Watching (or rewatching) The Sopranos

[Old Gold Tooth]

I didn't know that Junior and Bobby looking like Larry and Jeff was discussed on forums at the time, that's great.

It does break the fourth wall but I think what makes The Sopranos my favourite show is that it's happy to be a bit playful and messy. Not everything lands (I still dislike the reveal that Ralph was wearing a wig the whole time - it is funny, but feels more like they were making fun of it being Pantaliano wearing an obvious wig), but I think that shows its willingness to be organic and experimental and "fuck it, it's funny" in a way a few other all-time great dramas shy away from.

[Gulftastic]

It narks me that his wig survived the massive Bottom style punch up with Tony to then slip off with no resistance.  whatsoever

[Old Gold Tooth]

Yeah there's a scene in a previous season where he's wearing it in his shower too. I'm no wig expert (yet) but it's pretty clear it was supposed to be his actual hair, which makes it suddenly slipping off feel like a fourth wall gag put in retroactively.

But fuck it, it is funny (Tony's "What, you didn't know?" breaks the tension nicely) and it's only the fact I've seen this ace show a hundred times that makes me even aware of these little things.

[JaDanketies]

i always found it one of the the most depressing shows ever, one of the best, it was great, but just total bleakness, another masterpiece was on HBO around the same time, Six Feet Under, set in a funeral home, it got called too bleak by some, i always found Sopranos way darker.

They're showing Six Feet Under on some TV channel at the moment, late at night, and whenever I put it on and look at the characters, it makes me feel sad remembering the stuff they had to put up with or what happened to them.

[Puce Moment]

Yeah, they do it all the time. There is probably a wiki for these little in-jokes, like the 50 Cent joke mentioned upthread.

Chris shooting the guy in the foot with the following "it happens!" and then when he shouts out about Kundun to Scorsese. There's tons of them. The Joe Pants one sorta doesn't work because I can't imagine they wouldn't have mentioned him as a bald fuck constantly behind his back. I still liked it though!

[El Unicornio, mang]

There's also the scene in the episode "Big Girls Don't Cry" where he's asked by his acting coach what kind of roles he's interested in and says "Goodfellas, shit like that"

[mr. logic]

I always wondered if there was a weird contractual stipulation by HBO that they should sneak in a reference to another HBO show or HBO in general for marketing purposes (Deadwood is mentioned in The Wire; Julia Louis-Dreyfus says she wants to work on HBO in Curb Your Enthusiasm so she can swear on TV[nb]In Game of Thrones, Tyrion Lannister said 'Game On was a very average sitcom, but at least you could see tits in it!' but it never made the final edit.[/nb]). If that was the case, then it was a masterful way of adhering to it.

When is Deadwood mentioned in The Wire?

[Puce Moment]

Shiiiiiitt - I aint got no money for no damn Deadwood boxset motherfucker, sorry, your honour.

[kngen]

/\ Haha!

When is Deadwood mentioned in The Wire?

Season 5 (I think) when Cutty gets shot by the corner boys. He's in hospital and the guy next to him is watching Deadwood and says something like 'I can't believe how many times this guy says 'cunt!')

I think there's even an exchange about him paying extra to get HBO.

_{(Gah, just realized I wrote Game On instead of Dream On in my hilarious joke. Oh well, that's that fucked.)}

[Old Gold Tooth]

Yeah, they do it all the time. There is probably a wiki for these little in-jokes, like the 50 Cent joke mentioned upthread.

Chris shooting the guy in the foot with the following "it happens!" and then when he shouts out about Kundun to Scorsese. There's tons of them. The Joe Pants one sorta doesn't work because I can't imagine they wouldn't have mentioned him as a bald fuck constantly behind his back. I still liked it though!

I think that's it, it jars that it didn't come up at any time before. I guess in-world explanation is he was extremely careful about never letting anyone know cos he knew he'd never live it down, the smartmouth cueball piece-a' fockin' shit.

Also very funny, the idea that this was the wig he opted for:

[Puce Moment]

I also find his clothes quite bizarre. I mean, we know Silvio goes to his favourite Guinea Pimp Shop for his clothes, but what was Ralphie trying to pull off sartorially?

[mr. logic]

My favourite Ralphie moment is when he laments his lost life as an architect. And Tony makes a face.

[Puce Moment]

[Bazooka]

I like Paulie's face acting as Ralph takes the fake call from Vito.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iZjIw8HbTbw

[Puce Moment]

HA! There is absolutely NO reason for Vito to stay on the line.

[badaids]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0epSgm8lmos

1m30s

Adrianna:  A long time ago, years ago, I had a medical procedure.  And my uterus got pierced...

Chris:  Both of 'em?!

[chveik]

the scene where Carmella says to her friends that Hillary Clinton 'is a role model for all of us' is retrospectively quite funny

[dr_christian_troy]

Lorraine, the bookie who gets murdered alongside her young lover, was modelled in terms of her look on a TV critic who said there wasn't enough violence in Season 4. Arguably they may have gone a bit too far in "tributing her", seeing as she begs for her life by offering everyone blowjobs initially.

[Bazooka]

Funny stuff, was just watching this interview with Furio and he found out he got the job when the wardrobe staff called and asked for his clothed sizes https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=saRnfmEORaE

[kngen]

Lorraine, the bookie who gets murdered alongside her young lover, was modelled in terms of her look on a TV critic who said there wasn't enough violence in Season 4. Arguably they may have gone a bit too far in "tributing her", seeing as she begs for her life by offering everyone blowjobs initially.

Christ, always found that scene pretty grim in the first place. That Chase and co did it as a fuck you to a real person? Erk.

[QDRPHNC]

Funny stuff, was just watching this interview with Furio and he found out he got the job when the wardrobe staff called and asked for his clothed sizes https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=saRnfmEORaE

Apparently he was a real pain in the arse on set.

[Chollis]

Funny stuff, was just watching this interview with Furio and he found out he got the job when the wardrobe staff called and asked for his clothed sizes https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=saRnfmEORaE

mannaggia la miseria! i thought Furio was actually Italian

[Old Gold Tooth]

I too read somewhere that the actor was a bell-end to work with, but he's pretty bloody great as Furio. His delivery of "YOU GOT A BEE ON YOU HAT" never fails to crack me up.

It's funny and sad that Carmela pictured Furio being a dashing romantic character when ultimately he's just as much as a callous thug as Tony.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Tony S: Anyway, what am I gonna do with it? I already got one, and Mr. Williams here (motioning to Furio), he don't play. Right?
Furio: Stupid-a-fucking game.

[chveik]

it looks like the 'Chase said that Tony was whacked' narrative is more clickbait than anything

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2020/06/11/sopranos-creator-talks-controversial-final-scene-did-tony-die/5347511002/

'accidentally' doesn't mean anything in that context.

[neveragain]

Chase does call the end "the death scene" in the Sopranos Sessions book mentioned above, which is brilliant.

[magval]

It's funny and sad that Carmela pictured Furio being a dashing romantic character when ultimately he's just as much as a callous thug as Tony.

I disagree, I don't think he's as MUCH a callous thug as Tony. No-one, arguably in TV history, not even Ralph Cifaretto, is as fundamentally loathsome as Tony Soprano in season 4 (I'm working my way through, so this will probably get worse - it's been a few years).

Furio is definitely idealised by Carmella, but a lot of what she sees in him is really there. His gestures are amplified by his nationality (the gifts he brings, for example) but there's a veneer of a sketch there with real character underneath it.

He's got more humanity than Tony. It's not just a 'grass is greener' thing, and I don't think he enjoys the nasty side of their work in the same way Tony does. I feel awful sorry for the both of them (even though Carmella has just got that 'Karen' haircut I just read about this week).

Was this the season (4) where Edie Falco was sick?

[Old Gold Tooth]

Interesting. From my viewing, I think Furio does have decent surface qualities (much like Tony does when the mood strikes him) and the things that matter to him are maybe more admirable (genuinely caring for his mother and father, and putting actual graft into his work), but I think he's just as rotten at his core as the rest of them.

He's more machine-like in his work, like when he goes Terminator with the baseball bat and gun in the massage parlour, but he doesn't hesitate or regret it, and he takes a sadistic pleasure in roughing up the guy's wife: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sstPXIX9oZs

But yeah I do agree Tony by the end is pretty loathsome and far worse than Furio. Season 4 is bad but the second half of Season 6 he's just a beast, made all the more tragic by how quickly his post-surgery epiphanies ("Every day is a gift") are discarded and forgotten.

[magval]

Machine Furio was a prop character though, there aren't so many glimpses of that two seasons later once they decided to give him a personality (in a way, interestingly, they still haven't done this for Silvio four full seasons into the show - even Paulie's had the seance and the stuff with his mother to fill in the pencil outline by this stage).

[Seedsy]

Interesting. From my viewing, I think Furio does have decent surface qualities (much like Tony does when the mood strikes him) and the things that matter to him are maybe more admirable (genuinely caring for his mother and father, and putting actual graft into his work), but I think he's just as rotten at his core as the rest of them.

He's more machine-like in his work, like when he goes Terminator with the baseball bat and gun in the massage parlour, but he doesn't hesitate or regret it, and he takes a sadistic pleasure in roughing up the guy's wife: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sstPXIX9oZs

But yeah I do agree Tony by the end is pretty loathsome and far worse than Furio. Season 4 is bad but the second half of Season 6 he's just a beast, made all the more tragic by how quickly his post-surgery epiphanies ("Every day is a gift") are discarded and forgotten.

I have to disagree. Its a slight grievance with the sopranos. But furio was a cold, hard,fucking bastard. When he went through that brothel, and even the intimidation of matt and Sean at their flat. Him smacking this piss out of the young boy setting off fire crackers when they are in Italy. Then because carmella took a shine to him, he basically had a personality change. I just didn't buy that.