>- Jimmy, Capone, Rothstein and half-face carry this show. the
>Chicago episodes were by far the best. Nucky is fine, but not
>captivating. I think Buscemi is getting a career pass on this
>one.

I think Buscemi as Nucky is fine. He is showing the shift in his criminal enterprise very well (from purely graft to gangsterism). Chicago has better personalities but I do not think they minimize the work Buscemi has done.
>
>- why the fuck is Michael K. Williams playing a version of
>Omar on Quantum Leap? his scenes are a mix of absurdity and
>bad déjà vu.

The only thing Chalky has in common with Omar is that they are cocky and they both carry a gun. Put Chalky in context for a minute. How many Black "bosses" existed during that time period. Omar, to me, was a great character but is different from Chalky.
>

>- the females are annoying. Jimmy's wife painting pictures and
>whining all day. Schroeder, they set up as a smart, conflicted
>figure -- yet by the end, she's casually baking scones in her
>Nucky-paid house *after* they split, while trying to give
>reality checks to other whores. Chicago girl took way too long
>to kill herself. and we'll have to hear Lucy’s grating voice
>next season thanks to Van Alden's super sperm.
>

Some of the female parts are intended to be annoying. Jimmy's wife is a mess and she is supposed to be. She is there purely to play off Jimmy's emotions. Shroeder, I think, is more complex than you make her out to be. She tries to be moral but also realizes that her options are limited as a woman of that age and that she likes the finer things in life. She is good in her role. She plans to just hold her nose and go through with it. Also, the scones scene was not in the house Nucky got for her but in the house he got for Harding's mistress. Nucky did not know where she was.

The chick in Chicago was a hooker that got by on her looks. Once she was scarred, of course she was going to kill herself. I think the progression was fine. Like Jimmy's wife, her role is less about her and more about Jimmy. Jimmy became the character he was at the end of the season due to her suicide.

And Lucy is definitely supposed to be grating. She is the jazz age version of a dumb groupie.