Show Runner, Terence Winter, Discusses the Season 2 Finale of "Boardwalk Empire"

While sitcoms have been dying out, the last decade has seen an incredible growth in original quality tv dramas on cable from Mad Men to Dexter to The Walking Dead, these hour-long dramas have become the  sole reason for many of us to keep paying outrageous cable tv bills.  While many networks have been coming on strong and pushing the envelope of dramatic hour-long storytelling to new and original heights, I don’t think anyone’s been able to take the crown from HBO who just keeps rolling out addictive hits.

They literally keep me strung-out on their dramas year-round.  I get antsy and agitated waiting to find out what’s gonna happen on the next episode.  (Don’t even think about calling me on a Sunday night.) Just when True Blood ends, and I think I’ve freed up an hour of my life, then Game of Thrones starts.  And when the Game of Thrones season ends, they get me right back on the cable drama bandwagon with Boardwalk Empire.

I love all three of these HBO staples that transport me to whole other worlds, but Boardwalk Empire (which stars Steve Buscemi in his arguably juiciest role) started on a slow burn and has just ratched up the intensity and story every episode with non-stop and unpredictable plot twists and turns, historical references and complex three-dimensional characters that keep you glued to the screen and guessing their motivations and next moves.  The finale of Season 2 just aired this past weekend and it was off-the-hook.  The writers masterfully tied up (and further tangled) many of the long plot lines and I’m about 9 months out from finding out what happens next. So if you’re jonesin’ like me to know more about Boardwalk Empire check out the HBO: Inside the Episode video below and the link to the NY Times interview with showrunner/creator, Terence Winter.

In the HBO video and Q&A link below, Terence Winter and one of the executive producers breaks us off a 6-minute film school lesson in the art of dramatic visual storytelling explaining how themes, character and story are conveyed through various dramatic devices in the finale.  It’s a great mini-lesson in the true complexity of good dramatic storytelling which isn’t just comprised of words in a script, but thick layers of revealing details assembled by a team of storytelling professionals that include performance, costumes, props, camera-angles, lighting, audio, symbolism and more.   Listen and learn from a master…

BIG-ASS WARNING:
SEASON 2 FINALE SPOILER ALERT
DON’T WATCH THIS IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THE EPISODE.

Also check out:

Terence Winter’s Boardwalk Empire Season 2 Finale – N.Y. Times Q&A