Wow, we're done with Season Two and not a single mention of this series all year! I guess quite a few people gave up on Boardwalk Empire. Not surprisingly, the ratings took a huge tumble after the much hyped series premiere directed by Martin Scorsese posted big numbers, and kept trending downward for much of the year. This year, the series managed to add viewers as the season progressed, but only because it started from a lower base of regular viewers.

As with the first season, the first half of this season plodded along without much direction. If anything, there were too many plot threads going all at the same time, many of which led to dead ends (e.g., Margaret seeking out her family in NYC, Harrow's interactions with Angela, etc.). The acting and a select few storylines were just enough to keep my interest going.

And again, the series picked up considerable steam towards the end of the season.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!

The second-to-last episode featuring the Jimmy/Angela/Gillian backstory was one of the best ones of the series so far, particularly since that episode got inserted after we already saw Horvitz kill Angela. Even though they telegraphed it earlier in the season, the incest angle with Gillian tied a lot of Jimmy's backstory together -- still a bit of a shock though. His killing the Commodore also tied things up neatly (perhaps "too" neatly, which of course leads to the events of the season finale).

The season finale was brilliant, particularly with the Godfatheresque montage juxtaposing Prosecutor Randolph's opening monologue, with Nucky's shotgun marriage to Margaret. I will say that Jimmy's death was not all that surprising, since the writers did everything short of announcing it with the blitz of loose ends they rapidly tied together with Jimmy's storyline.

What made Jimmy's death compelling was Nucky actually pulling the trigger. Jimmy said that you can't be half a gangster, and now Nucky has gone all in to the dark side. Even though it was predictable, I will give the writers lots of credit for daring to kill off a major character after only two seasons (thinking back to the major characters killed on The Sopranos, most of that happened much later in the series).

Great climax to the season, but I'm not sure where they go from here. They've now killed Jimmy, but there's no one else that can play the heavy next to Nucky. The recurring characters that were introduced this season didn't do much for me. Sleater and Randolph haven't really developed that much.

And the writers continue to disappoint with Van Alden. Bringing in Randolph basically neutered his character, and the whole baby daddy plot with Lucy was lame. I thought that Van Alden would be Nucky's nemesis. He thought so too, but that angle never developed very well. Now, you got Van Alden on the run and settling down in Cicero (not coincidentally, this is Al Capone's future headquarters). I would hope that next season, the writers actually do something with that great character they created.

So, with Nucky now in full gangster mode, and the feds completely confounded, what now? Killing off a major character is a bold move, but it also paints the writers into a corner. I'm not sure where things go from here. Like I said, the end of Season 2 was great, but the writers have now shot a lot of their silver bullets. Not sure what they'll have left for Season 3.