The Sopranos

[The Cat]

The Sopranos, Season 1, Episode 8:

Six things:

1. Adriana seems a lot smarter than Christopher.
2. Christopher Moltisanti is an idiot, lol.
3. Christopher needs to listen to his colleague (Paulie?) who tells him that arcs are make-believe, and that people don't have story arcs in real life.
4. I think I've said this before, but I've been pleasantly delighted to discover how hilarious this show can be at times, especially if you're up for black comedy. Other episodes are more dramatic or suspenseful.
5. There is a comedian performing a show at the nursing home Livia is staying at whose comedy consists more of bizarre comments than actual jokes. It had this awesome Adult Swim vibe to it.
6. This episode was directed by Timothy Van Patten, the star of Master Ninja, a series of "movies" featured on MST3K that is in fact cobbled together from episodes of a one-season TV series called The Master. Van Patten's character is an apprentice to a ninja master, played by Lee Van Cliff. MST3K did two episodes based on "movies" made of this series; I feel the first one is the stronger comedic effort. Timothy Van Patten has actually had a very successful career as a television director, doing many high-prestige HBO shoes like this one.

Paulie and Silvio are my favorites.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Paulie and Silvio are my favorites.

I think I like Christopher, because he's so dumb. Beaming with pride because he's a badass gangster now that he got his name in the papers, lol.

 

[The Cat]

I think I like Christopher, because he's so dumb. Beaming with pride because he's a badass gangster now that he got his name in the papers, lol.

He sold meth to the big man's daughter. He crossed Uncle Junior and popped off the whole simmering rivalry between the big man and his uncle, which the thing that really gets me, is Christopher is fucking family, and he's not doing right by them, he's putting his blood into conflict with itself. If it werent for Mother Soprano, Chrissy would be dead as doornails and the family would technically be better of...That being said. I feel for the kid, I get the feeling deep down he's a good boy. Just not cut out for the line of work. He talks too much. Doesnt have enough respect. But he's got a good arc, and is believable as a character so I got no real beef. Nobody's prefect.

If I were Tony, I would be cozening up to my mother like Junior Does. She's a hard case. Conniver and a half. She wants to feel like a real power behind the throne, I would facilitate that, I wouldnt have put her in the home, and Id reframe the care giver into a personal assistant to handle all the things she was too important to have to worry about. She'll never be able to be the kind of mother he needs her to be, so he shouldnt feel bad about beating her at her own game by reversing the flow of supply. Stop looking for her to give you her approval and figure out a way to contract it out of her.

 

[The Cat]

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

View attachment 31472

I'm already bewildered, just thinking about that.

 

[The Cat]

Oh Father. She hit you with the one thing you couldnt respond to. The truth.

 

[The Cat]

Oh Janice. You obvious bitch.

 

[The Cat]

Ritchie misses boy mouths.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Junior forever. for real though, Junior made a great consiglieri and it's a shame he wanted to be boss so bad. He could've accepted he was better as the behind-the-scenes advisor type and had a great spot serving at Tony's side. I think Silvio was not the best consiglieri and better suited to be underboss. That arrangement of that trio would've been far better.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Regarding Ralphie, he's an interesting character to me. Yes, he's an absolute piece of shit. However, it's interesting that the other guys seem to hate him for this, and yet none of them are any better. But what sets Ralph apart is he doesn't pretend he's some beacon of virtue, he knows exactly what he is, that he is a piece of shit wiseguy who gets off on hurting weaker people. One of my favorite scenes is when Artie comes to ask Ralph for a loan and Ralph says (paraphrasing), "no, because I can't break your legs when you don't pay me back." There's never any pretense of being some honorable servant wanting to help and protect others. Guys like Paulie and Tony are actually worse to me, because they hold on to some myth that they're honorable tough guys. It's all a big cope for them to better process some of the horrible shit they've done.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

And perhaps the worst is Carmela. She knew full well her husband was an evil man, and she had opportunities to flee, but she coped herself into believing he was a legitimate businessman being attacked by an unfair federal government. It was sad to see Meadow going on the path to becoming just like that toward the end of the series.

Another thought, it's funny that Tony and Carmela never actually punish their kids. Sure, they may yell and throw a big fit, but then they reward them by buying them cars, jewelry, whatevuh. It's no surprise they are spoiled little brats who have been taught that there's no real consequence to their fuckups. They verbally abuse the kids for transgressions, then bribe them by lovebombing them with gifts and special treatment.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

And perhaps the worst is Carmela. She knew full well her husband was an evil man, and she had opportunities to flee, but she coped herself into believing he was a legitimate businessman being attacked by an unfair federal government. It was sad to see Meadow going on the path to becoming just like that toward the end of the series.

Another thought, it's funny that Tony and Carmela never actually punish their kids. Sure, they may yell and throw a big fit, but then they reward them by buying them cars, jewelry, whatevuh. It's no surprise they are spoiled little brats who have been taught that there's no real consequence to their fuckups. They verbally abuse the kids for transgressions, then bribe them by lovebombing them with gifts and special treatment.

I remember when AJ stole the communion wine and Tony treated him to ice cream sundaes.

 

[The Cat]

Davey you dumb fuck. Walk away. You're already in dutch with Ritchie.

 

[The Cat]

Damn it Janice. Stop instigating.

 

[The Cat]

Gold Digging Witch.

 

[The Cat]

Davey you dumb dead fuck.

 

[The Cat]

Should have taken the full 20 mins

 

[Coriolis]

I never watched this series. Probably why when I see the name, the first thing I link of is a choir.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I never watched this series. Probably why when I see the name, the first thing I link of is a choir.

I wouldn't say it's for everyone. The thing that motivated me to start watching this show was seeing a clip and finding it pretty funny. Now that I've seen it, I wouldn't describe the show entirely as a comedy but it has those elements. There are episodes that are more dramatic, episodes that are more suspenseful, and episodes that are more comedic. Much of the comedy comes from the moral hypocrisy of the characters, and there are also strong amounts of black comedy, as well.

I think the dynamic between Tony and his nuclear family is extremely interesting, also. By this point in the show, they all know what Tony actually does. There is a tragic element to all of this; it seems that part of Tony might want out, but he never makes that step. (I've heard about the infamous finale.) There was one scene in the last episode I watched that was equal parts tragedy and comedy, and was brilliantly done.

However, I wouldn't recommend it for people who have trouble with violence in TV and film.

 

[The Cat]

Its worth taking a look at from the perspective of this is the show that fundamentally changed how the mafia genre got treated afterwards. This show is for that what the Beatles were to rock and roll in that without them a lot of what was inspired by them wouldnt have come to pass. Or so Ive heard it said.