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Re: Episode Review and General Comments: 'Chasing It'

221
I think there are two ways to analyze this, and every, episode. 1. How it stands alone and 2. How it contributes to the season and series as a whole.

-I thought that this episode, by itself, was pretty entertaining. I liked the friction between Hesh and Tony as well as Hesh getting a fair amount of airtime overall.

-I think Tony's gambling problems and paranoia are an interesting change from his normal persona.

-This episode had a lot of scenes with Tony and his top guys: Paulie, Chris, Bobby, and Sil which i always like. Their dialogue usually makes for some of the best moments in the series. Also we had not seen too much of this up to this point in the final 9.

-Again the friction between Phil and Tony is building, will it go anywhere? One would think yes.

The direction was great as usual. The scene with Tony convincing Carmella to put money on the Jets was very eerie to me for some reason (the shaky lens view certainly contributed). It seems as if he's losing his mind or something.

When looking at the episode as a part of the final 9 i had more of a pessimistic view.

- As people have mentioned, this gambling problem of Tony's is new and kind of seems like they threw it in there simply for the sake of ending this show. While it is interesting i don't know if i buy it.

-Phil and Tony's relationship has had so many ups and downs since season 5. It's about time they really get this feud going. It's been taking baby steps for too long now.

-Again, interesting episode but with only 5 left they need to pick up the pace IMO to truly end this show fittingly. Also to give the fans a proper goodbye.

-Vito's kid? Not overly interesting although i suppose it was used to help further the Phil/Tony angle. Could have been done in a more interesting way, using more important characters though.

Re: Episode Review and General Comments: 'Chasing It'

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I think what DC & Co is trying to show us is that, yes, crime does pay, and it pays very nicely. But the collateral damage is beginning to sink him. His wife doesn't trust him and wants her own money which enrages him. His son's attempt at adulthood is failing miserably and his own ship is sinking rapidly. His friendships are all predicated on money. When it comes to helping the people he and his own have had a hand in destroying then he wimps out and his selfishness takes over.

He doesn't even need any more money but he knows he is just "chasing it" now because he admitted it to his wife. He got that from Melfi when she asked the pointed question about what his motives for gambling where. Those same motives apply to his entire lifestyle of chasing money, pleasure, and power.

I think this was a pivotal pitstop episode in the series and that's why they discarded the opportunities they had to make it much more entertaining than it turned out to be. What did we get for our patience? We got to see that:

1. T now can see that the entire Mob lifestyle is a wild goose chase after money and power ( a mere reminder of something he already knew but so easily forgets now that he is on top) Hesh said as much when he said "It's lonely at the top". He has been gambling wildly with a lot of lives ever since his first hit, mostly his own family.

2. The Soprano marriage is built with bad lumber that may not survive another storm. That vicious fight was a long time in coming since he bribed her to come back to him.

3. Carmela has now committed a major crime of fraud and the victim is her own cousin. She is also now free to try to find her friend Adrianna who continues to haunt her dreams.

4. Some of the people around Tony that have helped make him rich are suffering greatly since Little V's Dad was his best earner (another reminder). That collateral damage is directly linked to Tony's cousin Mr. Blundetto and tied to Tony's first panic attack when they were sipposed to pull of a job together. He has also now become even more entangled with his most dangerous internal threat - Phil Leotardo

5. Tony's son is an emotional basketcase and the final meltdown has just begun. Tony and Carm have struggled for years to try to save AJ but to no avail, hypocrites that they are in his eyes.....

6. His longtime therapist (and mutual fantasy) has called him out and said basically either get real or get lost. He has told her he will soon make a final decision whether to do that or not. Bogie and Bacall, or just a Dr. Phil wake up call?

7. There is nobody that can enable Tony emotionally anymore - not his wife or kids, not his sister and brother in-law or Uncle, not Dr. Melfi, and not his crew. He also cannot enable himself to continue in his monstrous way of life. He can no longer see himself as a victim of fate (luck) but only others much more innocent than he like Little V and his sister. This is a mob boss (or a President).......this is a mob boss with a conscience.......sizzle, sizzle, smoke, smoke

Re: Episode Review and General Comments: 'Chasing It'

223
I think this was a pivotal pitstop episode in the series and that's why they discarded the opportunities they had to make it much more entertaining than it turned out to be.

Wow! What a post! It sounds to me like it could have been written by DC himself.

Some of the people around Tony that have helped make him rich are suffering greatly since Little V's Dad was his best earner (another reminder).

I didn't understand this sentence, though. Did you leave part of it out?

Re: Episode Review and General Comments: 'Chasing It'

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I was just saying that although Tony knows people around him in the life and their families suffer because of all the violence he rarely had to deal with the human wreckage himself until he became boss. Now the wreckage comes to him for help. Now he is expected to help clean up the messes. In the process he gets to see things more clearly that others don't. Like a little boy who really loved his father once but now hates everything about him because he found out he was gay and probably killed because of it. So the boy begins to self-destruct and his little sister gets to see the whole thing. It's lonley at the top and it's even worse when you are expected to care for those who have tumbled to the bottom.....

Re: Episode 6.16: Chasing It - Grades and General Review

227
I have just watched this episode again and I honestly think its one of the worst episodes of the complete 86 episode series. There's just something about it that just puts me off. Out of the final 9 its clearly the worst, the other 8 episodes are masterpieces, some of the best ever. Wasn't there supposed to be only 8 final episodes? Maybe they just added this one in to cover some extra (unneeded) scenarios. First of all the Vito junior storyline; this storyline just seems completely unnecessary and stupid. Its fine that Chase wanted to show us that Vito's family is in the Shitter, but why in such detail? What happened to Johnny Sack mirrors Carmela's worries about the future, so why the Vito Junior storyline? Does it mirror AJ? not that I see of.

As for the Hesh storyline, again this storyline just seemed unneeded, like they decided to put it in for the sake of it, so Hesh would have some sort of role in the final 9. This storyline wasn't pulled off well at all like the Vito Junior storyline. As for Hesh's girlfriend Dying, its like that happened to add some drama to the episode in which basically nothing happened.

As for Tony, his obsession with gambling seems completely random. We all know that he gambles but he never did to this extent, and there's no mention of his gambling problems again in later episodes. Maybe its suggesting that Tony's whole life is a gamble, but to focus a whole episodes around that? The Sopranos has never focused on one such irrelevant theme in an episode. The whole episode just didn't really feel like The Sopranos. Carmela's spec house conclusion was the only decent part of the episode, with a rather brilliant fight between Carmela and Tony. But I feel overall that these themes could of been easily handled in other episodes, but again I don't think any of the story lines in this episode were needed at all.

As I said before, the episode didn't feel like The Sopranos to me at all. For example the first several scenes of the episode the camera is very wobbly, an odd thing to say I guess but The Sopranos for the most part never does this. Plus during the scene where Tony bets on "Meadow gold", non-diegetic music is used. This technique is very rarely used in the middle of an episode. The Sopranos uses diegetic (Music in the characters world) music exceptionally. Non-diegetic music is only ever used at the end of the episode to role with the credits and at the start of several episodes (mainly at the beginning of a season). Not that I don't mind different techniques, but it just didn't work. Odd to change the formula randomly during the final 9 episodes. Does anyone know who directed this episode btw?

Maybe I feel this way because I'm typing this at 02:30 (forgive me if I'm unclear in my "rant"), but I really don't like this episode. My least favorite episode ever! I give this episode a 5.

Re: Episode 6.16: Chasing It - Grades and General Review

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One of my less favorite episodes, for sure. I get what they're trying to do with the shaky cam, but it just doesn't work. It throws off the show's style, and they're a little too late in the game to be trying experimental shit. This would have been more forgivable in an earlier season. That said, there was some gold in this episode. Tony's argument with Carm was a great one, Hesh's story was heartbreaking, and Vito Jr... okay that one wasn't great, but you still feel it at the end when he's abducted from his home. Still, honestly I would have rather seen how Justin Cifaretto was coming along.

Also, there's some tragic irony in AJ's relationship with Blanca. She clearly got uncomfortable with the fact that his family is incredibly wealthy, but she gets nothing out of being their in-law. This is because of AJ's efforts to be more independent, which should be admirable considering his character arc, but all of a sudden we see a new obstacle in his path towards breaking away from Tony - other people will only gravitate towards him because of his father, AJ has nothing worthwhile of his own.
Taps, lights out, 2200 hours. What's missing? Give up? Television.

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