History YMMV / BoardwalkEmpire

** Two seasons after Luann Pratt confessed to be behind the Commodore's poisoning, there are still a number of people who think that the real poisoner was Gillian and that Luann was bought into covering for her.

* CompleteMonster: While other gangsters have shown shades of ruthlessness and callousness, [[AxCrazy Giuseppe Colombano "Gyp" Rosetti]] from season 3 is an absolute lunatic of a mob boss who eclipses Nucky Thompson and any other gangster on the show for sheer, senseless and brutal violence. [[EstablishingCharacterMoment Introduced beating a mechanic to death]] after the mechanic fixed his car but [[HairTriggerTemper made an offhand comment Rosetti interpreted as condescending]], Rosetti soon all but declares war on Nucky and sadistically burns the Sheriff of Tabor Heights to death later after dousing him in gasoline. When Bugsy Siegel makes an attempt on him, Rosetti uses the waitress he was sleeping with as a HumanShield and soon beats a priest to rob his church. In a botched counter-assassination attempt on Nucky, Rosetti [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill blows up a restaurant]] on the Atlantic City boardwalk which Nucky frequents. Dozens of people are killed along with Nucky's mistress Billie Kent, which Rosetti taunts him with over the phone. When one of his men makes a comment indicating he [[DisproportionateRetribution knows more about nautical terms than Rosetti, Rosetti buries him up to his neck in the sand to either die of exposure or drown from the tide]], but shows “mercy” when Tonino begs him to, as the buried man is Tonino's cousin, by [[BaitTheDog taking the shovel, walking to the man and then smashing his skull in with it]].

*** In "All In", Nucky tells Meyer to talk about himself. Meyer immediately starts in on his work with Lucky, and ends up talking about how they met.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Casting notices for Season 2 stated that Eli had 4 boys and 4 daughters. The boys were named Michael, Patrick, Brian and Dermott. However, Michael's name wasn't stated on screen. Come Season 3, "Michael" was now named Patrick (who had been named on screen) and William was now Eli's eldest child. Now, as for who was [[CanonDiscontinuity that dark haired kid that Eli called Patrick]], however...

* * AluminiumChristmasTrees:

** Jim True-Frost appears briefly for one episode, but merely the name of his character has a lot of shock value. He's Eliot Ness.

** The departure of Paz de la Huerta as Lucy Danziger from the series. Viewers grew to despise the character, and the actress by extension, so it was felt at that time the departure was inevitable. Later reports emerged that de la Huerta might have been one of the many actresses victimized by Harvey Weinstein.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Nucky's comment about Margaret naming her son Enoch after him seems humorous at first but becomes a lot harsher at the end of the first season when we find out the full story.

* WhatAnIdiot: If Jimmy had just paid Manny Horvitz his 5 grand, he would have spared himself from a lot of grief. [[spoiler:And maybe Angela would still be alive.]]

** Even the fans who liked Billie didn't think much of Sally Wheat.

** Willie Thompson. Where to start? His major TookALevelInJerkass from the dutiful eldest son who helped a crippled Emily on Easter in Season 3 to a belligerent wangsty sociopath in Season 4 on the flimsiest of justifications, his KarmaHoudini status after poisoning a rival JerkJock and then framing his roommate with the help of Uncle Nucky, his subplot that appears to consume most of the screentime, forcing more beloved and/or historically important characters out of focus, yet hardly ever seems to be going anywhere, being the studio's ReplacementScrappy for Jimmy Darmody despite lacking any of the complex personality or charm of Jimmy...

** After the Season 2 finale, some people found it hard to keep rooting for Nucky--or a majority of the cast for that matter, since nearly everyone is a criminal or involved with organized crime somehow. By that point, the most sympathetic characters were Richard Harrow, Eddie Kessler, Owen Slater, and ''Al Capone''.

** Tommy Darmody. Starting off as a CheerfulChild, as the seasons progress [[spoiler:his mother dies, his father dies, his grandmother tries to brainwash him into forgetting about his mother and isolates him from contact with most people except for Richard, he's used as a hostage by Gyp Rossetti's men and traumatized for months following Richard's killing spree to rescue him, his grandmother is arrested for murder, and when it finally looks like he may have a chance for a normal life with a loving family his ParentalSubstitute, Richard, dies.]] By the time of the finale [[spoiler:he claims he doesn't have a home anymore and finally loses everything when he's arrested after killing Nucky in retribution for Jimmy's murder]].

** Those that think that [[spoiler: Jimmy's death ruined the show and it isn't the same without him]] vs. those that think [[spoiler: Jimmy's death]] is when the show solidified itself as having guts and capitalized on the potential it showed in the first season.
** The season 4 finale was ''extremely'' controversial. [[spoiler:Killing off your biggest EnsembleDarkhorse]] will do that.

** At the time the series was made, the historians consensus was that UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding had no children, and that his mistress's claiming his paternity of her child was part of her delusion, but the show portrayed Harding's paternity as real for the sake of drama. In 2015, a DNA test found a match between descendants of Britton's daughter and members of the Harding family... evidencing that Britton, and the show by extension, were ''correct.''

** InUniverse, Richard Harrow's {{Roaring Rampage Of Revenge}} in "Margate Sands" is definitely one for Gyp Rosetti and his men.
-->"The guy with the mask. Who the fuck was ''that''?"
** A straight example in the same episode: Gyp's VillainousBreakdown in the aftermath of defeat, which involves [[spoiler: impersonating Nucky and singing the "Barney Google" song loudly while taking a piss...and then being knifed to death by Tonino mid-song.]]
** Eddie's speech in support of Nucky: "Mr Thompson is part of everything. He is in the sky and sea. He is in the dreams of children at night. He is all that there is, forever."

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy:
** After the Season 2 finale, some people found it hard to keep rooting for Nucky--or a majority of the cast for that matter, since nearly everyone is a criminal or involved with organized crime somehow. By that point, the most sympathetic characters were Richard Harrow, Eddie Kessler, Owen Slater, and ''Al Capone''.
** After the Season 4 finale, it became obvious that none of the main characters are going to have a happy ending because everyone keeps dying or getting themselves into situations more horrible than the last. On top of that, [[spoiler:three of the four characters listed above have died]], and Al Capone [[TookALevelInJerkass fell off the wagon]] after becoming a cocaine addict.

* CarharsisFactor:
** For certain people, [[spoiler:Gillian's]] HumiliationConga at the end of Season 4 given the character’s role in previous seasons as a total loon, despite what was clearly a reasonable FruedianExcuse.