Boardwalk Empire (photo courtesy of HBO)

Nucky is a treasurer, racketeer and bootlegger with aspirations to lead the Republican political organization of the area. He appeases the Women’s Temperance League for votes and denounces the evils of alcohol, then attends a wild party that marks the start of Prohibition and imbibes on the very thing he preached against earlier in the day.

What makes Nucky interesting is that you see him struggling with his public and private counterparts. His foot is firmly planted in the illegal way of things, but there are still flickers of decency that don’t make him as evil as the FBI wants him to be.

Granted, he puts on a face that he’s a stand-up citizen and all-around good guy, meanwhile he brokers deliveries on illegal booze to make more than he would ever get paid on his public servant salary.

Buscemi owns the role. Although the real Enoch was 6 foot 1 and 250 pounds, Buscemi’s intensity more than makes up for his lack of burliness. He conveys the slithery nature of Nucky, while also bringing out his humanity when he visits a member of the women’s league in the hospital.

The premiere, directed by Martin Scorsese, has his trademark visual style. One scene has a character, Big Jim Colosimo, bleeding from his head onto the floor after his face gets blown off, and it’s strangely beautiful as the camera pans up from his body to show the sprawling red mess oozing out of him.

Another scene introduces Al Capone (Stephen Graham), and while you’re thinking, “this is going to be good,” Scorsese reads your mind and pauses on his face just long enough to tell you that it’s going to be better than good.

“Boardwalk Empire” is based on Nelson Johnson's book, “Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City,” and adapted by Emmy award-winning screenwriter Terence Winter, of “The Sopranos” fame.

The show is sharp and layered, and its foundation could not have been laid out more perfectly by Scorsese. The clear, taut scenes and storyline illustrate the beginnings of being the best new show on TV this year.

(HBO, Sundays, 9 p.m.)

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