Kaos' Douchey Sopranos Debate...

[GH2001]

If I'm anybody there I'm more Paulie or Sil, probably. 

My job requires me to be Tony and I honestly completely get a lot of his angst, anger and confusion.  I've wondered, like he does, where all the good times went.  I get stupidly nostalgic over long forgotten songs on the radio, I'm constantly blindsided and often bewildered by the attitude and reactions I get from family members, work associates and others in the public. I empathsize with his lonliness and the vacant "is this really all there is" feelings of isolation.

My wife has at times tried to bar me from watching the show because in her words "you already blunder around just like he does anyway, why do you want to subject yourself to that?" 

At which point I ask her if she's fucking Furio and she gets pissed for a week or two. 

There was one scene in today's show that was almost a mirror image of my life.  He got her some tickets to a resort, a vacation and thought she'd be happy.  Instead, she pissed and moaned about having to pack and worrying about her mother's skin condition, blah, blah, blah.  Of course she's infatuated with Furio which is driving the attitude. 

Not that long ago I tried to surprise mine with a weekend away because she'd been working hard with her own education and helping the kids and thought she needed the break.  I got pissing and moaning about needing to buy sunscreen, having to figure out what to pack, that she had this project she needed to work on, who would take care of the kid's frog or feed the dogs, etc. etc. etc.  Just made it absolutely miserable.

I know that the look on his face was exactly the same as what I must have been wearing during that. 

Guess it's a blessing I don't have an Italian driver.

Like this?

[Kaos]

Because of the 20th Anniversary I watched a good bit of this series over the last week or so. 

I'm still amazed at how complete this show is.  Every little thing in every scene has a purpose.  There's never been anything like it before or since.  Even the sixth season -- which was the weakest by far -- was better than pretty much anything that's ever been on television.  Watching those episodes only confirmed that this is the best show in history. Every single episode is almost like its own complete movie.  I still can't believe how much complexity was crammed into every single show when sometimes it seemed like nothing happened.

As it turns out personally based on that last post from seven years ago, I did have an Italian driver, of a sort.  Except he wasn't Italian and probably couldn't drive unless it was to Dr. Now for weight loss surgery.  I'm glad my Carmela is gone.  But enough of that. 

I also watched the 20th anniversary "reunion" on Today and was struck by how jealous Edie Falco seemed of the attention given to the late Gandolfini. She came off as a jerk when she stressed the fact that they weren't really close in any way and as such, she never really thinks about him. She's worse than Carm in real life apparently. 

[Kaos]

Just read The Sopranos Sessions by Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz (TV reviewers for NJ.com who covered the show).  

You'd have to be a hard-core fan to really care about what all is in there because it's minutiae and opinion (some of which I don't agree with).  A whole lot of it is overthinking it and focusing on the trees rather than the majestic forest the show really was. 

There were some nuggets in there that helped me understand pieces of the show that I maybe didn't completely grasp the first time around.  Like what did Tony "get" when he was high on peyote and had just banged Sarah Shahi (yummmm).  

But the biggest thing I got from this book is that I now know whether Tony is still alive or if he died at Holsteins.  

The answer is simple.  He's alive. He's also dead.  Just think of it as Schrodinger's Tony.  We don't know what's in the box.  Was the guy in the Members Only jacket a threat?  Were the two young guys threats?  We don't know.  They could be. Or they couldn't.  Does Tony die?  We all do at some point. Was it then or later?  David Chase is never going to open the box for us to see. So he's alive. And he's dead. Simultaneously.   We're all right. And we're all wrong. 

[CCTAU]

This is right up there with game of thrones for me!

[byronfutle]

the debate is now delayed for one week to organise some things, also see the edited start post