I was watching the episode from the first series last night with this song in it. Tony is depressed, imagines seeing and talking to a beautiful lady, and experiences a failed hit on his life which shakes him out of his rut.
Tindersticks - Tiny Tears
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A beautiful song.
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I just watched Pine Barrens there with a glass of Rioja in one paw and a few lindt chocolates in the other.
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Were they melted by the end of it?
No the two lads were frozen. Poor Paulie lost his shoe in the snow.
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I saw episode one season one last week on HBO. The one where Junior was going to whack some guy in Arty’s restaurant so they burnt the place down.
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Junior was the star of the first two seasons.
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Them Lindt chocolates are unreal.
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Nearly twenty years later and I have started to watch this show.
After the second episode I was thinking of giving up but then I started to get into it. I’m mid way through the second series.
I can see the hype. Mainly because it must be remembered that the show was revolutionary at the time and is the blueprint for later US series, of which there were many.
The concept is brilliant. Take a much loved movie theme like the mob and throw it on its head with a guy who suffers from anxiety, sees a shrink, has teenage kids and a hugely difficult mother and family.
What I really like with it is that it is content not to have the big theatrical scenes (Breaking Bad was terrible for that) and have episodes where things seem to move a snails pace if they move at all. Not only have they thrown the mob idea on its head, they have also thrown the constant need to be entertained up in the air as well. Not to sound to boring but this allows the characters to really come through.
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Those big glasses!
The mother was brilliant as well. Such a horrible bitch.
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Season 1 is the weakest season, not that it’s bad, but it gets better each year for the reasons you outlined at the end.
The mob side of it is only frame work - a side story in many ways, tho in some episodes it’s all consuming.
The Sopranos is really about social commentary - race, religion, consumerism, the modern family etc. etc. It also touches on the American immigrant story - and laments the loss of culture from the homeland with each generation - tho he’s a quiet character in many ways, a lot of these themes are played out through AJ. The immigrant angle is brilliantly touched on in the last episode of Season 3 through a song.
Overall tho, The Sopranos is about human nature and relationships - Chase builds intricate little webs through the seasons that are brilliant and in what can seem like a mundane episode or scene is actually tv at its best as you see 3/4/5 seasons worth web building come together in a phrase or a look or a two line bit of dialogue that allows a huge psychological look inside the characters head. It’s also brilliant in the way you get lured in to see the human side of the characters - their fears and vulnerabilities - and in the next scene they are low life scumbags who could murder someone for 50 bucks - it makes the show work on so many levels.
Few lads only want the bang bang scenes tho and think it’s a mob show.
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Great summation.
A recent episode ended with Carmella, who wasn’t talking to Tony previously due to his antics, delicately putting her hand on his neck as he was eating. It was a ‘protective’ type interaction after all the shit he was going through with his mother.
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I’m watching the full thing again for the 6th time i’d say … you pick up little things each and every time you watch an episode. Probably depends where you’re at yourself in life … but it’s still the best show that was ever made for me …
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It wasn’t only made for you, it was made for all of us.
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Any reason you hadn’t seen it til now?
It’s a nice treat to look forward to
I was quite anti US series until recently. Roughly translated as I was too lazy to devote time to watching US series until recently.
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Have you seen The Wire?
No, I’m ashamed to say.
Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. There are probably others that I have forgotten.
Did you bother your bollix watching Generation Kill yet?
I haven’t seen them either. The wire is a bad miss