The Sopranos

[Vincent Vega]

What was your favorite season? Least favorite?

Favorite episodes? Least favorite?

Favorite characters--major and minor?

Characters you loved to hate?

What's your theory on the Ending? What about some of the shows other mysteries--for example the Russian?

Just a thread for one of TV's best shows ever. It's a standout and I feel deserves it's own thread.

Edited September 10, 2012 by Vincent Vega

[Demesne]

What was your favorite season? Least favorite?

The 2nd one was for me the best one. Richie Aprile was crazy funny and every episode was a masterpiece. The "From where to eternity" episode is just incredible.

Least favorite should be the 6 season (first part). I wasn't convinced of how did the main line with Tony go. I expected a lot more, and the line with Vito was boring.

Favorite episodes? Least favorite?

The best episode to me is "Remember when", in the second part of the last season. It combines some hilarious scenes between Tony and Paulie and the drama of uncle Junior. The ending of that episode, with Benny Goodman playing while Junior is there in the wheelchair with the cat is the most touching moment of the whole Sopranos saga to me.

Don't have a "least favorite" episode.

Favorite characters--major and minor?

I couldn't watch anything that Paulie was doing without smiling. I loved that character. The owner of the Vesubio as a minor character also had some stellar moments.

Characters you loved to hate?

Without a doubt, Johnny Sack. He acted like a dick most of the time, but was a really strong character.

What's your theory on the Ending?

Plain and simple death.

By the way I thought the ending couldn't be better, pure class.

[Vincent Vega]

The 2nd one was for me the best one. Richie Aprile was crazy funny and every episode was a masterpiece. The "From where to eternity" episode is just incredible.

Least favorite should be the 6 season (first part). I wasn't convinced of how did the main line with Tony go. I expected a lot more, and the line with Vito was boring.

I agree, the Second is best but the third and first are tied at second for me. The second half of Season Six Part I does drag and the Vito storyline went on too long.

The best episode to me is "Remember when", in the second part of the last season. It combines some hilarious scenes between Tony and Paulie and the drama of uncle Junior. The ending of that episode, with Benny Goodman playing while Junior is there in the wheelchair with the cat is the most touching moment of the whole Sopranos saga to me.

Don't have a "least favorite" episode.

I love Remember When as well. I also love the episode D Girl, and Funhouse. I also love the episodes where it flashes back to Tony's childhood and teenage years, and the episode "To Save Us All from Satan's Power", when it flashed back to 1995.

I couldn't watch anything that Paulie was doing without smiling. I loved that character. The owner of the Vesubio as a minor character also had some stellar moments.

For me, Tony for obvious reasons. I also loved Pussy Bompensiero, Furio, and Paulie. I REALLY loved Ralphie, he was such a lunatic. Never really liked Christopher. I liked what little we saw of Jackie Aprile, Sr and Tony's father.

I hated AJ.

Without a doubt, Johnny Sack. He acted like a dick most of the time, but was a really strong character.

Hmm...For me, Phil. Such a prick yet so funny in other ways.

Plain and simple death.

By the way I thought the ending couldn't be better, pure class.

I agree completely.

[spunko12345]

My favorite season was the one where Jackie Jr gets whacked for trying to rob the card game.

My favorite character is Uncle Jr, when he's going senile and tells the cop to "go shit in your hat" also how he goes ballistic on his woman cos he flat out refuses to eat pussy lol.

Second favorite character is Chrissy.

Least favorite character Dr Melfi is a bit annoying but obviously central to the premise of the show. So I'm gonna say Janice.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Going to watch Season 6B soon. Will let you guys know. So far I can't stand Janice. Carmela is also an idiot.

[dalsh327]

I'm not going to put spoilers up... anything over 5 years old doesn't need spoiler warnings.

Second and third seasons hooked me on the show.

Pine Barrens is prob. my favorite, but the most symbolic of the shows has to do with when he was in the coma as Kevin Finnerty, and maybe the one where he was in Vegas on psychedelics.

You have to watch the entire series for all the symbolism going on, esp. in the dreams. He didn't make a run of the mill mafia show that was all about Tony Soprano banging strippers and having guys whacked.

The Kennedy references (and Lincoln in one episode, "Made in America" - the Ford truck) are all over the series, esp. the "magic bullet" infomercial. That's what they call the bullet that went into Kennedy's head, or "Kennedy and Heidi", who I think were the girls who sent Chris' truck flying off the road. Chris' death was the beginning of the end of the show.

There would be no successors to Tony. It wasn't in AJ's blood. Carmela was independent of Tony, even though I'm sure part of her still wanted to be a mob wife. But she could live her own life, Meadow could live hers. The mafia was being dismantled, Tony's family was spreading out, and most of the guys were dead except Silvio, and who knows how long that would've gone on for.

He was "enlightened" and free if you really think about it, and if his path in life was going to be senility.

The casino, the Test Dream, the Kevin Finnerty dream, all of that stuff plus the music has significance to the story.

There's no theory to whether or not Tony was whacked, but even though Meadow never sits down with him, she already had her one on one time with Tony. They're all dressed in black. 3 out of the four pick their onion rings up at the same time. Some of the songs on the jukebox have meaning, "Magic Moment" was a Sopranos episode title.

The sixth season's episodes were "Members Only" and "Join the Club". Is he in the Hotel California? in Purgatory? Finnerty was a furnace salesman from...Arizona? Think about that. We're not sure who Finnerty is - infinity? The devil? An alias? Meadow's boyfriend named Finn?

The last scene Tony has with Dr Melfi, he rips a recipe out of a magazine called "Departures".

David Chase didn't leave any loose ends, and he said if he was going to do a Sopranos movie, it would be more about Tony's dad.

The Alzheimers - which is what Junior had going on, might have been a part of the dream, but was this Tony considering a boring life under witness protection, similar to Henry Hill at the end of Goodfellas? Was he going to have brain damage when he came out of the coma? The house that he never went into - that was the same house they had used as a retreat. The blinking lights outside the windows in the different hotel rooms.

The dream sequences are surreal, but are important - why else make "Test Dream" 20 minutes?

The bookend songs of the finale, "You Keep Me Hangin' On" - all about being set free. Was that David Chase telling us (and HBO?) he just wants to be done with the series, because he couldn't find it in him to milk it? The end of the show was Tony's "liberation" in the desert, the end of Chris, the end of the therapy sessions, and his "family" dismantled. AJ was unlikely to step in his dad's shoes, but we'll never know, or whether Members Only Guy wanted to make sure there was no revenge later. But he wasn't made. But overall, they moved on from Tony.

And of course "Don't Stop Believin" - using an upbeat song that would've been from Tony's younger days, when he was in shape and had a full head of hair, prob. a song he and Carmela had enjoyed as a young couple. "Strangers, waitin' up and down the boulevard" - the Members Only guy, and Meadow struggling with parking her car, anxious to get in, but that could've been some unknown force keeping her at a distance from the tragedy about to take place.

The show is based around Tony's problems, and those problems were gone at the end of the series. I think David Chase also wanted to kill the Italian mafia genre altogether and throw every reference to every great mafia movie ever made in there.

If you follow Kurt Sutter's tweets (or any show creator for that matter) it's interesting because you realize most creators of shows have no frigging idea of how a season is going to pan out, they just start writing, have other people help put the show together, and it takes on a life once the actors start reading it out loud. I don't think Chase had any master plan when he started out, just a rough outline, and over time it wrote itself, and once they had a set to play around with, they could start adding things into the scene. And when it comes to dream sequence, it's an "all bets are off, anything goes" mindset. But usually the creator of a show knows how the story is going to end early on. I think JK Rowling had a pretty good idea of Harry Potter's fate, but it's about the journey, not the destination.

I wish Axl had played cards with Tony though.

[SONOFABITCH]

What was your favorite season? Least favorite? I think I really liked the season with Richie Aprile which was season 2. I hated the season with Vito and Johnny Cakes.

Favorite episodes? Least favorite? Favorite episode is probably Pine Barrens. Least favorite where is the one where Tony is hanging out with his father's ex-mistress who does a dance for him.

Favorite characters--major and minor? I liked Christopher. I liked Richie Aprile.

Characters you loved to hate? Loved to hate? I guess Phil Leotardo.

What's your theory on the Ending? What about some of the shows other mysteries--for example the Russian?

I don't really theorize the ending because the creator took the easy way out. The series finale of Dallas they make it appear like JR commits suicide because you hear a shot as JR stood looking in the mirror. Then, years later they have a reunion. Nothing happened to Tony Soprano except a cowardly ending on the creator's part.

[JONEZY]

I'll pick Season 3 as my favorite, probably because thats when I began to watch the show(later on I caught the shows from 1 and 2). It took awhile to figure out all the charachters, story line, etc.. Ralphie was brought in this season and he was great.

Favorite Charachter: Paulie, no question about it.

Least Favorite Charachter: AJ, what an idiot. But it was great when he farted in Meadows face.

I enjoyed the ending. I guess some people wanted an old fashioned shootout at the end, but that would have been stupid. I think they did it right, main guys were getting whacked in the last part of the final season. In the end, Tony was still alive, I love the Journey song, and those onion rings looked finger-looking good.

If I had my druthers, they would do another show going back to when Tony's dad and Junior were in their prime, a younger Paulie, etc.. Aint gonna happen though.

[SONOFABITCH]

Also, while I find the show was excellent, when I re-watch these episodes I like thw fast forward through the Meadow/Carmella discussions and a lot of the Melfi scenes. A little too much family/feelings/artsy stuff at times. It was best when they stuck to what was going on in the organized crime, and not who Meadow was dating.

[Angelica]

What was your favorite season? Least favorite? Favorite episodes? Least favorite?

S3 is the most consistent in terms of quality, but I get the biggest kick out of the second half of S6.

I can do a top ten favorite episodes (I'm sad, I know) - I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano, Knight in White Satin Armor, Funhouse, Proshai Livushka, Second Opinion, Whoever Did This, The Strong Silent Type, Long Term Parking, Blue Comet, Made in America. Least favorite, In Camelot, easily. And I love Polly Bergen and she was fabulous, but ugh. A few of those mid season 5 eps are pretty painful.

Favorite characters--major and minor?

Mostly everyone but Sil and the kids.

Characters you loved to hate?

Janice, but I mostly loved her. Artie *really* got on my nerves, more of a 'dislike to dislike' there.

What's your theory on the Ending? What about some of the shows other mysteries--for example the Russian?

He's dead. Same with the Russian.

Edited September 11, 2012 by Angelica

[Georgy Zhukov]

In Camelot was awful.

Silvio and Paulie are my favorite minor characters even though they are the most sociopathic of the bunch. I can't believe the guy who played Sil is in Bruce Springsteen's band and the guy who played Paulie was a real life associate.

[GivenToFly]

Meh.

I watched until about half way through season 3 and then this set in (of the 'I hate every single one of them' variety). I could bear the main characters at the beginning, but then less and less so.

I liked Sal, I suppose, he had a good arc, his inner conflict was well written and acted. Steven van Zandt's character was funny for a while, withe the over the top ham but it got boring quickly.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Seasons 3 and 4 were terrible but 5 and 6 made up for it. That is when it got really interesting.

Give it a chance. Besides the scenes with Ralphie can be entertaining.

Edited September 13, 2012 by Stannis Baratheon

[Angelica]

Seasons 3 and 4 were terrible but 5 and 6 made up for it. That is when it got really interesting.

Give it a chance. Besides the scenes with Ralphie can be entertaining.

How in the name of all that's holy was season 3 terrible?

[Georgy Zhukov]

Seasons 3 and 4 were terrible but 5 and 6 made up for it. That is when it got really interesting.

Give it a chance. Besides the scenes with Ralphie can be entertaining.

How in the name of all that's holy was season 3 terrible?

What was so great about it? Jackie Jr.? I hated that kid. I loved the part when he asked Christopher about letting his friend deal drugs at Ade's club. Thinking he's Don Corleone.

Edited September 13, 2012 by Stannis Baratheon

[SONOFABITCH]

I loved when those two punks shot Christpoher and the the Bevilioqua kid went to Richie Aprile's hangout to seek refuge...

[Georgy Zhukov]

I loved when those two punks shot Christpoher and the the Bevilioqua kid went to Richie Aprile's hangout to seek refuge...

Vito wanting to be boss of the family.

[Angelica]

Seasons 3 and 4 were terrible but 5 and 6 made up for it. That is when it got really interesting.

Give it a chance. Besides the scenes with Ralphie can be entertaining.

How in the name of all that's holy was season 3 terrible?

What was so great about it? Jackie Jr.? I hated that kid. I loved the part when he asked Christopher about letting his friend deal drugs at Ade's club. Thinking he's Don Corleone.

I didn't like Jackie Jr either, but he was largely incidental. There's not a weak episode in that entire run, and it contains some of the very best episodes (Proshai Livushka, Employee of the Month, Another Toothpick, Second Opinion, University, Pine Barrens, Army of One etc.

[Dazey]

Not as good as The Wire. [/thread]

[Georgy Zhukov]

The one with the Russian was awesome. When I found out that the one who played Tony's mother died months before filming begin I couldn't believe it. I was convinced that was really her in that episode.

The premiere was pretty cool. In the end though I found it all forgettable. I like more conflict especially when New Jersey and NYC clash in season six B.

Edited September 14, 2012 by Stannis Baratheon

[axl8302]

Not as good as The Wire. [/thread]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

[Georgy Zhukov]

The Ending. So many things left open ended. I think Tony ends up getting indicted and gets life.

[Johnny Drama]

i RECKON HE GETS CAPPED BY THE GUY IN THE SHITTER DUH

[Georgy Zhukov]

AJ is clearly going to end up like Tony someday.

[Angelica]

AJ is clearly going to end up like Tony someday.

AJ is most likely going to die when his shoelaces get caught in an escalator. He has neither the brain, stomach or charisma to be Tony. At best, he'd be like Little Carmine (and even that's a stretch).