The Sopranos
 

I couldn't find a thread about this show, even with advanced search. So I'd figured I should make one. I'm on season 6, so I'm almost finished. It's pretty damn good, really surprised there wasn't a thread here.

I do have a question about Paulie.

Love Sopranos. Rewatched a while back leading up to Many Saints (which stunk). The writing and acting is all so good, the show will definitely remain timeless.

About Paulie:

I don't have an answer to that. But I have my own question.

Wtf. What happened to that Russian guy that got lost in the snow? That would have started a war? I've always wondered about that.

According to Chase, he was found by some campers who brought him to the hospital. He survived but the gunshot left him unable to say what happened and he deported back to Russia, if he ever recovered it would have been too late to cause any major problems. Not sure who took the car though or why the incident wasn't investigated, the whole explanation just kind of sounds like a retroactive excuse for abandoning a cliffhanger.

When I watched it, I just assumed it was one of those implied supernatural events, like the psychic being oddly specific for mere cold reading or Pussy appearing in the mirror. You know, because they couldn't find a trace of him aside from a little bit of blood.

But wait... if campers found him and brought him to the hospital, who took Paulie's car?

I was too young to watch this, is it actually worth watching in 2026? Or a product of its time where most of its impact would no longer be felt if watched now like Lost for example.

I suspect it would be even more impactful now, but I'm not sure. I think the "whackings" might be a lot more spaced out than you might imagine, but there's a lot more there.

I watched it all for the first time about 3 years ago on the illegal streaming websites. It was pretty good, but it's a lot darker and more violent than I expected. And not like "movie gangster violence" stuff where bad guys just shoot each others heads off, but actual realistic and disturbing stuff.

Like for example I was so happy that guy got killed later.

There's a lot of dark episodes, because it has realistic violence and themes and not just cartoony movie style gangster violence.

I love the one where there's a big protest about Columbus Day and the gang get all pissed off about it being anti-Italian and go out there and start beating up the protesters.

I don't know either, wrote as much in the post. Could just be as easy as it was stolen by an unknown third party, maybe?

Yeah, it's good. I watched like 24 years after it first aired and I was impressed. The problem with Lost is that it was largely a sloppy excuse to make the "weird magic mystery island" show that kept adding to a mystery that wasn't resolved, a problem like that isn't something the Sopranos have. Maybe the Sopranos lasted much longer than intended and as a result they were forced to elevate a bunch of minor characters to main players, simply because the big players kept getting whacked. It's not really a problem, it's just weird to see the first time watching the show.

I also just recently watched it for the first time a couple of years ago. I absolutely loved it and it is for sure worth watching.

Joey Pants said women started hitting on him like crazy after that episode aired. Weird.

I hated that episode when I first saw it. When I did another rewatch like 4 years ago, it was still very disturbing but the writing on that one is so brilliant.

And yes, seeing him die later was great. There are a ton of really satisfying deaths. My wife jumped out of her chair like it was the Super Bowl when Janice shot Richie at the end of season 2 lmao

:lol: I hate that one!

There's also the wonderful scene with Paulie Walnuts trying to steal something from his mother's friend when she's out of town and then it turns out she's NOT out of town and catches him. He has to awkwardly play it off and then when she doesn't buy it he has to murder her right there and then, and she's all like, "You always were a little bastard!!" meaning like when he was a little boy.

Just finished the first three episodes of season 1 in my rewatch. Yeah, this is all pretty good now. Shesus, the the subplot with two gay guys stealing the car of Tony's son's science teacher. Tony sends Silvio and Big Pussy to track them down and they do. Then after beating them to a pulp it turns out the car is already chopped up. So what do they do? They make the gay guys go and steal the same make and model car in the middle of the night, repaint it and transfer the plates and all to the new car... before killing them both and stuffing them in the trunk.

Also, the thought occurred to me. Michael Imperioli. He might have made a hell of a Joker at some point.

Just got to that episode again. Yeah, it wasn't as good or impactful as I remembered. Mostly it's a lot of David Chase taking the opportunity to share his political views, using the characters as mouthpieces for it. Even Furio was like, "YES, f*** those guys for disrespecting Columbus! But... I also do like Columbus, and now let me tell you the story of my village in Italy and how we all do not like Columbus."

Yeah the whole episode is not great. The stuff with the Indians is idiotic too.

There are some pretty big plot developments, so you can’t skip it. Johnny Sac finds out about the joke Ralphie made about his wife and *spoiler* unexpectedly dies in a car crash.

Random thought, but for some reason I hated Bobby when I first watched the show as a teen, but loved him when I last rewatched it. I think Schirripa is a bit of a dunce IRL, but still a great character.

Yes, and that’s a big reason Many Saints sucked ass. It’s not really like him to be too heavy handed getting a point across. Weird.

Almost to season 6 again now. I gotta say, season 1 and 2 were top notch. Season 3 loses a lot of momentum, I think, and it doesn't help that no one really steps up to fill the void of Ritchie as a distinguishable Threat for Tony. We don't seem to get that until the guys start coming back from prison in season 5 like Phil Leotardo and so on. Season 4 wasn't super good, either.



Never noticed this in 2022. It's nice.

Really? I love 3 and think 4 has some highlights. Ralphie is a great villain and the New York family starts becoming a bigger deal.

Off the cuff take on each season:

1. Fresh and tightly plotted. But they’re still figuring out the tone.

2. Possibly the best season.

3. Great season with a lot of bangers.

4. Slowest season but certainly not bad. Some brilliant episodes here for sure.

5. Ramping up for the end, lots of good stuff.

6. Both halves are pretty incredible. They really stuck the landing.

Many Saints of Newark? Dog ****.

I think so. Just a pure joy.

It just seems like they reserved a lot of the "mob stuff" we were used to in season 1 and 2 all the way until here, until 5. Which is back to near perfection again.

I didn't like it when I saw it, but I hadn't really seen Sopranos in like 15 years when I did. So I wonder how much of my dislike is not really remembering stuff.

Just finished the show (again).

What a great ride. And Paulie definitely betrayed Tony there at the end... tons of evidence.