‘Boardwalk Empire’ series finale: Terence Winter on pressure, stakes, and feelings

Tomorrow night on HBO, the series finale for “Boardwalk Empire” will be here on HBO, and at this given moment in TV history, we certainly understand if a showrunner would be a little afraid of some of the expectations that come with getting this last episode out there. Just look at “Dexter,” “Lost,” “How I Met Your Mother,” and most-recently “True Blood” as examples of episodes that came to a close, and then were criticized far and wide for the way that they concluded. (Still, we liked the ending to “Lost” and are not afraid to admit it.)

At this point, you’d be a fool to not be aware of what goes into a finale, both from within and also from the outside. Speaking about this to Rolling Stone, “Boardwalk Empire” showrunner Terence Winter explains what his personal feelings are about saying goodbye to Nucky Thompson after so many years:

“It’s like getting in a rocket ship and heading to the moon: It’s a long, long journey, and you’ve got to land on one particular spot. When we finish, we’ll have done 56 hours of this; the finale is the culmination. The stakes are high, and we’ve been conscious of that as we’ve plotted out the final year, and the finale. We’re confident about it.”

One of the reasons that we’re confident here is mostly because it’s long felt like the writers knew where they were going here, and unlike “Dexter” and “True Blood,” you’ve got the same creative team together on this that was there in the beginning.

What do you want to see on “Boardwalk Empire” moving into this finale, and is there any way you would be unhappy with the end? Let us know with a comment.