willmatic-28094 Reviews

Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014)

Probably the most underrated of the 'big' TV shows...

[10/10 · 2 June 2021]

As an avid Sopranos fan, and generally a fan of anything gangster-related, I was always going to gravitate towards a show like this. It's 'that' show which always seems to be left out of the 'Greatest TV Shows of All Time' discussions, and it's baffling as to why that happens. For me, it's up there with The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Wire, and others we're so much more familiar with.

The casting is fantastic, the sets are incredible, and the writing is multi-layered and keeps you really involved with each character's story. I recently shared this show with my current girlfriend who stated right away "I can't stand Nelson Van Alden, he's so boring", and all I said was "just wait...you'll change your mind", and change her mind she did. His story arc in particular is just incredible, but that's about 1% of the full picture - it's just an amazing piece of television and probably still my second-favourite show post-Sopranos, with number one being Breaking Bad.

Watch it - seriously.

Obsession: Dark Desires (2013– )

Almost unwatchable at times...

[5/10 · 1 June 2021]

Let's be honest - there's plenty of English actors out there doing brilliant jobs playing American roles these days, (these damn British, coming to the States and taking American jobs!) but here's an example of when it goes wrong.

The stories themselves are just about interesting enough to keep you watching, but the reconstructions are hilariously bad at times. I only stumbled across this on Netflix because I tend to watch a lot of crime-based shows and it popped up as a recommendation (gotta love those algorithms), but there's only one single season available, which is slightly confusing.

I've ended up Googling some of the cases to get more info, so there's definitely some interesting stories, but having also Googled some of the (fairly famous) British actors just to see this in their filmography, I've found that barely any of them have it listed in their body of work - slightly baffling. It makes me wonder if they're ashamed to be associated with the show. Two examples, if anyone cares to take a look for themselves, are Richard Brake (who's previously been in Peaky Blinders) was the main protagonist in an episode but there's *nothing* anywhere on the internet associating him with this show - same goes for former EastEnders star, Lucy Speed, who had a fairly sizeable role in an episode as well.

Overall, I have to give it *some* credit, because the stories are very decent and at times unbelievable (in a good way, rather than unbelievably BAD).