TV: The Sopranos Discussion Thread

[chicagoskycam]

The episode where they bug their home is a classic, the FBI’s family nicknames, watching Adriana playing Tennis with her underwear exposed, the coach hitting on Aid, Carm is getting the brunt of the coaching . I always loved the lead FBI agent. So much going on in that episode.

I’m surprised they never bugged Vesuvios.

 

[chicagoskycam]

Two things that were in almost every episode are Tony eating and his loud breathing. I'm not making fun of him but I've had several friends comment the same to me.

the breathing kind of pulled you in to the show, like you were right next to him

 

[FMichael]

Not sure if this was ever mentioned before, but the wardrobe folks did a great job...Tony and the crew looked sharp - be it at a dinner at Vesuvios, an appointment with Dr Melfie, or hanging out at the Bing.

 

[BruinDust]

The episode where they bug their home is a classic, the FBI’s family nicknames, watching Adriana playing Tennis with her underwear exposed, the coach hitting on Aid, Carm is getting the brunt of the coaching . I always loved the lead FBI agent. So much going on in that episode.

I’m surprised they never bugged Vesuvios.

I always wondered if they had originally intended for Season 3 to incorporate more of the FBI stuff and when Nancy Marchand passed away, they rewrote the season and took some of the FBI elements out. It was almost like the Lamp in the Basement got written out of the show. They spent a whole episode basically on getting the bugged lamp into the house, only for it to end up at Meadow's college dorm. Seemed like an awful lot of airtime for that outcome.

 

[John Price]

The bug episode was pretty hard to get through. I remember when I was watching I was stuck on that episode for some time. Although the FBI spying on Adriana was pretty hilarious

 

[tarheelhockey]

I always wondered if they had originally intended for Season 3 to incorporate more of the FBI stuff and when Nancy Marchand passed away, they rewrote the season and took some of the FBI elements out. It was almost like the Lamp in the Basement got written out of the show. They spent a whole episode basically on getting the bugged lamp into the house, only for it to end up at Meadow's college dorm. Seemed like an awful lot of airtime for that outcome.

I thought moving the lamp to Meadow's dorm was a funny twist. A bit like Game of Thrones where you get invested in a character only to see them get killed off with a kick from their horse or some real-life BS like that.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

I thought moving the lamp to Meadow's dorm was a funny twist. A bit like Game of Thrones where you get invested in a character only to see them get killed off with a kick from their horse or some real-life BS like that.

Point being was that their original intent, yeah its very GoT but not really Sopranos style

 

[tarheelhockey]

Point being was that their original intent, yeah its very GoT but not really Sopranos style

Nancy Marchand died well before Season 3 started filming, so if they changed the story arc that wasn't the reason. Considering it was only the focus of one episode, I don't think they had bigger plans for it. It was just a plot device to create intrigue with a funny twist at the end, that's all.

If anything, they provided a lot more resolution for the lamp than they did for a bunch of other major multi-episode arcs like Meadow's mentally disturbed roommate, or Melfi's rape which was just dropped as an issue.

The biggest disappointment with the lamp is that they didn't continue to use it for gag effect. It was all teed up that Meadow's relationships could have been revealed to the FBI before anyone else, which means the agents would have had all kinds of "keep a straight face" moments in their conversations with Tony. But the screen time was probably not worth wasting on that kind of sideline humor, considering how densely packed the scripting was already.

 

[John Price]

Nancy Marchand died well before Season 3 started filming, so if they changed the story arc that wasn't the reason. Considering it was only the focus of one episode, I don't think they had bigger plans for it. It was just a plot device to create intrigue with a funny twist at the end, that's all.

If anything, they provided a lot more resolution for the lamp than they did for a bunch of other major multi-episode arcs like Meadow's mentally disturbed roommate, or Melfi's rape which was just dropped as an issue.

The biggest disappointment with the lamp is that they didn't continue to use it for gag effect. It was all teed up that Meadow's relationships could have been revealed to the FBI before anyone else, which means the agents would have had all kinds of "keep a straight face" moments in their conversations with Tony. But the screen time was probably not worth wasting on that kind of sideline humor, considering how densely packed the scripting was already.

A lot of stuff went unresolved in the sopranos which makes it unintentionally hilarious

What happened to the Russian that Chris and Paulie were supposed to kill in the woods?

Why did Meadow break up with her boyfriend? In the later seasons meadow just returns home and the writers never explain why.

 

[tarheelhockey]

What happened to the Russian that Chris and Paulie were supposed to kill in the woods?

I was fully expecting this to come back up, right until the very end of the series. How tf you gonna set an invincible villain loose and just have him run away never to be seen again?

Actually, I just thought of something. Final episode, at the diner. It was the Russian at the door.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Nancy Marchand died well before Season 3 started filming, so if they changed the story arc that wasn't the reason. Considering it was only the focus of one episode, I don't think they had bigger plans for it. It was just a plot device to create intrigue with a funny twist at the end, that's all.

If anything, they provided a lot more resolution for the lamp than they did for a bunch of other major multi-episode arcs like Meadow's mentally disturbed roommate, or Melfi's rape which was just dropped as an issue.

The biggest disappointment with the lamp is that they didn't continue to use it for gag effect. It was all teed up that Meadow's relationships could have been revealed to the FBI before anyone else, which means the agents would have had all kinds of "keep a straight face" moments in their conversations with Tony. But the screen time was probably not worth wasting on that kind of sideline humor, considering how densely packed the scripting was already.

Meadows roommate wasnt really an arc, she didnt have screen time when Meadow or Noah weren't there. Her problems were just to cause problems for Meadow. Melfis rape wasnt dropped, it ended

What was the next thing the FBI did after the lamp was compromised?

 

[chicagoskycam]

A lot of stuff went unresolved in the sopranos which makes it unintentionally hilarious

What happened to the Russian that Chris and Paulie were supposed to kill in the woods?

Why did Meadow break up with her boyfriend? In the later seasons meadow just returns home and the writers never explain why.

Which boyfriend?

 

[chicagoskycam]

I always wondered if they had originally intended for Season 3 to incorporate more of the FBI stuff and when Nancy Marchand passed away, they rewrote the season and took some of the FBI elements out. It was almost like the Lamp in the Basement got written out of the show. They spent a whole episode basically on getting the bugged lamp into the house, only for it to end up at Meadow's college dorm. Seemed like an awful lot of airtime for that outcome.

I think it was more just to show what the FBI was attempting to do even though it didn't really pay dividends for them. The next step was to infiltrate through Aid and later trying to flip her, although the only thing they accomplish is getting her killed, and there really isn't any remorse about that.

 

[Primary Assist]

A lot of stuff went unresolved in the sopranos which makes it unintentionally hilarious

What happened to the Russian that Chris and Paulie were supposed to kill in the woods?

Why did Meadow break up with her boyfriend? In the later seasons meadow just returns home and the writers never explain why.

Russian - The fact that this is unresolved is a great subversion of Chekhov's (Russian name) Rifle. It SEEMS like this unstoppable killing force will be out there, looking for revenge against Christuphah and Walnuts. Instead we have no idea what happened to him, and he probably just froze to death or bled out in a little lean-to in the Pine Barrens. In real life we don't always get nicely packaged resolutions to our problems, and it's cool that a show like the Sopranos echoed that.

Boyfriend - I assume you mean Finn. He moves back to California to finish school, and I think we can interpret that he was just trying to GTFO away from Meadow and the mob. Between Vito coming on to him, Ton' flat out threatening him, and Meadow representing the most toxic relationship he'd probably ever had in his life, he was smart to put as much distance between them as possible. A big part of the show is to show the entitlement the mob guys all have - if they want something they just assume they can take it. Meadow wanted Finn, but he was his own person with his own motivations, so he fled when his only two options were to commit to a life with Meadow and all the henpecked perversion comes with it, or to go back home and live a normal life. Seems like a pretty simple choice to me.

 

[SuperScript29]

Which boyfriend?

Probably talking about Finn Detrolio, the dude that told them about Vito being gay. In the last season we see Meadow dating Patsy's son.

 

[Mickey Marner]

I read somewhere that David Chase said the Russian was found by some boy scouts, but suffered some sort of brain damage and was incapable of articulating what happened to him. Or something along those lines anyhow. They just never explored it in the show.

Pine Barrens has my favourite line in the show though about the Russian being an interior decorator.

 

[DaaaaB's]

The episode where they bug their home is a classic, the FBI’s family nicknames, watching Adriana playing Tennis with her underwear exposed, the coach hitting on Aid, Carm is getting the brunt of the coaching . I always loved the lead FBI agent. So much going on in that episode.

I’m surprised they never bugged Vesuvios.

And it had an excellent spy theme/Police mashup song playing throughout the bugging operation. I love the part when Tony spots Agent Harris and either flips or tells him off.

 

[chicagoskycam]

And it had an excellent spy theme/Police mashup song playing throughout the bugging operation. I love the part when Tony spots Agent Harris and either flips or tells him off.

Shit, they made me. I think he was flipping him off.

 

[Chaels Arms]

Remember that in the Pine Barrens episode when Tony and Bobby show up it's confirmed more than once that they pulled up in the same spot where Paulie and Chris left their car but the car is gone. I always took that as a hint that the Russian may have circled back and took the car out of there.

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

Pine Barrens is good, so is University "dad are you in the mafia" and the one where they kill big p***y

 

[Sticksandsun]

I haven't really been able to get on the Tony is dead train because who wanted him dead? Phil was killed. I think he ended up jailed after Carlo snitched.

 

[Legionnaire]

I haven't really been able to get on the Tony is dead train because who wanted him dead? Phil was killed. I think he ended up jailed after Carlo snitched.

Spoiler: Who Shot Him?

Did he survive Junior shooting him? Why the dream sequence with a whole different reality? The way I interpreted the final seasons was that he died and it was his journey between heaven and hell culminating in the final scene when he found heaven.

Christopher was him as a youth and he had to kill that part to be free.

 

[Primary Assist]

Spoiler: Who Shot Him?

Did he survive Junior shooting him? Why the dream sequence with a whole different reality? The way I interpreted the final seasons was that he died and it was his journey between heaven and hell culminating in the final scene when he found heaven.

Christopher was him as a youth and he had to kill that part to be free.

I vehemently disagree but applaud the creativity of this interpretation

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

Spoiler: Who Shot Him?

Did he survive Junior shooting him? Why the dream sequence with a whole different reality? The way I interpreted the final seasons was that he died and it was his journey between heaven and hell culminating in the final scene when he found heaven.

Christopher was him as a youth and he had to kill that part to be free.

I haven't done enough DMT to come up with something like this

 

[Legionnaire]

I haven't done enough DMT to come up with something like this

Hehe. Neither have I. I just got tired of the debates of the final ending so I came up with something different.

I'll fully admit that it's likely not the case but just something else to consider.