MovieChat Forums > Boardwalk Empire (2010) Discussion > Anybody else hate Margaret?

Anybody else hate Margaret?


Can't stand her. She's always pretending to be morally superior to Nucky, and yet she takes certain liberties with the law and morality herself, from time to time when it suits her.

Not sure if it is just the actress I don't like, or the character.

Either way, I find myself wishing she had been "eliminated" somehow during the series.

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I'm only on S3 E10 but I do have to agree. I loved her in the first 2 seasons right up until she signed over the land to the church. Now she's all anti nucky and I assume she'll be the death of Owen who I love.

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Margaret is just another opportunist with her own agenda. I could not fully embrace her.

I found Kelly Macdonald's acting just fine the more so because I could not stand Margaret at times. Margaret's ambiguous moral code made her difficult to embrace.

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Terrible character. She should have run off after season 3 and never been in it again. Why? As soon as she become Nucky's housewife she was boring as that fresh paint that ain't yet dry. Painfully boring to watch. Uneventful. What is she even doing there? No one cares go away!

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Disagree with this thread. Margaret aside from being very well played by the excellent Kelly Macdonald is a character of significant importance to the show. She is hardly boring - her struggles to balance an admittedly compromised morality and the need to pursue respectability with the moral lacking in the enterprise Nucky was involved with and that in effect funded her wellbeing fit with Nucky's own moral issues. Nucky at times had a moral element of course, but at various times Margaret in effect reminded him of the nature of moral claims on his behavior.

Think to be taking an example after the first two seasons in season 3 when Nucky and her visited Eli's whole family for Easter, and how that evening ended. Margaret's role while subtle was critical. I don't know what to say if you miss her role in the development of the narrative, as well as in relation to thematic elements.

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Yeah I love her too!

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She started annoying me when she turned into a spoiled snob. Nucky's life style was spoiling her. Then had the nerve to bang the help. Yeah, Nucky did his dirt. Not saying Nucky was in the right, but she was living off of Nucky. She's banging the help under the roof that Nucky kept over her and her kids' heads. She had no problem living the lifestyle that Nucky could provide, yet complained about it so much too.

Either "WE" f*<kin or "I'M" f*<kin- Bill Cosby

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Meh. Margaret literally knew Nucky was cheating on her, in fact was in love with Billie. We shouldn't be surprised she had sex with Owen, who was probably a better match for her.

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Owen annoyed me too, it's like people look for drama to add in their life. Owen had the younger hotter maid who didn't seem like a bad catch. Yet he risked it all for the chick with 2 kids who's married to mobster boss.

Either "WE" f*<kin or "I'M" f*<kin- Bill Cosby

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Owen had more respect for Margaret. He knew she had more substance. She was more... formidable. That appeals to some, even many. Not everyone, of course, but still.

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Incorrect. Margaret had sex with Owen (in season 2) well before Billie came onto the scene.

Billie debuted in Season 3 after Nucky was already estranged from Margaret due to her *beep* him over by signing away most of his wealth to the Church.

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She was terrible. I didn't like her accent at all and her character was pointless. It always seems like in every gangster series they put women in these shows to show the "home life". But they always detract from the series. A show about gangsters should be 100 percent gangster stuff.

Why waste time talking about Margaret giving birth control classes at a hospital? I mean seriously? Who cares?

You got a limited amount of episodes in a series that has Lucky Luciano, Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, Arnold Rothstein cast and still spend time on Margaret? WTF.

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Was Margaret terrible in the sense you don't think women should be in so-called gangster series?

Or in some other sense?

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Women who are doing gangster things are fine for a series about gangsters. Gretchen Mol's role for instance was an important character. Daughter was a useful character. Margaret I thought was completely pointless. She was nothing more than background filler given way too much screen time. She should have been treated on screen no differently than Nucky's brother's wife. I think she was cast to sort of "soften up" Nucky, but Nucky did not need that. He was a womanizing manipulating gangster and he was fine as that. No need to make him into something he wasn't.

If this show were about lowly immigrants trying to find a place in the US, then a character like Margaret may have been compelling. But IMO, this show was primarily about famous gangsters and that is what I wanted to see.

I didn't think her character was needed and it detracted from other storylines that should have been given more screentime.


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I could see where her character was going from the get go. Opportunistic when it suits her, but judgmental every step of the way. I also hate all the screen time she's getting - who cares.

In the Pilot she doesn't want a hand out but she goes to see a strange man for what purpose?


~Silence is Golden and Duct tape is Silver~

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I liked her at first until she turned into a two faced, conniving, opportunist b**ch. Why on earth is Nucky so attracted to her??????? And he marries her??????? I just don't get it.

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Margaret as a character typifies everything wrong with the show. It didn't know where it was going or wanted to do. One moment she's the moral compass, the next she accepts criminal behavior; the height of hypocrisy. Similarly Boardwalk Empire never found it's focus. Was it an indictment on the American Dream? was it a show about the Drug War? was it just escapist entertainment about a period in history or a progressivist agenda for woman's rights, civil rights, and nonviolence?

I don't know, and I don't think Terence Winter every really knew either. And just as the show kept shifting it's focus, from being the Heir to Tony Sopranos' Character Drama throne in one scene, to being a "The Wire"-esque multiple story arc epic in the next, with Deadwood-like colorful characters, I felt the show was disjointed, plodding, and middle of the road. NO wonder Margaret's storyline fizzled out by the fourth season - The writers had no clue what they wanted to say, how could they know what she was her function to the plotline?

Que Sera Sera

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In season 4 Kelly M who played Margaret was pregnant henceforth her character had limited story/screen time.

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