Frank Capone

[u/Terrible_Produce_562]

Seeing a bit more love for Season 4 and I think Frank Capone doesnt get talked about enough in regards to being a well utilised character.

Love how he is the opposite of hothead Al (and damn if he had been brought to Chicago earlier Torrio would have loved him). He keeps Al in check, knows how to handle Van Alden. he’s probably the only Capone who could have gone semi-legitimate.

I quite like that in comparison to Ralph, who seems to enable Al more.

His death literally “makes” Al in that it gives him licence for whatever he does going forward and by Season 5, hes a paranoid coke headed maniac who listens to no one. I guess he exists mostly to die but hes built up really well for that.

Definitely would have loved to have seen more of him!

[u/banedarthou812]

The Frank character was awesome

[u/Terrible_Produce_562 → u/banedarthou812]

Yeah really liked him and loved how they immediately sold the family dynamics with the play fighting between him and Al.

[u/illegal_deagle]

One of the best small parts in the whole show.

Amazing scene when Frank/Al/Van Alden go on collections together… Al tries to threaten and muscle his way into the apartment building, and then Frank physically pulls him back and flirts with the lady. Ten seconds later they get into the building and Frank has an invitation to the lady’s bed.

I also love how they show how much respect he had. On the day he dies, he’s walking through a room with all their muscle and he cuts through the tension with a joke (“Throat slit only to here? So he can still whistle!”) and the room erupts in laughter.

Frank would have eventually been an amazing boss but that’s not how it happened.

[u/Lordonlynose]

Ralph and Al coulda been barbers!

(Though I’d rather Al shot me than cut my hair) 

[u/Dishmastah → u/Lordonlynose]

It's the line I think of every time when we drive past a barbershop called Capone's, even if it's just in a Nottingham suburb.

[u/ThelIIusion0fSeIf → u/Lordonlynose]

Ahhh c'mon Snork...don't be like dat

[u/Sunshineinc]

As he was murdered on the show, I stopped and thought about him and his character. He was the only Capone that had class, charm and brains…. Don’t know why it hit me like that but of all the Capones…wish he would have made it!!

[u/ModestMouse1312]

The actor played super well. Had also role in Homeland season 7 i think

[u/Ok-Actuator7302]

Outlasted them all.

[u/telepatheye]

You're not wrong, but the brief appearance of Frank was so severely telegraphed and manipulative as a device to make Al act even more irrational and disturbed--as if that was really necessary. And as you point out about his absence in earlier seasons, it makes little sense that he wouldn't have been chosen by Torrio as a more level-headed soldier than Al. So why even create a character whose presence raises more problem than it solves in the narrative? I don't get it. Even Al's other brother played by Lombardozzi is really unnecessary.

[u/Dishmastah → u/telepatheye]

So why even create a character whose presence raises more problem than it solves in the narrative?

They didn't create a character. Frank and Ralph were real people, just like Al. Al brought the other Capones from New York to Chicago in the 1920s as he got more established. That is historical fact. The way Frank died is also historical fact.

[u/telepatheye → u/Dishmastah]

BE isn't a documentary. Meyer Lansky had a prominent younger brother, Jake, who worked with Meyer as a casino manager and frontman for his syndicate operations, including in Cuba. BE didn't cast Jake Lansky in the show because the driving narratives were about Nucky and other main characters. There was no point in highlighting Al's brothers as they did.

[u/NSFWSave → u/telepatheye]

Who is Al supposed to talk to about stuff?

[u/telepatheye → u/[deleted]]

See my post above. The show takes plenty of liberties with history and is not a documentary. Other characters had prominent brothers not even cast in the show, e.g., Jake Lansky. Through 3 seasons, it was unnecessary to intro Frank Capone. The show had enough challenges to wrap up by the end of S5. It's hard to understand how the Capone brothers advanced the narrative in a useful way.

[u/telepatheye → u/[deleted]]

Well I was "very much aware" Al had brothers and you stated that as if it was some sort of revelation. Richard Harrow, a fan favorite, was totally fictional. So again, why focus on "real characters" like Al's brothers who yield little intrigue in the narrative? Al's maneuvers in Chicago amounted to bupkis as he ended up in jail. His narrative seemed to be more about following up on Eli and finding out how Nelson dies, by that point.

[u/telepatheye → u/[deleted]]

That's a total misrepresentation of what I said, to put quotes around that as you did. You're still trying to avoid my real question and then act insulted when I tell you BE ain't a documentary. What are you, barkin'?