"Boardwalk Empire" starts second season with a bang

(CBS) Anyone looking for a big season opener for HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" certainly got one: Chalky White, played by Michael K. Williams, is nearly gunned down in an attack by Klansman. Chalky escapes harm but shoots and kills one of the Klansman. And because it's the 1920s, Chalky is in trouble for killing a white man.

The attack prompts a visit to Chalky's home by Nucky, Steve Buscemi's duplicitous Atlantic City treasurer and organized crime boss. By the end of the episode, Nucky has given speeches at black and white churches telling each congregation that he's going to protect them.

(And of course, many other things happened, too.)

The critics generally agree that "Boardwalk Empire" is a must-watch show, even as a couple say the series doesn't have a center. Writing in Salon, Matt Zoller Seitz says, "Almost every time an episode of 'Boardwalk Empire' ends, I feel slightly disappointed - not because the hour wasn't entertaining, but because it failed to deliver the richness, depth and ambition of the great series that obviously influenced it, chiefly 'The Sopranos' and 'Deadwood.'"

Darren Franich writes in Entertainment Weekly, "[T]he problem, I think, is that the show doesn't really have a center. I like Steve Buscemi, and it's nifty to see Nucky's two-facedness...but Nucky himself still feels like a half-formed character."

What did you think of the second season premiere of "Boardwalk Empire"? Let us know in the comments.