I thought this was a huge disappointment. The plot was a series of TV and movie cliches, the characters were caricatures, the crowd scenes looked like a bunch of extras milling about in 1920s costumes. Couldn't believe this was directed by Scorsese. I lasted 20 minutes.

That is disappointing to hear, as I'm looking forward to watching it! What sky package do you need, to get sky Atlantic, as I don't even know where it is!?

To the west of Ireland, and east of America

Its superb , it moves along in a sedate manner but after 2 episodes you can see the story beginning to be told. Remember this is about the prohibition era we are only days into the start of an era that last 13 years.

The subtle things are briliant , such as the scenary of the advertising , the KKK leaflet man , the incubator baby shop.

I enjoyed it (quite a bit) but admit that it will have to pick up the pace as the season progresses otherwise I may lose interest in it...

Well I'm enjoying it.

Anything with a score of 9.0 on IMDB deserves more than just a 20 minute watch in its first episode.......... IMO.

I think it's something which will get better and better as the characters evolve.

Watched the 1st episode last night on sky anytime and really enjoyed it. Always likes Steve Buscemi.

Where have I seen the bloke who plays Capone before? Isn't he English? Got a feeling it's snatch or lock stock?

Yup, he was in snatch
I recognised him from this is england 86 myself

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0334318/

I really enjoyed the pilot episode, going to store the next few up on the Sky+ before plowing through. I can see that this will be a grower.

Agree totally, the mis-en-scene is top notch, and I'm sure the writing will be good enough to sustain the interest throughout the series. Glad I didn't turn off after 20 mins

Just watched ep1 on sky player. Loved it!

Not keen on the casting of Stephen Graham as Al Capone, but hoping he grows on me.

Having seen the whole series, my advice would be to stick with it - if only for the brilliant performance of Steve Buscemi. The plot develops nicely, is rarely predictable and contains some savage twists and turns.

The one thing that seriously didn't work for me was the (Rolling Stones styel) title music - which clearly belongs to a different era.

Really looking forward to the second series. OK, it's not quite up to the amazing standards set by The Sopranos and The Wire - but it's still great quality TV.

Could not agree more about the title music ,completely out of synch. A ragtime style soundtrack would have been much more in keeping.

Maybe it suddenly got better after the first 20 minutes

The reason I was disappointed was that it looked like a cut and paste job from every gangster/prohibition movie I've seen, complete with character stereotypes. The hypocritical temperance preacher; the corrupt police chief; the staged car crash with a dead guy lying in the road who wasn't dead after all (what a surprise!). If I'm going to watch a highly rated new drama series about the prohibition era I don't expect the first 20 minutes to be a roll-call of the genre's cliches. If Martin Scorsese is directing, I don't expect to sit there watching scenes I've seen countless times before. Even the crowd scenes were a cliche, right down to the couple swigging liquor while pushing a pram, which would have been laugh-out-loud funny if it was in a spoof movie.

I hope it improves for the sake of those who are going to stick with it (everyone apart from me, it seems). At least the great Kelly MacDonald is in it - maybe it will pick up once she gets more involveld.

You weren't wrong.

Yup.
Really getting good now

I take it that tonight's episode was just a little bit special then ...

Still very much enjoying this.

Especially Agent Nelson Van Alden

I've not watched it yet, please no clues

I'm inclined to Sky + all programmes that contains adverts, there's only so much of the likes of Paul Whitehouse I can take & that's precious little.

Agent Van Alden looks more like a gangster than the gangsters themselves.

While I stand by my verdict on what I saw of the first episode, in the light of the astonishing reviews the series as a whole has got I tried it again after the 2nd episode, and once the characters became more established and it stopped trying to tick every box at once, it did indeed improve. I haven't seen this week's yet but last week's episode - the one with the river "baptism" - contained some good twists and drove the plot forward nicely.

I still have some minor reservations, but I won't bore you with them. On the plus side is, primarily, the design: everything from the magnificent sets to Nucky's amazing, ever-changing wardrobe. The acting throughout is top notch: the guy playing Eli is terrific, as is the Frankenstein-like Agent Nelson, a Best Supporting Actor if ever I saw one. And the women! Phew. Is Jimmy's wife the best looking woman on TV or what?

Here's a link to a great interview with the creator of Boardwalk Empire (who had written 24 episodes of "The Sopranos"). This is the most interesting thing I took away from it:

No Spoilers (in the quote below):

From the Interview:

Treme, from the same stable, I find very watch-able.

A couple of actors from The Wire & an actress of Deadwood She's very watch-able

I gave Blue Bloods a chance but after a couple of episodes, just to soppy for me.

Really impressed with Boardwalk. The way the first series has ended has set it up superbly for the 2nd series. Great viewing.

Any ideas on when we're expecting a 2nd series?

Either I missed something or I don't even remember them saying at the end of series 1 'this is the end of series 1 etc.....'

They haven't set a date yet, but it will likely be some time in September/October

Returns 25th September (In America) according to this site. So should be in around that date on Sky Atlantic.

Luvly Jubbly

I've just Sky+ the first series from the sky atlantic re-run not watched any of it yet. They're trailing the second series so it must be just around the corner.

You are in for a treat.

Well I've just watched the first series in 4 days and I'm impressed, but for some reason I didn't want to like it after the first episode. The fed is an absolute loon but the highlight of the entire series is kelly macdonalds use of the C word.

One gripe - what is it with that theme music? its awful and has zero connection.