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Old 09-06-2017, 11:07 PM   #181
slunken
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It's all a dream.

 
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Old 09-06-2017, 11:20 PM   #182
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Yeah man, the dream sequences are great. There's an epic one in the last season.

 
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Old 09-06-2017, 11:29 PM   #183
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The wasted episode.

 
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Old 09-07-2017, 10:46 AM   #184
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The Soprano's was/is the greatest show ever made period

One of my favorite moments of that show was when Paulie was in charge of the carnival Father José, wants to raise the fee provided to the parish from $10,000 to $50,000. When Paulie considers it extortion and refuses to pay, Father José tells them they will not be able to use the golden hat worn by the Saint Elzear, a traditional part of the statue's garb.

There were so many great scenes in that show. A lot of good ones with Ralph Cifaretto too.

 
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Old 09-07-2017, 05:26 PM   #185
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Originally Posted by fuzzyroes View Post
So B0lly, where you at in the series? How'd you like the Richie Aprile character? I thought he was great. Really good chemistry going on between him and Tony. One of my favorite moments was when Tony pulled him aside at his mothers funeral and asked him "What the hell am I gonna do with you" and Richie all shocked innocently goes W-h-h-haaaatttttttttttttttt? That just cracked me up.
Richie died before Tony's mom...

 
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Old 09-07-2017, 09:40 PM   #186
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Really? Oh, well it was a memorial nonetheless.

 
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Old 09-07-2017, 09:44 PM   #187
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Originally Posted by Big Truck05 View Post
The Soprano's was/is the greatest show ever made period

One of my favorite moments of that show was when Paulie was in charge of the carnival Father José, wants to raise the fee provided to the parish from $10,000 to $50,000. When Paulie considers it extortion and refuses to pay, Father José tells them they will not be able to use the golden hat worn by the Saint Elzear, a traditional part of the statue's garb.

There were so many great scenes in that show. A lot of good ones with Ralph Cifaretto too.
haha yeah that was awesome. I love Paulie.

Ralphs one of my favorites too. SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

SPOILER

SPOILER

TEH B0LLY DON'T READ THIS

SPOILER













I was watching the episode where he beats the stripper to death last night. My favorite scene of that episode is when Silvio comes to his place and violently removes the stripper from his place and is just being an all around dick and punches her in the face and then they show Ralphy looking out the window just laughing his head off, getting a huge kick out of it. Its just this very dark scene and there's Ralphys head poking in the window, cracking up.

Last edited by reprise85 : 09-07-2017 at 11:42 PM. Reason: spoiler

 
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Old 09-08-2017, 12:40 PM   #188
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Yeah, that episode was brutal. He and Tony's fight was epic when Pie O Mine gets torched. The bowling ball rolling down the stairs was sweet and the burying of the head in a different spot than the body was genius!

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haha yeah that was awesome. I love Paulie.

Ralphs one of my favorites too. SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

SPOILER

SPOILER

TEH B0LLY DON'T READ THIS

SPOILER











I was watching the episode where he beats the stripper to death last night. My favorite scene of that episode is when Silvio comes to his place and violently removes the stripper from his place and is just being an all around dick and punches her in the face and then they show Ralphy looking out the window just laughing his head off, getting a huge kick out of it. Its just this very dark scene and there's Ralphys head poking in the window, cracking up.

 
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Old 09-08-2017, 04:41 PM   #189
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Did anyone ever watch The Brotherhood? I heard it was better than Sopranos but only lasted 2 seasons.

 
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Old 09-08-2017, 06:19 PM   #190
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Really? Oh, well it was a memorial nonetheless.
Yeah, I actually watched that one a few nights back. I started my third re-watch last summer but puttered out in the middle of season two. Talking/reading about it in this thread inspired me to pick it up back up and I'm about a third of the way through season 3.

 
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Old 09-08-2017, 08:59 PM   #191
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For me I've been fast-fowarding through a lot of the Meadow drama and that nonsense though. I mean sure, it was enticing enough the first time through, but it doesn't really translate to good re-watch value.

 
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Old 09-08-2017, 09:01 PM   #192
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My favorite Sopranos scene is when Meadow breaks up with her black boyfriend and Tony is just smirking and making breakfast. You keep expecting him to say something awful but it's all in his face.

 
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Old 09-09-2017, 12:17 AM   #193
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For me I've been fast-fowarding through a lot of the Meadow drama and that nonsense though. I mean sure, it was enticing enough the first time through, but it doesn't really translate to good re-watch value.
Eh, I'm not big on "fast-forwarding" through stuff. Seems like cheating. Besides, the Meadow storylines were never too overpowering. If anything, she was one of the few grounded characters who wasn't afraid to call Tony on his bullshit. I always enjoyed her presence.

 
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Old 09-12-2017, 10:26 PM   #194
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Yeah don't get me wrong. I like her and all. But if you're watching a series for a 2nd time shortly after, there's just not a whole lot of replay value.

 
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Old 09-13-2017, 08:02 AM   #195
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three episodes into season six. i cannot tell you how happy i am that the quality on this show absolutely does not drop. it is just so beautifully written and executed, fuck me. i'm watching these episodes in complete awe, much in the same way i do with GoT because it's just so masterful in what it does. both shows are profoundly moving on a very deep level, but Sopranos manages to do it with so little. it's like the most minimalist show that just picks you up and crashes you against a wall by using the single most efficient and powerful movement, like kung fu or something. zero pyrotechnics, just a lot of great dialogue. if GoT is like an oil painter working with expensive materials and producing labored and glorious works, sopranos is like the incredible kid who can take a pencil, a pen and a piece of paper and put something on the page that will knock your socks off.

having a lead character that is in every scene in a coma for two full episodes to start off the season, somehow using it as a platform for a surreal, vivid nightmare that makes astute references and inversions to the character's real life as a powerful mob boss, and still keeping the story going in a significant and compelling way for multiple other characters - man, i absolutely take my hat off to these guys. this is brilliance.

i mean just the fact that a show about mobsters flirts so frequently and so convincingly with surrealism, and allows such a significant amount of the overall story (that is still firmly rooted in reality) to be told through that prism, is so fucking cool and inspired.

Last edited by teh b0lly!!1 : 09-13-2017 at 10:04 AM.

 
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Old 09-13-2017, 08:11 AM   #196
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and Edie Falco who plays Carmela is just the most astounding actress ever. holy shit like where did she come from? during the first few seasons i had literally no idea she can act this well. i even thought her jersey drawl was genuine, she's that good.
and she just keeps getting scenes on the show that raise the bar and she keeps KILLING IT every time, performance after performance of world class acting. it's crazy what that woman can do, honestly.

this has a confessional tehbolly review flavor, i might need to continue this in my ghost thread

 
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Old 09-16-2017, 02:50 PM   #197
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SPOILERS AGAIN


Spoilers




The high points on this show are really fucking high (University, Whitecaps, Pine Barrens, Funhouse, everything from season 6 unrelated to Gay Vito), but there are some bad lows (the Columbus episode Michael Imperioli did, parts of seasons 4-6). Regarding Breaking Bad comparisons -

Breaking Bad only really faltered at the beginning with Marie and the dumbass baby tiara subplot. And perhaps in season 5 when the writers became too self-aware and took the safe route with major plot points instead of crafting an ending like Sopranos did, an ending which is still being debated and appreciated 10 years later.

Sopranos is MUCH more ambitious in scope and narrative, similar to The Wire but still nowhere near that scale- whereas Breaking Bad has this laser sharp focus on about 5 characters, Sopranos frequently changes perspective, even for single shots at times ("I found Jimmy Hoffa!") and in doing so gives a much broader commentary on society as a whole, but also suffers at times from lack of direction (the episode where Carmela goes to Italy with Rosalie comes to mind, Melfi's rape comes out of nowhere and is never discussed again, some of the Ralphie stuff, much of Meadow's bullshit). Sopranos also is not afraid to kill of characters which is a plus. Jesse should have been dead in season 2.

Anyway both are really good at what they do - Breaking Bad has an extremely tight story predominantly about one specific person and is ultimately a simple tragedy about the choices we make. It never really makes any moral judgments nor requires the viewer to do so, it only requires that you understand why the characters make the choices that they make. The arc of Walter White is also unprecedented in any work of fiction I've seen. In terms of dramatic payoff and building tension it is also unsurpassed.

By contrast, Tony does not really have an arc - he attempts to better himself at times but ultimately ends up right back where he started at the very end which is what the ending was all about - you reap what you sow by living a life of violence and exploitation, whether that is a bullet to the face, a life of paranoia waiting for the other shoe to drop at any moment, or simply a life devoid of value or meaning beyond material gain. People never really change. That's an underlying theme in Sopranos. Name one character in the show who is in a different place in season 6 relative to season 1 (being dead doesn't count). It's really the most nihilistic story ever and it doesn't ring untrue at all which is what makes it so disturbing.

What Sopranos is really good at though is giving the perspective of 10-20+ characters to really thoroughly analyze a situation from multiple angles - this works particularly well when we see the perspective of the people being exploited (the guy from Terminator 2 who runs the sporting goods store, the guy in Members Only who hangs himself, the cop who loses his job, Artie, any of Tony's girlfriends, and on and on) to make a definitive moral point about why the actions of the main characters are so fucked up. In University for example there's this really striking contrast between how Tony and pals treat the strippers at the Bing versus how Tony treats his daughter and it's all very intentional to make a point about the way women are regarded in society. That sort of complex idea is never expressed so overtly in Breaking Bad. Most of the main characters are hypocrites and the show is very explicit at pointing this out, but there's also deeper commentary going on.

Anyway just wanted to chime in, either could be the best show ever but it depends what you're looking for. The Wire surpasses both regarding presentation of complex socioeconomic concepts, Breaking Bad is better at characterization and thrilling storytelling, and Sopranos is somewhere in between.

 
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Old 09-19-2017, 10:32 AM   #198
teh b0lly!!1
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finally finished burning through this show

all i can say is the final moment is perfect

 
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Old 09-19-2017, 07:43 PM   #199
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Yeah, I get why the finale is divisive, but I really liked it. I can't really imagine how else they were supposed to end it.

Corny as it may be, that Journey song just fits so perfectly.

 
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Old 09-19-2017, 10:33 PM   #200
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I personally didn't get the vibe that he was supposed to die in the last scene, but there's been some pretty good cases made in an argument that he did. So I guess it was meant to be left open to interpretation by design.

But really, if the whole build-up was to suggest that tony gets whacked, they could have simply shown a split second of Meadow coming through the door and then cut to black and not exactly when he looks up with the scene perfectly correlating with the lyrics "don't stop".

 
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Old 09-19-2017, 10:39 PM   #201
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you tell 'em fuzzy

 
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Old 09-20-2017, 12:02 AM   #202
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don't stop

 
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Old 09-20-2017, 01:10 AM   #203
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i'm still drained but i'm cooking up a huge post about all this

i think the show kind of called it quits at the perfect moment. it became difficult to continue to engage and have vague sympathy for all these characters whose humanity is forever receding and declining. unadulterated psychopathy.

david chase said the finish wasn't supposed to rile anybody up, it was just the way it needed to come out and i completely believe him. it was all glorious and un-glorious at the same time. a cliffhanger and not a cliffhanger, an answer and a question. the most beautiful thing about the Sopranos, as several others have noted (which made me real happy tbh) was how un-sensationalist it was. it didn't try to affect your judgement, and it didn't render characters with any substantial bias. it allowed you to make up your own mind about these people, because they were believable AS PEOPLE. because people are different and multifaceted and hypocritical at different times. that's how good the writing was.

this ending - it doesn't even matter if Tony got whacked right then and there or not. the idea is that all this paranoia and fear he's dragging around like a sack of bodies on his back, it's just waiting to happen. today, in two years. it doesn't matter. the idea is we almost don't truly know if all those talks with Dr. Melfi were truly candid conversations with sincere intent of recovery behind them, or if they were just conversations of rationalization and enabling a psychopath to continue doing what he does. (and it was beautifully brought up within the show itself) it's all so beautifully balanced on a head of a pin - i now agree this is the GOAT so far that i have seen. Breaking Bad pales in comparison, and that truly says a lot.

 
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Old 09-20-2017, 04:22 AM   #204
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also did anybody else find it hilarious that AJ's story arc on season 6 is basically The Omega Concern: Origins?

 
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Old 09-20-2017, 12:01 PM   #205
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i'm glad you liked it so much. what did you think of how christopher was murdered? for some reason i thought it happened way earlier in the series

 
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Old 09-20-2017, 03:37 PM   #206
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also did anybody else find it hilarious that AJ's story arc on season 6 is basically The Omega Concern: Origins?
I dunno, is TOC really a big Blue October fan?

 
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Old 09-20-2017, 10:06 PM   #207
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i'm glad you liked it so much. what did you think of how christopher was murdered? for some reason i thought it happened way earlier in the series
Yeah, that was an interesting moment. I think perhaps Tony felt he was a gonner anyways, so he decided to put him out of his misery. Because when the doctor proclaims that it was serious, but he probably would have lived they show Tony kind of flinch and then after he continuously tries to justify it by pointing out how the tree went right through the baby seat.

 
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Old 09-20-2017, 11:33 PM   #208
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i'm glad you liked it so much. what did you think of how christopher was murdered? for some reason i thought it happened way earlier in the series
i thought it was a heavy handed (not in a bad way) display of the nihilistic nature of the show. it was just one cold decision, the straw that broke the camel's back, and that's it - he's gone. no dialogue, no process, no resolution. only death.

that scene didn't give you a big special moment to part with this really important character, it didn't make a show out of it. it's almost passed off as insignificant, the act itself - but what makes it worthwhile is seeing how Tony deals with it later on. how he's absolutely dead inside, but some kind of feeling, something, is trying to come out of him and he doesn't even know what it is. it's relief, regret that things hadn't gone differently, deep sorrow, disappointment in his protégé, in himself.

when he's gambling and goes on a winning streak, he suddenly mumbles "he's dead", and crashes on the floor laughing. but you know you're not watching a scene about somebody being happy that the jinx has finally been removed. you're watching somebody mourning in their own strange way.

also when Tony and that girl go tripping on a dry piece of cactus, the episode ends with him screaming "I GET IT!" into the mountainous void, and James Gandolfini's face wears this heartbreaking expression of insurmountable sorrow, before smiling again in anaesthetized relief. like, i dunno man. it's just so beautiful. no other show has ever made itself revolve around details so small. it's always about big greek tragedies and major plot developments with plots on film or television, but Sopranos is just so human and tangible, even though it does so by telling the story of people with very little humanity.

it's just something that managed to become greater than the sum of its parts. all you can do is absorb it and respect.

Last edited by teh b0lly!!1 : 09-20-2017 at 11:40 PM.

 
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Old 09-20-2017, 11:49 PM   #209
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Yeah, that was an interesting moment. I think perhaps Tony felt he was a gonner anyways, so he decided to put him out of his misery. Because when the doctor proclaims that it was serious, but he probably would have lived they show Tony kind of flinch and then after he continuously tries to justify it by pointing out how the tree went right through the baby seat.


I mean it's been a long time since I saw it but from what I remember Tony had given Chris a ton of chances and instead of having to deal with cutting him out of the family business he saw a way to not have to deal with it and took it

 
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Old 09-20-2017, 11:52 PM   #210
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i thought it was a heavy handed (not in a bad way) display of the nihilistic nature of the show. it was just one cold decision, the straw that broke the camel's back, and that's it - he's gone. no dialogue, no process, no resolution. only death.

that scene didn't give you a big special moment to part with this really important character, it didn't make a show out of it. it's almost passed off as insignificant, the act itself - but what makes it worthwhile is seeing how Tony deals with it later on. how he's absolutely dead inside, but some kind of feeling, something, is trying to come out of him and he doesn't even know what it is. it's relief, regret that things hadn't gone differently, deep sorrow, disappointment in his protégé, in himself.

when he's gambling and goes on a winning streak, he suddenly mumbles "he's dead", and crashes on the floor laughing. but you know you're not watching a scene about somebody being happy that the jinx has finally been removed. you're watching somebody mourning in their own strange way.

also when Tony and that girl go tripping on a dry piece of cactus, the episode ends with him screaming "I GET IT!" into the mountainous void, and James Gandolfini's face wears this heartbreaking expression of insurmountable sorrow, before smiling again in anaesthetized relief. like, i dunno man. it's just so beautiful. no other show has ever made itself revolve around details so small. it's always about big greek tragedies and major plot developments with plots on film or television, but Sopranos is just so human and tangible, even though it does so by telling the story of people with very little humanity.

it's just something that managed to become greater than the sum of its parts. all you can do is absorb it and respect.
good post

 
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