After five seasons, and fifty-six episodes, “Boardwalk Empire” said goodbye in 2014, capping off Martin Scorsese and Terence Winter‘s Prohibition era drama. The series presented a wide array of colorful characters to populate the gang and criminal-filled narrative, but few were as memorable as Michael Shannon’s Van Alden, the religiously repressed special agent tasked with bringing down Nucky, who winds up getting in a bit too deep.
The character was certainly intense, and an oddity too, but you might be surprised to learn that Shannon himself felt Van Alden could’ve been so much more than the arc that was ultimately carried across the length of the show.
“I wasn’t always happy with what was happening with Van Alden. I honestly thought it could have been a lot more interesting,” he told Variety. “I thought it fell into a very repetitive thing, particularly toward the end where he’s just being constantly humiliated and he tries to take it, then he loses his shit and does something bad and then he does it again. It’s a classic structure – it’s almost like a very dour Three Stooges. The great dark secret of humanity is that people love to watch other people squirm. They love to watch other people suffer, which is really strange.”
It’s a very hard, honest take by Shannon about his work and character on the show, but what do you think? Could Van Alden been more nuanced, or broadened? Or was he perfect for the world of “Boardwalk Empire”? Let us know in the comments section.