The Sopranos Vs. The Wire

It is indeed.

Sopranos every day

Team Satriale's 4 lyf

The Wire is oxidising and therefore has a reduced current carrying capacity in my expert opinion

I've watched The Wire at least twice through and would happily do so again. I've seen The Sopranos once through and maybe I'll do it again someday.

I could barely get through one season of Sopranos, so The Wire.

We should do a final seasons poll for these two shows. Sopranos season 6 started so goddamn strong but Chase getting an order for extra episodes was the kiss of death for the show's momentum imo. Get outta here with your Artie Bucco episodes in the homestretch. Wire season 5 was centered around a batshit scheme but my affrontery has mellowed as I came to accept that, yes, that's exactly the sorta shit our self-destructive and -aggrandizing narcissist of a protagonist would pull.

s5's batshit scheme worth it for the profiling scene, where mcnulty is interrupted-- from demonstrating how nobody cares about baltimore violence unless it is artfully arranged to tell a titillating story, and to revolve around an unpleasant fictional character, who floats above the violence feeding, but whose story the violence is reimagined to be-- to be shown not just an unflattering picture of his own face but of his face on this figure, his face suddenly on this unjustly centered golem who only exists to trick people into paying attention to baltimore, lol

It's The Wire. I think I've seen every season at least three times at this point, but I can't imagine rewetting Sopranos, outside of a few great episodes.

ok, I'm surprised that word didn't get autocorrected...

Rewetting The Sopampers rn

https://i.imgur.com/PWTalnH.jpg

Sopranos by a country mile. Truly one of the great experiences of my life (which is both hyperbole and true at the same time) and one of those shows that has become part of my mental furniture. I called someone a malignant cunt just this morning.

"no, no, you don't understand, "malignant cunt" is the name of my dog!"

Get outta here with your Artie Bucco episodes in the homestretch.

gtfo Artie's perpetual frustration/humiliation cycle is a wonder to behold

It definitely was. Doesn't mean that an entire Artie-centric episode in the eleventh hour wasn't a misstep.

Love The Wire but Sopranos wins for the intervention scene alone...

Paulie at the intervention is so priceless

"no, no, you don't understand, "malignant cunt" is the name of my dog!"

Hahaha!

I loved Artie. I think there's a discussion to be had about the Vito Spatafore story. It might have been indicative of a particular mindset but it felt regressive. It was old when it was made and hasn't aged well.

mmm johnnycakes

I don't love his whole small-town love story arc but I do love him getting bored with it/being unable to tolerate an actual day's work as a contractor

some appalling acting/writing in that arc, but still felt deeply sad when Vito got brutally whacked.

Vito refraining from looking at his watch until he's SURE he's within a half-hour of lunch and it turns out only to be 9:30...one of a million little humorous moments that give The Sopranos a slight edge over The Wire in rewatch-ability...

he's gotta rest his hips!

Seems like whenever a Sopranos character was becoming sympathetic, they would kill somebody right before they themselves got whacked/offed themselves...Christopher, Vito, Eugene, probably others...wonder if that was a device to remind us that these guys are really just animals at heart, and shame on us for forgetting that...

Bobby is a total huggybear for most of his character arc, until the very end where Tony picks a fight w him + goads him into doing a hit and then... well yeah

well maybe not huggable, maybe more bumbling. But he's never shown doing anything particularly evil or violent

I did love the smalltown section (I could have done with the handlebar moustache) and his whacking was heartbreaking; it was the leather cap, nightclub stuff that felt ill-judged and unnecessary.

What are the chances of Furio still being alive?

https://i.redd.it/s6ish04uefv11.jpg

What are the chances of Furio still being alive?

p good? I don't think we're ever given the impression that he's upset anybody important back home.

p good? I don't think we're ever given the impression that he's upset anybody important back home.

Yeah, I hope so. Something in me just kind of assumes Tony would have used his Sicilian contacts to have him whacked.

Bobby is a total huggybear for most of his character arc, until the very end where Tony picks a fight w him + goads him into doing a hit and then... well yeah

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, October 8, 2019 8:54 AM (seven minutes ago)

it's more that he forces him to do the hit. bobby isn't in a position to say no to tony. tony knows this. it's punishment for emasculating him.

Going down digressive paths during the home stretch is good not bad

Was it Truffaut who said all war movies are pro-war? I kinda feel like the same is true about mafia flicks/shows. Simon is as aware of that as anyone can be and does his best to address it, and maybe Sopranos comes the closest of any work to giving the audience the appropriate level of unease while still drawing them in, yet it's very hard not to root for the characters no matter how despicable they are. Except for Phil Leotardo, fuck that guy.

it's more that he forces him to do the hit. bobby isn't in a position to say no to tony. tony knows this. it's punishment for emasculating him.

right. my point is it's like the only time we see Bobby do something violent

Vito’s arc was really unbelievable a lot of the time. I mean I buy the closeted angle. But yeah I just thought there was no way in hell he would put himself out there in the aforementioned manner at that club. I might buy it if he was at a club a couple thousand miles from home but not there.

he was a whole other county iirc?

he was *in* a whole other county, miles from his hometown/stomping grounds iirc?

like the only reason he got caught was because of the grapevine - some low-level guy in another family told another low-level guy and it eventually got all the way back to Jersey.

that club is actually in New York, I think? Cuz it's some Lupertazzi guys that recognize him.

Wasn't it the mob guys who ran into Christopher and Mumbles at the AA meeting that ratted out Vito? How many of these mob dudes are in rehab?!

iirc Mumbles brings it up to Chrissie at an AA meeting, yeah.

anyway my point is it's not like Vito was getting all leathered up in his backyard and some of his crew spotted him - it's considerably more roundabout than that. Which is why no one in the Sopranos family is inclined to believe it, until Meadow spills the beans and Finn provides confirmation.

I felt like the gay club scene was probably so separate from Mob World that Vito would have seen it as a kind of safe zone, no matter where it was geographically located...

I think there's something really subtle and important going on in that whole plotline -- it's not about whether they're "inclined to believe it" so much as whether there's plausible deniability for Tony to just ignore it. Tony may believe it the first time he hears it, but he doesn't care until it becomes so clearly true that he has no choice but to act. Tony is indifferent about Vito's sexuality because Vito is a good earner. This is neither a moral (i.e. tolerant for moral reasons) nor immoral stance, it's totally amoral and money-oriented. Tony is not particularly homophobic nor particularly pro-LGBTQ, he just likes money. But Phil is "old school" and homophobic (and I think it is implied maybe a closet case himself), and once the word becomes credible enough he finally accepts that something has to be done, again only because the business cost-benefit analysis has now shifted the other way, not because Tony cares much.

Well if Chase wanted to create a narrative situation in which Vito could not possibly explain it away I guess that’s what was accomplished but considering the actual life and death risks I would be more inclined to believe it if it were a, idk, low key Rawls type scenario.

Wasn't it the mob guys who ran into Christopher and Mumbles at the AA meeting that ratted out Vito? How many of these mob dudes are in rehab?!

― henry s, Tuesday, October 8, 2019 9:48 AM (fifty-one seconds ago)

they are not the same guys. they appear only in the scene with vito in the gay club

and are credited as "wise guy #1" and "wise guy #2"

yeah, and then the guy at AA heard it from some other guy etc

I do think the scene w/Vito at the construction site (?) when Finn spots him giving the dude head is meant to show that he’s engaging in some especially risky hookups considering his choice of “career” which is fine but I just didn’t buy the nightclub thing idk.