The Walking Dead v Boardwalk Empire

ZOMBIES V BOOTLEG BOOZE

If you'd  have been asked me what I thought would be the must see show between Boardwalk Empire; a gangster epic starring Steve Buscemi or The Walking Dead a comic book zombie show with that bloke from Teachers and This Life in it, I know where my money would have been. And I would have lost it.

Both shows are in their third seasons but only one of them is pushing its way to being the best thing on television. A clue it's not the one with the bootleg booze.

While The Walking Dead has knife edge tension and you really don't know what is going to happen from moment to moment Boardwalk Empire flounders in its slow, slow, quick, quick, slow mode. I think the last two episodes of both shows highlight why one is soaring and the other is gently  continuing to flat-line. 

In Boardwalk Empire we had an entire episode where Nucky was shell shocked after the blast. Ok, so he would be, but it was hammered home time after time. We got it after the first couple, move on. Then we have Margaret, the show usually comes to a halt when she has screen time, but the whole clinic thing, I'm struggling to think of any show that has had a duller storyline. Answers on a postcard please. Then the Owen stuff, the only way you would have been shocked by his death is if you had never seen a television show before. He might as well have had I'm going to die in this episode pinned to his hat. But the death of characters in Boardwalk Empire is so so because we just don't care about them. Unlike The Walking Dead where you genuinely like the characters and fear for their safety. When a major character dies in The Walking Dead you really feel it, Boardwalk Empire its greeted with a shrug.

The last two episodes of The Walking Dead have been full of tension and rage. Boardwalk Empire could learn from The Walking Dead that you don't have to sacrifice character for pace. Woodbury is genuinely frightening with its bland, cosy exterior and extremely dark underbelly and we now fear the humans every bit as much as the walkers.  

The Walking Dead has gone from good, solid first season to outstanding second and equally impressive third where as Boardwalk Empire has gone from disappointing first, pretty dull second and Gyp Rosetti livened up third. When the forth seasons come around I know which one I'll be looking forward to most; a clue it's not the one with the bootleg booze.

Over