Rick McGinnis on Boardwalk Empire:
The answer to that question should be none, but since the human condition makes that unlikely, the creators of Boardwalk Empire – and the whole anti-hero ethic, in practice – take it as license to presume a generous capacity for sin as the benchmark of a heroic life: in for a penny, in for a pound, basically, and since God is supposed to forgive us all in the end, why not double down again? (…)
In the baptism ceremony, a line about rejecting “the glamour of evil” sticks in the mind, and it seems strange and even absurd until you find yourself confronting the thing in life – or art. I’m willing to give Boardwalk Empire the benefit of the doubt that Margaret and Nucky will be struck with the full meaning of the phrase before a second season ends…