by Justin Orlewicz (Sports Editor)
Email: cascade.arts [at] ufv [dot] ca
Boardwalk Empire
As expected, after a few slower episodes to set up the series, Boardwalk Empire is starting to have the kind of action-packed episodes that leave you wanting more. With all of this season’s story lines in full swing, we are starting to see more political corruption, more murders and more of all the young gangsters of the prohibition era. Al Capone is starting to make a name for himself in Chicago with the help Jimmy Darmody, the brilliant Irishman from Atlantic City. Together they have eliminated the competition for their Italian boss Johnny Torrio by killing Charlie Sheridan and his Irish mob. With Sheridan out of the picture, they are able take over the Greek part of Chicago. The murder of Sheridan and his gang also served as revenge for their attack on one of Torrio’s brothels.
Meanwhile in Atlantic City, Nucky Thompson seems to be making progress on getting government funds for his paved roads in and out of the city. Lucky Luciano has also been hanging around Atlantic City for the past few episodes in search of Jimmy Darmody, at the request of Arnold Rothstein. But instead of finding Jimmy, he has found himself in a romance with Jimmy’s wife, or so he thinks. After courting the lovely Gillian Darmody a number of times, Lucky finds out from Rothstein that he has been in bed with Jimmy’s mom. Nucky also has suspicions that Luciano has been stealing from Atlantic City, and he sits him down and lets him know that “even stealing from the Ferris wheel” is like stealing from Nucky. He also warns Lucky that it is in his best interest that he treat Gillian Darmody with respect during his romance with her. With this season half over and the second season green lit, it should be interesting to see how season one will turn out. Boardwalk Empire airs at 8:00 p.m., Sundays on HBO.
East Bound and Down
After Kenny has his woman stolen from him by the owner of the Charros, he decides to quit the team and steal the owner’s Lamborgini so that he can resume his pursuit of Eduardo Sanchez. Kenny and Stevie drive to a small town a hundred miles away and find the elusive Sanchez. Eduardo turns out to be Kenny’s estranged father, who is played by Don Johnson. Kenny soon learns that his father has remarried, and that he has a Navajo half-brother.
Kenny is furious at first, but after thinking things through, he decides that he must out do his half-brother in every way possible to win back his father’s affection. After a failed attempt at rekindling his relationship with his father, Kenny realizes that he is exactly like his father, even though he grew up “a world apart” from him. Kenny decides that he does not want to end up like his father and returns to the road in pursuit of the love of his life, April.
East Bound and Down airs Sunday nights at 9:30 p.m. on HBO.
The Walking Dead
This show premiered, appropriately, on Halloween. And it’s fucking brilliant.
While there are plenty (possibly too many) zombie apocalypse movies out there, there haven’t been all that many zombie tv shows. Until now.
The Walking Dead follows officer Rick Grimes as he tries to find his family. While he was in a coma, the zombie apocalypse happened (*cough* 28 Days Later *cough*). He wakes up to find the hospital abandoned, zombies walking around, and basically, everything sucks. However, there is hope: after returning to his home, he discovered his wife packed up clothes and photographs, so her and her son might still be alive.
The special effects on this show are awesome. And there isn’t the horror aspect that you get from, ahem, 28 Days Later. Instead, Grimes gets up close and personal with the zombies, and you find yourself pitying them. It’s a much better take than many let’s-just-slap-George-A-Romero-on-the-poster-and-make-a-shitload-of-money zombie stories.
The Walking Dead airs Sunday at 10 p.m. on AMC.
