Boardwalk Empire
Golden Days for Boys and Girls
TV Flash files “Golden Days for Boys and Girls” as a desk essential hour — Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014) on HBO, season 5, episode 1, aired 2014-09-07, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E01: listed hour 49 of 56 in the Boardwalk Empire guide, first listed hour of season 5. It aired 2014-09-07 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Farewell Daddy Blues” (S04E12). Next is “The Good Listener” (S05E02).
Essential hour: “Golden Days for Boys and Girls”. Golden Days for Boys and Girls spends nostalgia as irony — the racket's golden age already a lie the treasurer tells.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Nucky is awash in memories from pier-boy days growing up in 1884 Atlantic City, when the young Nucky caught the eye of the Commodore. In 1931 Cuba, Nucky joins Sally Wheet and, with a U.S. Senator in tow, forges ties with Bacardi Rum in hopes of Prohibition's repeal in the U.S. Working on Wall Street, Margaret finds herself in the hot seat when her boss, facing an internal investigation, decides his own future. Down but never out, Chalky seizes an opportunity to extricate himself from a difficult situation. In New York, Lucky Luciano sets in motion a bold plan that reverberates all the way to Nucky in Cuba.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Golden Days for Boys and Girls sit in the Boardwalk Empire guide?
S05E01 is listed hour 49 of 56 — first listed hour of season 5, season 5 episode 1.
When did Boardwalk Empire S05E01 air?
Golden Days for Boys and Girls aired 2014-09-07 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Do I need The Sopranos first?
Winter comes out of that world; this is Prohibition Atlantic City, not Jersey therapy. Gangster prestige with Scorsese sheen, standalone.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Terence Winter's Prohibition Atlantic City with Scorsese sheen: Steve Buscemi's Nucky running politics as just another racket, Chalky White, Rothstein, and production design that eats the frame. Early-HBO gangster prestige — sequins, mud, and the body count of a treasurer who thought the Boardwalk was forever.
The flash is sequins in mud. September **2010**, HBO, Martin Scorsese on the pilot, Steve Buscemi as Enoch "Nucky" Thompson — a corrupt treasurer running Atlantic City through Prohibition's opportunities and body count, politics as just another racket. Terence Winter's tentpole between *Sopranos* afterglow and later peaks. Kelly Macdonald, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg's Rothstein, Michael Kenneth Williams's Chalky White, Shea Whigham. Production design eats the frame. The museum guard can catalog the period…
Filed against
- Steve Buscemi as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson
Steve Buscemi ran Boardwalk Empire as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson — Prohibition Atlantic City with Scorsese sheen, politics as just another racket, sequins, mud, a treasurer's body count. Terence Winter's early-HBO gangster prestige. TV Flash…
- Kelly Macdonald as Margaret Schroeder
Kelly Macdonald's Margaret Schroeder gave Boardwalk Empire a human ledger under the sequins — Terence Winter's Prohibition Atlantic City, Scorsese sheen, politics as just another racket. Mud and treasurer math. TV Flash files her as 2010s…
- Michael Shannon as Nelson Van Alden
Michael Shannon’s Nelson Van Alden turned Boardwalk Empire’s Prohibition piety into a sweating moral problem — Scorsese sheen, sequins and mud — then bearded up for Death by Lightning’s assassination-as-standom tragedy. Early-HBO gangster…
- Shea Whigham as Eli Thompson
Shea Whigham's Eli Thompson ran Boardwalk Empire as brother-and-treasurer mud — Terence Winter's Prohibition Atlantic City with Scorsese sheen, Steve Buscemi's Nucky treating politics as another racket, sequins, a body count. Early-HBO…
- Michael Stuhlbarg as Arnold Rothstein
Michael Stuhlbarg’s Arnold Rothstein counted Boardwalk Empire’s Atlantic City like a treasurer who thought the sequins were his — Terence Winter, Scorsese sheen, Nucky, Chalky, mud, 2010s early-HBO gangster prestige. TV Flash files him as…
- Michael Kenneth Williams as Chalky White
Michael Kenneth Williams’s Chalky White walked Boardwalk Empire like Prohibition Atlantic City needed a rival weather system — Terence Winter, Scorsese sheen, Steve Buscemi’s Nucky, sequins, mud, a treasurer’s body count. TV Flash files…