Sopranos

[Zimmerman]

season 6, episode 2 (last week); another of those wink dream episodes. Not as annoying or pointless as the last one - disappointing non-the-less.

[arsene doesn't know]

Completely agree. Couple of people have told me season six really starts to 'kick off'. The second of the series left me disappointed.

[Razorback]

Yep, pretty much agree with the above, thought episode one was great but episode two was really hard work ...

[Zimmerman]

Not watched tonights episode… but i noticed the synopsis saying his coma/dream was continuing

[AMc]

.

[Zimmerman]

It's drawing to close now..... All the Sopranos virgins stuck with it?
I've relented and got the last 8 episodes on DVD.

Really enjoyed it. Not sure if it's because I knw it's coming to an end, but it's starting to build will be sad when it's over, been with us very week for the last 80!!!!

[arsene doesn't know]

I'm still going strong, but annoyingly my sky plus failed this week (because I turned off power to it while away, oops). But looks like is repeated over the weekend.

Am enjoying it and have been less weird dreamy episodes since tony came out of hospital.

Am intrigued to see how they finish the series off forever!

[Zimmerman]

Finished it off today..... v sad it's all over.

Was indeed a great series.

Think I also have the alternate ending to watch, will give that a blast tomorrow, see which I prefer.

[Pouzar]

I have the complete series on DVD and no doubt will do a full re-watch at some point. As AK said way back in the thread it was groundbreaking, although I would argue it all begins with Oz.
Nothing matches The Wire of course, but the Sopranos is certainly a strong candidate for the silver medal. As are Mad Men and Deadwood, a very unusual western. The final contender, IMHO of course, is Breaking Bad and I am doing a full re-watch in the middle of watching the ongoing series. Between Season 5 episodes six and seven I went over the original 2 seasons and really appreciated how superbly they are crafted. The creator, Vince Gilligan, described the series as depicting the arc from Mr. Chips to Scarface, Walt's personal descent into Hell, and that is proving true and immensely powerful. I know of no other series which I am powerfully drawn to watch while dreading the experience of watching at the same time. Walt's personal train wreck is painful to share but I can't take my eyes off it. I am looking forward to Sunday's episode and then the break until next year when the final 8 episodes are shown.

[AkNotSpur]

The SoHo channel on Sky TV in NZ has been playing The Sopranos from the beginning and I've been following it all the way - for the third time! We're now into my favourite Series - #4 with Junior's trial commencing and Ralphie pressing increasingly harder on the self-destruct button - and I think that, so far, it's aged very well.

I have the complete series of The Wire on DVD - and it's getting closer and closer to re-watch time for that one, although I do watch the odd scene on SoHo. It's definitely still top of my (21st Century) original TV drama pops, with The Sopranos at No.2. Coming up fast on the outside is Treme - if Series 3 is as good as the first two.

[Pouzar]

I have Season 1 of Treme on DVD, haven't got around to watching it yet. Based on your rating of I will try to fit it in, though classes begin again in 9 days and they look very challenging. The course on The Wire and Middlemarch may be the best I have taken. I had watched the entire The Wire twice before the class but during the course I pretty much watched it until I wore the discs out, ferreting out every theme, putting every key character under the microscope until I felt the whole series was part of my DNA.
These deadly serious 50, 60, 70 hour subscription channel TV series may be the art form of our times, enabling the depth and novelistic approach that used to only be available in the best books, such as Middlemarch, Moby Dick, Anna Karenina, etc. Believe me it stood up to a rigorous examination by the best English students on campus. And me.
I know some universities offer courses on The Sopranos and if mine ever does, I'm in. As I said above, for me it is about the uselessness of power for shallow people, the way that pointless material acquisition cannot fill empty souls, cannot bring anything resembling fulfillment or happiness in the sense described in Aristotle as a constant feeling of satisfaction that is a byproduct of leading a virtuous life, not in the up and down, event-dependent feeling we describe it as today.
It is also about how power corrupts everyone. At least that was the impressions that remain from when I last watched it 3 or 4 years ago.

[Zimmerman]

That's what I got from it too; despite their wealth (which, Tony aside) isn't as great as you'd think... and even he has ups and downs. But they're all (justifiably) paranoid and inherently unhappy.

The characters were brilliantly crafted. Loved the relationships between them and some of the subtleties were top draw. Tony and Syl able to have a conversation with a mere look or a raised eye brow.

Also loved the end track for each episode. Started looking forward to it to see what it might be.

Will definitely get round to watching this again one day... but for now I need to catch up on The Wire and Breaking Bad.

[arsene doesn't know]

Finished this last week, after some reflection I thought the final episode was done excellently.

It all starts again tonight on sky Atlantic, series one episode one (my series link still set so may start watching it again!)

[Zimmerman]

I agree Arsene, I thought the last episode was a perfect ending.

Really want to watch it again, but just a bit too soon (and don't fancy having this clogging up my box until I ready to watch again).

[Pouzar]

Lots of controversy in NA about the ending but I thought it was a very interesting and understood why David Chase made that choice. Can't really discuss it I guess because others have not watched it yet. Great series.

[The Real Slim Shady]

What's everyones theory on the finale?

[Zimmerman]

SPOILER(ish)




That he/they would spend their days looking over their shoulder and sooner or later they'll either get capped or pinched.

[Ralfbergs]

SPOILER(ish)




That he/they would spend their days looking over their shoulder and sooner or later they'll either get capped or pinched.

Not really - here's the ending explained (quite a long article though, but this was the first I found - basically this is the explanation that most people agree with):
Contains MAJOR SPOILERS : http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-soprano ... inal-scene" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[t.gridley]

Watched Pine Barrens episode for the third time the other night definitely great TV have watched all the sopranos series twice highly recommended

Probably one the funniest things that I have ever watched, superb series.

[Bert.]

There's a funny parody called The Soporno's

[Zimmerman]

I ALWAYS see/hear people referring to the Pine Barrens episode. I never quite know why (what I'm missing).


SPOILER

Is that the same episode they shot the Russian in the head? I always thought that would come back to haunt them (he disappeared didn't he)?

[Zimmerman]

SPOILER(ish)




That he/they would spend their days looking over their shoulder and sooner or later they'll either get capped or pinched.

Not really - here's the ending explained (quite a long article though, but this was the first I found - basically this is the explanation that most people agree with):
Contains MAJOR SPOILERS : http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-soprano ... inal-scene" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm still not convinced.
Meadow's parking (for me) was all about building the tension. It was all about the suggestion - the whole episode was that suggestion.

What's suggested in the linked article makes sense though and the fact there is no track does tie in with the death angle (as does the 'you don't hear it' bit (the shot, not the music)). But I always put that down (no music) to no track being suitable. The end track became its signature (but not sure it ever had any relevance to the episode). So it was a twist not to play a track. after all, which track would have been big/fitting enough?

To kill him, would have been too easy (shown or not). Instead, you got a taste of the tension, the not knowing when that inevitable time would happen.

[Zimmerman]

By the way. Only read the article, not the comments. I'll yet and read th, see if I change mind.

[The Real Slim Shady]

I ALWAYS see/hear people referring to the Pine Barrens episode. I never quite know why (what I'm missing).


SPOILER

Is that the same episode they shot the Russian in the head? I always thought that would come back to haunt them (he disappeared didn't he)?

He was dead, probably got buried in the snow or something unless he turned into a zombie.

[AkNotSpur]

What's everyones theory on the finale?

Depends on whether one believes that the series had to end with the logical end to Tony's career - death or capture.

It's pretty much set up to make the viewer believe that Tony was shot by the man emerging from the bathroom - but I found that too obvious (i.e. Chase wouldn't have simply copied a famous scene from Godfather 1). IMO, The Sopranos had won the war and that's where the story ended for the viewers - the fly on the wall died. Maybe that's trying to be too clever - but Chase is a smart guy and there may have been more smoke, mirrors and silences than many have spotted.

[Zimmerman]

I ALWAYS see/hear people referring to the Pine Barrens episode. I never quite know why (what I'm missing).


SPOILER

Is that the same episode they shot the Russian in the head? I always thought that would come back to haunt them (he disappeared didn't he)?

He was dead, probably got buried in the snow or something unless he turned into a zombie.

But they never found the body... Which made me think he had miraculously survived a shot to the head and would come back waging war.

[The Real Slim Shady]

What's everyones theory on the finale?

Depends on whether one believes that the series had to end with the logical end to Tony's career - death or capture.

It's pretty much set up to make the viewer believe that Tony was shot by the man emerging from the bathroom - but I found that too obvious (i.e. Chase wouldn't have simply copied a famous scene from Godfather 1). IMO, The Sopranos had won the war and that's where the story ended for the viewers - the fly on the wall died. Maybe that's trying to be too clever - but Chase is a smart guy and there may have been more smoke, mirrors and silences than many have spotted.

The actor that played Chris said that Tony died in the final scene.

[Zimmerman]

Check this out from Chase.... It's still not conclusive


To me the question is not whether Tony lived or died, and that's all that people wanted to know:

There was something else I was saying that was more important than whether Tony Soprano lived or died. About the fragility of all of it. The whole show had been about time in a way, and the time allotted on this Earth. That whole trip out to California was all about that - what people called a dream sequence. And all the dream sequences within the show. Tony was dealing in mortality every day. He was dishing out life and death. And he was not happy. He was getting everything he wanted, that guy, but he wasn't happy. All I wanted to do was present the idea of how short life is and how precious it is. The only way I felt I could do that was to rip it away. And I think people did get it. It made them upset emotionally, but intellectually they didn't follow it. And that could very well be bad execution.


Did Tony die or didn't he die? Well, first of all, it really comes down to this: There was, what, six seasons of that show? Seven? Am I supposed to do a scene and ending where it shows that crime doesn't pay? Well, we saw that crime pays. We've been seeing that for how many years? Now, in another sense, we saw that crime didn't pay because it wasn't making him happy. He was an extremely isolated, unhappy man. And then finally, once and a while he would make a connection with his family and be happy there. But in this case, whatever happened, we never got to see the result of that. It was torn away from him and from us


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film ... ained.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;




Another good variation ive just read is that it us (the viewer) that got whacked. One minute we’re watching and then the next it all goes black and silent.

[The Real Slim Shady]

But it was Tony's POV so that means he got popped ..

[AkNotSpur]

Another good variation ive just read is that it us (the viewer) that got whacked. One minute we’re watching and then the next it all goes black and silent.

That's basically my theory (courtesy of Mrs NotSpur)...the fly on the wall died.