Sopranos - Season 3

I still like the way season 3 actually begins with the awesome FBI trying to get the wiretap into the basement episode.

this episode is really funny and contains Steely Dan's Dirty Work + Polish couple ("In Minsk I was a research engineer!") but its also clearly a placeholder episode in that nothing much really happens in it. I do like how the lamp becomes a running joke throughout the season, it gets ref'd a bunch of times.

i dunno, i always got the sense of this huge web of people, connections, family, personalities... i liked that you didn't see everyone from the start, but that as things shift and the circle expands our changes more characters enter and leave. xp

yeah, they make the most of this. There's one guy who shows up in Season 4 as a capo who's never even appeared before and then all of a sudden he's there in a meeting getting yelled at for not making enough money.

this guy

"He first appears in a meeting of Tony's crew in the first episode of Season 4, but there was no explanation as to where he came from and how he became part of the gang's inner circle. Carlo is not even directly referenced by name until the sixth season."

"but its also clearly a placeholder episode in that nothing much really happens in it."

Unlike every other episode in the season?!?

The payoff on the lamp is great!

it also directly leads to the chain of events that ends with them going after adriana...

Does it?

Unlike every other episode in the season?!?

I just mean that all the characters' relationships remain static throughout the episode. Majority of the episode is spent following the Keystone Kops' routine.

yeah they opt to pursue Adrianna via undercover agent cuz the lamp is a dead-end.

Oh yeah I guess that follows.

I wish they would have dealt with the death of Tony's mother by starting season 3 out with them at her funeral. Flashbacks to previous conversations would have easily taken the place of those terrible CGI scenes.

also it's not nancy marchand gave them notice that she was going to die in advance

Also it was only one two-minute scene. People blow it out of proportion. I'm not saying the episode wouldn't work without it, though, I think it would.

This is as good a thread as any to ask - can anyone who thinks the series drops off after this put into words why they think so? All I ever hear is that it "got boring" or that "the writing got worse" and I'm kinda confused by that. And I don't mean to challenge anyone personally with the q, just genuinely curious.

It is a very distracting two minute scene.

I don't think the show got worse, I just stopped caring as much about it and I think that was mostly a function of the fact that a certain point I grew very fatigued living with these characters (who let's face it are not exactly pleasant.) Was there a way the writers could have prevented this fatigue? Probably not or at least not without being untrue to the subject.

Also I think "boring" = the show went on for so long that it began to recycle plot points. Which is true to life obv, but doesn't always make for great for TV cuz after the umpteenth uh oh Tony has a problem with a guy who works for him or Carmela gets upset about Tony's infidelities or Chris slips up and starts using again it gets a little dull.

i think season 5 is incredibly strong, and season 6 has some amazing high points, and 7 is awesome.

Chris slips up and starts using again

Chrissie's an unrepetant user up through what, Season 5?

Chrissy first went to rehab at the end of season 4, if I remember right. He relapsed a buncha times, but I always kind of admired that about the show. Without getting too personal, certain relatives of mine have had similar relationships with drugs and alcohol. Again, maybe not great TV to some, but truer to life than almost any other show.

i am all over the place with which season's which, so i'm waiting til a final season recap to opine, but the tension and release of clean chrissy versus bad ass bada bing smashing car crashing chrissy is amazing.

I was going over some synopsis of the seasons, and it struck me how fucking bleak season three is. There's the whole story with the psycho Annabella Sciorra character, the Melfi rape, the cancer, the awkward Artie crush on Adrianna thing... it's just unpleasant to watch.

im 26 mins into the first episode and already had two lols

- they show meadow's roommate walking through the dorm hallway and you overhear a "conversation" between two men as she passes. the "conversation" is one guy saying to the other: "jello shots". COLLEGE

- the couldn't find anyone to cast as carmella's tennis instructor besides jon favreau's assistant from season 2? really? who does she know?

okay maybe it's not her

the remembrance scene is amazing

It's definitely not her.

the remembrance scene is amazing

yeah many lolz

"You would have to get every person that ever lived together in one space... and that's not possible, even with computers..."

Nice, too, how Carmela mentions that very incident during Chrissie's intervention, one season hence.

He wasn't introduced, he was just there all of a sudden. I thought this was kinda clumsy (although it DOES happen with other characters, altho none so central as Ralphie).

Worst example: Vito Spatafore - that same actor played an unnamed random civilian back in Season 1, for chrissakes

I don't get the outrage on Vito - he had one line or something. David Milch used the same guy in two pivotal roles and got applauded for it by some people.

I like that the general idea on Ralphie was that he was working down in Miami, then came back up to New Jersey and starting causing trouble for everybody just by existing basically, but they could've handled his intro a little more deftly, for sure.

Worst example: Vito Spatafore - that same actor played an unnamed random civilian back in Season 1, for chrissakes

Patsy Parisi's introduction as the identical twin brother of a guy who got whacked was always a little too Days of Our Livesish for me.

Yeah that was a bit weird - he didn't even impact on the plot in any kind of major way.

Is Vito the guy who comes into the bakery right before Chris shoots the guy in the foot?

Yep.

Just checked on Youtube. "Gino!"

Patsy's a good character tho, they definitely get some mileage out of him (and the murdered twin thing)

The final scene of "Second Opininon," with Carmela going to the psychologist in NYC, is maybe my favorite scene of the whole series.

is that where she tells him to fuck off after he gives her a bunch of shit for being an enabler

Carmela Soprano: He's a good man. He's a good father.
Dr. Krakower: You tell me he's a depressed criminal, prone to anger, serially unfaithful. Is that your definition of a good man?... You must trust your initial impulse and consider leaving him. You'll never be able to feel good about yourself. You'll never be able to quell the feelings of guilt and shame that you talked about, so long as you're his accomplice.
Carmela Soprano: You're wrong about the accomplice part, though.
Dr. Krakower: You sure?
Carmela Soprano: All I did was make sure he's got clean clothes in his closet and dinner on his table.
Dr. Krakower: So "enable" would be a more accurate job description for what you do than "accomplice". My apologies... Take only the children - what's left of them - and go.
Carmela Soprano: My priest said I should work with him, help him to become a better man.
Dr. Krakower: How's that going?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carmela Soprano: I thought psychiatrists weren't supposed to be judgmental.
Dr. Krakower: Many patients want to be excused for their current predicament because of events that occured in their childhood. That's what psychiatry has become in America. Visit any shopping mall or ethnic pride parade, and witness the results.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carmela Soprano: What we say in here, stays in here, right?
Dr. Krakower: By ethical code, and by law.
Carmela Soprano: His crimes... they are, organized crime.
Dr. Krakower: The Mafia!
Carmela Soprano: Oh Jesus.
[wipes tears from her eyes]
Carmela Soprano: So what? So what? He betrays me every week with these whores!
Dr. Krakower: Probably the least of his misdeeds.
[Carmela gets up to leave]
Dr. Krakower: You can leave now, or you can stay and hear what I have to say.
Carmela Soprano: You're gonna charge me all the same.
Dr. Krakower: I won't take your money.
Carmela Soprano: That's a new one.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Krakower: Have you ever read Crime and Punishment? Dostoyevksy?
[Carmela shakes her head 'no']
Dr. Krakower: It's not an easy read. It's about guilt and redemption. I think your husband ought to turn himself and read this book in his jail cell and meditate on his crimes every day for seven years, so that he might be redeemed.
Carmela Soprano: I would have to get a lawyer, find an apartment, arrange for child support...
Dr. Krakower: You, you're not listening. I'm not charging you because I won't take blood money, and you can't, either. One thing you can never say is that you haven't been told.
Carmela Soprano: I see.

yeh that is awesome

loved this season, maybe my fav so far

loved the emergence of gloria, the woods episode, the "another toothpick" episode, the jackie jr. arch, the emergence of ralphie (altho it's pretty stupid that gigi died on the toilet, seemed like a cop out - altho it kinda goes along with the idea that even tony the supreme gangster has to get lucky sometimes, be it the old couple making it impossible for that guy to shoot tony on meadow's college trip or the whole lamp thing), chrissie's trials as a made guy etc etc

i would love for someone to make a compilation video of all the times someone gives an obv lie of an excuse and leaves the room so two people can have a private conversation - one of my fav running gags in the history of television

also am very excited about the adrianna/fbi informant story - she's a great person for the show to target both because it's presumably realistic and because she's the most lovable character imo and the idea of her unwittingly being targeted by the fbi is kind of heartbreaking

So it is this season that she gets hooked.

Always wanted to see the scenes where Fairuza Balk plays the agent, even though her scenes have been replaced in all subsequent releases.

whoa!! they replaced her scenes?

that settles a really confusing argument i had once

There was another actor used for George Costanza's dad in one episode, but they did the same thing when they brought Jerry Stiller on board.

What was your argument?

season 4 was AMAZING

What was your argument?

― Pleasant Plains, Saturday, July 4, 2009 7:47 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

someone was like, they had a different actress for that agent in season one and i was like no duh i just watched it they totally didnt

it was a really fascinating argument iirc

janice forcing bobby bacala to eat his wife's last ziti with her was honestly one of the most shocking and crushing scenes i've ever seen on tv

it made me think of

http://io.uwinnipeg.ca/~vincent/4500.6-001/Cosmology/time-goya-painting.gif

which is pretty appropriate considering janice

i think Chase is quite happy with ambiguity in the Sopranos.

ambiguity can be a good thing, and it def was in this case

Tony had a lot of enemies and led a life that required him to be constantly looking over his shoulder cuz he knew at any time some random thing he had done could come back and lead to his demise. Patsy is just one of many in that respect.

if anything the ending is about *that* - the constant paranoia, fear and tension (even in moments of apparent respite), death ever-present

I think it’s def ambiguous and great bc of it. But I think Chase had a notion in his mind of who and why, at least a backstory that we may very well see peeking into the main narrative. That doesn’t mean it’s supposed to be solved, or anything. There are red herrings too.

I had no idea that "I Saved the World Today" (which is used at the end of Season 2 but whatever) was a Eurythmics song from the fuckin 90s! I thought it was Supertramp or something

― Force Boxman (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 2 November 2012 02:09 (six years ago)

Same.

Just finished watching from 6a/b (which I hadn't seen) through round to the end of this season.

Ending it with that Aphex Twin track is an amazing note to hit in terms of music placement, and I'm not the biggest SAW II stan.

FINALLY.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rff7-6ejd9Q

Big reason why the Sopranos is great: Chase made a point to do all the things networks never let him do. For example, he has a vicious hatred of 'walk and talk' scenes. They mean nothing. The scene has to be grounded in place. So he banned them.

— Justin Sherin (@wychstreet) June 20, 2020

i would love for someone to make a compilation video of all the times someone gives an obv lie of an excuse and leaves the room so two people can have a private conversation - one of my fav running gags in the history of television

Furio: "I gotta make two phone call"

“Let’s get back to the gabagool”

Bracco rules

I wonder if Bracco was considered for the Carmela role
I think she could have brought another level to the role
Falco is talented but a little one dimensional. Or is that the role?

Rolo Tony fuck

“So I told him…take those Duncan shiek records and shove em up your ass”