'Boardwalk' of broken dreams

"All a dream to begin with. Ain't nobody ever been free." — Chalky White, "Boardwalk Empire"

"Boardwalk Empire," once HBO's shinning hope for the future, is fast moving toward it's resolution. The show is one episode away from its series finale, and that end is starting to take shape. And I don't think it'll be a happy ending.

One of the things that I loved about "The Godfather" was the way it showed Michael Corleone fighting against the pull of his family. There was tension about who he wanted to be and how he wanted to live. But he was devoted to his family, and that pull ended up drawing him fully into that world. There is a beautiful moment when Michael is beside his father's hospital bed, when he says "I'm with you now" to his father. That's not only a statement about his physical proximity, but the decision he's made to abandon his dreams and do what must be done to protect his family.

What I also love about the set of three movies is how that decision changes him as a person, and changes his trajectory. By the end of the "The Godfather, Part III," Michael is a lonely old man. He dies alone, haunted by the memories of the family he devoted his life to protect. In the process of heading down that road, he destroyed all those relationships. He pushed his own family away. He ended up alone.

It's a haunting picture of his life, his choices, and where they got him.

For four seasons, it was hard to tell what kind of show "Boardwalk Empire" wanted to be. Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) rules Atlantic City, but you don't always get a sense of the man. There's references to his hard childhood, to his late wife, and to some pain in his past. But that's all they've remained — references.

But when the end is nigh, it's easy to get introspective. Terrence Winter, the creator of "Boardwalk Empire," seems to have embraced that in these final eight episodes. While the story has moved forward into the future, it's also moved into the past. We've seen Nucky as a child, and now as a young man. We're seeing how the events of his life have shaped him, and how he, like Michael Corleone, has been left nearly alone.

Many of the people in the sphere of the show are meeting their logical ends. Al Capone (Stephen Graham) is being done in by his brash persona and bad accounting. Chalky White (Michael K. Williams) fell on his sword for love. Nelson Van Alden (Michael Shannon) had to stop hiding. But it's Nucky we're meant to care about.

For four years he's been hard to read, but in the space of eight episodes the show hopes to make him a sympathetic figure, complete with a backstory. It remains to be seen if that's even possible.