Michael Shannon: pretty much just mucking about these days

Whenever I watch Michael Shannon on Boardwalk Empire these days I get the distinct impression he's just goofing off.

Think about it. He's General bloody Zod, winning wide acclaim for his film roles, and he's still doing this TV show he started a few years ago. He's usually only in every other episode, doesn't interact at all with the main story threads any more, and is playing a self-flagellating, puritanical Prohibition revenue agent who's now a fugitive because he murdered a colleague. He can, in short, do more or less whatever he wants with it.

Which is why I love it when he does things like this: wets himself with fear when a fight breaks out, then belts a guy and gives a little snarl because underneath all that repression Nelson Van Alden's a JUNKYARD DOG. Stick at it, Mick: you could be in two episodes a season and I'd keep coming back for them.