Just a minor note...
When Tony told Valentina that he had to leave because he was expecting an "overseas call," I figured that he just got tired of hanging around and wanted to leave, and the "overseas call" line was his excuse. It was a convenient excuse he learned from Alan Sapinsly (the owner of "Whitecaps"), who said the same thing to Dr. Kim while on the phone with him.
Tony does that from time to time - picks up tips here and there and uses them.
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Re: Overseas Call
2I definetly have noticed Tony likes to use other's lines, Melfi's and Junior's the most. I missed that one...pretty quick and vague...good catch!
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Nice Catch
3Way to go Bacalla! The deeper you look the more you see. I read that in a review for Season Three, and I complelty concer. It's funny, Tony uses it, as Sapinsaly did, which is im implying he is a man of power. Which I guess means he viewed Sapnisly as a man of power. Jesus, this week flew by so quick. I thought it would be a lot longer, but it just seems like yesterday where we were excited about Two Tonys, and here we are with Rat Pack in about twenty four hours.
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x
4I've noticed this too about Tony. It was finally made obvious to me when Tony and Hesh were talking about something or other. Hesh mentions a New York Times article or an article of another publication [ "Did you read the article in xxxxxx" ]; when Tony is with Melfi Tony asks Melfi the same thing to appear well read, even though he hadn't read it himself.
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Re: x
5I have never picked up on this pattern of behavior with Tony now it makes me wonder how many times during the course of the series this has happened. I will definitely be on the look-out for this in the future. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/devil.gif ALT=":evil">
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Re: x
6He has been doing it for a while..
In season one when Tony is trying to get his mother to go to Green Grove, he uses Melfi's " I know seniors who are inspired. And inspiring." speech...
He also messes up a lot of what people say when he reuses it. In the same scene as the other Melfi speech she says :"It's more like a hotel at cap d'antibes."
When Tony tells it to his mother it comes out:
Tony: It's more like a hotel at captain teebs.
Livia: Who's he?
Tony: The captain owns luxury hotels or something. That's not the point.
another example is when Melfi says that he and Gloria have crazy love "Amour Fou", when Tony tells Gloria he says they have "Mo-Fo" ...
It happens a lot during the series, it is one of the most humorous aspects...
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In season one when Tony is trying to get his mother to go to Green Grove, he uses Melfi's " I know seniors who are inspired. And inspiring." speech...
He also messes up a lot of what people say when he reuses it. In the same scene as the other Melfi speech she says :"It's more like a hotel at cap d'antibes."
When Tony tells it to his mother it comes out:
Tony: It's more like a hotel at captain teebs.
Livia: Who's he?
Tony: The captain owns luxury hotels or something. That's not the point.
another example is when Melfi says that he and Gloria have crazy love "Amour Fou", when Tony tells Gloria he says they have "Mo-Fo" ...
It happens a lot during the series, it is one of the most humorous aspects...
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christopher also
7chris does it too.
one ex. season four tony tells christohper about that thing he screws up. at the No Show job he tells vito to buy some cables for fast interent or somethin. then T tells him to use his head and tells him that 'this is a quarte a billion project' and he tells the exact same thing at his meetin with vito and i forget who.
also tony. there is a scene right after paulie tells him the Snake joke, T takes Gloria to the Zoo and at the room they're about to have sex, there's alot of snakes so tony's first comment to glora is, you know snakes can f... themselves
Mr. Chase also mentions this patten in one of his commentaries. halarious.
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one ex. season four tony tells christohper about that thing he screws up. at the No Show job he tells vito to buy some cables for fast interent or somethin. then T tells him to use his head and tells him that 'this is a quarte a billion project' and he tells the exact same thing at his meetin with vito and i forget who.
also tony. there is a scene right after paulie tells him the Snake joke, T takes Gloria to the Zoo and at the room they're about to have sex, there's alot of snakes so tony's first comment to glora is, you know snakes can f... themselves
Mr. Chase also mentions this patten in one of his commentaries. halarious.
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That's Another Thing I love about this show.
8The characters all act exactly like people we know. It's like The Simpsons, but in the regards that is gives out flesh and blood characterization, and people who represent a certain type. A lot of Season One reminded me Of The Simpsons, the humor at least. Tony going in for the MRI after Carm tells him he's going to hell. The Anniversary dinner where the waiters come and sing, and the quick shot of sneaky Johnny Sack raising his glass. Paulie talking about gangsta rappers calling themselves real gangsters, while putting on a bullet proof vest.
The humor is still very much present, but I view The Sopranos as The Simpsons Meets Twin Peaks. I personally don't watch the show for the mob. While I enjoy Scorsese's mob films, and Coppola's, I like the reality of it the most. Never before, have I ever seen realism and as much depth as in this show. There is so much, that every vieweing merits something new or undiscovered. I guess that's why I love Season Four so much.
I gotta be honest, when I first heard this season (Season Five) was going to be violent, I got a little worried. I thought that maybe Chase was compromising the story because of feedback. But then I realized he had already done that. In interviews he said that they wouldn't have brought Big Pussy back up, and that it would have been left unresolved at the end Of Season One. But fans were so interested in that sub plot that they brought it back. Which brings another interesting question. Everyone is so intent on finding out the conclusion on The Russian, that it might be wrapped up in a very small way.
But then again, The show is a helluva lot different, and better in my opinion, than it was in Season One and Two. I loved Season One And Two, but I am in the camp that thinks that this show gets better each year. With I guess, means in my opinion, that Six will probably be the best.
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The humor is still very much present, but I view The Sopranos as The Simpsons Meets Twin Peaks. I personally don't watch the show for the mob. While I enjoy Scorsese's mob films, and Coppola's, I like the reality of it the most. Never before, have I ever seen realism and as much depth as in this show. There is so much, that every vieweing merits something new or undiscovered. I guess that's why I love Season Four so much.
I gotta be honest, when I first heard this season (Season Five) was going to be violent, I got a little worried. I thought that maybe Chase was compromising the story because of feedback. But then I realized he had already done that. In interviews he said that they wouldn't have brought Big Pussy back up, and that it would have been left unresolved at the end Of Season One. But fans were so interested in that sub plot that they brought it back. Which brings another interesting question. Everyone is so intent on finding out the conclusion on The Russian, that it might be wrapped up in a very small way.
But then again, The show is a helluva lot different, and better in my opinion, than it was in Season One and Two. I loved Season One And Two, but I am in the camp that thinks that this show gets better each year. With I guess, means in my opinion, that Six will probably be the best.
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Overseas Call
9Could the connection of the overseas call also be related to "Furio". Carm mentions this later in the episode.
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Re: That's Another Thing I love about this show.
10Harmony, I watch for largely the same reasons you articulated. Despite the fact that the Godfather trilogy are my favorite theatrical films of all time and that I also love Scarface (Pacino version), I really am not a fan of most mob or organized crime dramas. And I have never cared for Scorcese movies of any stripe.
As foolish as it sounds on its face, I love the Sopranos for some of the same reasons that I loved "The Waltons": they both present unmistakably authentic (if very different) families and spend a lot of time exploring the minutiae of characters and everday life within families. The Waltons stuck to a much more formulaic mode of TV storytelling, but it did share that family realism aspect with the Sops.
I had a different understanding than you regarding Chase and Big Pussy. I heard Chase say that viewers were so consumed after the first season with where Pussy was that they called it a "cliffhanger", even though it was never intended to be one. The character had just left -- was gone -- out of his instinct for self preservation. Where he went or what had happened to him didn't seem important to Chase at the time.
Chase also said that when he wrote the pilot, he never thought there would actually be a first season. Then HBO surprised everybody by loving the pilot and ordering a whole season of shows, which meant Chase had to actually figure out a story arc for 13 episodes.
Similarly, as he was writing the first season, Chase never thought there would be a second, just not trusting that viewers would like it enough for HBO to renew. Wrong again (thankfully!) So suddenly he had to go back and write season 2 and create story extensions that he never initially contemplated. He's said that season 2 was the most difficult to write for that reason, that he and his team were scared from all the success of the first season, which perhaps explains why I find season 2 (relatively speaking) the weakest of the seasons to date.
But other then this general lack of forward contemplation as he was writing season 1, I never heard him say that he brought Pussy back in season 2 because fans wanted it. That would seem very contrary to his m.o. He strikes me as the quintessential "artist" (as much as someone in his position can BE an artist in a commercial enterprise like television) who listens first and foremost to his own instincts. If anything, I think he's a tad reactionary in that he would do the opposite of what popular opinion demanded just for the sake of being contrary. So I tend to think he brought Pussy out of hiding because he simply thought that was the most interesting or realistic thing to do storywise.
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As foolish as it sounds on its face, I love the Sopranos for some of the same reasons that I loved "The Waltons": they both present unmistakably authentic (if very different) families and spend a lot of time exploring the minutiae of characters and everday life within families. The Waltons stuck to a much more formulaic mode of TV storytelling, but it did share that family realism aspect with the Sops.
I had a different understanding than you regarding Chase and Big Pussy. I heard Chase say that viewers were so consumed after the first season with where Pussy was that they called it a "cliffhanger", even though it was never intended to be one. The character had just left -- was gone -- out of his instinct for self preservation. Where he went or what had happened to him didn't seem important to Chase at the time.
Chase also said that when he wrote the pilot, he never thought there would actually be a first season. Then HBO surprised everybody by loving the pilot and ordering a whole season of shows, which meant Chase had to actually figure out a story arc for 13 episodes.
Similarly, as he was writing the first season, Chase never thought there would be a second, just not trusting that viewers would like it enough for HBO to renew. Wrong again (thankfully!) So suddenly he had to go back and write season 2 and create story extensions that he never initially contemplated. He's said that season 2 was the most difficult to write for that reason, that he and his team were scared from all the success of the first season, which perhaps explains why I find season 2 (relatively speaking) the weakest of the seasons to date.
But other then this general lack of forward contemplation as he was writing season 1, I never heard him say that he brought Pussy back in season 2 because fans wanted it. That would seem very contrary to his m.o. He strikes me as the quintessential "artist" (as much as someone in his position can BE an artist in a commercial enterprise like television) who listens first and foremost to his own instincts. If anything, I think he's a tad reactionary in that he would do the opposite of what popular opinion demanded just for the sake of being contrary. So I tend to think he brought Pussy out of hiding because he simply thought that was the most interesting or realistic thing to do storywise.
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