History Series / BoardwalkEmpire

** When Gyp Rosetti begins to take over Tabor Heights, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS8lbfHUI3Q he claims to be D.L. Collingsworth]], a proprietor whose family goes way back, slept with UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington and everything. Naturally, his gas station is out of gas. Seriously. That stuff coming out of the pumps? Nothing of importance. Owen can't keep a straight face when he's confronted by this absurdness.
** When Nucky goes into hiding during a MobWar, a MediaScrum pesters the mayor about where he is. His response that "Nucky Thompson does not control this city, I do!" is met with a [[{{Beat}} brief]] StunnedSilence, and then gales of laughter.

* CrimeAfterCrime: Van Alden flees across the country and assumes a fake identity when [[spoiler:his murder of Sebso]] is uncovered. When his new wife suspects that his MysteriousPast has caught up with him, she [[spoiler:gets a baseball bat and clubs the guy half to death... although while she was out of the room, Van Alden had found out he was really an irate customer who bought a faulty iron off him. He survives the battering, but they decide to finish him off so the cops won't take an interest and discover who he is. This means then ending up having to be a mob enforcer for Dean O'Banion and owing a debt to him.]]

* DeadGuyOnDisplay: [[spoiler:Tonino]] (implied to be the guy who killed Billie Kent) turns up on Meyer Lansky's doorstep with his throat cut, [[CreepySouvenir an ear sliced off]], and a "Greetings from Havana" postcard pinned to him with a knife, just in case they were wondering who sent the message.

* DemotedToExtra: Several characters suffer this. Van Alden is arguably the best example, going from being in nearly every episode and being one of the show's most central characters to appearing in only half or less of the episodes of seasons 3 and 4.

** The Tabor Heights PD. The local sheriff is on Nucky's payroll. After Gyp Rosetti takes control of the town, we discover that rather than avenge the death of their former sheriff, they simply are intimidated into taking Rosetti's side. The new sheriff switches allegiance back to Nucky, though, after Rosetti's forced to return to New York.

* FacialHorror: Richard Harrow, who wears a mask after losing his left eye and the whole left side of his face to a terrible war wound.

** The first season features Jimmy Darmody starting out as a ShellShockedVeteran of World War I who can barely hold down a job as [[VillainProtagonist Nucky Thompson]]'s driver - only to eventually reinvent himself as a successful gangster, a friend to [[YoungFutureFamousPeople certain rising stars in the nascent Mafia]], and a protégé to the Commodore. However, the second season begins throwing obstacles in his path, and in time, his impetuousness, ambition, and aggression gradually end up undermining his criminal career and destroying almost everything he loves. Season 2 ends with Jimmy knowingly walking into a trap set by Nucky and [[SuicideByCop allowing himself to be gunned down]].

* ''Series/{{Fargo}}'' loves subverting this trope:
** Season Two: Mike Milligan is a lieutenant for the Kansas City Mafia, sent to assist his boss Joe Bulo with handling the Gearhardt crime family. After Bulo's decapitation, Milligan seizes the reins and wades into a full-scale war with the Gearhardts. After he wins, he seems poised to rise in the organization... which never happens. Milligan's only reward is a tiny office and a 9-to-5 job.
** Season 4: Set many years earlier, Loy Cannon is shown trying to overthrow the Fadda clan and take over the city with his Cannon Limited organization, eventually getting his enemies to turn on each other... only to find himself cornered and his business absorbed by the newly formed Kansas City mafia. For added irony, he's revealed to be Mike Milligan's father.
** Season 4 opens with a brief history of organized crime in Kansas City. Liev Moskowitz and his Jewish gang start out as poor immigrants and grow wealthy after taking over the city's rackets. They are then taken out by the IrishMob of Owney "Yiddles" Milligan. The Milligan gang also grows rich and powerful until they are taken out Donatello Fadda's Italians. The rise and fall of each gang is illustrated by their clothing change over the years. When the new gang is introduced, they are wearing working-men clothes. When the gang is about to fall they are wearing suits, furs and jewelery. When the season starts the Faddas are now wearing rich-men clothes and are confronted by the working class black gang of Cannon Limited.

* CastingCouch: Referenced in season four, when Nucky takes home an actress who's only interested in getting a role out of Nucky and insinuates that Billie Kent did the same. [[RealityEnsues It doesn't work out for her]].

-->-- '''Nucky Thompson'''

-->'''Chalky''' ''[after torturing a KKK leader]'' There comes a time where if a man is STILL sticking to his story, he's telling you the truth. We past that point about 10 minutes ago.

* FamousLastWords: [[spoiler:Nelson Van Alden's [[DyingAsYourself dying as yourself]] moment, while throttling Al Capone]].
-->[[spoiler:'''Van Alden''': I am [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Nelson Kasper Van Alden]]! I am a sworn agent of the United States Treasury. And I swear by Jesus our Lord, justice will rain down upon you [[KilledMidSentence if it is my last--]]]]

** UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding will become President and die in office.

** In Season 1 we meet [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nan_Britton Nan Britton]], one of US President UsefulNotes/WarrenHarding's mistresses. She reads a poem that Harding actually wrote for one of his mistresses, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Phillips Carrie Phillips]]. Also like Phillips, the character is quietly moved out of town in order to avoid a scandal until the presidential election is over.

* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:Chalky, satisfied that Daughter and her daughter are set up with a decent life, closes his eyes and smiles at the memory of her voice]] in front of a firing squad.

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Averted on numerous occasions. Played straight in a few episodes.
** Nucky's hand still hurts a year and a half after having been shot through it, and despite the fact that it looks completely healed.
** Clifford Lathrop has to walk with a cane permanently after having been shot in one foot.
** Eddie Kessler uses a cane a year after surviving a shot to the gut in extremis and it is clear that it is still very painful. A punch to the gut makes him [[VomitIndiscretionShot vomit his stomach contents]] all at once.
** When Gyp Rosetti blows up Babette's, Nucky survives due to being outside the blast radius. Nevertheless, days later he still suffers from the resultant tinnitus and concussion, and the effects only worsen when he refuses to take medication to treat it

** Much of the first season's plot is driven by the election of 1920 and Nucky's anxiety over the GOP's prospects. In reality, 1920 was a strong Republican year both nationally and in New Jersey, and Atlantic City was a Republican one-party town both in 1920 and for decades thereafter.
** Big Jim Colosimo was killed in May 1920. In the show, it happens in January.
** Al Capone's son is portrayed as completely deaf from birth when he actually went partially deaf at age 7.
* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Mrs. Van Alden files for divorce in a federal court.
* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Averted on numerous occasions. Played straight in a few episodes.
** Nucky's hand still hurts a year and a half after having been shot through it, and despite the fact that it looks completely healed.
** Clifford Lathrop has to walk with a cane permanently after having been shot in one foot.
** Eddie Kessler uses a cane a year after surviving a shot to the gut in extremis and it is clear that it is still very painful. A punch to the gut makes him [[VomitIndiscretionShot vomit his stomach contents]] all at once.
** When Gyp Rosetti blows up Babette's, Nucky survives due to being outside the blast radius. Nevertheless, days later he still suffers from the resultant tinnitus and concussion, and the effects only worsen when he refuses to take medication to treat it

* HollywoodHistory: Mostly averted, but not completely.
** Much of the first season's plot is driven by the election of 1920 and Nucky's anxiety over the GOP's prospects. In reality, 1920 was a strongly Republican year both nationally and in New Jersey, and Atlantic City was a Republican one-party town both in 1920 and for decades thereafter.
** Big Jim Colosimo was killed in May 1920. In the show it happens in January.
** Al Capone's son is portrayed as completely deaf from birth, when he actually went partially deaf at age 7.
* HollywoodHealing: Averted on numerous occasions.
** Nucky's hand still hurts a year and a half after having been shot through it, and despite the fact that it looks completely healed.
** Clifford Lathrop has to walk with a cane permanently after having been shot in one foot.
** Eddie Kessler uses a cane a year after surviving a shot to the gut in extremis and it is clear that it is still very painful. A punch to the gut makes him [[VomitIndiscretionShot vomit his stomach contents]] all at once.
** When Gyp Rosetti blows up Babette's, Nucky survives due to being outside the blast radius. Nevertheless, days later he still suffers from the resultant tinnitus and concussion, and the effects only worsen when he refuses to take medication to treat it.
* HollywoodLaw: Mrs. Van Alden files for divorce in a federal court.

* GilliganCut: In "Family Limitations", Margaret asks Eddie whether Nucky is nice man, which Eddie confirms he is. Cut to Nucky in his office insulting Luciano.

* GoshdangItToHeck: Warren Knox, including the possibly-tongue-in-cheek line "Darn it! Darn it to heck," in reaction to a suspect who isn't cooperating.

Compare ''Series/PeakyBlinders'', another gritty crime drama set after World War I in 1920s Birmingham and ''Series/BabylonBerlin'' which takes place in the same time period with the same subject matter but focused on the law enforcement side of things in the UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Loaded with them. In fact, almost every politician and many of the criminals the main characters interact with are Historical Domain Characters, as are other minor characters like Eddie Cantor and Theodore "Houdini's brother" Hardeen. However, most of the main characters are aversions. Nucky Thompson and the Commodore were loosely inspired by real people (notably, the show's version of Nucky Thompson's middle name is "Malachi", compared to the real life Thompson's middle name of "Lewis") and the other main characters -- Margaret, Van Alden, Eli, Jimmy -- are entirely fictional.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Loaded with them. In fact, almost every politician and many of the criminals the main characters interact with are Historical Domain Characters, as are other minor characters like Eddie Cantor and Theodore "Houdini's brother" Hardeen. However, most of the main characters are aversions. Nucky Thompson and the Commodore were loosely inspired by real people and the other main characters--Margaret, Van Alden, Eli, Jimmy--are entirely fictional.

Compare ''Series/PeakyBlinders'', another gritty crime drama set after World War I in 1920s Birmingham and ''Series/BabylonBerlin'' which takes place in the same time period but focused on the law enforcement side of things in the UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic.

Compare ''Series/PeakyBlinders'', another gritty crime drama set after World War I in 1920s Birmingham and ''Series/BabylonBerlin'' which takes place in the same time period but focused on the law enforcement side of things in the UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic Weimar Republic.

* BringMyBrownPants: Willie poisons the hooch of the class bully, causing him to crap his pants and [[spoiler:later die]].