Secondary Character Saturday: Eli Thompson, Boardwalk Empire

[Image courtesy: HBO]

From: Boardwalk Empire

Intertitle from the HBO television program Boardwalk Empire (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Premiered: 2009

Pros:  Loyalty to his wife and children, and to a lessor degree his brother, Nucky. Complex character.

Cons: Breaks the law if it fits his, or Nucky’s, agenda.

Most Shining Moment: Eli’s character arch took quite a twist after he was released from prison. He went from one of my least favorite characters to one of my favorite. He goes from being an Atlantic City sheriff to a nobody. That humility helps his character enormously. Even when he is given a nothing job under the show’s most annoying minor mob boss, Eli holds his own. His best moment is when he tries to warn a caravan of truck drivers carry a shipment of hooch that there is an ambush in the next town. The truckers ignore him, and the insuring massacre is the start of a gang war. Another excellent Eli moment  happens at the end of the season  when Nucky and his troops are help up at a lumber yard. Eli drives thru the night to get help from a certain  Al Capone  in Chicago.

Least Shining Moment: All of Season One.

[Image Courtesy: HBO]

Of course, this being HBO, the show is filled with rude language and R rated behavior. The network doesn’t seem capable — or at least willing — to tell a good story with out bad language, gratuitous sex, and the objectification of  women. Given the subject matter of Boardwalk Empire I supposed a certain amount of that is part of the story, but I think HBO takes the simple, titillating way to ratings, when good story telling and terrific acting — which they have in spades  — will get them there.
Boardwalk Empire is based on the book Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City by Nelson Johnson. The show is now in its fourth season on HBO.

[Image courtesy: HBO]