TV: The Sopranos Discussion Thread
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kook10
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- Jun 27, 2011
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It was relatively well known that the role took a big toll on him.
James Gandolfini's Personal Struggles, Behavior on 'The Sopranos' Set Detailed in New Book
A new book lays bare James Gandolfini’s erratic behavior and substance abuse issues during the final seasons of The Sopranos. Author Mark Kamine worked as a locations manager on David Chase’s HBO juggernaut throughout its six seasons. His book, On Locations: Lessons Learned from My Life On Set...
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Jovavic
boohoo, Pens "fans", BOOHOO
His struggles with the character sounds alot like Heath Ledger and his struggles with playing The Joker, being in the mind of the character can mess up the actor.
ucanthanzalthetruth
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Youtube's algorithm nailed one
Voight
#winning
Just started a re-watch the other day.
Hammettf2b
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funny this thread got bumped. I have been binge watching clips on youtube for the past couple of days lol.
koyvoo
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- Nov 8, 2014
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the squared circle
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Janice being a c**t right to the end. Hopefully Bobby’s kids got the money and not Janice.
Voight
#winning
As coincidence would have it (Phil Leotardo voice) so have I
Between there and Facebook, ive probably watched a full seasons worth of clips in the last couple weeks
John Price
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- Sep 19, 2008
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the squared circle
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This is my favourite instagram account - combining two of my favourite things - Seinfeld and Sopranos.
The one when Tony is on the phone explaining about the interior decorator and the phone is breaking up, then it goes to Jerry and he says " Who is thissss?" and then it goes back to Tony swearing up a storm......I've seen it dozens of times and laugh hard each and every time
BIeucheeseWithWings
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- Jul 9, 2022
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I wish Gigi Cestorne could have lived until the end. The actor commanded the screen whenever he was on; he nailed that character. Tony would have carried more respect with Gigi beside him, as opposed to the mess he was left with; Bacala was a top capo, for f***'s sake.
Interesting to see this thread on Page 1 considering I just started (finally) watching this show for the first time. Funny thing was I was originally planning to watch Mad Men which I had previously given up on after seeing a clip from the show on an Instagram reel. Didn't feel like adding an AMC+ subscription to my collection so I decided I'd put off the Sopranos for too long. I've more or less binged two seasons since Sunday.
It's an intriguing experience. Gandolfini is obviously a massive standout among a pretty excellent cast and I can definitely see how influential this show was to modern prestige dramas and establishing/furthering the HBO narrative formula that feels present in most of their shows. The highlight of the show to me are the therapy sessions. I think even at the time the 'mob boss in therapy' concept wasn't novel as the show even referenced Analyze This, but where that movie used the concept as an intriguing source of comedy (with a secondary purpose of the exploration of the traumas life in the mob can inflict), the scenes serve a dual function of deftly exploring the psyche of a mobster like Tony Soprano together with all his nuances and hypocrisies, but also the emotional toll progressively impacting Dr. Melfi.
I also think the Italian mafia in an era where their reach and influence was well out of their heyday but no less the subject of law enforcement efforts was an interesting dynamic but I do feel like they could have emphasized the difficulties the Italian mob would have had operating in the late 90s-early 2000s
I think Season 2 was noticeably weaker than Season 1. It felt somewhat unfocused with multiple plot threads feeling just...not half baked but a little more underdeveloped. Like the big conflict was Ritchie, who was growing increasingly frustrated with Tony's leadership after his time was served. In a nutshell, it's a fairly compelling backdrop for the antagonist of the season, but he never really felt like some looming threat or powder keg about to set off. He essentially swallows shit from Tony for the majority of the season, is shown to be a fairly decent partner for Janice for most of the season. Then he has a pretty soft-spoken scene where he decides he's going to move to take Tony out, Tony gets wind of it and has Silvio get the drop on him first, but because out of nowhere Ritchie decks Janice in the face and treats her like shit, she takes care of the job first. Was Ritchie acting that way because he was about to put a hit on her brother and transferred his resentment? Or was he just an asshole who waited to be married to show that side? Who knows. And because his death was so out of the blue they have p***y being revealed to actually have been a rat all along with a little more development but towards the end of the season. With him turning into an outright boy scout to go above and beyond a typical informant...I just...didn't care when he got found out and taken out. Then you have all these random plot threads that just feel...there for the sake of having extra stories to tell. Tony's mistress getting suicidal is just a device to show Tony is perhaps changing for the better. The whole plot line with the compulsive gambler I can really only take as a vehicle to show how the mob and a gambling addiction can destroy a life without murder, not bad but nothing important came of it. Carmela almost having an affair was interesting but it had no real impact on the wider story. Tony almost getting pinched for killing the surviving guy that almost killed Chris was an interesting adversity, but he ended up getting away with it scot-free. I can keep going but it just felt like a season where a lot of things happened but nothing really happened other than p***y being killed off.
Random thoughts:
Paulie Walnuts is outstanding. Every scene he's in is gold.
Silvio cracks me up because Gandolfini's facial expressions are so atypical of typical depictions of Mafiosos while Silvio has to be the most stereotypical Italian mobster I have ever seen, which is that much funnier given his love of doing impressions of famous mob movie lines. My headcanon is he ended up a made man purely by building his entire persona around mob movies he grew up with.
I do like the side character study with Chris, but it feels like they totally abandoned his progression in season 2 after he got shot. Carmela had that annoying scene where she tries to push him towards embracing Christian faith and absolutely zero comes of it. Chris is right back to work as if nothing happened. No scenes exploring the trauma of his near death experience, his visions of hell are no longer bothering him...everything they built up was just abruptly dropped. The more I think about season 2, the more I get frustrated.
I don't know how the actor managed it but Junior is somehow simultaneously not believable as a key mafia guy and totally believable as one. I think it's his look.
I think Carmela is one of the more interesting mob wives I've seen in mafia fiction. The idea of a mob wife being emotionally and morally conflicted by their husband's life of crime isn't novel but the toll of having to accept the life she's ended up with conflicting with her moral and religious beliefs is compelling. She easily could have been annoying but outside of her scene pushing her beliefs on Chris while he's laying in post-op recovery, I find her inconsistencies and battles against hypocrisies entertaining.
I know it's very much the point, but holy shit is Livia a despicable old woman.
EDIT: Also whatever the hell happened with that issue Hesh had with that rapper? We're just going to assume that he's dealing with a lawsuit in the background?
It's an intriguing experience. Gandolfini is obviously a massive standout among a pretty excellent cast and I can definitely see how influential this show was to modern prestige dramas and establishing/furthering the HBO narrative formula that feels present in most of their shows. The highlight of the show to me are the therapy sessions. I think even at the time the 'mob boss in therapy' concept wasn't novel as the show even referenced Analyze This, but where that movie used the concept as an intriguing source of comedy (with a secondary purpose of the exploration of the traumas life in the mob can inflict), the scenes serve a dual function of deftly exploring the psyche of a mobster like Tony Soprano together with all his nuances and hypocrisies, but also the emotional toll progressively impacting Dr. Melfi.
I also think the Italian mafia in an era where their reach and influence was well out of their heyday but no less the subject of law enforcement efforts was an interesting dynamic but I do feel like they could have emphasized the difficulties the Italian mob would have had operating in the late 90s-early 2000s
I think Season 2 was noticeably weaker than Season 1. It felt somewhat unfocused with multiple plot threads feeling just...not half baked but a little more underdeveloped. Like the big conflict was Ritchie, who was growing increasingly frustrated with Tony's leadership after his time was served. In a nutshell, it's a fairly compelling backdrop for the antagonist of the season, but he never really felt like some looming threat or powder keg about to set off. He essentially swallows shit from Tony for the majority of the season, is shown to be a fairly decent partner for Janice for most of the season. Then he has a pretty soft-spoken scene where he decides he's going to move to take Tony out, Tony gets wind of it and has Silvio get the drop on him first, but because out of nowhere Ritchie decks Janice in the face and treats her like shit, she takes care of the job first. Was Ritchie acting that way because he was about to put a hit on her brother and transferred his resentment? Or was he just an asshole who waited to be married to show that side? Who knows. And because his death was so out of the blue they have p***y being revealed to actually have been a rat all along with a little more development but towards the end of the season. With him turning into an outright boy scout to go above and beyond a typical informant...I just...didn't care when he got found out and taken out. Then you have all these random plot threads that just feel...there for the sake of having extra stories to tell. Tony's mistress getting suicidal is just a device to show Tony is perhaps changing for the better. The whole plot line with the compulsive gambler I can really only take as a vehicle to show how the mob and a gambling addiction can destroy a life without murder, not bad but nothing important came of it. Carmela almost having an affair was interesting but it had no real impact on the wider story. Tony almost getting pinched for killing the surviving guy that almost killed Chris was an interesting adversity, but he ended up getting away with it scot-free. I can keep going but it just felt like a season where a lot of things happened but nothing really happened other than p***y being killed off.
Random thoughts:
Paulie Walnuts is outstanding. Every scene he's in is gold.
Silvio cracks me up because Gandolfini's facial expressions are so atypical of typical depictions of Mafiosos while Silvio has to be the most stereotypical Italian mobster I have ever seen, which is that much funnier given his love of doing impressions of famous mob movie lines. My headcanon is he ended up a made man purely by building his entire persona around mob movies he grew up with.
I do like the side character study with Chris, but it feels like they totally abandoned his progression in season 2 after he got shot. Carmela had that annoying scene where she tries to push him towards embracing Christian faith and absolutely zero comes of it. Chris is right back to work as if nothing happened. No scenes exploring the trauma of his near death experience, his visions of hell are no longer bothering him...everything they built up was just abruptly dropped. The more I think about season 2, the more I get frustrated.
I don't know how the actor managed it but Junior is somehow simultaneously not believable as a key mafia guy and totally believable as one. I think it's his look.
I think Carmela is one of the more interesting mob wives I've seen in mafia fiction. The idea of a mob wife being emotionally and morally conflicted by their husband's life of crime isn't novel but the toll of having to accept the life she's ended up with conflicting with her moral and religious beliefs is compelling. She easily could have been annoying but outside of her scene pushing her beliefs on Chris while he's laying in post-op recovery, I find her inconsistencies and battles against hypocrisies entertaining.
I know it's very much the point, but holy shit is Livia a despicable old woman.
EDIT: Also whatever the hell happened with that issue Hesh had with that rapper? We're just going to assume that he's dealing with a lawsuit in the background?
Last edited:
Mr Fahrenheit
Valar Morghulis
- Oct 9, 2009
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And you used to sell laser printers out the back of your crown vic
the squared circle
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- it petered out...
- it petered out
- it died on the vine.
- it diiieed on the viiiine
- it petered out
- it died on the vine.
- it diiieed on the viiiine
koyvoo
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- Nov 8, 2014
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Voight
#winning
AtlantaWhaler
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- Jul 3, 2009
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the squared circle
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Mr Fahrenheit
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"Not just the young guys....guys who worked for your father"
"f***ing Paulie, right"
"Nah, im not saying nothin"
Lol
"f***ing Paulie, right"
"Nah, im not saying nothin"
Lol
End of Line
Sic Semper Tyrannis
- Mar 20, 2009
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He made a great recovery, staring Tony down menacingly at the mall, when Vito sandbagged Tony lol
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