Boardwalk Empire Calling It Quits After Five Seasons - Is That Enough?

While Boardwalk Empire has never hit the narrative heights of shows like The Sopranos, The Wire and most recently, Breaking Bad, it has always proved to be an aesthetic feast; chock-a-block with whip-smart dialogue and some of the most elaborate camerawork allowed on network television.

Boardwalk Empire is poetic, moving a speed dedicated to the now rather than the next. Like its core characters, it waits for no one and is unrelenting in the search for beauty and extravagance twixt heartbreak and loss. Often, it blares nothing at you while sometimes the noise is unbearable. Pompous, overawing, gratuitous and overspilling with grandeur: HBOs stylish drama was a risk. But it paid off and despite being – for want of a better word – ridiculous, at times, it never failed to entertain me, and that’s its job.

Let’s savour season five, and hope it gets the treatment it deserves.