by Wanda Eaddy, Jimmy Hall, Shanna Welch & Eric Kelley
In the Beginning
Our group was composed of individuals who were used to consuming large amounts of text at a time, meaning the two binge sessions a day wouldn’t be out of the ordinary or even excessive.“The award winning series” Boardwalk Empire held great promise as we began our binge. A show that is historically based on the lives of gangsters in Atlantic City during the prohibition in the 1920s. Little did we know that most of the awards were given exclusively to the pilot episode. We were thrilled after a phenomenal pilot episode which introduced well-known gangster figures like Lucky Luciano, Al Capone and Nucky Thompson (all characters based on the real people). The initial excitement of binge watching quickly vanished. The nineteen episodes following the pilot were disgustingly confusing. The complex character arcs and excessive subplots resulted in a lack of narrative teleology which made the show Boardwalk Empire very difficult and unsatisfactory to binge.
Character Archetypes: Good Evil vs Evil
Boardwalk Empire does not follow rules of typical character archetypes which is a significant part of what makes it hard to binge watch. The typical audience looks for a villain and a hero in every story, there are no distinct representatives for these roles in Boardwalk Empire. Our group found this frustrating. The show is overwhelmed with villainous murderous characters, even the “good guy” Nelson Van Alden (the prohibition officer) ends up being insane and murderous. Because all the characters are “bad guys” there is no one to dig into and loathe, or even to rally/root for. Once the story-line and the characters began to wear on us, we began to notice things outside of the plot. The shows writers may have ran out of pointless storylines with real substance but their costume designer did not fall short in the fashion department or historically accurate accounts of the Suffragist movement. That was probably our favorite part, the sets/costumes and historical accuracy. Taking that into consideration, it did not take long for the directors to complicate the show in a way that was impossible to follow.
Excessive & Unimportant Subplots
There were consistent main characters; but then, there began an influx of many characters as well as many subplots which became increasingly more difficult to follow. The narrative teleology of the show was never clear or focused. The individual episodes would open new subplots but never bring them to a close, leaving the main plot unidentifiable. An argument could be made that the show centers around ‘the main bad guy’ Nucky, but then there is just as much screen time focused on characters like Jimmy Darmody or Nelson. When binge watching TV shows, a viewer needs a constant level of satisfaction or the binge will not be enjoyable. The subplots were interesting but because they would often go unresolved they were not substantial enough to wait for resolution. An example of an interesting subplot was the relationship between the character Gillian Darmody and her son Jimmy. There were several interactions between them which confused us about their relationship. The first meeting between her and Jimmy after his return from the war was baffling. She jumped on him wrapping her legs around him and kissing him on the mouth, we were surprised when he called him Mom.
The Binge
Bingeing alone, for this particular show, was difficult for us. It took a lot to stay focused, to remember who was who, and try to figure out what the point of the show was. Group bingeing on the other hand helped us to straighten everything out. We would often start the session by discussing what we had watched in our individual binge sessions and what new crazy story lines had opened up. We came to a sort of agreement that this show is definitely not a good one to binge, or even watch alone. The audience needs time to digest the plot lines, and discuss what the directors could have possibly been thinking. In conclusion we believe that we watched enough to understand why the show was canceled after five seasons.
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