Watching the Sopranos Again

[Chickenman Testa]

Watching the Sopranos for the 2nd time all the way through - watched bits and pieces of seasons after it ended, but this is the first comprehensive rewatch.

Forgot the great songs they included. I had never heard this one from the Faces - perfect sloppy rock classic with Rod Stewart at his peak and Ronnie Wood tearing it up

 

[Psugo823]

Watching the Sopranos for the 2nd time all the way through - watched bits and pieces of seasons after it ended, but this is the first comprehensive rewatch.

Forgot the great songs they included. I had never heard this one from the Faces - perfect sloppy rock classic with Rod Stewart at his peak and Ronnie Wood tearing it up

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A great great show..show... have it 4th all time behind The Wire and Breaking Bad and Yellowstone....BUT the show jumped the shark in season 5 and 6 when they turned Tony into God...gave him far too much glory and power.

 

[WaylonJ]

BUT the show jumped the shark in season 5 and 6 when they turned Tony into God...gave him far too much glory and power.

That's probably fair. The episode with his father's mistress the redhead was particularly cringey but the show illustrated Tony's swift descent into oblivion in these last two seasons, starting with the last episode of Season 4, "Whitecaps" which is my favorite episode. He pulls out the last stop in trying to keep his marriage and family together and it all gets blown away when his chronic cheating comes back to haunt him...then everything goes to hell...the Blundetto disaster, lingering hate over the Ginny joke from Ralph...it's all reached a point of no return. Not sure it was glory and power as much as last gasp desperation and fear manifested in excessive force and violence.

 

[The Spin Meister]

I hate all these shows glorifying the mob. They are a bunch of criminal losers that couldn’t run a legit company for a year. Scumbags that only ‘succeed’ because of horrible criminal actions.

Maybe the powers that be should run a series showing all the damage they did……people murdered, families ruined, businesses torched for not paying protection, costs to the neigjborhoods. But you will never see it because Hollywood was always run by the mob. Movies are a great way to launder ill gotten gains and make themselves look good all at the same time.

 

[WaylonJ]

The Sopranos shows all of that, Spin. All the characters had poisonous and psychotic tendencies and ended up dead or in the can. I can't think of any mafia movie or show that didn't end with a lot of death, pain and regret. Yes, some lived lavishly for awhile but it never lasted which is usually the point of the story.

 

[nitanee123]

I hate all these shows glorifying the mob. They are a bunch of criminal losers that couldn’t run a legit company for a year. Scumbags that only ‘succeed’ because of horrible criminal actions.

Maybe the powers that be should run a series showing all the damage they did……people murdered, families ruined, businesses torched for not paying protection, costs to the neigjborhoods. But you will never see it because Hollywood was always run by the mob. Movies are a great way to launder ill gotten gains and make themselves look good all at the same time.

I wouldn’t say it glorified them. I found their characters mostly pathetic. They were all either tortured or ignorant.

 

[NJPSU]

A great great show..show... have it 4th all time behind The Wire and Breaking Bad and Yellowstone....BUT the show jumped the shark in season 5 and 6 when they turned Tony into God...gave him far too much glory and power.

Yellowstone? It’s a decent show in the first two seasons but already fading badly.

I agree with your other three although I’d go.

1. Sopranos
2. Breaking Bad
3. The Wire
4. Succession

 

[NITTANYJGK]

I loved the Supranos series. For me, it was 2nd only to Band of Brothers. Funny how different they are; one involved men of honor; the other about men without honor.

I've watched both series completely about 3 times.

 

[Chickenman Testa]

Yellowstone? It’s a decent show in the first two seasons but already fading badly.

I agree with your other three although I’d go.

1. Sopranos
2. Breaking Bad
3. The Wire
4. Succession

Mine is:

1. The Wire - but I can’t bring myself to rewatch
2. Breaking Bad - most entertaining show for me. Have watched it 4 times through
3. Deadwood - Al and Wu
4. Sopranos

 

[fairfaxlion2]

I wouldn’t say it glorified them. I found their characters mostly pathetic. They were all either tortured or ignorant.

yeah i didn't feel like that show glorified them at all. they were all lowlifes and they tried to make the one family relatable. there was nothing that really seemed glorified about any of it

 

[cntblvitsbutter]

yeah i didn't feel like that show glorified them at all. they were all lowlifes and they tried to make the one family relatable. there was nothing that really seemed glorified about any of it

Yup. Never watched Sopranos fantasizing about being in that world. It's more about the power dynamics, the manipulation, the strategizing, which makes the Sopranos similar to non-mob shows like Rome, which for me is up there with Sopranos and Breaking Bad.

 

[JoeLion]

Better call Saul would be in my top 4. I would include the wire, Breaking, Bad Sopranos. Not certain of the order.
Also a shout out to the X Files!

 

[PSUPride1]

A great great show..show... have it 4th all time behind The Wire and Breaking Bad and Yellowstone....BUT the show jumped the shark in season 5 and 6 when they turned Tony into God...gave him far too much glory and power.

I loved the show but the NJ mob could never take on one of the five families in NYC in a war. Never. I've read and watched a lot about the mob and one expert said NYC and Chicago were the major leagues and Philadelphia and NJ were triple A franchises.

 

[Obliviax]

what made it interesting to me is that the mob background is simply the human condition. It relates to working in corporate America, small business or even running for president of Del Boca Vista home owners association. Game of Thrones is the same basic story. Somebody ascends to the top of the power heap using some level of above and below the line tactics. He/she gains followers because the leader can pull them up into power and income. But the leaders all have weaknesses. The followers and enemies all want their power/money too. So the leader is constantly being tested from both the inside and outside. And that creates many seasons of interesting viewing.

The corporate version of the sopranos has been done with Succession, Dallas, Dynasty and a period piece named "Mad Men". The real life versions of these are taking place inside Disney, GM, Microsoft and Google every day.

A Great real-life event is unfolding in Russia. Putin ascended into the power vacuum caused by the fall of the Soviet Union. He consolidated power by getting rid of enemies and reestablishing Russia on the world stage. Many many people aligned with him for fame and fortune. But he's getting older. Ukraine emerges as a thorn in his side and a potential sign that he is weakening. So he oversteps by attacking. Now, there are forces from the outside (Ukrain, NATO) and inside (oligarchs who's income was hurt and reporters who are trying to make a name for themselves in the post-Putin era) trying to destroy him. Will he destroy them first or them him? Stayed tuned for next week's episode!

 

[Chickenman Testa]

Bumping this to tell any fans of BB that there’s a good podcast out there of guys doing a rewatch. Called “Breaking Good”.

Good way to kill commuting time and such.

 

[Chickenman Testa]

That's probably fair. The episode with his father's mistress the redhead was particularly cringey but the show illustrated Tony's swift descent into oblivion in these last two seasons, starting with the last episode of Season 4, "Whitecaps" which is my favorite episode. He pulls out the last stop in trying to keep his marriage and family together and it all gets blown away when his chronic cheating comes back to haunt him...then everything goes to hell...the Blundetto disaster, lingering hate over the Ginny joke from Ralph...it's all reached a point of no return. Not sure it was glory and power as much as last gasp desperation and fear manifested in excessive force and violence.

Just finished the rewatch. Oh, that scene with the mistress singing Happy Birthday Mr. President is great and awful - she turns from sweet old lady to a goblin in about 30 seconds. You see Tony come to the sad realization that she is just another whorish predator now preying on him.

Best scene switch - from Carmella on a gorgeous bridge in Paris just drinking it all in and then cutting back to the Bing Parking Lot. A guy is cleaning the sign off with a hose and Sil tells him to “clean that shit off her tit”. Lol

A rewatch clearly shows how awful Carm is. Greedy, hypocritical, etc.

 

[royboy]

Got hooked on Yellowstone. It's the Cowboy Mafia, or the Montana version of the Sopranos.

 

[Chickenman Testa]

Got hooked on Yellowstone. It's the Cowboy Mafia, or the Montana version of the Sopranos.

I really wish someone would wack Beth. She’s worn out her welcome.

 

[Psugo823]

I really wish someone would wack Beth. She’s worn out her welcome.

Too cocky.

 

[WaylonJ]

Getting back to the Sopranos, it's the humor and the wiseguy lingo and recurring shtick that makes it a great watch for me. Obviously the plot writing was great. I don't watch these other serials, although I've seen YT clips of Boardwalk Empire that I would get into.

Never having lived in North Jersey or NYC I didn't know people exactly like this but I knew many in eastern PA who weren't far off. Tough guy vibe, fatally flawed, running on emotion and spite, dumber than hell, brilliant at times... some made a lot of money but most never kept it. Lawyers are expensive, as Richie Aprile made clear to Beansie.

When Sopranos was actually an ongoing phenomenon, I didn't/still don't have HBO and didn't know anything about it. People I knew said I'd love it and they were right but I didn't latch onto the brilliant tragic fun of this show until just a few years ago. Now I watch commentary and interviews about it on YT to this day, whenever I can. I thought it was a masterpiece of a show.

 

[Chickenman Testa]

Getting back to the Sopranos, it's the humor and the wiseguy lingo and recurring shtick that makes it a great watch for me. Obviously the plot writing was great. I don't watch these other serials, although I've seen YT clips of Boardwalk Empire that I would get into.

Never having lived in North Jersey or NYC I didn't know people exactly like this but I knew many in eastern PA who weren't far off. Tough guy vibe, fatally flawed, running on emotion and spite, dumber than hell, brilliant at times... some made a lot of money but most never kept it. Lawyers are expensive, as Richie Aprile made clear to Beansie.

When Sopranos was actually an ongoing phenomenon, I didn't/still don't have HBO and didn't know anything about it. People I knew said I'd love it and they were right but I didn't latch onto the brilliant tragic fun of this show until just a few years ago. Now I watch commentary and interviews about it on YT to this day, whenever I can. I thought it was a masterpiece of a show.

I grew up in Delco. When I played Little League, we had about 3-4 dads and uncles of a certain ethnicity who managed to attend all our games even though most of them were weekday late afternoon affairs. I always wondered what they did for jobs that they could routinely take off at 3. They were also all connected to the family that owned the huge concrete plant right next to I-95 near Marcus Hook. Uh-huh

They were great guys though - always supporting us and busting the other team’s balls.

Back to the Sopranos, Gandolfini is such a tour de force in that - he could go from grin to malevolence in a split second. Personal favorites were Richie, Johnny Sack and Little Carmine. I had forgotten how funny the latter was with his malapropisms. Johnny getting angry and yelling at the end of almost every conversation. When Chrissy tries to offer a suggestion to settle a dispute: “I remember WHEN YOU USED TO STAY IN THE CAR!”

 

[jferretti]

I hate all these shows glorifying the mob. They are a bunch of criminal losers that couldn’t run a legit company for a year. Scumbags that only ‘succeed’ because of horrible criminal actions.

Maybe the powers that be should run a series showing all the damage they did……people murdered, families ruined, businesses torched for not paying protection, costs to the neigjborhoods. But you will never see it because Hollywood was always run by the mob. Movies are a great way to launder ill gotten gains and make themselves look good all at the same time.

I thought Goodfellas by Scorsese illustrated the good and bad about mob life. The glamour of a life undeserved with the gore and gut wrenching angst of the threat of either getting whacked or dying in prison, as Jimmy Burke and others did.

 

[Obliviax]

I thought Goodfellas by Scorsese illustrated the good and bad about mob life. The glamour of a life undeserved with the gore and gut wrenching angst of the threat of either getting whacked or dying in prison, as Jimmy Burke and others did.

I've seen several of Pablo Escobar's lieutenants be interviewed. Most were from the barrios of major cities in Columbia. All agreed that their life expectancy probably didn't go beyond age 30 and they accepted that. The life with money and girls for ten years was better than growing up poor.

Escobar would take a new young recruit and tell them to bury a 50-gallon barrel full of cash at some specified location (50 yards due south of a giant tree on a large farm, for example). When they came back to report it was buried, he'd kill them so he was the only person who knew where it was.

SPOILER ALERT

I thought this was kind of exemplified in The Sopranos. Christopher, for example, was one of his best lieutenants but became a liability with his drug dependency and girlfriend. So despite being a loyal server, he had to go. The risk was too high.

 

[LongJakk]

I like Yellowstone, but it jumped the shark when they went nuclear on all of the militia guys with no repercussions.

 

[McCloudersportLion]

Got hooked on Yellowstone. It's the Cowboy Mafia, or the Montana version of the Sopranos.

 

[87 Penn St8]

Mine is:

1. The Wire - but I can’t bring myself to rewatch
2. Breaking Bad - most entertaining show for me. Have watched it 4 times through
3. Deadwood - Al and Wu
4. Sopranos

Picked up my son and gf this morning at BWI...thought about The Wire when I drove past the docks on the way North to the Harbor Tunnel. I liked the way they brought in different sub plots each season like the Longshoremen, The Greek etc.

FWIW a former student of mine was being trained by a boxing coach named Ernest Hall who worked out of a gym in West Baltimore. Hall and some friends apparently went to a Subway restaurant after midnight in Edmonson Village one mornimg and just like in the show he was gunned down. By all accounts he was a glimmer of hope in a tragically suffering neighborhood. The story was covered in depth by Baltimore tv and newspapers. In the end there was no difference between the show and real life for "Mr. Ernie."

Baltimore junior featherweight boxer Ernest Hall killed in shooting - The Ring

Ernest Hall was deep in training camp for a fight next weekend which had the potential to get his career back on the right track. He never made it to the ring however, having been gunned down in the early morning hours on Thursday in his native Baltimore. Police responded to a call at 12:05 […]

www.ringtv.com

 

[87 Penn St8]

I grew up in Delco. When I played Little League, we had about 3-4 dads and uncles of a certain ethnicity who managed to attend all our games even though most of them were weekday late afternoon affairs. I always wondered what they did for jobs that they could routinely take off at 3. They were also all connected to the family that owned the huge concrete plant right next to I-95 near Marcus Hook. Uh-huh

They were great guys though - always supporting us and busting the other team’s balls.

Back to the Sopranos, Gandolfini is such a tour de force in that - he could go from grin to malevolence in a split second. Personal favorites were Richie, Johnny Sack and Little Carmine. I had forgotten how funny the latter was with his malapropisms. Johnny getting angry and yelling at the end of almost every conversation. When Chrissy tries to offer a suggestion to settle a dispute: “I remember WHEN YOU USED TO STAY IN THE CAR!”

Let me guess ....they wore sweatsuits! I went to PSU with the daughter of said concrete company. She was in my major. Super young lady. She seemed as normal as anyone else...thank god I never got involved with her or I'd have been wearing concrete shoes!

Just yesterday a pupil of mine was talking about the house her family had bought a year ago. HUGE place...bought from the son of people of the same ethnicity mentioned above. Somehow they had stretched profits from a small farming business into 2 houses that rival PSU fraternities in size. Not surprisingly, the young person shared that they have found quantities of controlled substances all over the property. Hmmmmmmmm. No glory inbeing a dealer or pimp...simply capitalizing on people's weaknesses to satisfy oneself. Unfortunately a reality of life..

 

[JoeLion]

I started on two more; Ted Lasso and Fringe. i’m in love with Anna Torv.

 

[Obliviax]

I started on two more; Ted Lasso and Fringe. i’m in love with Ann Torv.

Apple is killing it as far as content. A few good shows that I've recently watched are "The Last Thing He Told Me", Echo 3, and "The Big Door Prize". I just started watching Platonic. I don't like Seth Rogan but am really enjoying the show so far. One of the best shows I watched, recently, is "The Diplomat" on Netflix. It is really well done if you are into political thrillers. The lead gal and guy play off of each other perfectly. It is well written and acted. There is a chemistry.

 

[NJPSU]

A great great show..show... have it 4th all time behind The Wire and Breaking Bad and Yellowstone....BUT the show jumped the shark in season 5 and 6 when they turned Tony into God...gave him far too much glory and power.

Yellowstone? Decent show but 3rd all time?

 

[Psugo823]

Yellowstone? Decent show but 3rd all time?

Probably not. But I was feeling spiteful at the Sopranos for turning Tony into God in seasons 5 and 6.