Was 'Boardwalk Empire' finale 'poetic'?

Spoiler alert: Read no further if you haven't seen the finale of HBO's Boardwalk Empire...

The End of the Boardwalk

Nucky Thompson had his own finale Sunday on the series finale of the Prohibition-era drama set in Atlantic City, capping a flashback-filled season that saw the end of several major characters.

Including, at last, Nucky (Steve Buscemi), shot in the face by a man who turned out to be Tommy Darmody, the son of Jimmy, the protege played by Michael Pitt that Nucky had killed three seasons earlier. (Never mind that the inspiration for Nucky, real-life Enoch Johnson, spent four years in prison but died at 85.)

What did fans think?

Others were more conflicted about the show:



Boardwalk ratings had ebbed, and it was never an awards darling (it won two Golden Globes in 2011 but no major Emmy Awards besides a supporting-actor trophy for a one-season role by Bobby Cannavale). But HBO fittingly gave it an eight-episode sendoff.

And here's an Eddie Cantor tune from the series premiere: