Sex and violence has never been more stylish. But can Boardwalk Empire become as good as The Sopranos? By Jim Shelley

Its main protagonist may be the notoriously slimy human weasel Nucky Thompson but Boardwalk Empire still oozes class.
The first installment of its fourth series, ‘New York Sour’, was directed by Tim Van Patten (responsible for 21 episodes of The Sopranos) and its executive producers still include Mark Wahlberg and Martin Scorsese.
The quality of the photography, choreography and costumes was, as ever, immaculate. And even in the smallest roles, the acting is powerful but always authentic. 

It's back: Boardwalk Empire returns for it's fourth series with Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson

Above all, it provided a master-class in how to intercut a myriad of intriguing, complex storylines, moving effortlessly from Atlantic City to New York, from Al
Capone’s activities in Cicero, Illinois to the obscure Indiana town of Warsaw. Warsaw, a barman proudly informed two mobsters heading for Columbus, was home to the second longest continuous brick wall in the world. This was the last fascinating fact they learned before they were murdered.  

It was so consummately polished, it was as its creators had decided to celebrate its return by including everything fans could wish for from an episode of Boardwalk Empire.
It had six stylishly brutal deaths (three of them by mask-faced weirdo Richard Harrow), the prospect of a peculiar new Prohibition agent coming to the fore in the form of baby-faced oddball Warren Knox, and a glorious rant by Al Capone (Liverpool’s Stephen Graham). 

Good start: The episode - New York Sour - has everything fans could hope for from the show

This was over a newspaper story that not only accused him of being Joe Torrio’s factotum (‘fact-who-sis ?!’ Capone erupted) but missing the ‘e’ off his surname.
When Capone ignored the advice that he was better off keeping a low profile and visited the reporter’s office to spell out his name properly for him, it was something of a surprise not to see him promptly didn’t bury the pencil in the hack’s eye.
There is the enticing prospect that Series Four will feature a lot more of Chalky White (Michael Kenneth Williams from The Wire) and his pink polka dot bow tie and fantastically outlandish checked suits.

Still got class: Despite the protagonist being a sleaze the programme still looks classy

It was a shame to lose Treasury Officer Stan Sawicki but there were fleeting glimpses of Mickey Doyle and the pre-requisite scenes of Gretchen Mol as Gillian Darmody shooting up and snorting drugs.
The only surprise was to see an HBO drama wait a full 33 minutes before the first brazenly gratuitous shots of some sexy actress topless.
They made up for this by taking five whole minutes before Richard Harrow, TV’s most bizarre hitman, had claimed his first two victims of the new series – the mobsters in Warsaw.
Later the camera closed in painfully slowly on a man sitting behind his desk, pleading for mercy.
‘You don’t know me,’ he bleated. ‘You don’t know anything about me.’

Gang wars: The episode sees Nucky convene a meeting to re-establish peace between the warring factions from the last series

‘I know you’re going to die,’ Harrow murmured, stepping into the shot, and shooting him in the cheek as he himself had been, before killing him.
One early scene showed all the gang will be there. Nucky had convened a meeting to re-establish peace between the warring factions from the last series: Joe Masseria and Lucky Luciano who has defected from Mayer Lansky and the strange, mannequin-like figure of Ray Reardon-lookalike Arnold Rothstein.
‘All of man’s troubles come from his inability to sit in a room by himself,’ Rothstein proposed sagely, and it would be a foolish man who argued with him.
Confirming that Boardwalk is intent on chronicling the history of the American gangster, ‘New York Sour’ included the latest addition to its roster - Capone’s brother Frank. It also promised the imminent arrival of Owney Madden, the owner of the Cotton Club as well as ‘the King of Harlem’, Valentin Narcisse (played by Golden Globe winner Jeffrey Wright).
The most astonishing - but quintessential - scene featured Dickey Pastor, a sleazy, racist, theatrical agent connected to Madden.
Pastor interrupted his wife Alma having sex with Chalky White’s henchman Dunn Purnsley, pointing a gun at his head, forcing him to adopt the role of a slave calling him ‘boss’ and then get his kicks by making Purnsley resume ravaging her.
If he’d seen what we had in the previous series, he’d have known Purnsley was not the sort of man to be humiliated for very long.
He grabbed a whiskey bottle, smashed it over Pastor’s head and then stabbed him in the throat with the jagged edge until Pastor’s head was virtually severed and his own white shirt soaked red with blood.
Discovering that Alma had fled, jumping out of the window presumably to report back to Madden, can only mean there will be trouble ahead for Dunn, Chalky and, inevitably Nucky, who actually hardly featured.
But New York Sour confirmed Boardwalk Empire is just as good without him.
Two other main morals from the episode were clear.
Firstly, journalists dealing with psychotic thugs like Al Capone really should be careful how they spell their names.
And secondly, now that Breaking Bad is over and Homeland has becoming a laughing stock, Boardwalk Empire is easily the best show on television.
With the next 11 episodes, it has a good chance of becoming one of the great series of all time.