Boardwalk Empire’ a good way to begin 2011

I can’t say that this will carry over the whole new year, but my first blog post of 2011 concerns a television show.

Not a standard show, mind you. Not a sitcom or example of “reality” excess or nature adventure or quiz show or anything remotely similar. Not even anything that would ever show on network television.

But then as any number of critics have pointed out over the past couple of years, the best work being done these days can be found on cable television. And for me, HBO leads the pack.

The latest example of HBO quality is “Boardwalk Empire,” a 12-part miniseries set in 1920 Atlantic City, N.J. Over the last week, my wife and I did a “Boardwalk Empire” marathon, courtesy of Comcast On Demand . And we found the series eminently watchable.

Part of the series’ quality involves its based-on-real-events source. Creator Terence Winter, who had worked previously on “The Sopranos,” based the series on a nonfiction book by Nelson Johnson titled “Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times and Corruption of Atlantic City.” Several of the major characters, then, are based on real individuals.

Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, played by Steve Buscemi, is the county treasurer. But he’s more than a mere functionary. He’s the straw that stirs the drink, the man who decides everything — from who runs for mayor to who stands for sheriff, who lives well and who dies suddenly.

Prohibition has just become the law of the land, so Nucky and others see the new legislation as a way of making money. The problem, then, is the others, whether they be civilians such as the abused woman Margaret Schoeder (Kelly Macdonald), federal agents such as Nelson Van Algren (Michael Shannon) or competing criminals such as Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg) and his cronies, Charles “Lucky Luciano” (Vincent Piazza) and Meyer Lansky (Anatol Yusef).

Of course, Nucky is always fighting those who are supposedly closest to him, from his mentor (Dabney Coleman) to his brother (Shea Whigham) to the young World War I veteran (Michael Pitt) whom Nucky has both protected and used.

One of the strengths of “Boardwalk Empire” is its feel for the period. Though much of what passes for the boardwalk is rendered through CGI, the dress worn by and attitudes expressed by the characters for the most part feel right. One of the weaknesses is how the story development unfolds over the course of the first season — yes, there will be a second season — in a way that feels a bit familiar.

In the finale, so many story lines are left open that it’s fairly impossible to decipher what’s going to happen next. Or, worse, why. Why did the war veteran’s wife get left at the dock? What do Nucky’s friendly foes have in mind? Is the federal agent going to get away with murder? Will Nucky find true contentment and happiness?

“Boardwalk Empire” owes a big debt to “The Sopranos.” It presents a world of criminals, each of whom has a back story. And in most cases, that back story can seem to be a rationale for why these characters act so badly. But do we ever get a feel for Nucky the way we did for James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano? I’d argue no.

In the big picture, “Boardwalk Empire” isn’t first-tier HBO. It ranks behind the cable channel’s best efforts: “The Sopranos,” “Deadwood” and “The Wire,” with “Band of Brothers,” “Six Feet Under” and “Rome” coming close behind. But even second-tier HBO ranks with the best of what television has to offer.

And as is more and more becoming a truism, it ranks far ahead of the two-hour studies that Hollywood keeps offering to the lowest common denominator.

Below : DVD release dates for “Boardwalk Empire” have yet to be announced.