Clockwise from left: Damian Lewis in Homeland, Steve Buscemi in Boardwalk Empire, Andrew Lincoln in The Walking Dead, Jon Hamm in Mad Men, and Bryan Cranston on Breaking Bad. (Ed Johnson)

On Sunday night, as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were making history as the first two women to successfully elbow out a male host for the Golden Globes, audiences took in an unprecedented display of girl power. With Lena Dunham winning for Best Actress in a Comedy, Girls taking Best Comedy, and Julianne Moore winning for Game Change, we trumpeted a new era ... one in which women could not only captivate an audience but do so with an unlikable protagonist. (Hannah Horvath is no Tony Soprano, but she can be plenty unappealing at times.)

Many of the night’s other nominees, including the stars of Veep and Nashville, fit into the same category, as did the un-nominated (but still there in spirit) Edie Falco in Nurse Jackie, Laura Linney in The Big C and Laura Dern in the criminally under-watched Enlightened, which premiered its second season this week. This last is perhaps the best example of these hard-to-watch heroines, with Ms. Dern playing the most delusional, self-righteous and self-martyring female antihero ever to traipse through premium cable.

It was a great night for rude, crude, progressive women. Unfortunately, it was an even better night for Bad Men.

In 2007, when Mad Men won the Globes for both Best Drama and Best Actor, AMC’s new prime-time show featuring gin-swilling 1960s philanderer Don Draper as its protagonist was still considered edgy for a non-premium cable show. Today, networks feature increasingly despicable, morally complex and utterly doomed characters, and the awards tend to follow. In the last several years, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has seen fit to nominate a serial killer (Dexter), a U.S. Marine-turned-Islamic terrorist (Sgt. Nicholas Brody in Homeland), several corrupt politicians (Enoch “Nucky” Thompson from Boardwalk Empire and Boss’s Tom Kane) and the world’s most dangerous high school science teacher (Breaking Bad’s Walter White) in its Best Drama and Best Actor categories.

This year, four of these ne’er-do-wells crowded the Best Actor box, with accolades for Homeland’s Damian Lewis, Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, Mad Men’s Jon Hamm and Boardwalk’s Steve Buscemi. The only exception to the rule: the disgruntled-but-ultimately righteous Will McAvoy from The Newsroom. God save us when an Aaron Sorkin antihero is the closest we get to a good guy.

The rest are endemic of a new trend in millennial TV protagonists—men who are, if not quite villains, then at least Bad Men. At best, our guy is an immoral misanthrope and a latent misogynist. At worst, he’s a sociopath, one who may or may not be running an international drug cartel. Or a terrorist ring. If you’re lucky, he’s merely a serial killer who kills other killers. And the scary thing is: we relate to them. We empathize. And if they don’t already hate their wives and children, not to worry—we do. How can we not, what with the missus harping about domestic nonsense when there is a meth empire to run or a presidential front-runner to assassinate?

It’s not just awards-season accolades that reflect the shift away from shows about good guys: Homeland, Breaking Bad and Dexter beat their top ratings last season. The Walking Dead surprised even its biggest fans by shattering basic cable numbers with its season-three premiere, which saw an audience of 10.9 million total viewers, the “biggest telecast for any drama series in basic cable history,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

It’s not hard to see what attracts today’s audience to these characters. For the first time in our history, the majority of men will not be able to surpass their fathers in wealth or status. With the recession, record job losses and lack of affordable health care, the Great Emasculation is well underway. Thus our need for men who at least take a stand, for good or ill, men whose nihilism often stems from psychic trauma. Men who, if not kind or ethical, survive and even flourish under dismal conditions. They might not be heroes, but we respect them.

Unlike, say, their horrible wives.

Take, for instance, Jessica Brody, the wife on Homeland played by Morena Baccarin. Not only did she cheat on Sgt. Brody during his eight years in captivity and after he returned, she pestered him for “the truth” throughout season one, only to freak out about his embrace of Islam and finally kick him to the curb. Meanwhile, Brody tried—he really did—to be a good husband and father even as he plotted his terror attack. If only Jessica hadn’t been so nosy, if only his daughter Dana had shown him a little bit more respect, maybe he wouldn’t have felt the need to run off with a bipolar C.I.A. agent.

Which isn’t to say that the protagonists of these shows ever voice any misogynistic tendencies. They don’t have to. It’s the programs themselves that turn the viewers against long-suffering wives, female colleagues and blameless children. A recent Huffington Post article on the 21 Worst Characters on television included the love interests on The Walking Dead, Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire. These shows, along with Breaking Bad and Homeland, all portray nosy, ineffectual matriarchs who are simultaneously ice-cold bitches, helpless victims and puritanical enforcers. We resent these women for the usual reasons women are often resented: because they are nosy, because they aren’t affectionate enough, because can’t keep their husbands from straying, because they are not always perfect mothers. Of course, they are driven to the brink by their husbands’ actions. But in a world that glorifies amorality, women are the spoilsports. They might be “good” (at least in relation to their husbands), but that makes them worse than bad. It makes them sneaky, shrewish and thoroughly unsympathetic victims.

Walter White is a Bad Men:

But Skylar is kind of worse:

Even worse, they are whores.

For instance, even though both Jessica Brody and Lori Grimes had the moral loophole of thinking their husbands were dead, we can’t help but resent them for carrying on with their husbands’ best friends. Betty Draper and Skyler White are also guilty of the cardinal female sin of infidelity, which is much harder to swallow, somehow, then when their fellows stray. (Poor Walter White has been at least sexually faithful to his wife, only to have her retaliate for his drug dealing by having an affair with her boss.)

Despite the flagrant violence of these shows, the Bad Men still tend to put “family first,” long after they give up every other social convention. And if they lash out occasionally (Draper’s constant bordering-on-abusive-relationships with his paramours, including both his current and former wives) or engage in stalker-level harassment (Walter White breaking into the house of his separated wife and refusing to leave), we sympathize.

In December, a 26-year-old Long Island man named Jared Gurman got into a fight with his girlfriend of three and a half years. They were arguing about The Walking Dead. Mr. Gurman—who described himself on Facebook as “an underappreciated person,” who felt that he should be “making more money at work”—took out a .22-caliber semi-automatic rifle and shot his girlfriend in the back. She ended up with fractured ribs and a punctured lung and diaphragm, all for calling Mr. Gurman’s theory about the zombie apocalypse “ridiculous.” Fans of the show might recognize a certain irony: despite a plethora of semi-automatics and reasons to put one to his wife’s head, Rick Grimes never took a shot at his wife.

What a mensch!

Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Getty Images)

The Emmys, television's slightly-less-glitzy answer to the Oscars, are this Sunday, and we have some relatively uneducated guesses as to which of the nominees will bring home an oddly spiky statuette.

Best Actress in a Comedy nominees

Zooey Deschanel, New Girl

Lena Dunham, Girls 

Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie

Tina Fey, 30 Rock

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep

Melissa McCarthy, Mike & Molly

Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

This overstuffed category--seven nominees!--excluded two of last year's nominees as well as the acclaimed and Golden Globe-winning Laura Dern performance on Enlightened, so each person here has a passionate base of support. Even so, it's not hard to believe that Edie Falco and Tina Fey have already been rewarded amply, and Melissa McCarthy's moment of big-screen fame after Bridesmaids contributed more to her win last year than any great love for Mike & Molly. That leaves four! Zooey Deschanel's New Girl performance seems too controversial to gain broad support here, while Lena Dunham will get her reward elsewhere, in the writing category. Amy Poehler's Parks and Recreation simply doesn't seem as popular among Emmy voters--it failed to get a Best Comedy nomination--and Julia Louis-Dreyfus has won twice, for two different series. They like her any way they can get her, and she'll win for being the star of a buzz-y, popular show.

Best Actor in a Comedy nominees

Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock

Louis C.K., Louie

Don Cheadle, House of Lies

Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men

Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm

Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Your big break on the Boardwalk

Well, it's no unicyclist requirement, but HBO's "Atlantic City by way of Greenpoint" period drama, Boardwalk Empire, is currently casting for male background extras. Must be comfortable with a haircut and fake cigarettes.

Via Facebook:

A free 1920s-era haircut is actually an extra perk, as it will go a long way toward getting your résumé to the top of the pile for any of those highly competitive mixologist jobs in the city.

If you're lucky, maybe they'll let you keep the suspenders.

A full list of nominees is available here: nominees of note include Lena Dunham, nominated as a producer, actress, and writer for Girls, as well as the thirteenth career nomination for Julia Louis-Dreyfus of Veep and the cementing of Claire Danes's career comeback with a Best Actress in a Drama nomination for Homeland.

Terence Winter, caught in the act. (Matt Chaban)

The artwork in question.

When The Observer visited Steiner Studios earlier this year for a profile of the film production facility's founder Doug Steiner, we all dropped by Terence Winter's office on the third floor of the 20-acre complex's main stages. It is there that each episode of Boardwalk Empire is painstakingly crafted by the former Sopranos writer, now showrunner.

Mr. Winter's office is packed with paraphernalia from his past and the real past. Two huge Boardwalk Empire posters, one in Korean, one in Czech, frame a flat-screen TV. On the facing wall, a Mad magazine poster of The Sopranos hangs, signed by the entire cast; "Fuck you. -James Gandolfini" it says next to a caricature of the actor, who felt the artists made him look especially fat. Two plates hang nearby: a commemorative one of The Honeymooners, a favorite of Mr. Winter's growing up, and a dinner plate from the original Calissimo's restaurant in Chicago. It was actually used in the first episode of Boardwalk, in the scene where Al Capone shoots Jim Calissimo. "A good find on eBay, that was before Calissimo became real popular," Mr. Winter said. "I’m sure it would have been much more expensive after the show."

Alongside the old photographs, posters and props is an unusual painting of a snub-nosed revolver on a beige background. Below it, in cursive, "Cesi n'est pas un pistol." The story of this mock Magritte is a wild one, as outlandish as the artwork itself. Being the fantastic storyteller that he is, who other than Mr. Winter should share the tale than he himself, in his own words.

One of my writers, he was my writer’s assistant on The Sopranos, I was headed to LA to see my girlfriend, who’s now my wife, it was like three days before Christmas, so I had my stuff at the office, and as I was leaving he says, "Oh, I have a Christmas gift for you." So he gave me this wrapped package, and I threw it in my carry-on bag. I get to the airport, I’m on line at the conveyor belt, and I notice it’s taking a long time.

Finally I look down at the two security people, and I notice they're looking at their screen and they're looking at me and they’re looking at their screen and they're pointing at me and finally I realize, I go, Oh fuck. "Guys, I’ve got a wrapped gift, it’s in my bag." I’m thinking it’s a wrapped gift or something. I’m thinking it’s nail clippers or something, and they go, "O.K." And the guy comes over to me, he goes, "This is your bag.” I say "Yeah, O.K., it’s my bag, I have a gift…" He says, "You have a firearm in your bag. Sir."

I went completely limp.

I said, "I’m so sorry, somebody gave me this gift, I don’t know what it is."

Now these guys live for this shit, this is what they do. It’s like, Whooop Whoooop [he mimics the sound of a siren]. You know, they divert the line, they’re all running, I’m like, I don’t believe this. So they open it, they make me open it. I open it, I open it up, and it’s a 1930's replica cap pistol. It was sort of like a paper weight, but it was, it looks like a gun. If you held this to someone’s head, you’d be flying the plane. And they’re like, "We have to call the real police." I’m like, "The flight is leaving in like 20 minutes," I can’t believe this. So I call Steve, he was at the office, I say, "Hey. I opened your gift, I just found out what you got me." He says, "Oh, great, do you like it?" I say "Yeah, great, I’m on line at security at the airport."

"Ahhhh, fuck, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry."

I go, "Yeah, thanks."

So the real police come, and, um, the guy goes, "Have you ever been arrest." I go, "No." "Well, that might change today." I say, "O.K." He says, "Look, I believe you, I got to call my lieutenant, if he’s in a good…" I say, "Am I getting on this plane?" He says, "I don’t know, maybe, maybe not." I say, "Fine." So he calls his lieutenant, he goes, "O.K., you can go, but obviously you gotta leave…" I say, "Fine, you can keep it." I say "Look, please don’t put me on some watch list or something, I fly all the time." He said, "Nah, I promise you I won’t."

So a month and a half later, I get a letter in the mail from like the transportation security association. I’m being fined $1,500 for trying to smuggle a firearm onto an airplane. I said, I’m not signing this letter, that’s not what happened. So I get the lawyer on the phone, and they said "Look, they’re really cute, you can pay a fifteen-hundred dollar fine and roll the dice and try to fight it in court, or you can pay seven-fifty, don’t fight it, and it’s squashed and it’s done." And I say, "Oh, gee, let’s see, I’ll take the seven-fifty." But I say, "Look, you’ve got to change the language of this letter. I inadvertently tried to take a replica cap pistol on the plane." So they changed the language. So that was the deal and it was done and they never put me on the list.

And then the next Christmas, Steve got me that picture.

And I just barely got on the flight, I made it by just a minute, I ran down the hall as they're closing the plane door. But you know, in retrospect, better that they found it at security than I was sitting on the plane and I went, Oh, what’s this, a gun? I probably could have been killed on a plane.

But it worked out fine. It just cost me a little money.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Gretchen Mol digs Brooklyn. (Edward Reed/Mayor's Office)

Ms. Dunham, on location in Brooklyn. (HBO)

At the ribbon cutting for Steiner Studios earlier this month, The Observer caught up with Voice of the City Lena Dunham, who had just moved production for the second season of her feverish hit Girls to the studio in Brooklyn. Gretchen Mol of Boardwalk Empire was up on stage, looking radiant beside the mayor and Doug Steiner, but Ms. Dunham hid in the back of the sound stage.

It was actually her first day at the studios, she said, but her experience helps underscore why the city needs more and bigger studios if it is going to continue to grow its film and television industry. (Also, there wasn't room in our profile of Doug Steiner for Ms. Dunham, but we figure giving her her own post should drive some good Google hits to Observer.com, what with the ultra-buzz humming around Girls at the moment.)

"I'm very excited to be here," Ms. Dunham told The Observer of her arrival at Steiner Studios. "I love the Navy Yards, it's such a cool, historic place." Somehow we could not help but think of that scene from Tiny Furniture where she has sex with the chef inside a giant pipe somewhere in nearby Dumbo.

"I think we're going to do some ghost hunting," she added of her enthusiasm for the historic 300 acre property, which dates to the Civil War.

Girls shot its first season at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, but it had to move to Steiner for its second because CBS' Person of Interest had become an unexpected hit and was taking more space at Silvercup. "You can judge by the posters that this is a good place to be," Ms. Dunham said of Steiner Studios, which has lined the lobbies with its past work.

Though The Observer knew she had only been here a day, we asked which studio she preferred. "They're all good in their own way," Ms. Dunham replied. "I have to say that because I could be working at any of them."

She said she thought the food was better in Long Island City, but her producer, Ilene Landress, said it was actually better here, with Williamsburg, Fort Greene and Dumbo just a short walk away.

"At the end of the day, it's doesn't matter where I work," Ms. Landress said. "Whether it's Silvercup or Steiner, it comes down to supply and demand, the shape and size of the production and the budget we have to work with."

This is the same thing Stuart Suna, co-founder of Silvercup Studios had pointed out to The Observer in a telephone interview last month—a rising tide and all that. But he was quick to point out that just because Steiner now has the largest studio in the city does not necessarily mean it is the better one.

“It is not how big the stages are but how good the shows actually are," he said. "Let the awards tell the story.”

One person who is happy with her options is Gretchen Mol. Being able to work in New York has been a thrill, something The Observer heard repeated again and again from cast and crew on the various New York productions. The thinking often is that the architecture, the buildings, the locations, even the light are what matters when shooting in New York, which is true to a point: what's important is being close to home.

"For me, I'm from Connecticut originally, and I moved here, and I just love working here," Ms. Mol said. "I love being about to work in Brooklyn and not have to move my family all over the place."

There is another unexpected benefit. "It's nice that the extras look like real people," Ms. Mol said. "That makes my job so much easier because you look around and it's real, it's not like you're pretending."

Hollywood is fake. Brooklyn is real.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

According to Mr. Johnson's publisher, Plexus Publishing, a regional firm based out of Medford, N.J., the state court has ordered the author to cease his extrajudicial activities due to concern that his self-promotion is stepping outside of the bounds of what is ethical according to the state code of conduct for judicial employees. This week, Mr. Johnson will make a counterargument to the Advisory Committee on Extrajudicial Activities, the publisher said.

"We don't know what the ultimate decision will be," said John B. Bryans, Mr. Johnson's editor and the editor in chief of Plexus Publishing. "We're hopeful, but the New Jersey court is going to do what they're going to do."

The guidelines on extrajudicial activities state that judges may "receive royalties from books authored before assuming judicial office," "contribute to a feature column in the New Jersey Lawyer" and "serve on an advisory board of Judicial Associate Editors" (among other very specific regulations), but there are no guidelines regarding the promotion of a book that has been made into a television series by HBO.

"The court-related duties of a judiciary employee shall take precedence over all outside activities," says Canon 5 of the Code of Conduct--"Outside Employment and Other Outside Activities." Judiciary employees are also prohibited from "outside employment in the casino industry" and may not "engage in outside employment when the primary function of such employment is dispensing alcohol by the drink." Those feel like relevant details in a discussion about Atlantic City.

The final decision could take months, Mr. Bryans said, and could not have come at a worse time for the small publisher, which distributes books mostly in west New Jersey and just across the state line in Pennsylvania. Plexus Publishing has printed 85,000 copies of Mr. Johnson's book, with a new foreword by Terence Winter, the show's lead writer and a veteran of The Sopranos. Though the author has been muzzled, Plexus is "hoping for a best seller in a couple of weeks," Mr. Bryans said.

Mr. Bryans acquired the book in 2002 as an unsolicited manuscript from Mr. Johnson, a trial attorney and amateur historian at the time who had never published anything before. The book has sold "no more than 15,000 copies" up to now, Mr. Bryans said, mostly in and around Atlantic City.

Mark Wahlberg and his partner, Steve Levinson, acquired screen rights to the book in 2006. Plexus and HBO declined to comment on how much the rights were sold for, but it is undoubtedly a higher sum than Mr. Johnson's advance when Plexus acquired the book. Martin Scorsese directed HBO's pilot episode of Boardwalk Empire, starring Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson, a crook and political boss in Prohibition-era Atlantic City, based on the real-life Enoch Johnson (no relation to Nelson). The series will premiere on Sept. 19. Mr. Johnson is credited with inspiring the story. The pilot cost $20 million to make.

"I don't even remember what the advance for the book was at this point," Mr. Bryans said. "It was a modest four-figure advance. It's amazing the book went on to be one of the most expensive television series ever produced."

Boardwalk Empire, set during the dawn of Prohibition, has a pretty spiffy pedigree even for HBO: Martin Scorsese--who directed the pilot episode--is an executive producer. It was created by Terence Winter, the Sopranos writer who--after David Chase--was responsible for writing the most episodes (another Sopranos alum, Tim Van Patten, is on board as executive producer and director). Even Mark Wahlberg is involved! It would be easy to buckle under the weight of collective award-show wins and expectations, and even understandable, really, if an early backlash were to occur. Except for just one thing: It's really, really good.

Based on Nelson Johnson's Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, the show is unabashedly ambitious, large in scope and lavish in set. It looks incredibly expensive (reportedly the pilot alone cost close to $20 million). But its debut episode faces the same conundrum that any epic, complicated show faces: An awful lot of information and characters, along with some pesky history, have to be introduced in the first 60 minutes. (Try not to be alarmed during your first viewing--or hit Wikipedia--when names like Al Capone, Arnold Rothstein and Lucky Luciano come up. All will become a lot clearer and easier paced in episodes two and three).

At the center of it all is half-politician/half-gangster, treasurer of Atlantic City, Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, played by Steve Buscemi, who in the span of a couple of hours is able to enthrall a roomful of women with his praise of the recently passed Prohibition law and tales of a hardscrabble youth ("First rule of politics, kiddo," he tells his protégé after exiting the town hall, "never let the truth get in the way of a good story"), before gathering with fellow city power players with the promise that Atlantic City will remain "wet as a mermaid's twat."

After a decade of big, blustering James Gandolfini as our go-to pop-culture reference for a Jersey boss, it's a nice change to have Mr. Buscemi, with his pale, vulpine face and goggly eyes, morph into top dog. He's fantastic: in one scene vacillating effortlessly between a cold, occasionally violent leader and a deeply sympathetic man. (Just watch those eyes when he pauses on the boardwalk to look at the rather disgusting Incubator Baby. Could babies be to Nucky what ducks were to Tony Soprano?). His protégé, Jimmy (Michael Pitt), a former Princeton student, has arrived back from the war a changed man: No longer content to be simply a lackey, Jimmy's ambition is the catalyst to the plot machinations that get this series going. Mr. Pitt was simply made for the fashions of the 1920s, with his big DiCaprio-y cherub face and creepily empty eyes (it's hard to forget his earlier roles in Murder by Numbers and Funny Games). Their relationship is fraught and confusingly paternal--one can assume all that will get untangled eventually--including the part that encompasses Gretchen Mol (remember her?) as a mysterious showgirl. Kelly MacDonald (The Girl in the Café) plays Margaret Schroeder, an Irish immigrant with firsthand knowledge of the evils of liquor who manages to catch the eye of both Nucky and the tightly wound Agent Nelson Van Alden (the always great Michael Shannon), who seems to be pursuing Prohibition offenders with a zealot's determination.

As the series continues, more familiar faces will crop up and become important, including Dabney Coleman and The Wire's Michael Kenneth Williams. And, of course, there's that $5 million set. For the modern New Jerseyite (or Jersey Shore watcher), it's hard to imagine "AC" being a place of such glamour, but this art-directed Atlantic City is a wondrous thing to behold, from its clean boardwalks to glittering Prohibition parties. It makes one wish for a time machine. As for the plot, best to let it unfold naturally, but let's just say it's clear that there's plenty of tangled corruption, relationship intrigue and crime to chew over--and just how does Al Capone end up ruling Chicago, anyway? Around the third episode, the series settles down and hits its sweet spot, with that Sopranos-like mix of stomach-turning violence, surprising poignancy and the occasionally hilarious scene (just wait for the Yiddish dentist). So it turns out that we can't fight the hype; and dear viewer, we don't even want to.

svilkomerson@observer.com

Wes Anderson

People criticize Wes Anderson for always doing the same thing, but give credit where credit is due: So do plenty of other directors. Anderson had what many felt was a creative renaissance with the fantastic Fantasic Mr. Fox and if he can conquer stop-motion animation, why not cable? Desn't his brand of off-kilter characterizations and hipster tweeness lend itself well to something spread out over the life of a series. His movies feel like truncated novels anyway -- HBO would let him explore the space even further.

J.J. Abrams

OK, this is kind of a cheat, since J.J. Abrams started on television and still has two series on the schedule for the fall (Fringe and the upcoming NBC show Undercovers). But now that he's a big-time movie director, maybe he should give HBO a try. Think about it: An Abrams-produced weekly series that combines elements of Tales from the Crypt and The Twilight Zone, with Abrams as the de facto Rod Serling. You can even set the show in the '50s to make it have even more of a retro feel.

Francis Ford Coppola

Be honest: Francis Ford Coppola hasn't been relevant for decades, so what place better than HBO to reignite the brand? Give the winemaker 13 episodes to create a family drama set in the warm glow of the California sun and let him go nuts. Just don't let him cast Vincent Gallo in anything again.

Behind-the-Scenes Pedigree

Yes, everyone is excited to see a Martin Scorsese directed television show -- but how much input could he have had post-pilot when he's been busy working on a cadre of film projects? Based on that alone, Mann seems like he might be more invested in the success of Luck. And while everyone loves The Sopranos -- and though Matthew Weiner was able to break out on his own with Mad Men -- with due respect to Terence Winter: He isn't David Milch.

Advantage: Luck.

Cast

By sheer quantity, Boardwalk Empire wins in a landslide. Among the sprawling cast for the 1920s set Atlantic City epic are Steve Buscemi, Michael Shannon, Michael Pitt, Michael K. Williams, Kelly Macdonald, Paz de la Huerta, Dabney Coleman, Gretchen Mol, Michael Stuhlbarg and Stephen Graham. Still, Luck has its fair share of character actors, too -- Richard Kind, Jason Gedrick, Dennis Farina, John Ortiz -- and gets to boast about Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte. And those dudes are movie famous.

Advantage: Tie.

Longevity

With its ensemble feel and expansive backdrop, Boardwalk Empire feels like a show that could be on for years to come -- continually winning Emmy Awards, critical praise and a devoted audience. Luck will have those three things too -- Jon Hamm better win his Emmy before Dustin Hoffman starts getting nominated -- but does anyone think this is a series destined for the long haul? Like Michael Mann and Dustin Hoffman won't have other things to do (read: movies). And that's to say nothing of the outsized personalities of Hoffman, Mann, Milch and Nolte, which might adapt as well behind-the-scenes as oil does to water. Luck figures to burn bright and fizzle quick -- and there's nothing wrong with that. However...

Advantage: Boardwalk Empire.

So, a tie. Which should have been expected, since with shows the the only losers are those people who don't have HBO yet.