Finally, the Boardwalk Empire premiere

It's been a while since my last post. As you may know, I am a Boardwalk Empire fan, and I also work for the publishing company (Plexus Publishing) that published the book that inspired the series. That book, "Boardwalk Empire", was written by Nelson Johnson, and chronicles the true politics and corruption of Atlantic City. It provided the source material for the series that premiered last night on HBO. Finally!

Part of the reason that I've been absent is that I was unable to share a lot of what I knew. As the publisher of the book, we weren't intimately involved in the series or HBO, but we were involved in some small ways. This limited me in what I could post, and I couldn't really post many of the things I thought people would want to read.

Now that the series has launched, that is all out of the way. I'm going to be try to post regularly about the series and the book. For those who are interested, I'll be touching on how the series relates to the real-life story (at least to the best of my knowledge).

As far as the first episode goes, I was impressed. My wife and I were invited to the New York premiere on Wednesday night, and that was the first time I got to see it. We saw the whole "red carpet" thing, and people like Mic Jaggar, P Diddy, James Gandolfini, and all of the stars of Boardwalk Empire showed up.

On the big screen at the Ziegfeld theater, Boardwalk Empire had a real movie feel. I felt like I was watching a Scorsese movie, rather than a TV show. As I watched the show again Sunday night at home, I still felt that way. The boardwalk set, the elaborate costuming, and the overall production values on the show really make it pop off the screen.

I'm no TV or film critic, but I also thought that you could really feel Scorsese's influence behind the camera. From the camera angles and close ups, to the last scene with the killing of "Big Jim" Colisimo and Margaret Shroeder's husband, I thought that it "felt" like a Scorsese directed piece.

As far as how the series relates to the real story, I can point out a few details that are true. These are a few of the true and interesting facts that are in the series. You can find out more in the book, Boardwalk Empire:

• Nucky Johnson always wore a red carnation.
• Nucky's wife Mabel died of tuberculosis in 1913.
• "The Commodore" (Kuehnle in real life, but Kaestner in the series) was really Nucky's mentor.
• Margaret Shroeder's visit to Nucky in the pilot episode of Boardwalk Empire is very similar to a story from a passage in the book.
• Nucky Johnson lived on one entire floor of the Ritz-Carlton hotel.
• Nucky Johnson was the Atlantic County Treasurer.
• Atlantic City semi-openly violated the laws of prohibition during the 20's, and was a major port for rum-running.

While the series is definitely fiction, it is based on some level of facts, as they relate to Nucky Johnson and Atlantic City in general during the time of Prohibition.

Even more important than many of the facts is that Terence Winter, Steve Buscemi, and everyone involved in the production has managed to recreate the "spirit" of Nucky Johnson and of 1920s Atlantic City. While I know a little bit about the history of the time from reading the book, the series allows you see what it might have really been like.

Please feel free to comment on this article and post your comments about the first episode.