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I've met so many Tony Sopranos over the years. Boomer dads of a certain age who can switch from generous, charismatic and good-humoured to flying into a snarling rage on a dime. Exuberantly racist in private. Highly unpredictable when drunk. Incredibly possessive, especially about family. I really would never think of paying for a meal when my partner and I are out for dinner with her dad, because what happened to Finn is exactly what would happen to me. Hell, I've known a few Carmelas too. I see a lot of my own parents in both of them; they'd have been the same age at the same time. The Sopranos is great for many reasons, but on rewatch that's what really stands out for me right now. It all feels eerily familiar, and it's not like I'm from NJ or even the US Barry Foster fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Aug 18, 2020 |
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Aug 18, 2020 18:28
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veni veni veni posted:Ralph and Tony B are the big ones, but I’m pretty sure Vito, Bobby, the guy who died on the toilet and twins just kind of show up out of nowhere in between seasons too. And once they showed up it was just like they’d been there all along. Doing a rewatch now, Vito was in scenes in season 2 before he started to become important, Bobby was around from season 2 before becoming important, and Gigi was the guy who clipped Philly Parisi and turned up a bunch in season 2 before he became capo in season 3, so I don't think any of them showed up out of nowhere. EDIT Patsy did kinda come out nowhere though. 'Hey, that random guy who got shot? Turns out he has a twin, 'cause David Chase liked the actor!' Barry Foster fucked around with this message at 08:01 on Oct 7, 2020 |
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Oct 7, 2020 07:57
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veni veni veni posted:I didn't mean they became big characters out of nowhere. I meant their characters literally came out of nowhere. Like, they would frequently just add guys to the crew without even acknowledging why they are there all of a sudden. Yeah, I get ya, I'm kinda noticing that too. But to me anyway it contributes to how 'real' the show's world feels, loads of characters who are just faces until they become particularly relevant to the main characters. It's a big family. Not to mention all the people who we never get to see at all - like, the Barese crew is meant to be the largest in the family (IIRC), but we see, what, three members? And two of them are the Barese boys.
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Oct 7, 2020 14:33
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Ainsley McTree posted:Little Carmine is basically a Jackie Junior who lived Nah they're pretty different. Jackie Jr is a horrible little prick whereas Lil Carmine is a pretty genial guy all things considered And as has been repeatedly pointed out, even though both of them weren't really smart enough to play the game, LC was at least smart enough to know he wasn't smart enough to play the game We just finished season 3 on rewatch last night. Jackie Jr is such a dickhead EDIT even more beaten than I thought but ah well EDIT EDIT BiggerBoat posted:The show does a good job depicting drunk and drug use. Too many shows go way over the top with it and portray both as someone who's never done drugs idea of how someone acts on drugs. I'm immediately thinking of Chris slurring his words when they're cleaning up Ralphie or when he does Livia's eulogy speech. Very underplayed and made more real because of it. Someone under the influence, more times than not, feels perfectly natural and comfortable and acts that way, even if they're inhibitions are down (which is usually the giveaway), not some drooling half comatose zombie that is usually how they're played. I've no experience with heroin - grazie dio - but his speech at Livia's thing is perfect weed talk. Probably some of the best weed talk I've ever seen put to film Barry Foster fucked around with this message at 11:56 on Oct 15, 2020 |
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Oct 15, 2020 11:53
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BiggerBoat posted:I've never done H either but, yeah. That Lydia speech reminded me of my best man's rambling funny nonsense at my wedding. He and my groomsmen took a walk to spark up prior to his toast and he never stopped apologizing for loving it up in his mind. I thought it was fine and funny but he said he had this whole other thing ready to go, locked and loaded, and then just lost it to the weed. It may just be the stoner in me, but I actually thought what Chrissie was saying was kind of a fun thought experiment. Just not at all apposite to the situation. I've not (yet) done peyote, but I do like the dreamy feel of that sequence. Man the Sopranos is good
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Oct 15, 2020 17:47
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Janice is low-key way up near the top there. I've been doing a rewatch with my partner (well for me - her first time) and she physically recoils whenever Janice is on screen. There's just a sucking black hole where her soul should be. She's kind of pathetic for that, though. There's nothing pathetic about Richie, he really was just a mad dog who needed to be put down. No redeeming features. Same with Ralphie. Christopher is maybe a bit sympathetic at points but holy poo poo is he an absolute psycho and totally deserved to die. All of the mob characters except Bobbie are pretty much irredeemable (I have to catch myself when I sympathise with Junior, because even though he's quite sweet and charming as an old man he was clearly a terror in his day) Ainsley McTree posted:I don't know what to do with myself now that I've finished. I could start over, I suppose As others have said before me - Deadwood Deadwood DEADWOOD
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Nov 12, 2020 16:23
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codo27 posted:Have any of you known people like Janice though? I mean there are lots of wretched people littered among my family and friends, but some I've met through my fiancée really take the cake. And not just the soulless vessels for drug use. Just awful people who exist solely to detract from others, there is no positive impact of anybody or anything. I don't think I've ever met anyone totally irredeemable, but I've met a lot of people who are broken in a similar sort of way to Janice. Far less malicious overall, but just constantly on the mental, spiritual and emotional move, constantly trying to find something, anything, to fill the hole, and lashing the gently caress out at people when they're inevitably left unsatisfied. potee posted:I honestly think Sil is up there. The show did a great job of presenting him as this sort of comical, almost charmingly self-aware consigliere character, but every once in a while they'd give him a line or two to remind the audience who he was, and that he was just way more subtle about his sociopathy than people like Ralphie. Abusing and extorting dancers at the Bing, and the absolute pure evil and malice in the "loving oval office" line he gives with Adriana. Phasmid referred to him ITT as 'a mean loving pimp with a heart of ice', and it's true. The others are thieves and bullies, usually opportunistically, but Sil's a systematic abuser. We got to the Ade episode just the other day. I had to leave the room for a bit for that part.
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Nov 12, 2020 19:34
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Open Source Idiom posted:Maybe it's a generational thing -- I suspect I'm a bit younger than some of the other posters ITT -- or it's just coming to the a lot later than the rest of you, or whatever, but this whole "the mobsters are actually psychopaths" revelation that you guys talk about continually being reminded of, I dunno, that's so completely different to my experience of the show? If you weren't around when the boomers were in their prime I can see how you might not relate to the show to the same extent as us older posters. The show's as much about the toxicity and ultimate nihilism of suburban consumerism as it is about mobsters being shitheads
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Nov 13, 2020 12:55
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JethroMcB posted:I keep expecting him to turn on that Muppet; start huffing through his nose and belittling it because it saw him express vulnerability for a second. Haha, same. Also same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjABs9poa3Y
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Nov 14, 2020 21:16
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pentyne posted:Paulie being the lapsed Catholic boy was a really good bit of his character as he clearly has absolutely 0 concern or care for morals and spiritual guidance but as soon as his life goes to poo poo in some way suddenly he's all introspective and leaning on his religious upbringing to support. Paulie genuinely seems to struggle with the idea that other people are really people. It struck me in that same episode where he completely forgets to pretend to give a poo poo about the little girl with burns until prompted by Tony. Yeah, he was preoccupied at the time, but you also see it when he forgets to pretend to care about Carmela or the kids. Like, none of them care about other people at all, but Paulie more than any of them seems to have had to learn to pretend to care in the first place, rather than suppress his empathy or let it wither away
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Nov 18, 2020 12:52
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lurker2006 posted:I remember watching one of the thousands of mob documentaries on youtube and one of the guys they were interviewing giving an aside about the sopranos said in his opinion the most unrealistic thing was how soft Tony was in terms of empathy, everyone he knew in the game was a Paulie. Jesus, imagine living like that
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Nov 18, 2020 14:34
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Yeah, decent counter-arguments re: Paulie. I guess he is capable of empathy, but I suppose what I was more grasping at was that he's just incredibly solipsistic. It's like his capacity for theory of mind is way out of whack - Paulie really doesn't 'get' people, which in turns means it's really easy for him to act like they aren't real people with real thoughts and feelings of their own when it's time to beat or rob or kill them. Conversely, Tony fully understands how other people think and feel, he's just so greedy and spiteful he either doesn't care or takes active glee in hurting them.
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Nov 18, 2020 18:24
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phasmid posted:One gets the impression that drugs come with the lifestyle. Probably guys like Silvio or Paulie don't do it because it's not for them/it would interfere with work. But Tony never seems to turn down coke and now that I'm thinking about it, he pretty much takes any drugs offered him. But aside from drink, no downers really, nothing to slow him down. He leaves the hospital twice not really caring much about painkillers which back then in America were pretty damned plentiful, probably a lot more than now. It absolutely does. A chronic depressive seeking ever greater novelties and pleasures to try and fill the gaping hole in himself is not at all surprising veni veni veni posted:Most of them were alcoholics and Chris was the only one who actually admitted it. Tony was probably drunk or half drunk most of his waking life. Yeah, on rewatch it's amazing how often he has a drink of some sort in his hand. Maybe don't get drunk every single night, Tone, you might not feel as miserable all the time
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Nov 21, 2020 11:19
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PostNouveau posted:Is it good? Ehhhhhhhh No, not really
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Nov 24, 2020 18:51
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Pope Corky the IX posted:Yeah, I've realized the same thing. poo poo, they're not even doing porn with characters from the show anymore. It was my partner's first time watching in our current rewatch and she didn't even blink at that episode, we're so inured at this point. I had to explain afterwards about its initial reception, haha
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Nov 25, 2020 17:46
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ruddiger posted:Ohhhhhh!!!!!!! Maron!!!
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Dec 5, 2020 11:55
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BiggerBoat posted:The story, the acting and the direction. I like Scorcese, Deniro and Pesci and really dug how the whole film seemed like a coda to the gngster movies of the past and showed them as old men in a dying genre. I never found it boring. It was like getting the band back together if that makes sense. That's a good way of putting it.
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Dec 9, 2020 00:28
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codo27 posted:I seen someone post last night they are about half way through S2 of the Wire and "not getting the hype". I must say 2 isn't as good as 1 so far, I think we're at ep8 now, but its all starting to come together nicely all the same. I thought I disliked Bubs but Ziggy, man. Hope that kid gets got how in the name of gently caress could you possibly dislike Bubs?!
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Jan 21, 2021 14:15
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Mokelumne Trekka posted:It is also much funnier than I remember. With one huge exception: having gotten older, Tony's mom is horrifying to me whereas my younger self found her much more comical. Livia is a loving nightmare, an absolute black hole of a person. I had the exact same reaction on rewatch. Nancy Marchand slays it. We all know a Livia or two.
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Mar 9, 2021 23:27
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PostNouveau posted:God, if they had had Nancy Marchand the entire run of the show. I can't help but think it would've been completely different. I'm happy with what we got but it's interesting to think what could have been. I think we'd have lost a lot of characters and/or antagonists. Tony B, probably. Phil maybe?
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Mar 10, 2021 11:33
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Mokelumne Trekka posted:Great moment for Meadow at the end of S2 episode 3 (Toodle-loving-Oo) as she scrubs the floor of the house. It shows that she is different from most characters in the show and has a conscience. She's quite happy to toss it overboard by series end, though.
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Mar 16, 2021 12:05
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Ainsley McTree posted:One of the big revelations on my rewatch was re-learning how much Meadow kind of sucks (ethically/morally, I mean, I have nothing but praise for her performance). For whatever reason, the last thing I remembered about her arc from my first watch of the show was her working for legal aid, so I guess my brain assumed that's where she landed at the end of the series but lol no, not quite huh He would've been fine. Vito wouldn't kill the boss's daughter's boyfriend unless he was absolutely insanely desperate.
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Mar 18, 2021 16:11
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I am constantly amazed and delighted at the ease with which people come up with completely plausible Sopranos dialogue. It speaks to the strength of the characters, I suppose.
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Mar 19, 2021 11:20
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phasmid posted:Silvio: If you're gettin' chased by a koopa jump onto a ledge. For some reason, they can't do that. Lmao
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Mar 21, 2021 09:48
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SpaceAceJase posted:Yo thread. Keep us updated! Seriously always a treat to hear what new viewers think
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Mar 23, 2021 14:50
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Kemper Boyd posted:Max Kurschner claimed in his biography that being an associate and a free agent was better than being a made guy, since while you're not protected by your status, you also don't have a status which makes people liable to gently caress with you, and you're kicking up money on a case-by-case basis, and in some cases not at all. I can 100% believe that. Security through obscurity and that
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Apr 5, 2021 12:02
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It's funny when you go back to season one for a rewatch and the show is almost cartoonishly light in comparison. Is this your first watch through? Not really a spoiler, but it's only getting meaner from here on
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Apr 19, 2021 17:57
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Nor Chrissy and Paulie laughing like Beavis and Butthead at it
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Apr 20, 2021 09:35
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I can totally believe that. Part of what makes Tony such an interesting character is his 'Gandolfini' side - he can be really charming and warm and good-humoured, that juxtaposition is what really makes the character pop.
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Apr 22, 2021 13:09
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That seemed to be a trailer mostly dedicated to shooting guns
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Jun 29, 2021 20:00
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^^^^^^^^ excellent postMameluke posted:I'm making a documentary. The World War II generation and their music, as exemplified by Ma. I'm grinding my teeth just reading this. Such an amazingly well-written character Barry Foster fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Jul 8, 2021 |
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Jul 8, 2021 22:55
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I wonder how differently things might've gone if he just hadn't said that
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Aug 10, 2021 18:02
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GoutPatrol posted:How could you talk about this and not post this banger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aopKk56jM-I This fucken owns
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Sep 8, 2021 00:02
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crispix posted:I watched the Sopranos 20 year reunion thing for the first time last night and there were so many unexpected things. I think chief among them was Van Zandt saying his wife (who played Gabriella) was the trained actor between the two of them Yeah he's such a sweet and soft-spoken old gent  I can't remember where it's mentioned (might be that reunion) but he scrupulously never, ever swears IRL, which is hilarious.If you've not seen this, it's worth a watch too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB6i-f1nXMk
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Sep 11, 2021 14:01
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Whale Vomit posted:Woah, the WTF with Marc Maron interview with David Chase was really good. It gets heavy towards the end. Seems like Chase is self medicating depression with ketamine. Is that a thing? Yeah it's a thing. Mucking around with NMDA receptors can be highly efficacious for some people, especially when they don't respond well (or at all) to more traditional monoamine based medications. I personally suspect there are questions about long term efficacy, though
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Sep 22, 2021 13:38
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Ah yes, young people, who are having to work ever shittier jobs for ever shittier wages, with no hope of ever owning property or retiring or having any real stability in their lives, facing the now essentially certain collapse of civilisation in the face of overwhelming climate catastrophe, are world-historically spoiled (presumably cos they have iphones), and are content to whinge on their instagrams and tiktoks instead of taking to the streets and protesting, which they haven't been doing at all over the last few years
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Sep 30, 2021 13:06
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roomtone posted:they should do a movie narrated by ghost paulie. paranormal spooky poo poo. He should turn up at a seance
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Oct 3, 2021 23:22
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I think Sopranos is broadly like a portrait and The Wire is broadly like a landscape, and I think it's kinda hard to make direct comparisons/rankings since they're kind of apples and oranges.
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Oct 15, 2021 12:25
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Crankit posted:Hi I never watched the show but did Tony die at the end? By the end Tony was already dead
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Oct 23, 2021 11:22
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I don't think Paulie really has the initiative. He's a born follower. He whinges and sometimes he half-assedly plots or jockeys for position but I don't see him popping his skip, he just doesn't got the nous
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Dec 13, 2021 00:18
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