Michael Kenneth Williams

News, Reviews & Features
  • Too soon: the end of Empire

    TV Feature | Ed Williamson | 13th January 2014

    This year's fifth season of Boardwalk Empire will be its last. Most good shows these days have the knack of stopping just at the right time, but for me, this one could have run and run.

  • Well done for looking old, Boardwalk Empire poster

    TV Feature | Ed Williamson | 9th August 2013

    Funny thing: Boardwalk Empire's all about old-timey people and stuff that happened to them in, like, olden times and that, but none of the promotional stuff's ever been made to look old before. I guess Instagram filters were less widespread this time last year. (Trailer here too, which would look a lot more authentically Prohibition-era if it wasn't on YouTube.)

  • Snitch

    Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 17th June 2013

    I've watched a few WWE 'shoot' documentaries recently. They feature men whom I spent hours of my childhood watching get greased up and pretend to ram their elbows into one another's kidneys, now older and with faces like meat, talking candidly about the roles they were playing. It's striking how different they all are from their in-ring characters: remarkably good actors, in a way. The move from ring to action movies is a natural one, and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson has always been the one most qualified to make it. But on the evidence of Snitch, he's forgotten one key piece of The Rock's credo: know your damn role.

  • The Wire: The Musical

    TV Video | Ed Williamson | 5th June 2012



    (Courtesy of Funny or Die.)

  • Boardwalk Empire promo vids now legal tender in Greece

    TV Video | Ed Williamson | 28th September 2011

    In the absence of an economy strong enough to keep it in shoulder-hair trimmers and baklava, the National Bank of Greece has asked HBO to lend it some of its billions of teaser clips, character videos and behind-the-scenes trailers for Boardwalk Empire's second season to use as its currency. "We were happy to help," an HBO executive explained. "It's got to the stage where even hobos won't take them off us anyway."

  • Boardwalk Empire: tease me, tease me baby, till I lose control

    TV Video | Ed Williamson | 27th June 2011

    It ain't half teasing, this here Boardwalk Empire season two teaser. I feel proper teased and no mistake.

  • A guide to Boardwalk Empire's various synonyms for 'vagina'

    TV Feature | Ed Williamson | 21st June 2011

    Because in the twenties they knew how to swear. The bunch of cunnies.

  • The Road

    Movie Review | Ali | 13th January 2010

    Given that most of my articles on literary adaptations start with the line, "I haven't read the book, but..." it's quite rare that I actually have the opportunity to compare the film to the source material. Cormac McCarthy's The Road has the honour of being one of the finest novels I've ever read (and I've read two) but unfortunately suffers from being so downcast, bleak and utterly, utterly grim, this largely faithful adaptation makes for uneasy viewing.