Boardwalk Empire: Season Two

If there was one constant complaint about the first season of Boardwalk Empire (besides its tendency to stop just short of flashing “THIS IS SYMBOLIC” subtitles), it was that the show spent more time talking than doing. It’s only a one-minute trailer, but judging by its highlights, the second year of the HBO drama is now, like Steve Buscemi’s Nucky Thompson, fully embracing its mob identity. For one thing, seemingly everyone’s got a gun, from the Ku Klux Klan to Michael K. Williams’ Chalky White, who will hopefully get much more to do this year. Even better, they’re all sticking them in each others’ faces, as this preview sets up the growing standoff between Thompson and Michael Pitt’s Jimmy Darmody, who’s aided by his newly reinvigorated father The Commodore (Dabney Coleman). While Boardwalk Empire is still big on issuing threats—“I will ruin you. All of you,” Buscemi says at one point—the trailer suggests that, this time, it plans to act on them.