Steve Buscemi has been one of my favourite actors for some time.
That could be because of his parts in the extremely excellent Coen brothers movies Fargo, The Hudsucker Proxy and The Big Lebowsky.
But he also had star turns in Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and on television in 30 Rock and The Sopranos.
His best roles, and there are many of them, are as a supporting actor, generally an unpleasant, neurotic and possibly violent supporting actor.
Now, Buscemi has turned out in a lead role in Boardwalk Empire, as corrupt city official and prohibition alcohol king Enoch "Nucky" Thompson.
He is not the only big name in the project.
Martin Scorsese directed the pilot and established the look and feel of the show.
And with 12 episodes, beginning on Sky Movies next month, both Buscemi and the look and feel have to do a good job of holding the attention.
Buscemi's role is based on the story of Enoch Lewis "Nucky" Johnson, an Atlantic City, New Jersey political boss and racketeer.
From 1911 until his imprisonment in 1941, he was the boss of the Republican political machine that controlled Atlantic City, bootlegging during the prohibition, and making his fortune from gambling and prostitution.
There are so many 1920s gangster movies, I guess, because the time looked like a lot more fun than today.
Everybody was, if you believe Boardwalk Empire and 100 other films of its ilk, deliciously corrupt.
Despite the prohibition, drinking and dancing in 1920s-style clothes was about all people apparently did.
Not only that, but the gangsters of the day were far better dressed, and far more stylish than those of today.
But when is enough enough?
Boardwalk Empire starts - surprise, surprise - at a misty port, where 1920s-type bad men unload a boat full of whisky.
Apart from Thompson, Boardwalk Empire is peopled by cloth-cap gangsters, bad Italian-American types, and alcoholic men in stained wife-beater singlets who - guess what - beat their wives.
One laboured aspect of Boardwalk Empire is the introduction of its celebrity gangsters.
Early on we meet Lucky Luciano in a "business meeting".
Outside, Thompson's driver smokes cigarettes with another driver.
Before they leave, the two exchange names.
"I'm Al Capone," the other says.
Boardwalk Empire is probably worth following, just for the quality of the people who put it together, and while it takes a while to get used to Buscemi as a lead, he is extremely good.
I just think it's time the film industry moved on.
The 1930s, I hear, was a terrific decade.
