Sopranos - Season 2

My favourite Sopranos coinage: coozehound.

I think there's an understandable dropoff in season 3 due to Nancy Marchand's death, but the high points of the series are pretty high. Don't understand the complaints about the "Employee of the Month" episode (would you guys prefer a prosaic rape scene to a horrific one?) especially in that that is really a huge, key episode for Melfi as a character - the final shot, where she explicitly refuses Tony, is a major moment, and really well done. The rape incident spotlights all of the relatively arbitrary moral boundaries that are examined over the course of the series, especially between the mob-affiliated and the non-mob-affliated, and that stuff is crucial. I don't think the rape was badly handled or exploitative at all, it is perfectly in tune with the series' overarching themes of doing what is right vs. doing what is easy vs. doing what your inner psychopath tells you...

ya any time the sopranos tried to be witty about showbiz it just failed completely... always makes me cringe

― s1ocki, Sunday, June 14, 2009 3:51 AM (5 days ago) Bookmark

the episode in this season with jon favreau and the spaced out producer or whatever - every scene is cringe inducing

is that the one with alicia witt? daaaamn.

idk, i like some of the showbiz stuff. that one daniel baldwin/tony moment in the last series makes the whole cleaver plot worthwhile imo

aj as existentialist is about as unconvincing as if they has turned him into a transsexual

so much Glenlivet in this show.

tony's mom riding that thing down the stairs is my favorite shit ever

maybe this comes back to haunt him but was a bit put off by how easy tony skated on the airline tickets thing - i mean i know he has a great lawyer and whatever but it's great that they balance out tony's skill as a boss with the fact that like anyone else he has to get lucky once in a while just to stay alive and this felt too glossed over for my taste.

i agree with everyone upthread talking about how great carmella became in this season - i loved when she would show her "married to a mob boss" side like when she snapped at janice after meadow was busted having the party at livia's house also the way they ended her thing with the contractor by having her hunt him down just to thank him. the only thing is when she got wooed by the coat - i think in real life that would've made the situation worse but it's a small nitpick. just in general falco was amazing - her stares at the contractor, when she runs away during richie and janice's wedding toast.

my two cents on junior is that he was obv never good enough to be the boss - this is pure speculation on my part but if they chose jackie over junior even tho junior was tony's dad's brother, that must say something - but he was high up enough on the food chain to live well, he just decided not to live like tony. i guess he was still making side deals with richie to move coke and whatever but when his lawyer tells him that it will cost at least 400k to have people review the fbi wiretaps on him he's kind of like "ah fuck it"

also the dream sequences in this are amazing - i think having tony finally come to the decision about pussy in a dream was brilliant - as someone who runs from the facts of life (me!) will tell you, they eventually catch up to you in your sleep.

the best thing that happened this season was dropping the storyline of christopher the actor/screenwriter whatever whatever - shit was mad boring

Is the ep where Tony totally fucks over the T-1000 in this series? That one's great.

maybe this comes back to haunt him but was a bit put off by how easy tony skated on the airline tickets thing - i mean i know he has a great lawyer and whatever but it's great that they balance out tony's skill as a boss with the fact that like anyone else he has to get lucky once in a while just to stay alive and this felt too glossed over for my taste.

they had to scrap the airline tickets plot when Livia died - they had originally had a whole story arc mapped out about it but it hinged on Livia testifying against Tony

thus it makes sense that Livia dying would blow the FBI's case as well (no witnesses)

thank u shakes

Livia's death also explains some of the weird tones/stories in Season 3, they had to really scramble to re-write the entire season and come up with a different direction.

i really liked the alicia witt episode

Great season...I really think Season 3 was the last "very good" Sopranos season before it veered way off into soap opera territory in Seasons 4 and 5 (which despite some saying it was a return to form, I thought was overrated). Season 6, well I never finished as the first half alternated betwen dull and ridiculous.

"Home Movies" season 6 premiere is one of the best episodes in the series

daaaaaaaaaaaaamn jamie-lynn was fiiiiiiine this season

ya any time the sopranos tried to be witty about showbiz it just failed completely... always makes me cringe

― s1ocki, Sunday, June 14, 2009 3:51 AM (5 days ago) Bookmark

"Hey Marty - Kundun, I liked it!" is hilarious, one of my favorite lines from the show

just finished s2, surprised myself by how much i was getting into this season by the end after thinking it started off kinda weak (finale was kind of a microcosm of this - i thought it was gonna be a throwaway finale a la buffy but then it really kicked into gear at the end there). i sort of hated richie aprile and expecially janice but can admit that the guy who played richie did a hell of a job. dude was just a major prick and i never understood why tony put up with him for so long.

parts of this season did seem pretty rushed though and there were some throwaway scenes - like did the italy story really require an entire episode? what became of that, furio joined the crew, beat up that asian lady, and... AJ goes through a lolexistential crisis and then...well we don't know, they never revisit that (it does seem to rub off on tony a bit tho). chris gets shot, almost dies...and then he's not in the next episode at all, only mentioned once, and is out of the hospital the following ep, and now he's about to be made. cool?

my biggest gripe was with the tony/dr. melfi relationship. she was such a highlight of season 1 and then was seriously underused this season. i know they tried to show her 'personal' life a little more, with the alcoholism and general sadness of her existence, but none of that really interested me for whatever reason. her relationship with tony was one of the best parts of the show and it seemed like every episode wasted 5-10 minutes with them sitting in her office staring at each other; each visit was the same. like livia this season, she seemed like more of a plot device than an actual character.

all that said i really just love tony and carmela and christopher and pauly/sil so much i can't help myself. i just wish the plotting were a bit tighter and the whole thing had a bit more, idk, meaning. lol

if anyone replies remember i've only seen through season 2

manson lamps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxT442bSG68

Didn't realize that was David Chase blowing off Paulie.

the tony/richie climactic fight is one of the realest ever

also

"Hey Marty - Kundun, I liked it!"

this pops into my head every time i see scorsese now

hahaha

maybe this comes back to haunt him but was a bit put off by how easy tony skated on the airline tickets thing - i mean i know he has a great lawyer and whatever but it's great that they balance out tony's skill as a boss with the fact that like anyone else he has to get lucky once in a while just to stay alive and this felt too glossed over for my taste.

i agree with everyone upthread talking about how great carmella became in this season - i loved when she would show her "married to a mob boss" side like when she snapped at janice after meadow was busted having the party at livia's house also the way they ended her thing with the contractor by having her hunt him down just to thank him. the only thing is when she got wooed by the coat - i think in real life that would've made the situation worse but it's a small nitpick. just in general falco was amazing - her stares at the contractor, when she runs away during richie and janice's wedding toast.

my two cents on junior is that he was obv never good enough to be the boss - this is pure speculation on my part but if they chose jackie over junior even tho junior was tony's dad's brother, that must say something - but he was high up enough on the food chain to live well, he just decided not to live like tony. i guess he was still making side deals with richie to move coke and whatever but when his lawyer tells him that it will cost at least 400k to have people review the fbi wiretaps on him he's kind of like "ah fuck it"

also the dream sequences in this are amazing - i think having tony finally come to the decision about pussy in a dream was brilliant - as someone who runs from the facts of life (me!) will tell you, they eventually catch up to you in your sleep.

the best thing that happened this season was dropping the storyline of christopher the actor/screenwriter whatever whatever - shit was mad boring

― whiney g. gordon liddy (J0rdan S.), Monday, June 22, 2009 5:48 AM (3 years ago)

i p much agree w/ all this

"Hey Marty - Kundun, I liked it!"

this pops into my head every time i see scorsese now

yeah, this line has taken up permanent residence in my brain.

Carmela's absolute *best* married to a mob boss moment is the scene where she tries to get Meadow a letter of recommendation for college w/ the ricotta pie

Like she starts out just being pushy and then is just flat-out "I want you to write the letter" *smiles and holds ricotta pie*

ya any time the sopranos tried to be witty about showbiz it just failed completely... always makes me cringe

― s1ocki, Sunday, June 14, 2009 3:51 AM (5 days ago) Bookmark

"Hey Marty - Kundun, I liked it!" is hilarious, one of my favorite lines from the show

― ℳℴℯ　❤＼(◕‿◕✿ (Princess TamTam), Monday, March 7, 2011 3:05 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Me too, not really what I meant

I'm watching this show again from s1 btw

k3vin some of yr complaints re: Livia have more than a little to do with her declining health conflicting with the writers' plans for story arcs

my favorite part of Season 2 is probably the interaction between Tony and Janice when he puts her on the bus out of town

Also a post-9/11 point where I thought, Why does she have to ride a --- OH, no ID needed apparently.

Tony, putting Janis on the bus: "All in all though, I'd say it was a pretty good visit."

been rewatching the whole show for the first time...final scene of this season is one of the high points of the series

that being said, i think i might prefer the more slack, rambling pacing of the next two seasons to the clear, linear path of the season 2. italy episode and d-girl are both pretty blah episodes imo

Those are two of the worst for sure, do love the rest of this season tho

yeah it's a great season. janice/tony/livia is such a great triangle of manipulation and deceit

richie aprile definitely my fave antagonist. w/ the exception of maaaybe mad men is sopranos the funniest of the recent golden age dramas (defining as sopranos, deadwood, the wire, mad men, breaking bad)? tony's at least neck and neck w/ al swearengen and roger sterling (and funnier than bunk and whoever the wit of breaking bad is - jesse?), and paulie walnuts, christofuh, sal, livia, and uncle junior seem much funnier than anyone else the others have.

yeah, i hadn't remembered the show being so funny the first time i watched it.

i love those throwaway jokes like the witness reading anarchy, state, and utopia at home

sopranos is sooooo funny, nonstop

really relishing this season how dominic chianese can play aggrieved better than anyone else ever

those quiet scenes with junior and the woman who comes to visit him while he's under house arrest are really nice too

I just watched the first episode of this season last night, coincidentally. Janice is so despicable.

it's like every character in this show is constantly dissembling and self-righteously rationalizing their greed and laziness

"Picayune stuff."

only 3 episodes into s2, but David Proval's dead eyes are as creepy as his shoeblack hair is hilarious. I recognized him from Mean Streets even tho he looks like that guy's desiccated corpse.

lol at Aida Turturro singing along with "Mother and Child Reunion."

tony... i'm old school

like Pacino on downers

well except behind the wheel or with a coffeepot