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Jose posted:the terrible diet + constant smoking seems reason enough It was all the charcoaled meat you people ate. No one told us Til the 80's!
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Nov 26, 2015 19:45
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goodog posted:Gangsters mentally prepare themselves for the idea of a sudden, violent death. The idea that you could slowly wither away and die and be unable to stop it is very unnerving for a culture that romanticises themselves as soldiers. It's something that's also brought up on The Wire. It's especially relevant for an organisation that is mostly middle-aged or older. That seemed to be one of the biggest points of Junior's arc. He was an old man at the start of season 1, but still alert enough and commanded enough authority to be a major player until his trial, then you just saw the mental decay and confusion set in and by the end he was a broken old man in a public institution who had no idea who he was.
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Nov 27, 2015 01:15
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Tony's slow realisation and reaction to AJ trying to kill himself is some of the best acting out there. That whole scene/episode is incredible. The transition between screaming 'what did you do?' and 'what's wrong with you?' to holding him and calling him his baby is glorious. The episode also features the only bit of violence in the whole show (other than significant character deaths) that made me cringe from the screen. How anyone could survive being curb stomped off a two foot high counter is beyond me.
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Nov 28, 2015 10:36
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That's probably my favorite scene in the series (the curb stomping)
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Nov 28, 2015 15:58
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And I still laughed when Tony had to get the tooth out of his trouser leg without AJ's therapist seeing.
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Nov 28, 2015 19:44
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crispix posted:And I still laughed when Tony had to get the tooth out of his trouser leg without AJ's therapist seeing. The casual "Get a mop" from the wait staff was great too.
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Nov 28, 2015 20:44
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Steve2911 posted:Tony's slow realisation and reaction to AJ trying to kill himself is some of the best acting out there. That whole scene/episode is incredible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnxN64XaH1c 4 RING SHRIMP posted:That's probably my favorite scene in the series (the curb stomping) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeJdVwyTFfc
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Nov 28, 2015 21:50
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There were just so many good scenes. I was hooked right from the beginning. "We had coffee" and I was in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS_STpMmC2Q Mr. Nice! fucked around with this message at 21:56 on Nov 28, 2015 |
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Nov 28, 2015 21:52
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Mr. Nice! posted:There were just so many good scenes. I was hooked right from the beginning. "We had coffee" and I was in. It's crazy how different the pilot (and first series in general, but especially the pilot) was shot and edited to the rest of the series. It's so much more on the nose and similar to other TV of the time.
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Nov 28, 2015 22:50
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Steve2911 posted:It's crazy how different the pilot (and first series in general, but especially the pilot) was shot and edited to the rest of the series. It's so much more on the nose and similar to other TV of the time. Having recently rewatched it you forgot how old the episode is. In once scene you can see "President Clinton" in the headline of the paper Tony picks up off the driveway.
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Nov 28, 2015 23:19
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Also sorry those embeds didn't work loving poo poo is irritating.
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Nov 28, 2015 23:37
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Steve2911 posted:Tony's slow realisation and reaction to AJ trying to kill himself is some of the best acting out there. That whole scene/episode is incredible. Even better was Tony going from casual chill "hey family time" to "tell me exactly what he said" in a tone that Meadow knew meant some serious violence was gonna go down. James Gandolfini was a master from going from normal run of the mill guy to truly sociopath with just a minor change of expression and a tone. The only other actor I've seen go from normal to terrifying so easily was Marlo from The Wire, and with Marlo it was literally no change in the face at all but a level of threat and violence in his tone that I don't think anyone else could ever pull off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0K-tfJLiFE That guy could give a masterclass in "eye-acting" if that's a thing. pentyne fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Nov 29, 2015 |
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Nov 29, 2015 04:54
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I had always meant to watch this show, and just got around to plowing through it in the last month. It's easily the best tv series I've seen, so here are my assorted thoughts. As someone who has spent many years working in the casino business, I really liked some of the gambling scenes. The first one that comes to mind is Sil playing poker where he flips on Matt and Sean for trying to sweep some crumbs up while he's in a hand. That was actually one of my favorite episodes because it also started the story with the Ramsey Sports Store guy that I found fascinating. The other great gambling scene was when Paulie's mom/aunt was playing blackjack with the other ladies at the nursing home and she innocently "took a bad hit" and one of the other old hags flipped out on her (that one hit real close to home). I wish I could find that scene on youtube to share with some of my old casino buddies... The Vito story was pretty heartbreaking. It's a bit slow at times, but I really felt for his character who was so institutionalized and trying to break out. And at that point in the series, you knew there was no chance of a happy ending. I was really sad to find out Nancy Marchand died during the series. I thought the episode where they wrote her off felt a bit rushed, and Livia was by far the most interesting character on a show full of awesome characters. There was so much intrigue with her, both in the present and past. I wasn't very into Christopher early on, but once it became obvious he had a drug problem, he was one of my favorite parts of the show. The story arcs with his intervention and Adrianna being turned into an informant were both great. He also had the most surprising death. Watching AJ and Meadow grow up was really cool. They were obviously the most relatable characters on the show and after all their ups and downs, they ended in about as happy a spot as any character on this show could. Carmela was a very interesting character too. She nailed the FYGM conservative type, and the way she was able to turn her brain off to cope with everything going on around her was equally fascinating and infuriating. Tony was a complete loving pyschopath, but at least he would own up to it occasionally or have a panic attack. Carmela was a non-stop mess of first world problems and zero self-awareness. The episode where the psychiatrist beats her over the head with this idea, then she's just like "nah a confessional is good enough" was probably the most angry I got watching the show. Unfortunately, I couldn't appreciate the ending in real time. Since it was such a pop culture thing at the time, I had already seen it. I'm in the camp of "Nothing bad happens to Tony right then, but it will eventually." He said throughout the series he was either gonna end up in jail or killed, and the fact that Carlo flipped and the fallout from the war with Phil seemed to increase the odds of one of those things happening in the not-too-distant future for Tony. As far as funny moments go, my favorites... The aforementioned gambling scenes. Pretty much all of Pine Barrens Paulie at Chris' intervention of course. Phil and Tony discussing Vito Jr's delinquency... Phil: The turd doesn't fall far from the human being's rear end Tony: ... "Beautifully put..." I don't know if this was supposed to be funny, but the pronunciation of "whore" got me every time. "Who-er" Ralphie did it the best. Semi-related, being from the midwest, I get a kick out of all the New-York-Italian slang I can add to my vocabulary. "Guma" "Stunad" and other stuff I can't spell.
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Dec 2, 2015 10:17
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Argh now I want to watch the whole thing again. It's barely been a year. Is the gambling episode you're talking about The Happy Wanderer? That's probably the best from season 2 and also a go-to episode for me to try and get people into the show.
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Dec 2, 2015 10:42
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Blind Pineapple posted:
I was always surprised by how readily the mob characters would risk their money when a light envelope was the difference between being favored and risking a beat down. The casual expensive tastes was one thing, but Tony and co constantly losing money gambling was one of the biggest "this lifestyle has no long term financial outcome"
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Dec 2, 2015 10:44
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Blind Pineapple posted:Watching AJ and Meadow grow up was really cool. They were obviously the most relatable characters on the show what the But otherwise, yeah you pretty much nailed a lot of the best bits in the whole show. Pine Barrens is some of the best writing and direction ever on TV
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Dec 2, 2015 13:47
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Blind Pineapple posted:Watching AJ and Meadow grow up was really cool. They were obviously the most relatable characters on the show and after all their ups and downs, they ended in about as happy a spot as any character on this show could. She starts off all good intentions, but she ends up far too accepting of how her lifestyle is funded and has gone all in by the end of the show. She goes out of her way to defend Mafia culture, and her motivation to become a high flying lawyer is the perceived injustice and discrimination her daddy, the mob boss, receives. Basically, gently caress you Meadow. I wouldn't have shed tears if in the end they all died in that restaurant, graphically.
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Dec 2, 2015 14:03
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And she's bad at parking too. So there's that as well. I always figured Finn left because he wizened up about the whole situation and got the hell out of it....plus, you know, getting engaged because she happened to be taking a psych course and argued her way into it.
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Dec 2, 2015 14:38
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Escobarbarian posted:Argh now I want to watch the whole thing again. It's barely been a year. Yes. The way Tony was so casual about wrecking Scatino's life by the end of the season was chilling. As far as the kids go, I thought they were sympathetic in the sense that they wanted to just be normal people but were too close to a toxic situation. Meadow usually seemed like she had good intentions, but couldn't have a normal life because everyone was always second-guessing her motives. If she had any fault, it was that she couldn't pull the trigger and sever with her manipulative parents. Her decision to go into law struck me as a compromise between the love of her parents and her desire for social justice more than an outright endorsement of the lifestyle (she cited Tony's run-ins with the law, but also noted how if it was that tough for them it must be much harder for people with no connections), but dating the son of another mobster doesn't paint her in a favorable light I'll admit. AJ was a constant stream of teen angst and bad college-age decisions, but he seemed mostly harmless. He was complicit in burning that kid's foot with acid and beating up the Somali kid, but his subsequent mental breakdown showed he had a conscience, unlike his dad. I guess it may have been an oversight to say they were "obviously the most relatable" (although I did find them sympathetic overall), when Dr. Melfi is right there though. As the viewer, we still know Tony is an unrepentant piece of poo poo outside of therapy, but Melfi coming to the realization that she had been worked after several years and finally telling him to gently caress off was not the ending to that arc I expected at the start of the show. It was good to see at least one person escape Tony's gravitational pull.
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Dec 2, 2015 20:08
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pentyne posted:I was always surprised by how readily the mob characters would risk their money when a light envelope was the difference between being favored and risking a beat down. The casual expensive tastes was one thing, but Tony and co constantly losing money gambling was one of the biggest "this lifestyle has no long term financial outcome" I am pretty sure Henry Hill talks about this in the book Goodfellas. That they would loose the money but then just go and get more. The beat downs happen to other people, as they are above them.
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Dec 2, 2015 22:00
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I feel like one of the more interesting decisions about the show was to portray the mob lifestyle as unglamorous and mundane. Bosses like Tony and Johnny Sack, for all the horrific things they do to maintain their lifestyle, they are still fundamentally, at best, upper middle class. They aren't much better off than well to do white collar workers like lawyers and doctors who are their neighbors and generally don't want much to do with them. And the rest of the guys, all the capos and soldiers, they live extremely middle class and blue collar lifestyles. Yea, they go out and get paid, but are so selfish and shortsighted they never make good use of their earnings and just get in their own way.
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Dec 2, 2015 22:29
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hi liter posted:I feel like one of the more interesting decisions about the show was to portray the mob lifestyle as unglamorous and mundane. Bosses like Tony and Johnny Sack, for all the horrific things they do to maintain their lifestyle, they are still fundamentally, at best, upper middle class. They aren't much better off than well to do white collar workers like lawyers and doctors who are their neighbors and generally don't want much to do with them. And the rest of the guys, all the capos and soldiers, they live extremely middle class and blue collar lifestyles. The episode with AJ's first real girlfriend whose dad was some upper echelon finance sector guy really hammered this point home. He always thought his family was on top of the world, then goes over to her dad's castle and realizes he ain't poo poo. Also, random funny moment I remembered: The Monopoly fight! Janice: I got second place in a beauty contest, collect $10... Tony: Yeah, a german shepard's shaved rear end in a top hat got first.
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Dec 2, 2015 23:48
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They were really good at giving Meadow obnoxious college girl dialogue -- "even in their reductionism!", "modes of conflict resolution dating back to the mezzogiorno".
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Dec 3, 2015 00:06
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KICK BAMA KICK posted:They were really good at giving Meadow obnoxious college girl dialogue A lot of people were unfuriated by it, but it is part of the reason I loved the episode where she and her boyfriend argue about him packing his suitcase. It was such perfect college kid "we're adults and communicating!" dialogue, especially at the end when after all their attempts to be mature and open about examining their situation they just resort to,"LET'S GET MARRIED YAY!  "
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Dec 3, 2015 00:13
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KICK BAMA KICK posted:They were really good at giving Meadow obnoxious college girl dialogue -- "even in their reductionism!", "modes of conflict resolution dating back to the mezzogiorno". "What was that last nights reading assignment?" Carmellas burns were the best
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Dec 3, 2015 00:17
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Jerusalem posted:A lot of people were unfuriated by it, but it is part of the reason I loved the episode where she and her boyfriend argue about him packing his suitcase. It was such perfect college kid "we're adults and communicating!" dialogue, especially at the end when after all their attempts to be mature and open about examining their situation they just resort to,"LET'S GET MARRIED YAY! Also because Finn knew he couldn't just outright say "YOUR FATHER IS A MOB BOSS!" and Meadow although being aware of it absolutely refused to admit that it was terrifying to Finn.
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Dec 3, 2015 00:24
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pentyne posted:Also because Finn knew he couldn't just outright say "YOUR FATHER IS A MOB BOSS!" and Meadow although being aware of it absolutely refused to admit that it was terrifying to Finn. That reminds me of the writer character (the one who Christopher would offer genuine addict advice too even while beating him up/taking his stuff for debt repayments!) who is one of the few people who just straight up says to a main character,"You are in the Mafia." Meadow asks Tony about it early in the show, and non-mob side-characters talk to each other about it regularly, but I remember very few instances of any "outsider" just straight up looking a mob guy in the face and telling them,"You are in the goddamn Mafia."
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Dec 3, 2015 00:28
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Jerusalem posted:That reminds me of the writer character (the one who Christopher would offer genuine addict advice too even while beating him up/taking his stuff for debt repayments!) who is one of the few people who just straight up says to a main character,"You are in the Mafia." Yeah but didn't that conversation lead to his death?
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Dec 3, 2015 00:31
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bobkatt013 posted:Yeah but didn't that conversation lead to his death? Yeah, that's basically the point I was (obviously badly) making - the mob guys enjoy the "prestige" that comes with their position but they also try to act like it's all still a big secret and feel like they can pick and choose when that impacts on their relationships with other people. Most people are too scared to call them on it, while the mob guys are get irritated at people who dance around the subject for not being straight-shooters.... but then when someone finally does, they immediately get killed, like they've caused some kind of offense or threatened some "secret" that needs keeping. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Dec 3, 2015 |
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Dec 3, 2015 00:41
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There is no Mafia!
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Dec 3, 2015 00:43
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They did a really good job making the kids annoying in that realistic way that most teenagers are annoying.
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Dec 3, 2015 01:19
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hi liter posted:I feel like one of the more interesting decisions about the show was to portray the mob lifestyle as unglamorous and mundane. Bosses like Tony and Johnny Sack, for all the horrific things they do to maintain their lifestyle, they are still fundamentally, at best, upper middle class. They aren't much better off than well to do white collar workers like lawyers and doctors who are their neighbors and generally don't want much to do with them. And the rest of the guys, all the capos and soldiers, they live extremely middle class and blue collar lifestyles. It's like the fuckin' regularness of life is too hard for me or something, I dunno
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Dec 3, 2015 06:03
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I was always under the assumption that both Tony and Johnny Sack cleared 7 figures although not much more than that. They were at least making mid to high six.
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Dec 3, 2015 06:14
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Chromatic posted:I was always under the assumption that both Tony and Johnny Sack cleared 7 figures although not much more than that. They were at least making mid to high six. They were making a lot but they were spending a hell of a lot too, and a great deal of their money had to go undeclared and couldn't be put into banks or invested... or at least not in their own names. Even taking into account the laundering they were doing, you don't get a 1:1 return on that. There's a late season episode where Hesh discusses with his girlfriend (was she his wife?) how much he thinks Tony is worth/can get his hands on, and it's a surprisingly low amount. Then you've got guys like Junior and Johnny Sack who eat up a large amount of their money paying lawyers to try and keep them out of jail.
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Dec 3, 2015 06:26
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How much cash fits in those bird feeders?
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Dec 3, 2015 06:29
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Tao Jones posted:How much cash fits in those bird feeders? Oh you'd be surprised, every time Tony thought it was full he would come back and find out there was somehow space again to add more!
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Dec 3, 2015 06:31
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In the show they say Johnny sack is worth 5 million
Amy Pole Her fucked around with this message at 07:56 on Dec 3, 2015 |
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Dec 3, 2015 07:54
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AAA DOLFAN posted:In the show they say Johnny sack is worth 5 million Sack was the underboss of a Big 5. Everyone in New Jersey despite being a 'family' were on a completely inferior level. Just look at Silvio versus Sack, same position more or less but Silvio is a strip club owner who has to keep his dancers in debt slavery and Sack has a million dollar house and six $ figure cars.
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Dec 3, 2015 11:28
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AAA DOLFAN posted:In the show they say Johnny sack is worth 5 million $5m + a £90 mole
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Dec 3, 2015 14:59
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pentyne posted:Sack was the underboss of a Big 5. Everyone in New Jersey despite being a 'family' were on a completely inferior level. Just look at Silvio versus Sack, same position more or less but Silvio is a strip club owner who has to keep his dancers in debt slavery and Sack has a million dollar house and six $ figure cars. Yeah, but I figure an underboss in NY has to be same level as Tony who is the family boss. When you figure out the numbers, with Tony's house being worth just under 4 million (stated in show) and his other purchases (the sportfish boat, the beach house in jersey) you'd infer he's probably cash poor but clearly is worth a few million
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Dec 3, 2015 16:21
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