Sopranos - Season 3

plus, it's funnier.

it's the funniest show ever imho

the flaws are more glaring than the wire's -- at least until s5 of the wire, though s2 had its moments -- but i actually think it's forgivable because they were trying for so much more, scope/character/theme/plot-wise.

I am basically being a random googler here (I literally misclicked on the never-used Blog View and saw this), but I'm a little surprised by this - I didn't get through more than s01e09, but it seemed very much local to one maybe two viewpoints and a specific social range, where The Wire runs up and down through Baltimore. Different themes each season (most of them admittedly variations on "It's all fucked"). Did the Sopranos get out of where it started, or did it just get very good at the situation and the characters in it?

wait, you judge shows by the number of milieus they try to represent...?

oh god strongo def set off an alarm by saying the sopranos "were trying for so much more" -- DON'T YOU KNOW THE WIRE WAS ABOUT POOR CHILDREN?

Haha I went back through the post before hitting the submit button and removed one possible two instances of the word milieu - for naught, for naught :)

And no, focus can be a good thing, I'm happy enough to consider the Sopranos as something that does its thing and I don't get it and that's fine, it was just the claim that it had more scope than The Wire that caught my eye is all.

The Wire was about Poor Black Children J0rdan, you colossal racist.

The Wire ran up and down through Baltimore, but The Sopranos examined the passageway between New Jersey and the unconscious mind.

Sopranos go all over, this "limited milieu" criticism is total bullshit.

I think Tony fixated on being exposed for the Bevilacqua hit because it was a hit he a) was personally involved with and b) it was someone outside of his immediate circle, and thus something that would be harder for him to control. everyone in his immediate circle basically accepts that they could get clipped at any time for any reason, and none of them are going to talk to the cops about it.

also FBI informant Big Pussy was the other guy who killed Bevilacqua with him - the other murders only involved Tony and non-informants

to be fair, the weakest moments of the sopranos were when they tried to go outside their wheelhouse... why david chase was so obsessed with exposing the quiddities of the rap world is just a mystery to me

Massive Genius in the house yo

I'll agree that the non-Italian/NJ characters are largely incidental and the show doesn't shift focus as dramatically as the Wire does with the whole every-season-an-entirely-different-set-of-characters approach but I don't think that approach is a virtue in and of itself.

some of the movie stuff is pretty rough as well. though i kinda like the way it all comes together with cleaver. and punching lauren bacall of course.

but i totally agree with you.

Little Carmine very convincing as low-budget producer imho lol

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

you guys rank s4 so highly eh? to me it's the weakest, although i don't really think there's a "bad" season. and i am a p big s2 stan actually. but i put s5 and s1 first i think

― Author ~ Coach ~ Goddess (s1ocki), 2. november 2012 14:41 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I just love the mood of season 4. And Whitecaps is amazing. Yeah, it does have 'Christopher' and some other stupid stuff, but every season of Sopranos has its problems. I hate season two, Richie and Janice and Livia are insufferable in it.

Although Sopranos is a landmark and all that, The Wire is a far better series. As is Deadwood and Mad Men imo.

you hate Livia in season 2

I wish the lord would take me now

richie is one of the best characters in the show imho

i'm old SCHOOL

also when you realize that janice is just using him as a surrogate is amazing

you gotta love how the shows' antagonists are just a steady stream of guys released from prison

also this watch-through it really hit home how when tony kills ralphie it's not at the height of their mutual antagonism but quite the opposite—it's when richie is at his lowest and shows his vulnerability for the first time

recidivism

it's an ugly word

this go-through I've got a lot of love for Janice - really an amazing role

ralphie is definitely one of the best characters in this show

the one rap episode is prob one of the worst things i've ever seen on TV

this doesn't really mean much BUT what the sopranos did with their gay storyline is >> the wire being all OH BTW OUR VILLAIN IS GAY AND HIS PARTNER IS HIS PARTNER

there was the other rap episode where bobby gets paid to shoot the up and coming rapper so he'll have street cred. so embarrassing.

there is more than one rap episode

i'm just thinking of the main one where they go to the guy's house

there are like fifteen rap episodes

rapisodes

how can you hate on an episode that brings Lord Jamar and Hal Holbrook together

Honestly, Ralphie to me felt a bit to much a product of 90s-sadism-hitman-LaBute Very Bad Things pop culture. Within that he definitely had shades of character, but Blundetto's constant passive-aggressiveness, and later Phil Leotardo, were better antagonists.

i loved Leotardo

he hasn't appeared yet (I'm midway thru s3) but yeah he's amazing as the totally humorless hardass

just a seething mass of resentment

shah of iran

he's actually not totally humourless... it's just he's a mean, resentful (not entirely unjustifiedly!) character and his humour is usually pretty cruel

like when he's taunting tony

yeah his humor mostly involves inflicting suffering. (not really unique among the characters, I suppose)

I like when he won't come out of his house and is yelling at them from the upstairs window

^ that

and this scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a02tQoGjEY

he really reminds me of a guy i used to work with. so good at what he does, yet at times an intolerable human being.

I think I miss my ferrets

richie aprile is my fave tony antagonist (blundetto doesn't really belong here) but leotardo is a close second. love the way 'omerta' is exposed time and time again as bullshit, something that will be betrayed immediately if there's a dime to be made, and that the one character that buys into it at all it's only as a vehicle for his resentment, blundetto writ large. god i was so stoked after this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTpsWgaYnS8

i laughed when he told vito jr that he "looks like a puerto rican whore"

Man you guys are reminding me that I need to buy season 4

ya that entire chickentown ep is so amazing

death of johnny sac etc