Re: The Sopranos, "All Time Favorite Episode" - Semi-Finals:

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AJColossal wrote:I think it's a testament to the amzing consistency of the show that so many episodes could qualify as best episode ever.

As tremendous as these final four episodes are, I don't think they are necessarily head and shoulders above the rest. In my book there are easily 20-30 other episodes that are on par with any of the best.
This is indeed true. We could conceivably do another sweet sixteen with 16 completely different episodes and the competition would remain as strong as it has been with these.
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Re: The Sopranos, "All Time Favorite Episode" - Semi-Finals:

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billymac wrote:DH: Count me in favor of another sweet 16 when the time comes!
Hate to dilute the thread too much, but let me add that I'd be in favor of another "best of" poll for two reasons:

(1) As much as I love the classic sports paradigm of a tournament, it's really geared to picking a single winner. That's fun, and I remain very interested to see which episode emerges here. But I think we all agree that it's next to impossible to really pick "a" best episode of this show. It's impossible for most of us individually let alone for the collective "us".

(2) This tournament excluded the finale from consideration. While I honestly don't think its inclusion would have made any difference, I think it would be nice to do a different kind of voting game where each and every ep is eligible.

I'd propose one of two formats: everyone naming their individual top 10 episode lists (no order required). The 10 episodes named most often would then comprise the forum's top 10.

OR

Everyone simply vote for every episode they rate "perfect" (or a 10 on a scale of 1-10). We could require a quorum of 50% of total voters naming an ep on their list in order for it to comprise part of the final list of "Perfect Episodes".

This method appeals to me because it allows each voter to recognize as many episodes as they deem worthy of special distinction and eliminates the extremely difficult task of trying to rate apples as better than oranges in order to achieve a single or limited number of best episodes. The final list could consist of only 5 episodes or 22 episodes, however many that at least half of the voters rated as perfect.
Tony, his spirits crushed after b-lining to the fridge first thing in the morning: "Who ate the last piece of cake?"

Re: The Sopranos, "All Time Favorite Episode" - Semi-Finals:

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I'd propose one of two formats: everyone naming their individual top 10 episode lists (no order required). The 10 episodes named most often would then comprise the forum's top 10.

I don't know about everyone else but compiling a "top ten" list is just torture for me.

First, I have the problem that I never got to see the name of the episode when it was broadcast. So I can describe some great episodes to you, but I have no idea as to their names.

Second, any time I try to construct a list, it just becomes hopeless. Given that there are 86 episodes and I think the show just got better and better as time progressed, I basically love all the episodes starting from Season 3 (episode number 27) except for some of the Vito episodes in Season 6A. But to narrow down all those episodes to 10? I've tried but it's just hopeless. I would probably just start with the Top 16 and eliminate the winner and then eliminate 5 of the others and call that my Top Ten.

I like DH's format. I have no problem when given two episodes to pick the one I preferred. I can handle that with no problem.

Re: The Sopranos, "All Time Favorite Episode" - Semi-Finals:

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We already have a top 10 list. Take the final 8 and add the top 2 shows that missed the cut for nos. 9 & 10. Furthermore, if we so chose, at the end of the tournament, we could have the list in priority order, again using the vote totals. Otherwise, if some feel the sports "paradigm" is too constricting, then simply produce a list in which the 1-10 order is irrelevant.

We can all develop our own top 10 lists, which, when compiled, I suspect will have several of the shows already listed in the "tournament." I'm not trying to discourage us from going through the exercise, as it's a worthwhile experiment. The real difference will be the ability to have more than two shows from a given season on the list.

Re: The Sopranos, "All Time Favorite Episode" - Semi-Finals:

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One possible suggestion that may help in keeping this site active in the future would be to appoint someone (looking at DH) to compile a list of our Top Ten or Top Twenty or whatever and edit together some remarks or explanations from some of the members.

In other words, when voting, it would be required to make a brief (or not so brief if you prefer) explanation of why it is a favorite. Then someone could edit together all the explanations of the winners and then, when the site is advertised or listed on other sites, one of the drawing points could be, "Contains a list of the Top X episodes as determined by true Soprano fans as well as an explanation of why the episodes were so good" or possibly call them "reviews". In this way, it would help draw new people to this site to see something that is not readily available elsewhere. I know of no other site that attempts to identify the Top X episodes as chosen by true fans and given reviews by those same fans. I think it would be of big interest to anyone who wanted to get involved with the show.

Re: The Sopranos, "All Time Favorite Episode" - Semi-Finals:

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To be honest, I was just commenting that there are enough good episodes that it would be possible to have another sweet sixteen. I did not specifically mean that I was planning such. But I certainly don't mind putting together another project to determine a top 10 or 20 or list of favorites. We have many ways to get to that as evidenced by the previous comments here. Let's post our thoughts and remarks in another thread devoted to that, however, so we can save this one for the final four.
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Re: The Sopranos Top Ten Discussion

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OK, I have moved the posts from the Sweet Sixteen thread to here so we can have this conversation. I like the idea of trying to build a top ten list of some sort, but as we can see, there are some difficulties, especially the varying opinions of the individual.

But Fly's suggestion above of each person trying to list a top ten would then allow us to see which episodes appear most often. After enough voters, we could begin to see which episodes comprise a "forum top ten" as close to any definitive list as one might get.

I also like Splishak's suggestion to list why those episodes appear in a top ten, but some people are more reluctant than others to offer such an opinion. But if enough do so, we could include a few "choice" quotes underneath each title when the final list is put together.
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