scannest wrote:I started re-watching The Sopranos in it's entirity after James Gandolfini's death. I finished last night. Two observsations:
1. It is still the best televsion drama of all-time. No other show touches it in terms of scope and depth.
2. Tony is killed by the guy in the Members-Only jacket in that last scene. I never thought this was the case, but re-watching everything (and reading David Chase's comments over the past few years) has convinced me.
yeah, i thought that was the case too. there is some blog that did a very comprehensive frame by frame analysis of how it is his death and how it matches the conversation tony and paulie(i believe it is him) have about death on the boat when they are fishing, something to the effect of, "it all goes black."
my only problems with the sopranos was the lack of direction in season 4 in some aspects. i believe they didn't the show was going to get renewed and they had some new writers and it took them awhile to get on track. i think matt weiner wrote horrible plot lines(despite his good work on mad men). i don't think his love stories really fit into the show. i remember he did one with finn and meadow that was too soap opera-ish(and i think he wrote all of the corny shit with tony's kid and the puerto rican sect'y). i get they they were trying to shed some light on what is like to deal with gay people in the mafia, but the whole going to vermont thing was fucking horrible. you could have cut out 3 or 4 episodes of that at least. i think that was all weiner too. aside from that, possibly the best written series ever. this one wins out over the wire because tony, chris, paulie and that cast was so great. they also got great mileage out of joe pantoliano.
i guess my other gripe is that bracco's character became irrelevant by the 4th or 5th season. it seemed like they had to shove her in there for screen time, and i think they could have written her out of the show altogether without it suffering. i also didn't like how she suddenly wised up to tony and abandoned him with his kid's suicide attempt. it seem forced and out of character for her.