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Divinginto the Sopranos.

Milfi was given little to do (even a couple of episodes with her and Tony trying a relationship would've been nice)
Melfi would never date Tony, she couldn't justify it to herself. She resolved that part of her arc in Employee of the Month, for her to start dating Tony would have been character regression.
Exactly. But Melfi telling Tony bluntly why exactly she can't ever date him is one of her best moments in the show, IMO, and one of the most memorable moments of season 5 for me. Overall, I don't think I was as impressed with it as I was with season 1 or 3, but it had a few strong episodes, and the episode with Adriana's death was really well done and felt devastating to me - I think I even cried... even though it was hardly a surprise.

Another thing that I didn't notice until I saw the episode again last year; when Tony dreams about having sex with Charmaine Bucco, you can hear horse sounds, which transitions into the next scene where Tony tells Carmela he wants to get back together while sitting on a horse, but she tells him that he can't bring the horse with him. I can't believe it took me 3 viewings to figure that one out. :lol:
That one makes more sense if you forget about the horse and just listen to what Carmela says... :lol:

Kind of like Bowie's "Aladdin Sane"...
 
Ahhh, I can never get enough of watching heavy people walking around with a gait with labored breathing.

Watching Season 6 now, about 4 or 5 episodes in.
 
Ahhh, I can never get enough of watching heavy people walking around with a gait with labored breathing.
The Sopranos is like an island of fatness in a sea of skinny and beefed-up TV people, isn't it? :bolian: They even have something so rare and exotic on TV as a chubby female in the main cast. Plus most of them are bastards, rather than likable chubby folks like Hurley.
 
The fatness I can "take" but sheesh, Tony. Breathe through your mouth once in a while, okay?!

I've stopped watching Season 6 as I don't want to blow through it too quickly. So I'm going back and plan to rewatch through the series again.
 
Watching through the series again: Really liked Season 3's opener (the one with the focus on the FBI trying to plant the bug in the house) even though the events in it never really result in anything. (The bug in the lamp pretty much produces them nothing and it ends up out of the house with Meadow anyway.) But it's still a fun episode and I dig the "Mission:Impossible" like music the play during it.
 
So, let me get this straight.

Christopher is Carmela's first-cousin-once-removed because he's her cousin's kid, but he's also Tony's first-cousin-once-removed through a cousin on his mother's side? :wtf:

So Carmela's uncle's son married Tony's aunt/uncle's daughter?

:confused:
 
I thing you want to lay off the magnifying glass. I think of it as a very large painting, like the ones they used to do in the sixteen hundreds. You can enjoy it at different levels, from various distances, but don't get too close.
 
I'm finally watching the second part of Season 6.

Shame this show didn't go on, I'm going to miss these characters. I hate these shows that have these short seasons! Grrrr...

Anyway, seriously, Tony needs to just kill AJ, have a new son and start over.

What a punk that kid is.
 
Huh. I thought Livia was absolutely brilliant. All the more so because she seemed to be such an ordinary grandma, senile old crone one moment, and then the next you'll see exactly why she was named Livia. (Yes, David Chase was inspired by "I, Claudius".)



What's your source for this? I only ask because in the first season DVD set, there is a special feature interview with Chase and David Cronenberg wherein this very subject is brought up -- and I can't recall specifics but Chase either says that he hadn't realized the connection till someone else pointed it out to him, and that if others see the similarity that's fine with him or simply that he knew about Livia from I, Claudius but it wasn't the basis of the Livia Soprano character; in fact the real basis and inspiration for Livia Soprano was David Chase's own mother.

I've been re-watching the show myself. I'm mid-way through season three right now. Forgot how fun the show is. Paulie is probably my favorite character.

"I guess you could call that a dick." :lol:
 
Paulie is awesome. "Pine Barrens" is, by far, an awesome episode because of the way Paulie and Chris play off one another.
 
I think my favorite bit of wordplay in the entire series may have been when Tony said "Infarc ... whatever-the-fuck".

I also get a kick out of how they said Wauuuubisssstixxxx. :rommie:
 
Be interesting to see how the rest of this goes. (I've heard some... not so good things about the series finale but I'm a long way off from getting to that.)
I enjoyed seasons one and two immensely but kind of lost interest after that. Regarding the finale, your reaction may depend on the length of time for which you've been watching the show when you see it; a relationship that lasts for three months would be very different to one that lasted for six years. I would say, though, that it's not as contentious as the Lost or BSG finales.
 
Yeah, I think the last couple of seasons lost some of the tounge-in-cheek "humor" the show had about itself and it got a little deep. But still I find it a bit more engrossing and entertaining than most mafia-related media. I've enjoyed movies like the Godfather, Goodfellas, etc. But there was just something about these characters that worked better for me. They tried to play many of them off, Tony in particular, as ordinary men who just happen to have deplorable jobs.

After watching "Goodfellas" again recently, having not seen it in years, it struck me that Ralph Cifaretto was more like Joe Pesci's character in that movie than like a "poor man's Steve Buscemi" as I called him up thread. Ralph's mannerisms and tone of voice reminded me of Steve a bit, but he was clearly taking a Tommy DeVito type role esp. when you compare the back-room gambling scene with a drugged-up Tommy and the back-room strip-club scene with Ralph in their respective medias. (Both are high on drugs, act like a loon, and in the process accidentally injure/kill people.)

Anyway, just watched "Kennedy and Heidi" (where Christopher dies) and an interesting episode (peyote apparently gives you magical roulette powers) in how they handled Christopher's death. He was probably one of my favorite characters (under Paulie and Tony) and it was sad to see him go. At the same time I'd almost consider Tony's killing of Chris to be more of a "mercy killing" as Chris didn't look to be in good shape and unlikely to survive but the "mercy killing" also had the benefit of relieving Tony of the various worries he had over Chris' behavior and proclivities.

Sad to see his character killed (esp. with a wife and a baby) but I guess that's the life he lead and the substances he used and, Jesus how many new cars did he buy?! He had a new one every season! Coked up idiot futzing with the radio.

Chris will be missed, but just a few more episodes to go. (And I already know one other liked character will die in the coming episodes.)

As I'd rank the seasons now (from best to worst.)

Season 1
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6.1
Season 2
Season 6.2
 
I've just finished the first season and was getting ready to get into the 2nd, based on you list I'm hoping the 2nd won't be such a let down.

I actually quite like the second season. I thought Janice and Richie Aprile were great additions to the cast. My order would go something like 1 > 3 > 2 > 5 > 6 > 4.
 
Season 1
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6.1
Season 2
Season 6.2

I've just finished the first season and was getting ready to get into the 2nd, based on you list I'm hoping the 2nd won't be such a let down.

The second season was better after a second watch-through but off the top of my head I struggle to think of an episode that blew me away or I really liked. Much of it is, I suppose, me trying to get used to a "new", slightly harder, Tony when he advances to boss. It's still a good season and better than most other shows but compared to so many episodes in the other seasons it wasn't as impressive. To me.

Season 1 is a great season though, I think it's one of those seasons you point to when you want to advocate for TV shows being better when they have shorter seasons. Season 3 has some damn near classic TV episodes in it. But, S2? Nothing blew me away in it.

I did like Janice, though.
 
The thing is, Tony's father and uncle were influential guys in the NJ mob, his mother was the most ruthless gangster that never was, and both his sisters moved away to escape their parents. Tony was raised to be a gangster, and he didn't feel that he could run away to a different life because someone had to stay behind with his parents. A part of him doesn't want to live the life he lives and feels he was forced into it, but at the same time, he loves it and is really good at his "job". He can't walk away because he enjoys it too much. Instead, he has settled for making sure that his kids don't get caught up in crime like he did.

So, yeah. He's a good guy and really likeable, but he's also a monster of the highest order. James Gandolfini can only be praised for how well he pulls that off.

I really dispute the characterization of Tony as a "good guy." A likeable guy? Sure. A charming guy? Yeah. But "good" implies a level of morality that the character just never had.

Beyond that, yeah, the character is great and Gandolfini is incredible in the role.

I think the issue with Tony being in the mob was also not simply that he was "groomed" for it, but that his flaws led to his joining it. From what we saw over the seasons, Tony was intelligent but a bit lazy and prone to taking the easy way out. That is, a guy who'd find a life of big money crime appealing if its offered to him. He also tended to view things more simplistically than he realized.

Really, I think part of the subtle-and great- points on the show was that Tony was, at best, a middle manager who rose beyond his skill level because of some coincidences and then couldn't really handle it.
 
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