Dr. DVD

Okay, in my earlier post, replace Carmella with Adriana and you'll see my point. Haven't watched the show in a while and got the names of the characters confused.

JNielsen

GuessWho, Thanks for the article links. The suicide qoutes are great.

FonMan

Ok, I think I must be the only one starting to not like the direction of the show. Its getting way to soap-opera like. It seems like all the writers are doing is mixing up character alliances and creating dead-end story lines. This is what happened last season. I thought last season was BY FAR the worst one. Dont get me wrong, its still a great show, but DAMN IT, lets get on with the MOB stuff. I want killing, retaliation, extortion, bribes, killing, baseball bat beatings, and Tony going ape-sheit and openning up a can of Jersey-size whoop-ass.

What happened to the naked Russian?
What happened to the rest of the Russian mob?
What happened to the Milfi Rapist story line?
What happened to Tony Jr's problems?
What happened to Pauly to get into prison (other then him telling us)

One of the reasons I like the show is because it did it right initially. Mob guys were MOB GUYS and killed without remorse. Its starting to turn in to freak'n "Days of our Lives". Last season I had the same thoughts going in to the season but held off on condemning the season because I thought it was building up to some whoop-arse stuff. It didnt happen. Not since the season that ended with Big ***** getting whacked has the Sopranos lived up to its potential

(flame retardant suit now fully zipped up, awaiting flames)

namrfumot

I was hoping Chris was gonna work his mojo and bang both of those girls.

Red Dog

You usually get one good beating/killing an episode, FonMan - that is the average (even from season one). I don't really know what you are complaining about because the one on last night from the construction worksite was pretty damn graphic. The week before you got Christopher blowing away the retired cop in his home.

The funny thing is that you complain about it being too soap-opera like, but then you want to know what happened to certain storylines. Soap operas generally don't play out like that. They have a storyline and they address that storyline in successive episodes and then it is over.

GuessWho

What more are you expecting? A flashback dream sequence so you can SEE it happen?

Go back to page 1 of this thread and read the "newspaper article" about his arrest.

FonMan

Yeah,
what part of my post did you mis-understand? The show is definately straying away from its violent roots. Remember the scenes when tony and furio went to the whorehouse? Remember the payback scene in the back of the cadillac? Remember when Tony would nail the secretary chick in the waste management office and you would never see her again? THAT was good TV !!!

boo hoo, Meadow wont go to class !
boo hoo, Carm is worrying about estate planning
oooh, Junior is worried about conversations in the Dr's office?

and Milfi (who once was arguably the second lead character) is now an annoying after-thought that they just throw in. The writing for her character is a complete joke.

come on, its definately loosing its edge and becoming more politically correct.

The only killing so far was the retired cop. I'm sure future storylines will build on this, but there was no real tension here. Christopher does look like the probable focus for this year, but I am just saying I hope it gets better....soon !

FonMan

Huh?
Go back and read a post to find out about the show? I'm sorry, I like to see it on TV, not read storylines on DVD talk. As far as your suggestion, yeah, that would work. Or it would have been a great way to end last years final show (at least part of it)

Pauly is probably my favorite character and its a little bogus to see him talking to Tony one episode and in jail talking mutiny the next without some sort of build-up.

I'm beginning to think that the writers had NO idea how to write for this season and started to take ideas in a committee meeting.

FonMan

See, that would have been awesome!
And i'm not talking about the nudity thing. It would have been cool to see if this FBI chick was so dedicated, so determined to get Tony that she would actually pull a train to get deeper inside (no pun intended....well maybe a little )

GuessWho

This is more than a post from a DVDTalk person, it's official from HBO. It's Canon.

Red Dog

The seeds for Pauly's mutiny were clearly planted towards the end of Season 3, obviously before he was thrown in the slammer.

GuessWho

You DID see "if this FBI chick was so dedicated, so determined to get Tony..."

and the answer was NO. She tried to remove Chris's hand, so your "Let's see if" was answered.

GuessWho

Yes, in Season 3, episode 13, Tony rules against paulie in favor of Ralph. Paulie then vents to Johnny Sack about it... not to mentioon that paulie was already on Tony's craplist for the Russian debacle.

FonMan

You are right, let me re-phrase.
It would have been cool IF she had decided that she wanted TONY that bad !,

Just seems they took the safe, boring route here.

FonMan

I meant build-up to the phone call in prison...you know, like a scene of him getting arrested and calling Tony for help....something like that...


Look, I still think its a great show. It's just not as edgy and violent as before. Way too many long conversation scenes that dont lead to anything (go back and watch last season for proof)

give me some and

Fielding Mellish

It's been touched upon, but I'm betting the season ends with Christopher having to arrange the ultimate "prenuptual agreement" with Adriana.

RevLiver

Heard this on the radio this morning:

Is Adrianna's puking her guts out a metaphor? Foreshadowing of her spilling her guts to the FBI?

rfduncan

Um... I think you're missing the point about this show which was originally going to be called something like The Family. There are far reaching story arcs throughout ALL the seasons - as in real life NOTHING happens and gets sewn completely up in a nice resolution in two hour-long episodes.

If you are having a problem with the lack of violence in this current season, how did you manage to get this far with the show? Season 3 WAS the most violent of all seasons - the first 2 were rather tame.

Patience - nothing just disappears (even Big Pussy has reappeared after his death).

The TRUE reason Pauly is in prision is because the actor had some serious back/spinal issues and needed immediate operations and bed rest. The storylines had to be tremendously altered to write him out until the actor could return to work full-time. I believe the scenes we're seeing were added in later. Pauly according to the article I read.

A lot of the complaining around here seems to stem from people's lack of attention to detail when watching the show. The Sopranos is very tight and well written. You MUST MUST MUST pay attention to everything that is said and done. Several lines that seem to be thrown away in their delivery often times are the most important ones! I'm STILL rewatching the first three seasons and catching new stuff (and as thing resurface in future episodes you're likely to find evident of some of it in previous seasons too)!

Dave99

I kind of wondered about that when he has suddenly been gone from the script (almost gone anyway). Hopefully he was able to get back in full swing later in the season.
Dave

Red Dog

rfduncan

JoeyOhhhh

While watching the replay tonight, something struck me. When Ralphie clips his toenail and it hits Janice in the face, is it a foreshadowing him getting murdered?

Remember when Tony went to Italy and the Woman who is the boss over there mentioned the story with the toenails saying she burned them so nobody could give her bad luck (or something to that effect).

Seems interesting that they'd even show the whole exchange between Ralphie and Janice if there wasnt something behind it.

rfduncan

You mean besides giving the viewers a chance to see that Ralphie is just as much a pr!ck with Janice as he is with every other woman with whom we've seen him (e.g. the murdered stripper from last season)? Up until that point we have no idea if Tony is correct in his beef about Janice seeing Ralphie (she's too good for him - just like Richie) or if it is his own loathing of Ralphie's disrespect (the murdered dancer, changing his mind of the Jackie Jr. pass, etc.).

However, you DO make a good point. I'd forgotten all about the nail reference. I'm sure it is less likely a coincidence than on purpose. Another fabulously intricate detail returns. BUT do you really think their going to whack another former member of the Aprile gang? That would be Richie, Jackie Jr. and Ralphie - three in a row. Damn, for Jackie Sr. being Tony's best friend - Tony sure had some unrealized issues with the rest of his clan!

bothanspy

Speaking of those toenails, did anyone else notice that almost every main character was shown in bare feet? Meadow, Carmella, Tony, Silvio, Christopher, FBI Chick, Janice, Ralph...

It was just really bizarre so I am trying to figure out the significance because I refuse to believe it is a remarkable coincidence.

SPY

BubbaTC

I highly doubt Tony is upset about Ralphie whacking Jackie Jr., because Tony manipulated Ralph to do exactly what he wanted. If you go back and watch last season's finale, you can tell how much Tony manipulates Ralph in order to get done what needs to be done. Also Christopher mentions something about praising Tony "how he handled it so it wouldn't stick to any of us", so I think it's pretty clear that Tony wanted Ralph to kill Jackie, but he couldn't give the order himself.

On another topic, does anyone get the feeling that there's something weird going on with Patsy, like he might be a rat or something? He's definitely been acting weird, even going back to last season. I remember one episode near the end of last season (12?) where the episode ended with him talking on his phone, and then driving away. They never showed what significance this had at all, so I'm wondering what that was about. He did drive past a black blazer, that's where I got the idea he might be a rat cuz the feds always have those blazers on the show. Just a thought, any other ideas?

rfduncan

I'll give you that - and it was set up such that if Ralph whacked Jackie Jr and Rosalie found out, Tony was still safe since Ralphie made the choice.

That was "Amour Fou", the episode where Patsy Parisi is to "convince" Gloria Trillo (Annabella Sciorra) to stay away from Tony and his family. I thought the end of this episode was a little odd too - but I think the driving off ending was Patsy calling his wife to make sure he got everything she needs from the store on his way home... that the entire violent happenings with Gloria had not phased him one bit.

Pasty Parisi DOES have a beef with Tony though - he is pretty much all but positive Tony had something to do with his twin brother Spoons getting whacked (in season 2). He is only waiting for the right opportunity to leap out and get his revenge on Tony (as seen in eps of season 3). Patsy is more dangerous than anyone else in the gang because he is not just greedy for more money and promotion - he just wants blood spilled in the name of revenge regardless of the consequences.