• Network: HBO
  • Series Premiere Date: Sep 19, 2010
  • Season #: 1 , 2 , 3
Boardwalk Empire Image
Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critics What's this?

User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 98 Ratings

  • Summary: The third season opens with Nucky Thompson celebrating the countdown to 1923. However, trouble brews as Gyp Rosetti (Bobby Cannavale), a mobster from Brooklyn, who disagrees with some of Nucky's decisions.
  • Genre(s): Drama
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 15
  2. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. Reviewed by: Verne Gay
    Sep 13, 2012
    100
    A re-energized and immensely entertaining start to the third season.
  2. Reviewed by: Tom Gliatto
    Sep 13, 2012
    100
    Put his [Bobby Cannavale's] floridness up against Buscemi's poker-faced acidity and you get fireworks. [24 Sep 2012, p.57]
  3. Reviewed by: Troy Patterson
    Sep 14, 2012
    80
    When Boardwalk Empire is dealing with the consequences of the 18th Amendment, it plays like a sound and steady drama. When addressing the energy around the 19th, it begins to jazz things up.
  4. Reviewed by: Marisa LaScala
    Sep 17, 2012
    60
    Just when it could've coasted off its accumulated good will and anticipation, Boardwalk Empire raised the stakes instead.

See all 15 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 18
  3. Negative: 2 out of 18
  1. Bobby Cannavale is AWESOME from start to the last episode! Great season, great scenario, great acting, breathtaking quality. HBO at it's best. Hope it's not even close to the end! Expand
  2. Good first episode of the season. I'm one of the few who had gotten tired of the character Jimmy so it's nice to see the show start afresh. It's hard to see where things will go this season just from this first episode but the writing, characters and acting is all still top notch. Expand
  3. I really like the first two seasons, but I find that season 3 is starting to come apart narratively. In season 1,2 Nucky corrupt but clever -- and charming in his own way. Now he's just a violent gangster and almost too disgusting to watch. Whose left to root for after they killed Jimmy? I don't know. Expand
  4. Okay, I get that the dim lighting on all the gangster scenes is to convey the dark, early 20's furtive environment of Prohibition, but for the sake of viewers --- could the producers PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE film with enough lighting so we can see WHO is talking, their FACIAL EXPRESSIONS (which matter greatly on film), and a sense of WHAT IS HAPPENING on the scene. Half the time, I'm only able to tell who is in the scene by recognizing their voices and left pondering what is happening as the lighting is too dim to make out the setting. Many of the gangster actors are so shrouded in darkness that it's very hard to know who they are or how they fit into the plot. So why does HBO waste money filming scenes when they expect viewers to only rely on voice recognition, background noise, to figure out what is happening? If HBO's lighting budget is that limited, why don't they just make an audiotape of the series? Expand

See all 18 User Reviews

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