One of the best series: Boardwalk Empire

I know that this blog it is supposed to be about my running thoughts but I am going to do another exception. Last year I started watching  Boardwalk Empire. I had enough with five minutes of an episode that I caught in La Sexta to know that it would become one of my favourite series. I started looking for some information and I found that the reviews were really great and that they recommended watching it. The option was clear and I didn’t doubt it. 

I really like films o series about gangsters. I know that they are terrible persons: they are murderers, killers, they like drinking and drugs, they don’t mind being unfaithful to their wives… I know they all should be in prision, but there is something I like about them and it is their sense of loyalty. They don’t forgive anyone who betrays them and they would do anything for one of their gang. I know they do terrible things but, as I said, in a way, I admire these few values (not all of them). 

I knew my wife wasn’t going to like so I had to find my moments to follow it. It was in 2013, when I started my ERE at my job, that I started to watch episodes in English and I soon got into the series. The plot is easy: it is the life of Nucky Thompson, a man who runs the dirty business in Atlantic City.

As you can imagine, he goes through a lot of stories but there are also other many characters that makes the series great. All of the characters have their problems and it is brilliant how the plot mixes all of them up with sense. Another thing is that a lot of the characters are real: Al Capone,  Lucky Luciano, Bugsy… and many other gangsters of those years have a very important performance in Boardwalk Empire.

I have to admit that I really enjoyed watching all the episodes. Mafia has had an enormous power in the United States in the 20th century and they were able to control police men, judges, politicians… It is very interesting to see in this series how things happened, how they are able to have nearly everybody under control.

Now, one of my purposes is to watch Los Soprano, because everybody says that it is one of the great series about gangsters ever. If I finally watch it, I will let you know.

A great book

A few days ago I finished Reading Edge of Eternity, the last book of Ken Follet Ken Follet, the one that completes the Trilogy of the Century. Before he wrote Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, two great books about the history of the 20th Century. Obviously, after reading the other two I had to finish with the third one.

 

My father did a sprint and he read as fast as he could. Once he finished it, he gave it to me. When I saw that the book has more than 1,100 pages I thought it would take me ages to read it. As it is such a big book I also thought that it would be impossible to carry it around. Fortunately, I was completely wrong.

Book Cover

I remember that I started it one afternoon in my Christmas holidays, but it was a few weeks after when I really got stuck to it. As it happened to me always that I have had a Ken Follet’s book in my hands, I couldn’t stop reading it. The story of the different characters was very interesting but the thing that makes these books great is that they take you to some of the most important moments of history. I was so stuck to the book that I didn’t mind to take it with me in the Metro and I also preferred to catch the public transport to the car to read as many pages as possible.

I don’t know which are the reviewers opinions about the book, I don’t know if he uses the best words, what I really know is that the stories of the different characters catch your attention and that he uses them great to explain some of the moments of our history that we can’t forget.

Sometimes I would like to know more things, to have a better knowledge of our history. When I was at school I studied the World Wars or the Russian Revolution but I hardly learnt anything about the Cold War, the Berlin Wall or other key moments of the Century. Thanks to these books I have been able to know more things and learn some more.

I can finish my review without mentioning Ken Follet. I remember one summer that my friend Albert told me to read The Pilars of the Earth. When I saw the book, I thought that it would be impossible that I would get tired early if it. Again I was completely wrong. I remember that I enjoyed a lot the book and since then, Follet has become one of my favourite authors. Now I can see a few years later: thank you Albert!