Boardwalk Empire Season 2, Episode 1

• Courtesy of HBO
• GO BACK TO JAMAICA? Michael K. Williams as Chalky White

The first few minutes of “Boardwalk Empire’s” second season premiere casually set the stage, like an orchestra tuning up before the Holy Shit! image about to come. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, I won’t mention it until after the jump.

We first see a bottle of booze washing ashore, like a direct segue from the opening credits of Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) on the beach. It’s good to revisit Nucky and the credits scene, but I didn’t really miss the period-appropriate music, all trilling voices and plinky-pianos. “After you get what you want, you don’t want it” coos a songbird on the soundtrack as we check in with the show’s regulars. Nucky cavorts with swells and floozies, Jimmy (Michael Pitt) oversees the bootlegging operation, Nucky’s brother Eli (Shea Whigham) heels from a gunshot, Nucky’s mentor the Commodore (Dabney Coleman) swings a spear around (no, literally) in his bedroom.