Last night was the season premiere of the second season of Boardwalk Empire. With big names like Martin Scorsese and Mark Wahlberg attached to the executive producer roles the show immediately had high expectations.  The first season most certainly lived up to those expectations and series premiere last night was far from disappointment.  

The season picks up a fairly significant amount of months prior to where season one left off.  Things seem to have changed very little in Atlantic City even though the year is now 1921, until about 10 minutes into the episode when a violent attack on Chalky White,Michael Kenneth Williams, as well as workers in his factory by members of the Klu Klux Klan.  This attack, among other events, reveals that between seasons there have been plans being developed to remove the power of the shows main character Nucky Thompson, Steve Buscemi.  That attack was the beginning the those plans being set in motion by a trio of characters you may have suspected from last season but never would have guessed they would actually make such a bold move.

All of the characters in this series have been interesting to watch, and immediately we are given a taste of how deep this show is going to dive into each one. The relationship between Nucky and Jimmy Darmody, Michael Pitt, one of the main focuses from season one, has shifted in a very strange way now that Jimmy has become close with the Commodore, his father.  Nucky tries to warn Jimmy of how dangerous and duplicitous his father can be, and at the same time they reveal that Nucky was more of a father figure in Jimmy’s life than the Commodore ever was.  One of the biggest changes that the new season unveiled last night was the new power that seems to have been bestowed upon Agent Nelson Van Alden, Michael Shannon.  Everything seems to be right where it was left off from season one for Agent Van Alden and his wife has come to visit him in Atlantic City.  While they are out at dinner Agent Van Alden displays this new authority he carries and arrests and shuts down one of the restaurants on the boardwalk for serving alcohol.  He does this is a very violent manor and with the help of over a dozen prohibition agents, where as the first season he had the help of only one other person.

So far this season has already grabbed my attention a great deal.  Ten minutes before the premiere there was a countdown in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, accompanied by interviews from the creator, Martin Scorsese and Mark Wahlberg.  My initial reaction was that I didn’t want to know what the second season was going to be like, and that HBO was doing a great disservice to the show by telling us what to expect for this season but after watching it I could not have been more wrong.  Watching that promo made me so much more excited than I already was to watch what turned out to be an incredibly thrilling season premiere.  Sunday can not get here soon enough.