Now that the dust has cleared, think way back and tell me why...

I was drawn to it myself because of the period that I knew nothing of and location (being a lifelong NJ resident)-- and of course, the gangster element.

Also, I knew Scorcese and Co would be meticulous about art direction, so that pulled me in.

Nothing about the cast in particular except MS. But I was curious about SB carrying a show b/c I had my doubts about that. He won me over b/c he kept it understated.

Also, I had trust in HBO.

I love gangster stories, the Sopranos and period pieces. And I'm a big Scorsese fan. BE had elements/people involved in all of those, so there was no way I wasn't going to check the series out. Once I did, the story and the shows production values kept me coming back.

Boredom. I was looking for a new immersive drama to fill the void between Breaking Bad and Game Of Thrones returns and season 1 of BE was on Amazon Prime.

I'll be honest, I wasn't completely hooked until the Jimmy/Richard friendship. I think that was the missing piece of humanity that the show needed to make me fall in love with it.

~~~
Space geckos RIP.
They died doing what they loved: flucking in space.

you started to watch BE in the first place?
Was looking for a new HBO show to watch, didn't have the best hopes, until I actually saw the first episode

What was the draw?
Prohibition, which mirrors today's prohibition, so I found that interesting, plus the aesthetics of the show were amazing from the get-go, I was also pulled in by the mix of brutality and beauty, and it just seemed like this amazing mosaic that I had to keep watching.

Winter? Van Patten? The Scorsese tease?
I realized how awesome Tim Van Patten is at directing before this. IIRC I remember him making the best sopranos episodes, he also made some of best episodes of this show (certainly the most brutal, for both of these) and later whenever I'd see an episode of GOT or deadwood or something with TVP directing it, it was always amazing. Terence Winter is interesting to me, but I don't know much about him except for involvement in the sopranos.

Gangster show?
Realistic gangster show based on the "original" real life gangsters...definitely very interesting

Some history that hasn't already been beaten to death in film/tv?
I'm not aware of any other prohibition-era shows, though of course there are movies, but they don't focus as much on the prohibition itself

Buscemi fan? Pitt? MacDonald? Other cast members?
buscemi. Being a Tarantino fan, I love buscemi and I was so curious how he would do as the lead role and not just the squirrely guy/comic relief. Even when he's a criminal, like in Fargo and Reservoir Dogs, he's still the squirrelly guy. I felt like it was a different side of buscemi

You'll watch anything that HBO rolls out at 9pm on Sundays?
If it's good. I'll give most things a try

I really think boardwalk empire and deadwood are some of the best HBO shows ever, up there with the wire and sopranos. If it was up to me I'd cut a few seasons from GOT and give BE more airtime or have the deadwood movies come out

A few things. Certainly Scorcese and Winter.

But mostly? I like gritty 'period pieces'. Was a huge fan of "Deadwood". I like 'time travel'. BE, for all it's flaws, did look REAL to me. I'm a history nut.

All that said? For me? After the initial burst of the first two seasons? The drama started to open up much wider. I dunno. It was more focused in the beginning.

I still thoroughly enjoyed it, though.

The only time I considered skipping a season was the last. The only reason for that?

Having studied both drama and history, I basically knew what the last season was going to be. A somewhat 'hurried' wrap up of Nucky Thompsons plotlines.

One thing I'll note: BE did cater to a 'gangland violence hungry' fanbase.

On the one hand, this concept developed a strong, loyal following. On the other? It limited them in picking up 'season by season' additional fans.

I did see every episode and overall, enjoyed the series.

Paz de la Huerta's boobs.

Big Buscemi fan beforehand.
What drew me furthermore was the 20's - 30's bootlegging style.

You're not asking, but this became my favorite for a lot of reasons, the things you listed are just few of them :D Except for that I do not watch everything HBO rolls out.

I started by accident. I had turned on the TV and it was tuned in to one of the HBO channels that I had been watching the night before. The channel was rerunning that week's season 3 episode. I no longer remember which one it was but Richard Harrow was on. I waited to see what was going on with this man wearing the strange mask. After a bit, on comes Gyp Rosetti. I was curious as to what the heck was happening on this show, so I checked to see when this episode was going to run again, watched the whole thing and was hooked. I went online and started watching with show #1 until I was caught up and did not miss an episode after that.