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mcmagic
Jul 1, 2004

If you see this avatar while scrolling the succ zone, you have been visited by the mcmagic of shitty lib takes! Good luck and prosperity will come to you, but only if you reply "shut the fuck up mcmagic" to this post!
LOL @ AJ wanting to be Trump's personal pilot. Just loving perfect.

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potee
Jul 23, 2007

Or, you know.

Not fine.

mcmagic posted:

LOL @ AJ wanting to be Trump's personal pilot. Just loving perfect.

https://twitter.com/sopranosnocnxt/status/1092971425323831296

Mokelumne Trekka
Nov 22, 2015

Soon.

"In Camelot" has one of my favorite closings to an episode. Tony telling made-up stories about his dad's mistress while his crew act very impressed, the strip club, the cigar smoke, the dark and depressing lighting. Of course, the music, too. Did not realize until recently it was Sessions by Linkin Park. Everyone looks awful in that scene.

That whole episode has a nightmarish quality (the 'Happy Birthday' scene for example).

I'm noticing that Season 5 is meaner and darker in general.

Barry Foster
Dec 24, 2007

What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)
It's funny when you go back to season one for a rewatch and the show is almost cartoonishly light in comparison.

Is this your first watch through? Not really a spoiler, but it's only getting meaner from here on

uber_stoat
Jan 21, 2001



Pillbug

Barry Foster posted:

It's funny when you go back to season one for a rewatch and the show is almost cartoonishly light in comparison.

Is this your first watch through? Not really a spoiler, but it's only getting meaner from here on

University hoo boy.

Mokelumne Trekka
Nov 22, 2015

Soon.

Barry Foster posted:

It's funny when you go back to season one for a rewatch and the show is almost cartoonishly light in comparison.

Is this your first watch through? Not really a spoiler, but it's only getting meaner from here on

This is my first re-watch after ten years or so. Yes, I do recall S6 being the point where I actively rooted for many of the main characters to finally get whacked

JethroMcB
Jan 23, 2004

We're normal now.
We love your family.

Mokelumne Trekka posted:

I'm noticing that Season 5 is meaner and darker in general.

That turn, to me, feels like David Chase was really, really trying to make it clear to certain sections of the audience "Don't root for these people, dumb-dumbs." A battle he still lost.

mcmagic
Jul 1, 2004

If you see this avatar while scrolling the succ zone, you have been visited by the mcmagic of shitty lib takes! Good luck and prosperity will come to you, but only if you reply "shut the fuck up mcmagic" to this post!

Barry Foster posted:

It's funny when you go back to season one for a rewatch and the show is almost cartoonishly light in comparison.

Is this your first watch through? Not really a spoiler, but it's only getting meaner from here on

A friend of mine says that Season 1 of the Sopranos is like a USA show. It's so light compared to the rest of the show.

Dawgstar
Jul 15, 2017

JethroMcB posted:

That turn, to me, feels like David Chase was really, really trying to make it clear to certain sections of the audience "Don't root for these people, dumb-dumbs." A battle he still lost.

But Tony is one of those alpha male captain of industry types!

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

This is a good example of something common in the show, that its almost a live action Chiaroscuro. The lighting is sooo dark, with really well done edge lighting so you can still see the characters but they all have extremely dramatic light gradients across their faces, and everything just fades into this inky black.

I guess The Godfather basically did the same thing first so they're just riffing on that style for the dark seedy crime of the setting, but that poo poo can't be easy to pull off.

You compare this to any other police procedural interrogation and its all different lights.

Like compare that scene to this scene from Law & Order, which is also trying to go for the "dark" lighting look but doesn't achieve nearly as much dramatic lighting on the characters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gdPXGTOM7U

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

Mokelumne Trekka posted:


I'm noticing that Season 5 is meaner and darker in general.

It's pretty much just the wheels coming off everything. No one really has their poo poo together and hardly anyone anyone makes it to retirement in the mob life. The central theme of the show to me is that mental health and being a gangster simply can't coincide (Melfi realizes this) so everything just culminates into a complete poo poo show and even trickles down (AJ's suicidal depression, Chris' drug problems, Phil's anger problems, Vito's murder, etc.)

No one gets a happy ending except maybe Carmine.

He was the hair apparent.

BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Apr 19, 2021

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


JethroMcB posted:

That turn, to me, feels like David Chase was really, really trying to make it clear to certain sections of the audience "Don't root for these people, dumb-dumbs." A battle he still lost.




(i havent watched this video, it just showed up in my algorithm because of all the sopranos clips i watch, presumably, but i'm gonna take a big swing and guess it misses the point)

Jose Oquendo
Jun 20, 2004

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a boring movie
I played the Sopranos pinball table over the weekend. It's an OK table, but it does have an animatronic fish so that definitely makes it worth checking out.

uber_stoat
Jan 21, 2001



Pillbug

BiggerBoat posted:

He was the hair apparent.

https://twitter.com/SopranosWorld/status/1384270098576265220?s=20

Jose Oquendo posted:

I played the Sopranos pinball table over the weekend. It's an OK table, but it does have an animatronic fish so that definitely makes it worth checking out.

i'll never get tired of watching Tony being driven into a rage by the Bigmouth Billy Bass.

Barry Foster
Dec 24, 2007

What is going wrong with that one (face is longer than it should be)
Nor Chrissy and Paulie laughing like Beavis and Butthead at it

Ainsley McTree
Feb 19, 2004


Barry Foster posted:

Nor Chrissy and Paulie laughing like Beavis and Butthead at it

I love that scene so much. Chris was literally ready to shoot Paulie in the head, and then 5 seconds later they’re losing it to a singing fish

Pope Corky the IX
Dec 18, 2006


🎵 I'm blue
Yeah I'm a blue Shrek, guy
Step a foot in my swamp
And you're gonna die 🎵
The amount of mileage the show got out of that loving singing fish is amazing.

Dawgstar
Jul 15, 2017

Anyway, four dollars a pound.

Pope Corky the IX
Dec 18, 2006


🎵 I'm blue
Yeah I'm a blue Shrek, guy
Step a foot in my swamp
And you're gonna die 🎵
What's incredible is that the Pussy dream fish was filmed before the Big Mouth Billy Bass came out.

Ginette Reno
Nov 18, 2006

How Doers get more done
Fun Shoe
Always weirds me out how Imperioli is only 5 years younger than Gandolfini was. He really pulls off being a young jackass well but he would have been 33 when the show started versus Gandoflini's 38. I don't know how old Chris is supposed to be when the show starts but he comes off as being early 20s at best with the way he's written.

JethroMcB
Jan 23, 2004

We're normal now.
We love your family.

Ginette Reno posted:

Always weirds me out how Imperioli is only 5 years younger than Gandolfini was. He really pulls off being a young jackass well but he would have been 33 when the show started versus Gandoflini's 38. I don't know how old Chris is supposed to be when the show starts but he comes off as being early 20s at best with the way he's written.

Chris was 28-29 at the start of the series; the age gap between Chris and Tony was about a decade.

Vichan
Oct 1, 2014

I'LL PUNISH YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR CRIME

JethroMcB posted:

Chris was 28-29 at the start of the series; the age gap between Chris and Tony was about a decade.

He mentions at one point that he wanted to hang out with 18-19 year old Tony B/S while he was 11.

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

Pope Corky the IX posted:

The amount of mileage the show got out of that loving singing fish is amazing.

I feel loving stupid because I was listening to the No loving Ziti podcast and always forget the fish/Big Pussy connection from Funhouse to the god damned Billy Bass and why it irks Tony so much. I know I know. It's one of the most obvious pieces of symbolism in the entire show and my dumb rear end just glosses over it.

They're also going over how polarizing the dream sequences are in this show and I must be alone in absolutely loving all of them. Even The Test Dream. They FEEL like dreams and most of the time dream scenes in films are just shot as regular scenes only with a big jump scare or something. Chase makes them seem realistic and often expertly weaves in those "half asleep" ones that we've all had.

People who dislike them seem to complain that they stall the plot but, to me, they accentuate it and ARE the plot. Funhouse in particular is totally on point describing Tony's issues to the point of being blatant ("Pussy on the brain"). I can't think of a dream scene I didn't like or that seemed hokey or forced.

Edit

I still listen to Talkin Sopranos and it's weird to me how much Michale Imperiolli believes in UFO's, holistic poo poo, ghosts and all sorts of weird YouTube poo poo. I bet he's fun to talk to and hang out with.

BiggerBoat fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Apr 21, 2021

Gaius Marius
Oct 9, 2012

The test dream is the best episode of the show. Or it would be if the coma episodes didn't exist.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

The Sopranos does dreams better than almost any other show I can think of. They capture dream logic perfectly and almost perfectly emulate the actual experience/"feel" of a dream. I think the only one I didn't really like was the early Christopher dream where he's in Satriale's being haunted by Emil, it just felt like it was trying a little too hard.

codo27
Apr 21, 2008

BiggerBoat posted:

I still listen to Talkin Sopranos and it's weird to me how much Michale Imperiolli believes in UFO's, holistic poo poo, ghosts and all sorts of weird YouTube poo poo. I bet he's fun to talk to and hang out with.

Half of it I think is just baiting Steve but he definitely is a lot more spiritual than I am

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

codo27 posted:

Half of it I think is just baiting Steve but he definitely is a lot more spiritual than I am

I don't think so. He seems legit into some of that poo poo and offers a lot of it up as a simple matter of fact. "spiritual" doesn't seem to have much to do with it, listening to him. He's always like "look it up" and refuses to tell Steve about his seance experience or whatever it was because it was "too personal".

It doesn't come off to me like he's loving with him and Scharripa's whole just having none of it seems to me that if Mike was loving with him, he'd push it and get even more weird with it.

Matt Zerella
Oct 7, 2002

Norris'es are back baby. It's good again. Awoouu (fox Howl)

codo27 posted:

Half of it I think is just baiting Steve but he definitely is a lot more spiritual than I am

And that's not possible, even with computahs.

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

Best part of the conspiracy/cryptid stuff Imperioli will suddenly bring up though is that it leads into wonderfully bizarre tangents like,"You know they got Napoleon's dick in a jar?"

uber_stoat
Jan 21, 2001



Pillbug
i want to have a conversation with him in character as Chrissy about the Mothman.

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.
Then we get weird poo poo from Steve's end where he talks about "common knowledge that you can look up" about Milton Berle's giant cock or some such poo poo and Mike seems utterly bewildered.

I think the podcast got off to rough start but seems to have found a groove and I really like the guests they bring on.

Dawgstar
Jul 15, 2017

uber_stoat posted:

i want to have a conversation with him in character as Chrissy about the Mothman.

Adrianna: "So he's like Batman? He beats up criminals and stuff?"
Chrissy: "NO! Not like fuckin' Batman! He's like a winged harbing,.. har... whaddyacallit... magic 8-ball that flies up and tells you your bridge is gonna collapse."

Dawgstar fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Apr 21, 2021

Jerusalem
May 20, 2004

Would you be my new best friends?

Dawgstar posted:

Adrianna: "So he's like Batman? He beats up criminals and stuff?"
Chrissy: "NO! Not like fuckin' Batman! He's like a winged... whaddyacallit... magic 8-ball that flies up and tells you your bridge is gonna collapse."

Paulie: There ain't no loving Mothman, if there was he'd be bumping into lights all the loving time, there'd be loving freaks laid out on the ground each morning, they'd be sweeping 'em up off the street! Get the gently caress out of here!
that night Paulie stares unsettled up at a streetlight as moths congregate around it, getting startled by a nearby sound

Snark
Sep 19, 2003

no dice

BiggerBoat posted:

They're also going over how polarizing the dream sequences are in this show and I must be alone in absolutely loving all of them. Even The Test Dream. They FEEL like dreams and most of the time dream scenes in films are just shot as regular scenes only with a big jump scare or something. Chase makes them seem realistic and often expertly weaves in those "half asleep" ones that we've all had.

People who dislike them seem to complain that they stall the plot but, to me, they accentuate it and ARE the plot. Funhouse in particular is totally on point describing Tony's issues to the point of being blatant ("Pussy on the brain"). I can't think of a dream scene I didn't like or that seemed hokey or forced.
IIRC, some of the writing staff actually had issues with how often they leaned on dreams in later seasons.

Most dreams were solid I think. Especially the shorter, earlier ones. The feverish nonsense of Tony setting himself on fire in Asbury Park, or the pure anxiety of Tony fumbling for bullets as they disintegrate in his hand. The dream where Tony is an immigrant stone mason is legit unsettling. The coma dream had its moments but it dragged out too long, and wound up spoon-feeding its symbolism. I liked that we got two episodes of how his crew deals with the uncertainty - Paulie's resentment, Sil's incompetence, Vito's pathetic scheming, but I got tired of the show hitting me over the head with Tony struggling with his lost identity (card).

Pope Corky the IX
Dec 18, 2006


🎵 I'm blue
Yeah I'm a blue Shrek, guy
Step a foot in my swamp
And you're gonna die 🎵

Snark posted:

IIRC, some of the writing staff actually had issues with how often they leaned on dreams in later seasons.

Robin Green and Mitchell Burress were the married writing team (and executive producers) that had been around since the beginning and they didn’t like the dream sequences to the point that they left after the coma dream episodes. The last episode they worked on was “Live Free or Die” and then they made Blue Bloods like a year or two later.

uber_stoat
Jan 21, 2001



Pillbug
the Dreams did give us some solid memes.



i legit did not know that Silvio was in the E-street band until i had already watched the show once and was reading a bunch of supplementary material.

codo27
Apr 21, 2008

Kinda like me growing up not thinking anything of Jerry Reed in Smoky & the Bandit until I started playing guitar

Pope Corky the IX
Dec 18, 2006


🎵 I'm blue
Yeah I'm a blue Shrek, guy
Step a foot in my swamp
And you're gonna die 🎵

uber_stoat posted:

the Dreams did give us some solid memes.



i legit did not know that Silvio was in the E-street band until i had already watched the show once and was reading a bunch of supplementary material.

The character of Silvio was written specifically for Little Steven when Chase saw his performance inducting someone into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I forget who.

potee
Jul 23, 2007

Or, you know.

Not fine.
https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1384899383100121089

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BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

uber_stoat posted:

the Dreams did give us some solid memes.



i legit did not know that Silvio was in the E-street band until i had already watched the show once and was reading a bunch of supplementary material.

That's so wild to me because him being Springsteen's guitar player was ALL I knew him from. And I don't even like Springsteen.

Pope Corky the IX posted:

The character of Silvio was written specifically for Little Steven when Chase saw his performance inducting someone into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I forget who.

I thought I read that he was considered for Tony?

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