3 boring years that sucked.

This is such a shitty way for a heavyweight to go out. The 1st few seasons of The Sopranos was some of the best TV ever. The last few seasons were a bad joke.

It's almost as if Mr. Chase is saying "All these suckers are stuck now. We could put anything we want on and they'll watch it. 6 episodes left? I know - let's make a show about a character nobody gives a fuck about, who was seen in the background 4-5 times throughout the series... A child who has nothing to do with anyone viewers might care about. Let's make it Vito's son so we can build on another plot that was boring and dragged out that no one really cared about. Oh and we'll show Tony in a few scenes too and everyone will watch like fucking sheep." Well I'm not f*$%#@^ impressed.

I think I know how the series will end: Hesch's grandson will be having a hard time with his math homework and Tony's gonna get "stressed out" because Hesch is complaining about it. Paulie will write a letter to the math teacher but it won't work; Hesch's grandkid will be about to fail. Then Tony comes up with a plan - "Find that kid a TUTOR!!" and AJ's girl comes back and tutors li'l Heschie. Kid passes the test, fade out.

"IT WAS BRILLIANT!!!!

YOU JUST WANT PEOPLE TO GET KILLED!!!

The Tutor represented Tonys repressed memories of his father! It was subtle allusion! Your too stupid to understand how the tutor storyline was a milestone in American entertainment!

IM SMUG SO I GET THE SOPRANOS! THE EPISODE WAS GREAT AND I'LL KEEP SAYING IT SO THAT PEOPLE WHO DIDNT LIKE IT THINK I KNOW SOMETHING THAT THEY DONT!!!

This is not a mob show, but a show about family...and what family does not have a run in with a tutor now and again? You 'Joe 6-pack' types just like bloodshead and will never understand real life drama!

DID YOU SEE THE ACTING WHEN TONY EXPLAINED TO THE TUTOR THAT THE TEST WAS COVERING CHAPTERS 6-14, AND NOT 5-12!?!?!?! CALL THE EMMY PEOPLE!!!!

Ive heard alot of arrogant film and tv critics say that the tutor episode was fantastic...so....I mean, thier PROFESSIONAL critics right?...umm...THE TUTOR EPISODE WAS FANTASTIC!!

THIS IS THE BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION EVER!!! BEST HBO HAS EVER DONE!!!
...now that im done posting on DVDTalk, lets see whats on HBO...whats this?...reruns of THE WIRE? Fuck it, I dont watch that show, why start now...cant be as good as The Sopranos, so why bother?

thank you for summing up a lot of feelings ive had reading this thread

Hell I thought at the very least, Vito Jr. was going to pick the shit up and throw it at the other kids... But have to agree with other posters. This just wasnt a good episode, and they arent going anywhere with it so far. I think some people are just trying to find something to attribute but there really isnt any. You can make all the analogies, but it still doesnt make it a decent episode.

Laugh it up if you want but wait 'til you see the sub-plots:

1. Charmaine loses her cellphone and Artie gets mad at her.
2. Janice cooks fish and Baccala gets...INDIGESTION!
3. Sylvio reads the newspaper and Paulie watches some more TV.
4. Chris mispronounces a word AND misuses a phrase... IN THE SAME SENTENCE!!!!!
5. Dr. Melfi crosses her legs. ( :drool: by the way)
6. Ginny Sac's brother sells a pair of blu-blockers to Little Carmine.
7. Carmella makes a lasagna... but Tony wanted MANICOTTI!!!
8. Vito's son secretly paints his pinky nail black at camp.

Now do you see why Tony is so stressed???????

If you can't appreciate the profoundness of all that going on at once then you don't deserve such an exciting finale. Tony will win the Emmy just for the look he gives Sylvio as he reads the Metro section. Roeper will call it a masterpiece. Fans outside the exclusive screening will say "It was better than Cats, better than E.T. I am going to see it again and again."

You just don't understand the show.

So is this the last episode you'll watch, or do you plan on watching the remaining episodes like the rest of the "fucking sheep" and whine and complain all along the way?

We all know the answer. :p :lol:

I'm interested in hearing why you believe that my assessment of the show is not applicable to the Sopranos.

I can't believe that the people disappointed by the show haven't pointed out that the shit Vito Jr. took in the shower was symbolic of the shit that Chase is taking on them by forcing them to watch the show..

I was hoping little Vito was going to chase them with it or throw it at them like that video of the monkey flinging his poo.

I see your point but the money was always blood money, plus she got the house passed becuase of Tony.

I didn't understand that whole Vito Jr. thing at all. Even as a grade schooler I was aware of what other kids parents' did for a living. Vito Jr. has mob bosses for uncles...how the fuck could he not do whatever he wanted at that school? I expected him to tell one of those kids to eat his shit...not just stand there.

I'm watching because I am one of the aforementioned suckers. Hence the point of my post.

Just like I watched X-Files long after it jumped the shark. Both shows started out great and then began to suck because of storylines that slowly went nowhere. I happen to love some of the characters on The Sopranos but I wish every once in a while they'd do something interesting. I like alot of people that live on my block but I don't think a show about their lives would be exciting. They have kids who are rebellious - would you love a show about that because you would look at it from the other side and see the effect it has on me because I have to see these freaks when I go to get the paper? Tony's life is an interesting one. The show about it used to be.

I've been a Sopranos fan from day 1 but hell if I'm gonna make excuses for it sucking.

Fixed.

People need to stop bitching about the hiatus stuff.


Sopranos fans waited 1 year to get 9 hours of content.

Spider-Man movie fans wait 3 years for 2 hours of content.


Yet nobody ever bitches about movies.

Wow, that episode sucked even more than the last one.

As for the whole big gambling problem crap, it seemed to come out of nowhere.

I only own seasons 1 - 3 because then the show took a huge downturn, but I was thinking if it ended with a great final season, I'd pick up the others. Looks like that's not going to happen. Sad to see a show that started so well, end in such a letdown. I guess they can't all be as good for so long (like Six Feet Under or OZ).

As a huge OZ fan, I can tell you without hesistation, that the last 3 seasons of OZ were horrificly awful (although SFU kind of ended at the right time). The Wire has been the only "perfect" HBO show, IMO.

We'll have to disagree on OZ (though I do say it was even better early on).

I never got to the Wire in time. I'd like to see it from the beginning. Any idea if they are doing that?

Fair enough. I guess IMO it hasn't reached "suck status" yet... close, real close... but I'll reserve final judgment until after the final episode. At that time it will then be obvious whether Chase was brilliant or brilliantly playing us (or more accurately some of us, I'll include myself in that group).

All I know is if I had a wife like Carmella she'd be fish food of the coast of Jersey by now. What a bitch.

I was amused by Silvio's total indifference to Tony's gambling. Apparently, Silvio is one smart cookie by being indifferent - non emotional - to Tony's antics. That's what will always save his ass.
LOL - everytime Tony places an outrageous wager, Silvio says, "good idea, boss." Silv doesn't even look up from his newspaper.

AJ doesn't live a mafia lifestyle. He is the night manager of a pizzeria.

Her leaving him portends something though. The next episode may be about AJ melting down. But I think that that is going to wind down AJ's storyline rather than Tony's.

The whole A.J. story arc was ridiculous. Out of the blue, we're supposed to accept A.J. as a caring, patient, and loving authority-father-figure to someone else's child? Heck, not even A.J.'s parents swallowed that, yet Chase expected us to??

A.J. is a total panty-waste, and no way could he transform himself the way he was portrayed.

What does Silvio do anyway? Does he have guys that work under him? How is he an "earner" for Tony in any way shape or form. He's always at the Bing reading a paper agreeing with whatever Tony says.

I noticed that too! :lol: It was definitely over-the-top in last night's episode.

He's the consigliere... he doesn't have to earn... he just has to "be". ;) That's what makes his whole approach to things so funny or at least ironic.

Hesh is a loan shark, and they wanted to do a Hesh subplot before ending the series, so giving Tony a gambling issue was an easy way to do it. When the situation changed, he suddenly produced the cash, which means that his gambling issues probably weren't as serious as he was making them out to be.

I think you're right that he was building this up out of boredom. If he had really been hard up, he would have taken Hesh's offer to make the loan interest free. He seems to be enjoying these conflicts he's building among his friends. Renata dying is an event to be juxtaposed against Tony's purported money troubles, and a way to drive home the point that, overall, Tony is ridiculously lucky.

And Tony's trend over the course of the episode was to rack up a lot of winnings, before blowing all of it on a long-odds bet. Is that how he's going to end up in the larger picture, or will he walk away from the table while he's ahead. Chase is good at keeping us guessing, because he's not particularly sympathetic to Tony, and he won't offer him redemption, but, at the same time, he is not sanctimonious, and he will not necessarily feel bound to give Tony his comeuppance.


Tony is nothing if not selfish. He sees everything in terms of himself, and that's why paying the loan back seemed to him to be such a magnanimous gesture.

But his ability to instantly procure the cash also suggests that his purported money problems are illusory. I bet we don't hear about them again.


Tony's phone call to Hesh last week was a hook for this week's episode; this is the hook for next week. Bet AJ gets a major subplot. It looks like Chase is structuring this season to give each long-time cast member a final send-off, which is frustrating to fans who want to see a nine-hour mob war miniseries, or who are preoccupied with Tony's process of hurtling toward fate.

Well, he ponied up $18k out of his pocket, which he didn't have to do. I think in light of the episode's resolution, we can conclude that Tony could have paid to send the Spatafores to Maine. He didn't want to spend the money, but he sort of cared what happened to them, which is the duality of his nature.

Of course Phil didn't do anything for them. He was the one who was so outraged that his relative should be impugned by Vito's conduct that he had to kill Vito, and now he won't lift a finger to help them (though he will pay to hire Nancy Sinatra to perform for him). I think part of why Tony didn't pony up is that Phil didn't.

Of course, even though Tony chosethe camp because it was cheaper, it is also something he can rationalize. As far as he is concerned, he did right by them.

Carmela worked like a dog? I must have missed it. Just like Tony said, she poured a lot of money into building a defective house, and now she's hoping to sell it off to this family before the problems with it become evident. She is, in fact, a lousy businesswoman. Her desire to keep "her money" is kind of cynical, considering how freely she spends Tony's.

This is the angle I do expect to build up to the end of the series. I sure don't expect it to all come down to Phil Leotardo. Tony is either going to die in some kind of attack or he is going to spill on the terrorists to the Feds, which goes against the mob code of silence, and will end his career and possibly get him killed by his friends.