The Sopranos....

Watched it completely for the first time over the past few weeks.
Spoilers below.

Brilliant show.
I do agree that it seemed a bit directionless around the fourth or fifth season but overall it's a show with such amazingly rich characters and interesting dynamics (not to mention being out right consistently hilarious with killer one liners) that this is easy to overlook.

So many great characters.
Livia Soprano: I missed her when she went. Nancy Marchand was an incredible actress.

"It's all a big nothing". That dismissive hand wave thing. Her narcissistic mother and her relationship with Tony is amazing dramatically yet still at times so funny. That's hard to do and testament to how good this show was.

Smaller characters like Richie "Manson lamps" Aprile. Thoroughly psychopathic with no redeeming qualities yet compelling and funny. The relationship with Janice- a funny timebomb engagement with a deadly ending.

Dr Melfi: someone said all the characters were unlikeable but I liked Melfi. Played with aplomb IMO by Lorraine Bracco. I would have liked if they fleshed out Tony's sessions a bit more in the show. I felt for her dealing with his bull****.
I would have liked if she nailed him on his bull**** a bit more. Of course he'd probably just storm out again.

Paulie Walnuts (apparently a guy who was involved in stuff like this in real life IIRC).

Little Carmine and his beautiful malapropisms and self-regard. Dim but still likeable That was a show in itself.

Vito and his dalliances (another sad and deeply deluded character).

Jonny Sach. Cool guy. Loved his family. Proper mob boss?

Janice. What a character. One scene I didn't like was Tony ****ting on her (admittedly probably doomed) attempt at introspection and change. The bit where he provokes her into getting angry again at the dinner table and walks out happy with his night's work. I thought that was quite mean of him. That's why that family was never gonna improve tbh.

Christophah:
Another sad deluded character. Ade's death was one of the saddest parts of the show.

Ralphie: arguably the least likeable character for me. Played with typical sliminess by Joe Pantolioni ("Guido the killer pimp" from Risky Business).

And of course Uncle June. So many amazing one liners delivered so perfectly.

Amazing characters. Amazing dynamics between them. Great show.

Actually the one legged Russian and the Jewish psychiatrist who lays it out for Carmella ("leave him") are another two great characters.

Although in retrospect that psychiatrist's advice could have gotten her killed. Actually he does just say to consider it (maybe she'd know herself HOW to leave him) so I dunno. Still a cool fcuker.

Onto to Season Five now.

I think the best villain so far has been Ralphie.

Richie April was a full-blown psycho who treated people like crap, except for Janice when he started out with her but that quickly went downhill but Ralphie, however, was more complex.

He had something of a stable family life with Ro and tried to be a mentor for Jackie, though he was either setting him up or trying to piss Tony off. Richie was always moody and pissed off whereas Ralphie seemed to be able to interact with people and seem sociable, though his anger and violence was always bubbling underneath. I thought he was one of the best characters around, even though I wasn't a fan. The 360 in his final episode was also quite an impressive performance.

ballyargus wrote: »

The Sopranos was all great first time around. I kinda lost interest on the second visit once I'd gotten to season three.

The Wire is in another league.

me arse it is :rolleyes:

It really is nothing short of a Masterpiece and it's important to remember it really was the first of its kind. A new 'boxset' type TV series with well-known actors comes out every other week these days - but this was the first to give us practically movie-length episodes over extended seasons. The depth and character development were never seen before.

Like a lot of people have said, you get something different from it every time you go through it. When I first watched it, I couldn't stand Chris, Carmela or Janice.
I felt Chris always seemed to just f*ck something up when things were going well; Carmela was a whiny wagon and Janice was just uber annoying.

But by the second or third viewing, they became some of my favourite characters.

Very few people have mentioned Syl, which I'm surprised at. He had a brilliant way of delivering lines that were not necessarily supposed to be funny but would have you laughing out loud. In the intervention clip that someone posted above, Syl's deadpan reading of his 'grievance' with Chris is hysterical ("your hair was in the toilet water").

One big advantage of the Sopranos, for me, is that every episode stands out on its own - they are all mini-movies. I feel like I can dip in and watch random episodes here and there and enjoy them.

As brilliant as The Wire and Breaking Bad are, I really feel like you have to just watch them in series order. It's hard to dip in and out of both of those shows. I'd actually be interested to hear if others agree on that point. I loved the Wire but have never rewatched it, same with BB.

Favourite quote: there is a scene where Tony calls Chris in to discuss something, and Chris, perhaps sensing he is in trouble, says, "is this about the Easter baskets?"

Tony just says he doesn't know what that is, and they move on to whatever Tony wanted to talk about, but I just love the idea of that heist or scam or whatever it was, a whole load of baskets full of Easter goodies being stolen, or never delivered, kids left crying, parents upset, all is they could be sold for a few bucks.

A simple line, delivered and left there, but gives a glimpse of the petty, grubby, small-time stuff they were often up to.

JoshRosen wrote: »

Tony- “Those who want respect, give respect.”

Richie Aprille- “See kid, he just told you to shut the fcuk up. And he told me to go fcuk myself.”

Richie Aprille was one of the most frightning characters in the show imo, a real meanacing vibe off him. Pity they didn't keep him around longer.