[Solus]

One of the best TV shows ever.

[WanderingSoul]

Started watching it again two nights ago, because of this thread.

Still great. Haven't watched it in a few years so it's exciting to see again, so much that I don't remember.

[Dantes]

I met James gandolfini about ten years ago. He seemed like a humble and cool guy. He was born to play the role of tony soprano. My favorite episode was the pinebarrens when Chris and Pauly get stranded.

As a viewer you feel like you know Tony soprano and you route for him despite his sociopathic behavior. Fascinating character

[PapayaTapper]

(08-10-2014 06:16 PM)Sombro Wrote:  

I know they'd never do it, but a Sopranos prequel series would have been great. Focusing on Johnny Boy Soprano and his crew, the family antics that led to Tony and Janice's neuroses, etc. There's plenty of characters and backstory that could've been developed further.

That's actually a genius idea

[Euphoric_Breeze]

I have stopped watching tv series ever since The sopranos ended . What's memorable about this show , is that it teaches you an alpha trait in almost every scene .
I suggest you go on youtube and look for "Lawn wars" between Feech La Manna and Paulie Gaultieri 2 old ruthless mafiosos .

[TheSlayer]

(08-13-2014 06:45 AM)Dantes Wrote:  

I met James gandolfini about ten years ago. He seemed like a humble and cool guy. He was born to play the role of tony soprano. My favorite episode was the pinebarrens when Chris and Pauly get stranded.

As a viewer you feel like you know Tony soprano and you route for him despite his sociopathic behavior. Fascinating character

That was an incredibly funny episode as well. It is also one of my favorites.

Chris and Pauly getting stranded was funny and the way they react to each other was hilarious.

[Dusty]

Another observation as I watch Season One, is how clothing fashion and hair styles have not changed much in 15 years. Season one is in 1999, and the clothes and fashions, though a bit dated, are not outrages by today's standards. For frame of reference, if you compared 1999 fashion to 1984 fashion (15 years prior) there would be a huge difference. An even bigger difference would be to compare 1984 to 1969 (another 15 year gap). It seems like clothing and hair style changes slowed down over the years.

I would say music style hasn't changed much in the last 15 years either, while the changes in the prior 15 year intervals referenced above were monumental.

Now the cars in Season One on the other hand look downright ancient!

[Saweeep]

(08-13-2014 12:30 PM)Dusty Wrote:  

Another observation as I watch Season One, is how clothing fashion and hair styles have not changed much in 15 years. Season one is in 1999, and the clothes and fashions, though a bit dated, are not outrages by today's standards. For frame of reference, if you compared 1999 fashion to 1984 fashion (15 years prior) there would be a huge difference. An even bigger difference would be to compare 1984 to 1969 (another 15 year gap). It seems like clothing and hair style changes slowed down over the years.

I would say music style hasn't changed much in the last 15 years either, while the changes in the prior 15 year intervals referenced above were monumental.

Now the cars in Season One on the other hand look downright ancient!

Don't forget though the show is about Italian American Mafioso, not NYC hipsters of the era.

I suspect those dudes (mafia) dress similarly today to how they did in the 20s let alone 90s.

You can see the differences though; last night I watched the episode in season 1 when Paulie and Christopher chase that dude through the woods and shoot him (Jimmy Altieri maybe?). They look comical in their shell suits and basketball boots...

[Deluge]

I watched the whole thing last year. No doubt the TV series I have ever watched. My favourite episode is a tie between the season 1 finale, and the one where Tony takes Meadow to visit colleges and ends up strangling a rat in the witness protection program.

[Hedonistic Traveler]

Definitely the best show I've ever seen. I watched the first few seasons as they came out, as an 10 or 11 year-old, and at the time thought it was just an intense show about the mob, but it was really so much more than that. It had such a huge impact on future shows, as it made people realize you center a show around a homicidal sociopath and people would still watch it.

One of my favorite lines of the shows is from Tony's first therapy session when he says how "it's good to be in something from the ground floor. I came too late for that and I know. But lately, I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over."

He says it about the mob, but the mob serves as a great metaphor for the post-9/11 world that much of the Sopranos is set in. I know people have been saying that the "best is over" for thousands of years, but its just because it is one of humanity's greatest fears. That we only get to live once, for 80-years if we're lucky, and that we may have missed the peak by just 40 or 50 years.

[456]

I love the scenes (perhaps in later seasons) where Dr. Melfi (Tony's shrink) consults with Elliot (her own shrink), and he can't help but get giddy about her "secret patient" and completely steamroll over her own needs with his need for gossip.

There's even a shrink dinner party where Elliot gets out of line about Melfi and Tony's professional relationship in front of many other shrinks. Hilarious.

[456]

Also, this was insightful (and emotionally heavy!):

At some point later in the video they interview some female co-stars from other movies/works he was in -- one straight up says "and his SEX APPEAL.... just .... yes...." about what surprised her the most about him.

[Krivo]

I remember seeing the very first commercials promoting the show. They seemed to portray a goofy, slapstick throwaway comedy.

*Edited to include one of the said commercials

[Lucky]

(08-15-2014 08:05 PM)Krivo Wrote:  

I remember seeing the very first commercials promoting the show. They seemed to portray a goofy, slapstick throwaway comedy.

*Edited to include one of the said commercials

Compare that ad to any episode after season 1. When people say that The Sopranos sparked the Golden Age of television they aren't joking. That is how they had to advertise shows in the nineties to get people interested.

All of the great television shows we have today— True Detective, House of Cards, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, etc. — are owed to The Sopranos.

[urbannomad]

Definitely the most HAUNTING ending of the Sopranos.You can actually feel Phil's rage....

Tony and Chrissy's relationship is clearly stained, for good.

[Lucky]

Has anyone ever heard the theory of the final 9 episodes evoking Dante's 9 circles of hell?

There is so much symbolism in the sopranos I would not be the least bit surprised if it was somehow true.

I found this while searching online (MAJOR SPOILERS):

Episode 1 - Soprano Home Movies - Dante's 1st level of hell is purgatory, or limbo. no punishment meted out here. people are peaceful, yet sad. that episode involved no deaths (aside from a bit character in the laundromat), but an idyllic (and some say slow-paced) episode by a lake in upstate NY.

Episode 2 - Stage 5 - the premiere of Cleaver. Level 2 of Dante's hell is where the "lustful" spend eternity, those who betrayed reason at the behest of their appetites for pleasure. this episode sealed Christopher's fate, when Tony embraced him at the baptism, and told Melfi about how Chrissy hated him. you knew then that Christopher was not going to survive.

Episode 3 - Remember When - This episode saw the fractured relationship between Tony and Paulie, and almost saw Tony kill Paulie on the boat in Florida. It also showed the end for Junior. Level 3 of Dante's hell is for the gluttons, consumed in excess, and is filled with putrid water and stinking mud. Like the water around the boat, perhaps?

Episode 4 - Chasing It - This episode saw Tony's gambling losses escalate and his relationship with Hesh crumble. Dante's level 4 of hell was for those who lived greedily, those who stockpiled their fortunes, hoarding everything. Sound like Hesh?

Episode 5 - Walk Like A Man - this was a hateful episode, showing AJ taking joy in other's pain in order to heal from depression, and Christopher bearing the brunt of ostracization, and the feud between him and Paulie. Dante's 5th level of hell is reserved for the wrathful and the gloomy, punishing the cruel, vindictive, and hateful.

Episode 6 - Kennedy & Heidi - We see Christopher's death at Tony's hands, Tony's Vegas trip, and him screaming "I get it!" at the blinking sun. Level 6 of Dante's hell is for the heretics who fail to believe in God and the afterlife. Some have commented that this episode saw Tony reconcile with the fact that he's happy he's an evil guy, and that killing his cousin made him content, so therefore he turned from God and didn't mind heading toward hell. Maybe "I get it!" was Tony yelling to the universe that he understood there was no God, and that the ends justify the means, allowing him to revel in his evil without fear of divine retribution? That's something a heretic might do.

Episode 7 - The Second Coming - AJ's attempted suicide - the savage beating of Coco - the start of the NY/NJ war. Dante's 7th level of hell is reserved for the violent, the assasins, the war-mongers; and also those who commit suicide. Enough said.

Episode 8 - The Blue Comet - the end of Tony's therapy with Melfi - the full blown war - the killing of Bobby - maybe of Sil? Level 8 of hell involves "many and varied sinners," such as the seducers and the pimps (Sil runs the Bing), the barraters (those who commit an "unlawful breach of duty on the part of a ship's master or crew resulting in injury to the ship's owner" - which could be just about anyone in the NJ crew after Phil's bungling whacking), the thieves (which Bobby essentially was, not a true killer), and the hypocrites (Melfi).

Episode 9 - Made in America - The End. Level 9 of Dante's hell is the deepest level, where Satan himself resides (maybe Tony will die and see for himself what that sun was saying to him when flashing...his peyote experince might have been wrong, and instead of "there is no God," the Sun was saying, "this is hell, you're heading the right way!"). The traitors live here, Judas and Brutus included.

[Dusty]

I love the malapropos throughout the Sopranos.

I'm still in Season One in my re-watch.

In one episode Tony says to Camilla "You act like I'm Hannibal Lecture or something."

In the flashback episode, Tony's father is trying to convince Livia to move to Reno for a business opportunity and Livia bitches and won't go. Tony's father says "Livia, you're an albacore around my neck."

[Lucky]

(08-16-2014 12:30 PM)Dusty Wrote:  

I love the malapropos throughout the Sopranos.

I'm still in Season One in my re-watch.

In one episode Tony says to Camilla "You act like I'm Hannibal Lecture or something."

In the flashback episode, Tony's father is trying to convince Livia to move to Reno for a business opportunity and Livia bitches and won't go. Tony's father says "Livia, you're an albacore around my neck."

I totally forgot about the albacore line .

My favorite malapropisms came from Carmine Jr.

"We're in a fucking stagmire!"

"A pint of blood costs more than a gallon of gold."

[Dusty]

"The sacred and the propane."

[TigerMandingo]

Chris: 'The Russians? They`re not all bad`

Paulie: `How 'bout the Cuban Missile Crisis? Cocksuckers flew four nuclear missiles into Cuba, pointed them right at us. `

Chris: `That was real? I saw that movie, I thought it was bullshit. `



A lot of the Chris and Paulie scenes were comedic gold.

[Lucky]

The writer's room for this show must have been an awesome environment.

Tony: [over the phone] It's a bad connection so I'm gonna talk fast! The guy you're looking for is an ex-commando! He killed sixteen Chechen rebels single-handed!

Paulie: Get the fuck outta here.

Tony: Yeah. Nice, huh? He was with the Interior Ministry. Guy's like a Russian green beret. He can not come back and tell this story. You understand?

Paulie: I hear you.

[hangs up]

Paulie: You're not gonna believe this. He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator.

Christopher: His house looked like shit.

[The PerSev]

Paulie: Hey, I remember every blowjob I ever got. How 'bout you, remember your first blowjob?
Sil: Yeah, of course...
Paulie: How long did it take for the guy to cum?

[TigerMandingo]

I was thinking about this randomly the other day. Michael Imperioli, who plays Christopher on the show, was only FIVE YEARS younger than James Gandolfini. It's amazing how much younger he looked on the show AND considering he was Tony's nephew. Just goes to show how old Tony looked in addition to his weight. Sad.

[Brian Shima]

I watched the entire series last month. Excellent acting seriously.

[Captain Ahab]

I love the Sopranos. One of my top shows.

I think the first two seasons are the best. I think, if anyone were to say why people think this is the greatest show ever, those two seasons would be their best argument.

The season finale of Season 4 with the argument between Tony and Carmella is arguably the greatest scene I have ever witnessed in television. The chemistry between James and Edie was simply phenomenal. I am sure everyone was holding their heads out of respect after that scene.

I think the shows decline in quality is pretty obvious though. I think Season 3 is largely forgettable-minus Pine Barrens. Season 4 wasn't that hot either (except Ralphie who I think is the second greatest character on the show after Tony).Season 5 had Buscemi but he really wasn't utilized effectively in my opinion. I was expecting to see his FARGO/ Reservoir Dogs side...I got a subtle, side character. I will give credit to Season 6 for Blue Comet and Made In America;however, still not on par with the first two seasons.

I think that is why I give the nod to the Wire. The Wire had quality over a longer period of time, with Season 4 being its Magnum Opus. Also, it included more elements of society. I got to learn about the drug corners in inner city neighborhoods, the american working class, the politicians, the school system, and the newsroom, all in one show. Also, the character development was much broader over many different people in the show. There really is no main character in the Wire since everyone in the show has a story-from Bubbles the drug addict to Omar the rifleman that robs drug dealers, to Mcnulty the police officer who rebels against his superiors, to the inner city kids in the school system that deal with lack of funding for their education curriculum.

The Sopranos, in the end, is about Tony-one dimensional. The Wire was more comprehensive.