Well did it? I have for one don't think I have ever cried watching the Sopranos. I have been shocked at times (Employee of the month) and I have felt sorry for certain characters through out the series but I don't think I have ever cried. Considering it is a Drama and my favorite TV show of all time I find this sort of odd. Maybe because the majority of the bad things on the show happen to people who deserve it, there are exceptions of course like Tracee been beaten to death or Dr.Melfi getting rapped. But for the most part everything is strictly between the "soldiers" and the "families aren't touched" line holds up. Is this a genuine fault with the show? Especially since a big theme in the last season is that bad things happen to everyone even to people who don't deserve it. Maybe this wasn't driven home you could say (even with Bobby's death). Or is the acting not up to par?

The Sopranos has stirred up a lot of feelings about life and Death in me. You could say I was going through the mid life crisis of my youth (and still going on in someways), and The Sopranos sort of reinforced this. Tony's and AJ's depression for example. I'm not ashamed to say that Films and even other TV shows have brought a tear to my eye. But I don't think the Sopranos ever has.

What about you?

I have never cried. Although got pretty close with "Longterm Parking" and I certainly get close with the closing of "Join the Club". I don't see the lack of tears as a fault of the show on any level. A drama doesn't need to make one cry. I think the Sopranos typically plays things a bit differently. It doesn't go in trying to make audiences feel sad with music or anything like that. It gives the viewers the freedom to feel however they want. As many tragic things happen on the show, it is just never played to really make one weep (except for perhaps "Employee..." and "Longterm...")

Although I know my ex-gf has cried a couple of times during the show. Specifically the fifth season. All of which when Adrianna was involved, I am sure you all can guess...I think certain things effect people in ways which touches them more then others. Chris's brutality really seemed to be hard for her to watch. And in "Irregular...", I remember she needed me to pause it for her to take a break.

As hard as it is to watch, I never cried...different folks, different strokes.

Agreed, Garth, 100%. The inability to make one cry certainly isn't a fault of the show, nor does it diminish the excellent efforts of the acting talent in the series. Perhaps it is, as Garth said, because the show doesn't play for tears, in large part by not utilizing manipulative, leading music cues.

Having said that, I certainly have cried several times throughout the series. "Employee of the Month", "Long Term Parking", "Join the Club" (the line, "Does he know that he's dying" still puts a lump in my throat - that scene really made me lose it, the first time), and "The Second Coming" ("It's okay, baby. You're okay") immediately spring to mind.

Other episodes, such as "D-Girl", "From Where To Eternity" or "Kennedy and Heidi" have brought me dangerously close.

I'm kind of a sucker for a good drama. I voted "yes" in your poll up above. I'm not exactly "proud" of it - just like, on the flip-side, I'm not ashamed of it, either. It's just a natural reaction to the show, that was out of my hands. However, I do sometimes enjoy a good cry; it's a great release.

yea when they showed that sad pedigree commercial

I've never cried during the Sopranos, but then again, I rarely cry at all. My wife, on the other hand, got teary-eyed through most of the episodes/scenes mentioned above. "Long Term Parking"? She fucking lost it, and even to this day (we watched it last night) it's still hard for her to watch the screen without getting weepy.

PS - ...is cursing allowed?

Pope Corky the IX wrote:
PS - ...is cursing allowed?

Wouldn't be a Sopranos site if we didn't allow a naughty word or two.

Just making sure, thanks.

And I feel like such a failure...what episode/context is the quote in your signature from? I cannot think of it for the life of me.

Pope Corky the IX wrote:Just making sure, thanks.

And I feel like such a failure...what episode/context is the quote in your signature from? I cannot think of it for the life of me.

One of my all time favorites (although I say that about a lot of episodes): Employee of the Month. It's the scene when Carmela is telling Melfi that Tony is unavailable for the phone (he hadn't gotten up yet). He strides into the kitchen completely ignoring the fact that the call is obviously for him. He could care less who it is or why they're calling. He has one thing only on his mind in his first minutes after waking: eating that last piece of cake in the fridge! He probably even dreamed about it.

The shot of his reaction when he discovers it's gone is priceless. His back is to the camera, but his whole body language changes in an instant from one of brisk, singular purpose and alacrity to dejection and deflation. His shoulders slump in exasperation, and he says, in a voice surely loud enough that Melfi could have heard, "Who ate the last piece of cake?"

It's a really simple moment that you'd never find in another TV show and that a lot of folks might not even notice, but it's such a perfect encapsulation of the kinds of dynamics that go on in households, especially those with big time eaters! I could recite a litany of similar things in my household growing up, including the term my father coined to describe the act of hiding remnants of favorite foods from others in the house: "defensive storage." My dad sometimes "defensively stored" Fig Newtons in the vegetable bin under celery and carrots so my mother couldn't find them. Though she claimed she hated them, she was known to sometimes, in his words, "do a line"!:icon_mrgreen::icon_mrgreen:

There are 2 scenes in the Sopranos that always kept my wife from being it's biggest fan. Neither of the scenes had anything to do with the violence, stereotypical portrayals or sometime degrading depiction of the fairer sex on the show. Funny enough, they both had to do with a characters similarity to her husband. The 1st being the classic quote and reaction that Fly so accurately describes. The 2nd scene though that really hit home came, I believe, in season 4. Tony heads toward the Bada Bing's small fridge, obviously in a gnarly mood to begin with, and shouts, " goddamn it I was dreaming of that fucking Kung Pow all the way over here." Unfortunately, I had made an almost verbatim tirade about a certain Pad Thai dish a week or so earlier. I was pretty much watching season 5 by myself because of it.

"Army of One" and lo mein.

Not that this is crying or even being sad, but James Gandolfini physically reminds me of my father (fat, balding Italian man with an undeniable presence) and Tony Soprano reminds me of my father personality-wise.

There's a scene in "Amour Fou" where Christopher declares he's going to take out Jackie Jr. and Tony tells him that's not a possibility. Chris gets upset, calls him a hypocrite and tells him "I loved you!" Tony proceeds to put him up against the wall and, wild-eyed, tells him "What happens, I decide, not you! Now you don't love me anymore, well that's too bad. 'Cause you don't gotta love me...but you will respect me!" The look on his face is what does it, I can remember being up against a wall looking at that same face when I was a kid.

Interestingly enough, my wife and I met James Gandolfini in NYC after we saw him in "God of Carnage" on Broadway and the guy is a giant sweetheart, but that's a story for another time.