Rewatching Sopranos

botfly10

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Been rewatching the seasons over the last 4 weeks or so and am now just into season six. Its been long enough that the shit is fresh to me. As I watch, I remember the main plot points, but I totally forgot about most the rest.

Gotta say, I really recommend watching em again. Especially if you haven't seen them since they first aired. And its been cool to watch them sequentially without big time gaps.

Some shit I am taking away - Gandolfini was actually a pretty fucking amazing actor. I didn't really notice the first time around cause I think I just thought of him as Tony. But after seeing him in other stuff and then now going back, I realize what a great performance that was.

Also realizing how much subtlety there is on that show. Crazy depth. And the recurring themes and symbolism. The way the show invents its own tropes and then maintains them as it goes on. The way they introduce a theme and then it ripples through all the characters and is revisited from all different perspectives and situations. The use of language and phrasing and repetition in the dialog. Its fucking phenomenal.

And then you hit season 5 and they drop the color saturation and the slider is like 2 clicks from being black and white and the shit gets serious.

Anyway, first time I watched the show, it was like a mob adventure show that was exciting and suspenseful. But going back, its crazy the depth to that show. Its a fucking masterpiece. Full on. I think sometimes it gets a little overlooked because the mob shit and cause the bigness of the Tony Soprano character. But goddamn.
 

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I think tardibrole officially loves you now
 

KittiesKorner

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Just rewatched them for the 6th time this summer
 

BaBaBlacksheep

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Easily one of the 5 best shows ever made in my book. Probably my personal favorite. Have meant to re-watch for a while but don't have the time.
 

botfly10

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Its crazy how true they stay to the characters. When they introduce some mannerism or characteristic or event, they stay with it. That character keeps that trait and acts on it for the duration. None of that bullshit where they introduce something to drive an episode or two and then it disappears. Everything they use to develop the characters sticks with them. Its crazy how defined the characters are by the end. And how they still make references or act on traits introduced 3 seasons ago.
 

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You and retardigrade should get a room.
 

SilenceS

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Excellent show to rewatch. You catch things and put together things that you looked over when you first watched. I love the show up and down, but I think Season 5 was with Steve Buscemi. Loved that season. Thought it was excellent up and down.

Now, Tony's accent from first season to later in the show is different but thats about it.

Fun fact: James Gandolfini hated being Tony Soprano. He was the main hold up with them doing a movie. I read quotes by him that said he hated portraying the cheating, women beating side of Tony.

Also, the cast supposively worked many 12 to 15 hour days. Everything had to be perfect and it reflects in the show.
 

botfly10

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Movie prob would have been dumb anyway. Dont see any advantage to that format.
 

SilenceS

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Movie prob would have been dumb anyway. Dont see any advantage to that format.

They floated so many ideas that I don't know truly what would have been the plot. I have read from Tony going to jail to the rise of AJ to random shit.

People always want more. But, I agree. The movie would have been a shell of the show.
 

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If you have Netflix, Lillyhammer with Steve Van Zandt is a good show.
 

botfly10

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Just watched the last episode. Shit, watched the whole last season over about a week, so its all very fresh. And goddamn. What a tour de force. Fucking masterpiece.

First time around, I missed it. First time, I thought for sure that Tony got shot and killed right there. I thought it was obvious.

But I was totally wrong. This time it really hit me and I saw the intention of the scene.

What really happened in that moment at the very end, what actually happens after the screen goes black doesn't matter. Its not the point. The entire episode is build up to that scene and what it establishes is almost infinite possibility.

AJ is back on track. Maybe he will open a nightclub. Or maybe he will join the army. Meadow is coming from doctor who she saw about birth control. Tony just took out a rival boss and could face indictment at any time. There is almost every possibility present in that moment, all at the same time. But what actually happens is not the point.

The point is that the last episode (and season really, peaking over the last 2-3 episodes) bends over fucking backwards to establish that everyone in that family is a damn sociopath. Every one of them. Tony, Carm, Meadow, AJ - its all hammered home in that last episode how these fucking people we have been watching and empathizing with for the last 6 seasons is a fucked up psycho, no matter how much they manipulate their own perception and the perception of the people around them, or our perception as viewers.

****, even the very last dialog is manipulative as **** as the recurring theme "just remember the good things" comes back up. They are throwing it our face there.

It all starts with the Psychologist finding out about that paper, about how sociopaths just manipulate talk therapy and can even use it to hone their ability to control and manipulate people and their perceptions along with their own sense of reality. Dr. Melfi terminates treatment as it all clicks into place. From that moment on, the subtext becomes overt as the remaining episodes build into a crescendo of sociopathy. It goes on to overtly demonstrate how they are all sociopaths.

The final scene is one long tension building sequence. Its builds and builds. And then just ends. Just goes black. Because it doesn't matter what actually, specifically happens. Cause something is going to happen. If not then, at the diner, then the next day or the day after that. The tension is never relieved because thats how they live. Thats the life of a sociapathic family. And its not gon just be Tony. Its all of them. And then their children if they have them. The tension will never end, there will be no relief. So fucking good.
 
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