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You are here: Home / Popular Culture / Sopranos Open Thread

Sopranos Open Thread

by John Cole|  March 12, 200610:03 pm| 22 Comments

This post is in: Popular Culture

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Wow. That was as good as anything from the earlier seasons (I thought the last season was not very good).

WHAT AN EPISODE!

This season is going to be good, I can tell.

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22Comments

  1. 1.

    Kyle

    March 12, 2006 at 10:24 pm

    I’d heard that the ep wound up with a shocker. Yet the shock was still a shock, even after perfectly fair, in-plain-sight ground-laying to prepare for it.

    On the other hand it’s hard to see this leading to any further complications except for the big man spending a lot of time in a hospital bed.

  2. 2.

    Mean Gene

    March 12, 2006 at 10:34 pm

    Leave it to “The Sopranos” to have a shocker after a shocker. The scene with Gene was meant to horrify, and it did, especially as it went on and on and on. It reminded me of when Dr. Melfi was raped, you thought there was no way they were going to show this, that they would cut away, soon, any second now…and instead they showed you the whole horrible event.

    But a fantastic first episode. Note to self–never become an FBI informant. They don’t come to happy ends.

  3. 3.

    Keith

    March 12, 2006 at 10:46 pm

    Reminds me of Deadwood S2 starting with Al getting f’ed up royally. The end result of that one was a diminished role for Al, where it took about 5 eps for him to get his rhythm back. I hope it won’t happen here.

  4. 4.

    Carpbasman

    March 13, 2006 at 12:34 am

    Wow. That was as good as anything from the earlier seasons (I thought the last season was not very good).

    Season 4 was miles above season 3. And even season 3 only sucked because of the standard set by the first two seasons.

    I’d heard that the ep wound up with a shocker. Yet the shock was still a shock, even after perfectly fair, in-plain-sight ground-laying to prepare for it.

    When the scene with Gene happend, I turned to my wife and said “Well, I saw the shocking scene coming about a mile down the road.” When the real shocker happened I said “Now that’s shocking!”

  5. 5.

    jaime

    March 13, 2006 at 2:51 am

    What was that opening music? Odd song choice.

  6. 6.

    Dave Ryan

    March 13, 2006 at 2:52 am

    Excellent use of Adrianna to throw us off the scent. I immediately began to wonder what was going on. Carmela’s dream shows she’s going to be more dominant in this series than she has been for a while.

    Uncle Jun is progressing nicely. A breath of fresh air in his character.

    Everything about the episode worked well. Can’t wait for more. Even though WVU’s cable doesn’t provide HBO. Gonna have to order that, or wait till weekends-after-airing after Spring Break’s done to see them.

    This should be good.

  7. 7.

    Marcus Wellby

    March 13, 2006 at 7:46 am

    Maybe having to wait 2 years for a new episode left me expecting more? I don’t know, but I was hardly blown away. Don’t get me wrong, it is an AMAZING show, but I was a little let down by this episode.

    Carmella showing off her new car was fantastic. First, rubbing it in the nose of John’s wife, then having her bubble burst by Pussy’s widow who bought her own car. Edie Falco is a superb actress.

  8. 8.

    Vlad

    March 13, 2006 at 9:00 am

    “What was that opening music? Odd song choice.”

    From what I’ve read, it was a recording by William S. Burroughs.

    Anybody feel like a quick recap? Due to events beyond my control, I missed it last night.

  9. 9.

    Chris P

    March 13, 2006 at 9:25 am

    Here is a nice recap: http://www.tvsquad.com/2006/03/13/the-sopranos-season-premiere-members-only/

  10. 10.

    Tony Alva

    March 13, 2006 at 10:04 am

    Sunday night TV is back and my wife and I couldn’t be happier. Great opener in my mind. I’m betting Phil makes a quick exit at some point soon.

    How’d everybody like Big Love? Looks promising to me.

  11. 11.

    Bob In Pacifica

    March 13, 2006 at 11:46 am

    This doesn’t have anything to do with the Sopranos. I grew up in NJ, but I don’t have HBO.

    What’s up with the people at JustOneMinute? It’s a parallel universe. Everything’s A-OK in the Bush World: Joe and Val are lying traitors who work for Clinton. My retirement investments are doing fine and the Dow is over 11000. What ski resorts are your favorites? Fitz is a lying, deluded hack and I’m donating to Scooter’s Defense Fund.

    I don’t understand. What weird kind of crack are they smoking? I’ve gone there to try to figure out what the other side is thinking, but they are so out of touch I can barely suss out their deluded ramblings.

    I know DougJ has been there, and Paul Lukasiak. Somebody explain to me… Confused… where is pipe… must smoke more… to understand… clarice and maybee…

  12. 12.

    ppGaz

    March 13, 2006 at 11:56 am

    I’ve gone there to try to figure out what the other side is thinking

    They are just singing songs while President Koresh sets fire to the buildings around them.

    Not quite the same thing as “thinking.”

  13. 13.

    VidaLoca

    March 13, 2006 at 1:29 pm

    Bob,

    I used to read JustOneMinute because I thought that Tom Maguire’s stuff was well-thought out and intelligently written even though I didn’t always agree with it. He did seem to be more concerned with figuring out the truth than grinding an ideological axe on behalf of the Bushies.

    That was a while ago. I don’t go there so much any more, for exactly the reasons you noted.

    They are just singing songs while President Koresh sets fire to the buildings around them.

    Yep.

  14. 14.

    Michael Demmons

    March 13, 2006 at 2:36 pm

    Hmmmm, I didn’t think it was a great episode. Granted though, because a shitty Sopranos episode is still 10x as good as any other show, I wasn’t disappointed.

  15. 15.

    Stormy70

    March 13, 2006 at 3:17 pm

    I just love Christophuh! When he said how morbid it was, while at a funeral: genius. Uncle Jun scurrying away in his bathrobe to hide in the closet: perfect.
    Phil needs a good whacking, stat.

    The opening montage was Burroughs reading from Egypt’s Book of the Dead.

    I missed you, Sopranos. {sniff}

  16. 16.

    Krista

    March 13, 2006 at 3:41 pm

    Stormy –

    Christopher. Sayid.

    You like ’em with that “ting!” touch of danger, don’t you? :)

    Doesn’t surprise me. I can’t see a ballsy chick like you getting hot over a guy who couldn’t hold his own with you.

  17. 17.

    Stephen

    March 13, 2006 at 3:49 pm

    “Isn’t it ironic how Lou Gherig died of Lou Gherig’s disease?”

    I was rolling for a few minutes.

  18. 18.

    jg

    March 13, 2006 at 4:42 pm

    Kind of creepy how that guy pissed himself after the hanging. I was hoping they’d spend a few episodes having Tony slowly bleed the guys inheritance from him though.

  19. 19.

    Clark

    March 13, 2006 at 5:32 pm

    I don’t think he has ever cared about civil liberties – he sees his job as protecting us, not protecting our liberties.

    We are a church made up of individuals who Welcome Everyone. Doesn’t matter what you wear, look like, the color of your hear, your orientation or identification. What matters to us is that want to share in our community!
    google

  20. 20.

    jaime

    March 13, 2006 at 5:41 pm

    OK…it was William Boroughs reading from “The Western Lands”

  21. 21.

    shark

    March 14, 2006 at 5:23 pm

    Sorry, but this ep. SUCKED. First of all, we spend an entire episode focusing on someone we never really saw before and won’t see again. THE FUCKING SHOW WAS OFF FOR TWO YEARS, CAN YOU PLEASE DEAL WITH THE MAIN CHARACTERS FOR THE MAJORITY OF THE SHOW PLEASE??? And the “shock” ending…gimme a fricking break. Gee, will Tony live or die? I don’t know but seeing as it’s the season opener I HAVE A GOOD GUESS! And that shooting was a comedy shooting. All that was missing was Yakkety Sax playing in the background and Benny Hill chasing Uncle Jun around after he shot the gun.

    After 2 years, what do we get? Tony is a fat pig (more bloated than ever) and Carmella is a greedy whore. Oh yeah, and they both can’t stop scarfing down the sushi every 2 minutes. The gay mobster lost weight (guess Tony got it all) Meadow looks GREAT dancing in her panties, and AJ has the most laughable haircut on TV outside of an episode of Springer.

    All that, plus product placements galore, and the irrelevent Dr. Melfhi.

    Wow….comon, are you people just so invested in the show that you’re afraid to admit it was subpar, especially for something 2 years in the works? Or has Sopranos reached that critical mass where it’s golden no matter what it does, and the lemming hoardes fall all over themselves to praise dreck?

  22. 22.

    Kyle

    March 14, 2006 at 8:06 pm

    Meadow looks GREAT dancing in her panties

    Hey, she does!

    Not the greatest episode, but the wind-up was no joke. Black humor, yes, laughable no.

    Thinking about what comes next, it seems likely Vito will push to become acting boss and his gayness will somehow become a factor in the power struggle. Which seems promising. Not exactly a situation built into the show’s premise, more of a twist imported from the outside, but quite possibly very interesting.

    Michael Demmons said up above that even non-amazing Sopranos is 10 times better than most TV. I couldn’t agree more. Call that being invested in the show or call it a simple appreciation of good stuff even when the good stuff isn’t great.

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