Steve Buscemi stars in “Boardwalk Empire”

Goodbyes are never easy, especially when it seems like there's still plenty of story left to tell. After coming on like gangbusters, "Boardwalk Empire" is calling it a wrap with a shortened fifth season that pulls into port Sunday, Sept. 7, on HBO.

It's not a new trend to see big-name productions come to an end before their time. Former AMC darling "The Killing" was canceled before it could tie up loose ends -- though luckily Netflix brought it back briefly to clean those all up -- and the ill-fated Joss Whedon space western “Firefly” could have used a short season to wrap the story up right.

That's where "Boardwalk Empire" steps in. The high-flying period drama has all of the ingredients that normally keeps a series afloat -- stable ratings, a trophy case that's full to bursting and adoring fans. Yet, the Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award-winning crime series is calling it quits.

"After much discussion with my creative team and HBO, we've decided to wrap the series after such a great run and look forward to bringing it to a powerful and exciting conclusion," said series creator Terence Winter at the Television Critics Association press tour back in January.

It's no understatement when Winter says the show has had a great run. From the very beginning when Martin Scorsese ("The Departed," 2006) directed the pilot episode, "Boardwalk Empire" has received nothing but praise. The show boasts two Golden Globe Awards on top of six other nominations and 17 Emmy Awards with another 23 nominations, not including the most recent results from the 66th installment of the awards show.

Going into season 5, it's looking like bleak times in New Jersey as the story leaps forward seven years to 1931. The world is a different place compared to the rip-snorting Atlantic City of the '20s we've seen. The Great Depression has hit hard. Instead of sequins flashing while waiting in the long line outside a roaring nightclub, people are lined up at the soup kitchen and scrambling for the next flash in the pan.

Picture news of the war still smoldering on the horizon, clothes worn to tatters that you need to mend or wear out, rationed food for dinner instead of lavish parties... and the last thing on anyone’s mind is wasting money drinking booze.

As Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (Steve Buscemi, "The Big Lebowski," 1998) moves to secure legal ties with liquor producers in Cuba, drama creeps out from his hometown to draw him back in the game. As he thinks back on his childhood and teen years, this season will give viewers a glimpse of the Nucky they hardly knew. We will be pulled along while the hard-nosed politician shows his soft center. Woolgathering over events that shaped him through his youth, and reliving the stresses of street life in 1880s, he's been surrounded by so much sorrow.

Jeffrey Wright and Steve Buscemi in a scene from “Boardwalk Empire”

With each season of "Boardwalk Empire" ending in a heart-wrenching death, there is no telling who will be the big score six episodes from now. Historically, the Enoch Lewis Johnson on which our Nucky is based lived on another 37 years after imprisonment for tax evasion. It would be a big stretch to end him in this fictional retelling, but this is television and anything goes.

Season 1 ended with a string of spectacular executions. Jimmy Darmody, as played by Michael Pitt (“Dawson's Creek”), died tragically, marking the end of season 2. Gyp Rosetti, played by Bobby Cannavale (“Nurse Jackie”), bit it hard on the beach in season 3 and fan favorite Richard Harrow (Jack Huston, “Eastwick”) died under the boardwalk itself in season 4.

Looking forward, you will be able to see Jack Huston star as George Wickham in “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” This film is in pre-production and slated for a 2015 release, if you like him in that dapper polished look. One of the rumored reasons that "Boardwalk Empire" is ending is to make room for an HBO rock 'n' roll-style docudrama, as yet untitled but in filming, directed by Scorsese, written by Winter and starring Cannavale.

Cast members returning for a final kick at the can in season 5 will include Michael Zegen (“The Walking Dead,” “Rescue Me”) as gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and Anatol Yusef (“Southcliffe”) as Meyer Lansky. "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" (2013) alumni Jeffrey Wright returns as Valentin Narcisse, the nemesis of Chalky White, who is played by Michael K. Williams (“The Wire"). Ben Rosenfield (“Affluenza,” 2014) returns as Nucky's nephew Willie Thompson, and we will see Patricia Arquette (“Medium”) again as Sally Wheet.

Fans of the over-arching historical notes on Depression-era gang conflict can look forward to the addition of Jim True-Frost (“Treme”) as “The Untouchable” Eliot Ness, chief investigator of the Prohibition Bureau.

The final season of "Boardwalk Empire" is supposed to end with a bang, according to producers. With the return of key gangsters and a reflective Nucky, we may have been watching the fuse burn right up the side of a powder keg all this time. Catch the premiere of the final season and bid the empire a fond farewell Sunday, Sept. 7, on HBO.