Television fans are a unique set. We’re the type of people who devote hours upon hours a week to our fictional, televised friends. We laugh at their jokes and cry when they cry because our favorite shows are just so darn good. But the intensity of the laughter and the tears is all thanks to the fact that we regard these characters as something of a family. We know them. We understand them. We love them unconditionally. And actors deserve recognition for being able to elicit that level of a reaction from their fans. Naturally, when they’re not given their due, we’re forced to react, well, emotionally. How, exactly, will we react? That depends on the actor in question. Next up is Boardwalk Empire‘s most valuable player, Steve Buscemi.
Do you have an obsession with the Roaring Twenties? If so, you probably tune in to watch the epic HBO series Boardwalk Empire and are therefore probably (and rightfully) a fan of the great Steve Buscemi. Nucky Thompson is the show after all — and each season, the reason why us fans can’t wait to return for more blood and gore.
It might seem odd for a woman like me who is usually knee-deep in celebrity weeklies to care about a high-minded program that focuses on the prohibition and the brothel-mob scandals of the 1920s — but when I tuned into the premiere episode, I was simply blown away by Buscemi.
His work on the show makes it difficult to believe he has never actually won an Emmy. The actor has been nominated five times — once before in 2011 for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Boardwalk — but this year better be his year. After all, Buscemi bounced back from the loss with an even better performance in Season 2, flexing Nucky’s leader-of-the-pack muscles. Who else but Buscemi could tackle Boardwalk‘s sensitive subjects and dramatic showdowns with such finesse? (Just see Season 2’s brutal final scene. I’m still shuddering imagining it.)
It’s hard to believe that any actor, no matter how gifted, could allow an audience to emotionally connect with such a vicious murderer, but, sure enough, Buscemi managed. Nucky’s relationship with his soon-to-be wife Margaret and his soon-to-be adoptive kids was so heart-warming that you couldn’t help be heart-broken watching it deteriorate. Even if Nucky wouldn’t allow his inner pain to translate, Buscemi did.
It’s talent like this that should be honored at the Emmys. Don’t believe me? Go ahead. Turn on your television Sunday nights and tune in for Season 3 of Boardwalk. That is sure to set you straight.
Otherwise, I certainly won’t go straight. I’ll have no other choice than to simply down an entire whiskey bottle, throw it right off of the shores of Atlantic City, and inevitably go waste away my savings at the nearest depressing casino. Don’t leave me penniless, voters.
Follow Lindsey on Twitter @LDiMat.
[Photo Credit: HBO]
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