The Sopranos (HBO) TV Show • Page 53

1.99/pound of italian sausage? Marone.

 

Would HBO really care about someone doing another role long after the show ended?

 

From what I read, it was about preserving the image of Tony Soprano and the appeal of the Sopranos, which might be HBO’s most lucrative show next to GoT. James hadn’t really ever branched out of the image of a criminal in his acting roles minus a few spots, and certainly never did comedy or basic cable tv.

 

Thanks Tone

 

This one got me

 

ive been watching this nonstop for the first time all week. On season 3.

As someone who just moved away from North Jersey after 35 years, this is a fucking trip. North Jersey in the late 90s/early 00s, i mean, god, thats my life haha. Every single scene, i know exactly where it is.

Really enjoying this. Great show, great characters, and i'm genuinely surprised at how many times ive laughed

 

A great series of scenes involve the crew members complaining that they have to sit in the lawn chairs at the construction site from 10 to 3 while throwing ice cream cones everywhere. It shows how petty some of the mob's financial efforts are (they are literally just skimming a workers' paycheck) while showing how weak and unmanly they are compared to their image.

 

Feels like as good a time as ever to rewatch this, about three months after my first watch lol

 

I never knew about this scene until yesterday but I am glad it was cut. The "I can't betray my friends!" line is a dud.

 

I will say I thought pussys demise wasn't handled great by the show. The guy disappears and suddenly comes back. How/why wouldn't Tony suspect something? Like, I'm confused at why pussy wouldn't think that was suspicious.

Was the show trying to go "so obvious that it can't be true...oh wait it was true don't think too hard dummy"?

 

From what I remember Tony does suspect something but then dismisses it because Pussy is his best friend.

 

Yeah this is it. Tony knows the whole time but can’t reconcile with the truth. He buries it until it makes him physically sick and he has no choice but to confront it.

 

Yea yea I think I get that but from pussys point of view. Seems like, what was he expecting? If he didn't vanish i think the story would've been more intriguing. He comes up with some sort of convoluted story about puerto rico and expects Tony to believe that?

 

It is handled a bit awkwardly. The show repeatedly emphasizes that the FBI releases informants right away to avoid suspicion.

It does help get rid of Jimmy Altieri sooner, probably the worst actor from season one.

 

what i'm liking a lot about this show and it might speak more about how tv was back in 2000 compared to now is how the series isn't structured like shows are structured now. Every show that comes out on streaming these days are built on slight cliff hangers episode to episode, all building towards a big giant conclusion for each season or for the entire show.

But Sopranos episodes are more stand alone. They're doing more like, "on todays episode, we're going to talk about race.... on tondays episode we're going to talk about misogyny....on todays episode etc etc etc". While there's obviously a bunch of continuing story lines it's not like how it is now. I don't feel like we're necessarily building to anything and yet it's still enjoyable.

 

When the show was airing that sort of storytelling upset the IMDb crowd. "Nothing happened" was the common complaint. As the seasons ended you could see the whole picture, but they were never in a rush to get there or to trick you.

 

Mad men is very similar in that episode to episode feels more ‘stand alone’, and more so about the overall ending and season long story rather than having each episode have some ground breaking reveal. turning to mad men after years of watching shows like Lost, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, etc., was an adjustment. Episodes just ….. end. Lol

 

Yeah mad men, which I just started, is honestly reminding me a lot of this show in a few ways, that being one of them

 

the way shows are structured now can at times just be exhausting. we always need to be on the edge of our seats waiting for the grand reveal, and if we don't get one or we don't like it, suddenly the entire episode is bad.

 

There are definitely some endings that leave me wanting more but yeah they're more like complete stories that build into a bigger picture type of thing. I remember reading somewhere that each season has a different focus on Tony's identity.

S1 - Tony as a son
S2 - Tony as a brother
S3 - Tony as a husband
S4 - Tony as a father
S5 - Tony as a boss
S6 - Tony as a human being

 

Weiner worked on The Sopranos so it makes sense that Mad Men shares that DNA.

 

My girlfriend and I just got to knight in white satin armor and her jaw dropped. Fun to watch

 

Sopranos and Mad Men had a lot go down in their penultimate episodes of the season and then the final episode would be the aftermath. Different yet refreshing.