By Garth McLennan

[= are very things in
today’s Hollywood that you
can consistently count on

to deliver. One of them happens to
be the directional qualities of the
incomparable Martin Scorsese. Once
again, the superstar mind behind
classics such as Goodfellas, Casino
and Shutter Island has hit yet another
proverbial home run with the new
HBO miniseries Boardwalk Empire.

HBO has become increasingly
known for its ridiculously high quality
miniseries’ of late, and Boardwalk
Empire is just the latest brick in the
mortar, following in the very high
profile footsteps of Band of Brothers
and more recently, The Pacific.
Whereas Tom Hanks and Steven
Spielberg were the creative minds
behind those two wildly successful
franchises that have helped establish
the glittering reputation of HBO as a
whole, Mark Wahlberg and Scorsese
are the masterminds behind Empire.
Just to add to the star power, the series
also went out and recruited one of the
leading writers behind The Sopranos,
two-time Emmy award winner
Terence Winter.

Scorsese directed the pilot
episode of Boardwalk Empire and
right off the bat, his presence is felt.
There is no other director out there
that can establish a setting and make
you truly feel the atmosphere like
Scorsese can.

Starring long time character

 

actor Steve Buscemi as Atlantic City
treasurer Enoch “Nucky” Thompson,
Boardwalk Empire follows Thompson
at the beginning of 1920 during

the earliest days of Prohibition.
Thompson is among the nation’s first
liquor runners and in his quest to
immediately capitalize on America
banning alcohol, he crosses paths
with a number of notable criminals
from that era, including Al Capone
and Lucky Luciano, the father of
organized crime in the States.

Despite garnering a bit of a silly
public perception because of his
continuing work on virtually every
Adam Sandler movie, Buscemi can
really act, and he does a tremendous
job of hooking the viewer into the
Thompson character.

What really stands out about
Boardwalk Empire however is the
character development. In classic
Scorsese form, you don’t really know
who to get behind and cheer for, as
even the individuals occupying the
traditional “hero” roles are far from
black and white. Just as he did in all of
his masterpieces, Scorsese has thickly
layered his cast with numerous shades
of grey.

Boardwalk Empire expects a lot
from the viewer, right from the start.
There’s a lot of depth to the series, but
it requires the viewer to be proactive
to a certain degree in digging it all out.
If that is your thing when it comes to
television, then so far Empire has been
outstanding, through and through.

 

 

A good reboot, but nothing new
By Garth McLennan

television, we’re living in the

ge of the renaissance. It doesn’t
seem to matter how long, or how
previously derided, an old, often long
forgotten movie or television series
has been extinct, just about anything
and everything can be dug up and
reinvented for modern entertainment.

It ranges from the great
(Transformers) to the average
(The A-Team) to the forgettable
(Transformers 2). The latest 70’s staple
to be dredged up from the abyss and
resurrected is the reincarnation of one
of the all-time classic buddy cop shows,
Hawaii Five-O.

The reinvention of the series
is enjoyable enough, with Alex
O’ Loughlin playing Steve McGarrett
and Scott Caan (the son of James)
playing detective Danny Williams.
Daniel Dae Kim (Jin from LOST)
plays their third man, detective Chin
Ho Kelly. Caan, whose most notable
role prior to this was his part in the
Ocean's Eleven franchise, tends to
steal most of the scenes he’s in, and
there’s a fun chemistry between him
and O’ Loughlin that is integral in any
memorable buddy cop series.

However, while the series, set in
Oahu, Hawaii and providing some truly
stunning scenery in almost every scene,
is fun and offers up a smorgasbord of
great action every episode, it certainly
doesn’t stand out from the pack of other
series’ in a genre that is as overdone as
any out there.

The lead character, O’Loughlin’s
McGarrett, is fine, but not particularly

|: the world of modern film and

compelling. He’s a driven, determined
ex-Navy SEAL with a haunted past
and a drive for revenge. To him, every
case is “personal”. He’s contrasted
with Caan’s Williams, the much more
reserved and less gung-ho cop who
always seems to be dragged along in
McGarrett’s wake and who always has
a funny quip at the ready (to be fair,
he actually is really funny). Again,
adequate, but nothing we haven’t seen
a couple of thousand times before.
O’Loughlin pulls off the intensity of
his role quite well, but he isn’t even

in the same league as the leading men
in other series with a similar character
(Matthew Fox’s Jack Shephard from
LOST, or David Boreanaz’s Angel for
instance).

‘The cases that are presented to
McGarrett’s team are no different from
what you would see on any of the CS/
incarnations, fun, but not overly deep or
complex.

There’s nothing really wrong with
the new Five-O, but it isn’t the type of
series that is going to make me rush to
the T.V. every Monday. I'll PVR it, Pll
watch it, but there are plenty of other
programs ahead of it, and thinking
realistically in a stacked time slot on the
highest rated night for television, I’m
not sure if it will prove to be a long-
term ratings bonanza.

My chief complaint would be that
Hawaii Five-O just follows down the
well-beaten path of a million other cop
shows. There isn’t anything innovative
or creative about it. No new walls are
knocked down or trails blazed. It’s
just...a buddy cop show, and it sticks to
that format rigidly. Nothing wrong with
that, but nothing special about it either.

 

 

Hawaii Five-O