated actor Michael Kenneth Williams,” the rep told Deadline. They ask for your privacy while grieving this insurmountable loss.”
The family did not provide the cause of death. A New York Police Department detective told Deadline that Williams “was discovered deceased in an apartment located at 440 Kent Avenue today around 1400 hours. It’s an ongoing investigation and the medical examiner will determine the cause of death.”
Michael K. Williams: A Career In Pictures
Deadline will add details as they come in, but this is a shock to the system, because of his game-changing talent. Williams...
- 9/6/2021
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Tony Sokol Dec 2, 2019
Crime is part of the American experience, says Paul Eckstein, creator of Godfather of Harlem.
Martin Scorsese's The Irishman appears to be a swan song for an era of the gangster film. But Epix's Godfather of Harlem, which just closed out its premiere season, is keeping the genre fresh.
The series bridges generations of actors to tell the story of a mob kingpin who bridged the criminal worlds. Bumpy Johnson, played by Oscar-winning actor and director Forest Whitaker, ran Harlem under Mafia protection in a deal brokered by "Lucky" Luciano which lasted forty years. By the time he was 30, Johnson had spent almost half his life in prison. He went back in for a 15-year stretch in 1951 for conspiring to sell heroin. The series paints him as a standup guy, who did time rather than implicate his Mafia partners.
Johnson was a poet who contributed to...
Crime is part of the American experience, says Paul Eckstein, creator of Godfather of Harlem.
Martin Scorsese's The Irishman appears to be a swan song for an era of the gangster film. But Epix's Godfather of Harlem, which just closed out its premiere season, is keeping the genre fresh.
The series bridges generations of actors to tell the story of a mob kingpin who bridged the criminal worlds. Bumpy Johnson, played by Oscar-winning actor and director Forest Whitaker, ran Harlem under Mafia protection in a deal brokered by "Lucky" Luciano which lasted forty years. By the time he was 30, Johnson had spent almost half his life in prison. He went back in for a 15-year stretch in 1951 for conspiring to sell heroin. The series paints him as a standup guy, who did time rather than implicate his Mafia partners.
Johnson was a poet who contributed to...
- 12/2/2019
- Den of Geek
“I got guns,” legendary gangster Bumpy Johnson (Forest Whitaker) announces. “I got soldiers,” Malcolm X (Nigel Thatch) replies. For Epix’s new Godfather of Harlem — a Sixties period piece that mixes Mob action with civil-rights rhetoric — it’s a match made in gritty-drama heaven.
Co-created by the Narcos team of Chris Brancato and Paul Eckstein, Harlem is the sort of thing you may be inclined to watch if you’re inclined to watch this sort of thing — for good and for ill. Think Boardwalk Empire, a few decades later and without the loftier artistic ambitions,...
Co-created by the Narcos team of Chris Brancato and Paul Eckstein, Harlem is the sort of thing you may be inclined to watch if you’re inclined to watch this sort of thing — for good and for ill. Think Boardwalk Empire, a few decades later and without the loftier artistic ambitions,...
- 9/26/2019
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Rollingstone.com
Louisa Mellor May 28, 2019
Though Game Of Thrones has gone, there’s no shortage of quality TV drama featuring violence, sex, scheming, fantasy, war and politics…
This article comes from Den of Geek UK.
Is that hour between nine and ten on a Sunday night burning a hole in your schedule now that the Game of Thrones finale has aired? Then step this way for more excellent TV show recommendations than Ser Beric Dondarrion could shake his flaming sword at, from vintage to modern classics.
Politics/History Rome
It didn’t have dragons, but this lush HBO/BBC co-production was the real Game of Thrones precursor. It was two seasons of top-notch production design, rich people scheming and underlings battling, led by an impressive, largely British cast.
Boardwalk Empire
If Littlefinger’s journey from poverty to power via double-crosses, dangerous alliances, and manipulation caught your imagination, then the story of gangster...
Though Game Of Thrones has gone, there’s no shortage of quality TV drama featuring violence, sex, scheming, fantasy, war and politics…
This article comes from Den of Geek UK.
Is that hour between nine and ten on a Sunday night burning a hole in your schedule now that the Game of Thrones finale has aired? Then step this way for more excellent TV show recommendations than Ser Beric Dondarrion could shake his flaming sword at, from vintage to modern classics.
Politics/History Rome
It didn’t have dragons, but this lush HBO/BBC co-production was the real Game of Thrones precursor. It was two seasons of top-notch production design, rich people scheming and underlings battling, led by an impressive, largely British cast.
Boardwalk Empire
If Littlefinger’s journey from poverty to power via double-crosses, dangerous alliances, and manipulation caught your imagination, then the story of gangster...
- 5/28/2019
- Den of Geek
When Rick Grimes first rode onto our TV sets on Halloween night in 2010, Don Draper was still mistreating women and drinking like a fish on Mad Men. Walter White was running a drug empire in Albuquerque; Nucky Thompson was ruling Atlantic City like a tyrant; and Dexter Morgan was murdering his way through Miami’s criminal underworld and on his way to becoming the most mocked lumberjack in television history. Then along came handsome English actor Andrew Lincoln, playing a small-town Georgia sheriff’s deputy, with a spiffy-looking cowboy hat and relatable goals.
- 11/5/2018
- by Noel Murray
- Rollingstone.com
Dwelling on death isn’t exactly healthy if you think about it the wrong way. “This Is Us” certainly spent a questionable amount of time wallowing in the grisly details of Jack Pearson’s demise (up until “Super Bowl Sunday”), but you don’t have to be so uncouth when re-examining loss. Historically, television is an emotionally helpful medium to contemplate a life’s end, given how personal it can feel to lose a character you’ve spent years with, you grew up watching, or you’ve come to count on seeing every week.
When looking back over the most memorable departures of the 21st century, it’s not simply about the saddest TV deaths or the most shocking offings. The most indelible deaths hold far more meaning than tears alone can convey. Below, IndieWire has gathered 25 of the most meaningful deaths we’ve seen so far. Only characters who...
When looking back over the most memorable departures of the 21st century, it’s not simply about the saddest TV deaths or the most shocking offings. The most indelible deaths hold far more meaning than tears alone can convey. Below, IndieWire has gathered 25 of the most meaningful deaths we’ve seen so far. Only characters who...
- 2/6/2018
- by Ben Travers, Hanh Nguyen, Steve Greene, Liz Shannon Miller and Michael Schneider
- Indiewire
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.