I don’t have cable TV anymore, and that hasn’t been an issue for me. Until now. See, I didn’t regret losing HBO when the channel was showing junk like Entourage and True Blood*, but now they’re about to get good again. The network has picked up Martin Scorsese’s show, Boardwalk Empire, for 11 episodes.

The series is set in Atlantic City in the 1920s. Steve Buscemi stars as Nucky Johnson (now that’s a name), a guy who is described by Variety as an “Atlantic City bigwig” who is “”equal parts politician and gangster.” Buscemi has a killer supporting cast: Michael Pitt, Kelly Macdonald, Michael Shannon, Shea Whigham, Dabney Coleman and Stephen Graham. Hot damn!

The show was actually created by The Sopranos vet Terence Winter; Scorsese directed the pilot and is expected to remain a very active executive producer throughout the show’s 11 episode run. I imagine that this is not going to be cheap, so the network is going to need to see some big buzz to keep Boardwalk Empire from going the way of Rome, a series whose budget nullified its popularity.

via Variety


*
having seen the first three horrible episodes of that vampire show I can only believe that my many True Blood addicted friends and colleagues have been brainwashed.