Boardwalk Empire Season 3 Preview: An Invitation To The Set

While the fifth season return of True Blood might help, it's going to take a lot more than the blood sucking soap opera to fill the Game of Thrones void. HBO's Sunday nights simply won't feel as epic with the war for the Seven Kingdoms on hiatus except, perhaps, when the war for the Boardwalk finally returns this fall. After the game changing events of the second season finale, epic is certainly an apt word to describe Boardwalk Empire and the battle for booze that now extends way beyond the borders of Atlantic City.

Obviously, I'm highly anticipating the third season of the bootlegging series to see how everything shakes out and the two brief teases ("New Year, New Rules" and "I'm Not Finished") the network has released so far have hardly been enough to quench my thirst. And even though "Invitation to the Set" videos often are little more than self-aggrandizing interviews and the actors standing around on set, this behind the scenes look at Boardwalk Empire Season 3 is actually quite good. I love how it opens with voice-over from the Season 2 finale and... BOOM! You remember the exchange between Nucky and Jimmy? Of course you do.



The set invitation works well as a primer for the upcoming season, opening with a brief look at most of our favorite characters before creator Terrence Winter introduces the theme of the new year as well as the fact that, well, it's a new year. 15 Months have passed but the dust still hasn't settled with New Years, 1922 serving as the 'party before the hangover.' And if Winter's recap and setup of each of the returning characters wasn't enough to get you excited, how about the introduction of Bobby Canavale's Gyp Rosetti? I'd say he more than looks the part and I can't wait to see him in action in what the creator described as a 'more violent and more competitive' Boardwalk. More? I'm so there.

Boardwalk Empire returns for Season 3 on HBO this fall. It stars Steve Buscemi, Kelly McDonald, Michael Shannon, Shea Whigham, Vincent Piazza and Michael Stuhlbarg. It was created by Terence Winter.