Boardwalk Empire kicks off third season

MANILA, Philippines - From Terence Winter, Emmy Award-winning writer of The Sopranos and Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese, Boardwalk Empire is set during the Prohibition in the ’20s, and chronicles the life and times of Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, the undisputed leader of Atlantic City. The Emmy and Golden Globe-winning HBO Original Series kicks off its 12-episode third season in Asia tonight at 9 on HBO and at 8 on HBO HD with subsequent episodes airing at the same time weekly.

In season two, Nucky (Steve Buscemi) married Margaret Schroeder (Kelly Macdonald) to prevent her from testifying in court and took revenge on Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt) for his role in a plot against him. But his hopes for smooth sailing were derailed when she signed away his highway windfall to the church. Meanwhile, agent Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon) fled to Illinois to escape the feds with baby and nanny in tow.

Picking up 16 months after the end of season two, the new season begins on New Year’s Eve in 1922: The Roaring ‘20s are about to begin in earnest. Despite a booming economy, alcohol has become scarce, competition is fierce and gangster violence is heating up. With his marriage to Margaret already on the rocks, Nucky faces the challenge of mending old relationships and encounters new competition from a hair-trigger gangster determined to siphon off his business.

Aside from Buscemi, Macdonald and Shannon, Boardwalk Empire also stars Gretchen Mol as Gillian, Jimmy Darmody’s mother; Shea Whigham as Nucky’s estranged brother Elias; Michael Stuhlbarg as gangster Arnold Rothstein; Stephen Graham as gangster Al Capone; Vincent Piazza as gangster Lucky Luciano; Michael Kenneth Williams as Chalky White, leader of the city’s African-American community; Anthony Laciura as Eddie Kessler, Nucky’s valet; Paul Sparks as gangster Mickey Doyle; Jack Huston as Richard Harrow, a disfigured war veteran; Charlie Cox as Owen Sleater, Nucky’s right-hand man; Bobby Cannavale as Gyp Rosetti, Nucky’s new foe; Arron Shiver as gangster Dean O’Banion; Christopher McDonald as US attorney general Harry Daugherty; Stephen Root as Gaston Means, a go-between for Nucky and Daugherty; and Meg Chambers Steedle as Billie Kent, Nucky’s new mistress.

The series received four wins at the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (Tim Van Patten); Outstanding Art Direction for a Single-Camera Series (tied with HBO’s Game of Thrones); Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series; and Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Supporting Role.