The Sopranos 4/8.... spoilers?

Re: T-minus 10 days to The Sopranos

Here are a few spoilers, early episodes and final episode, that might disappoint some of you who are looking for a lot of bloodshed.

The first two episodes were previewed for critics this week. From today's NY Daily News:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2007/03/28/2007-03-28_mob_rules.html


The final scenes of the final episode were shot two weeks or so ago at this little ice cream parlor in Bloomfield, NJ



The shoot began in the late afternoon and they were still there at 2 the next morning.
Among those spotted in Bloomfield that day were Tony, Carm, Silvio, Paulie, Chrissie, AJ, and Phil Leotardo.
Decide for yourself what any of this means.

Hey, maybe they were just eating ice cream and cakes all night as part of the wrap party.

 

Re: T-minus 10 days to The Sopranos

The Russian isn't coming back. Terence Winter, who wrote the episode "Pine Barrens", as well as David Chase, have both stated that they hate the soap opera stupidity of a character coming back in the last scene when everyone thinks he's dead. The said they think it's completely bizarre that people are so fascinated by one minor character who appeared in one (I'd argue overrated) episode. Last season they had Paulie and Chris argue about it briefly in the Bada Bing just to mess with fans. If the Russian were to come back and play a major role this season, I would quit watching. I'm dead serious. It would be a stupid TV cliche and Chase has always been better than that. No way.

I still say that people expecting blood shed, or some bow-tie resolution to the whole series, are going to be furious when it's all over. It's a mob show that's, at is core, an art house film. If you're hoping for a Mexican standoff, be prepared for a much more ambiguous ending where we don't even know what happens to Tony. I will be up to you do decide what you think happens next, and your interpretation will be based on the reasons you watched the show. If you watched it for the dick jokes and the bloodshed, you'll see it one way. If you watched it for the film making and meditations on the deterioration of the American dream and evisceration of the myth of American idyllic family life, you'll see it another way.

 

Re: T-minus 9 days to The Sopranos

A year has elapsed, I read in Esquire.

 

Re: T-minus 9 days to The Sopranos

As opposed to how stupid it is for there to be a major blood trail in the snow.... and then nothing.

Or as opposed to a car, out in the middle of nowhere, being heisted.

The whole episode was built on ridiculous, barely believable circumstance.

 

Re: T-minus 9 days to The Sopranos

Which is part of the reason why it's a completely overrated episode, and why the people who adore it so much are not the kind of people who watch the Sopranos for the same reasons that I do. Give me "Whitecaps" or "Unidentified Black Males" or "College" or "Long Term Parking" or even "Test Dream" (that's right, I said it) before "Pine Barrens."

 

Re: T-minus 9 days to The Sopranos

The myth of American idyllic family life had its guts poured out many, many years ago.

The flies have come and gone on that one.

If you think that the Russian, with his pedigree, couldn't and wouldn't plot revenge on these fucks, I disagree.

And for these guys (and, it sounds, you too, dd) to insult the audience that way, when they are having Lauren Bacall get attacked in Hollywood... or Moltisanti shooting a pastry shop worker in the foot to pull off the (I thought it was one of the best moments in the series) Goodfellas/Spider homage.... is patently ridiculous.

Finally, I bring you back to season 1. The college trip.

How do you, and the arrogant asshole Chase, reconcile Tony finding Mr. Wood Carver in Maine and whacking him if such occurrence is soap opera stupidity? That was a mind-numbing coinkidink.

The episode from season three loses a lot without that resolution.

The Melfi attacker not being dealt with? That's one thing.

This is much different.

Finally, there are dick jokes on The Sopranos?

 

Re: T-minus 9 days to The Sopranos

ok, i should know this since i've seen every episode but who is the russian? when did he appear? what happened to him?

 

Re: T-minus 9 days to The Sopranos

Amen. Pine Barrens was a good episode, excellent in spots (not the part in the snow with the three). But it is not a classic episode like the ones that you listed.

 

Re: T-minus 9 days to The Sopranos

It was in season 2 or 3. Paulie and Christopher were sent to collect from him. He put up a hell of a fight. So they threw him in the trunk of a car and drove him out to the Pine Barrens to be executed, with Tony's permission. However Tony found out the guy is a former KGB agent who worked for the Ministry of the Interior (or something like that) and told Paulie that over a bad cellphone connection, leading Paulie to utter the famous line to Christopher "I think he said the guy used to be an interior decorator".
So when they're in the "Pine Barrens" the Russian who is pretty badly beat up manages to escape. They follow the Russian's blood trail which just mysteriously ends with no sign of his body. They go back to the car to drive home and their car is gone. The Russian is obviously dead somewhere, but many fans took those two clues to mean he managed to escape and is going to come back at some point for revenge.

(The Pine Barrens are part of South Jersey, but the pine barrens parts of the episode were shot at Bear Mountain State Park in New York)

 

Re: T-minus 9 days to The Sopranos

I think the best episode of the series was (I think this is the name) University, the one where Ralphie beats the pregnant stripper to death.

The juxtaposition of Tony's lives and the impossibility for him to reconcile them was perfectly depicted.

Pine Barrens was a (mostly) comedic episode. It was great, but it isn't definitive.

And DD, glad someone else loved The Test Dream.

 

Re: T-minus 9 days to The Sopranos

Perfect finale? Tony dies of a massive heart attack and finally drilling Melfi. Mmmmm, Melfi.

 

Re: T-minus 9 days to The Sopranos

Chris' immediate, disbelieving reply: "His place looked like shit."