Amph [Whaddya hear, whaddya say?!] The Sopranos

Figured it was time to create a thread to opine over this thing of ours. Tony's wrong... 'remember when' isn't the lowest form of conversation.

 

As great & funny as the Pine Barrens episode is, the funniest thing to me in the whole series is…




.




”We said non-judgmental.”



”**** that!”




Pure gold.

 

They say this is a great gladiator movie? Look at Kirk Douglas’ ****ing hair! THEY DIDN’T HAVE FLAT TOPS IN ANCIENT ROME!

 

Saw this on Reddit the other day:




https://www.reddit.com/r/thesopranos/s/n2lvRmveWU




One of the best, most sensible theories I’ve read about the finale.

 

Paulie: That’s why dinosaurs don’t exist no more.
Feech’s date: Wasn’t it a meteor?
Paulie: They’re all meat eaters!
Christopher: Meteor, METEOR!
Paulie: Take it easy.

 

Christopher is for the most part the weakest episode of the series, but the bit where Furio doesn't give a **** about Columbus is great.

 

One of the things a lot of imitators miss is the humor. Most of the characters are morons/ridiculously ignorant. Tony is probably one of the smartest mafia characters, and he's constantly misquoting, mispronouncing, and distorting facts. But I think something that is really overlooked is how weird and surreal the show could get. It's not something that's talked about nearly as much in spaces like /r/thesopranos as, say, quotes from "Pine Barrens."

"He killed 16 Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator!"

"...His house looked like ****."

 

Yeah, I never understood people who think it glorifies mafiosi. It does exactly the opposite.

 

In fairness, people were identifying enough with Tony at the time that that creator and writers had to constantly put in just absolutely monstrous things he does to remind people "No, really, you should not be emulating this man!"

 

I don't know if they're as prevalent anymore, but during the show's original run a big segment of fans were the same kind of people who watched Breaking Bad and their takeaway was that Skyler was the worst character.

 

I doubt they are. So I agree with you. (Also on the humor above, btw)

One of the reasons I remained baffled about the finale's ambiguity in the modern audience is probably because I made a passing comment on a discussion about the finale like a year ago about how the show rammed the "You probably never even hear it coming" line down our throats every week, and someone attempted to rebut me by saying it existed in one episode, and then referred to only as a flashback in the penultimate episode in the entire season... as if the "Previously On..." things weren't a key part of the live viewing experience on HBO and it was in there EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. Like, this is the stuff the creators and editors want you to pay attention to. But on streaming, presumably all of this is missed.

 

"He jumped out the tree and ran at me with a chainsaw. I had to defend myself.."

Also f you your gonna make rererererererewatch the show huh?

 

Those segments obviously weren’t that important to the creators and editors considering they’re omitted on streaming for The Sopranos despite being included for, e.g. Deadwood. Marketing, by contrast, has a pretty vested interest in trying to get you to keep tuning in on the chance you’re going to see Tony get whacked during the final season. I don’t put stock in them.

To me, what some of Chase’s interviews have kind of clarified as the reason the finale is portrayed ambiguously - which we have to accept it is, since even the strongest “Tony is 100% dead” argument necessarily concedes that Tony’s perspective overrides the objective camera in a manner consistent with some of the other reality warping sequences we’ve seen throughout the show - is to drive home that it honestly kind of doesn’t even matter if Tony dies there or later on. He doesn’t get the closure of settling all accounts the way it happens in the movies, he’s going to be paranoid and waiting for the end for the rest of his life, however short it may be. What’s up with the guy in the Member’s Only jacket? Is he an assassin? Maybe. You can’t tell.

Maybe Tony gets shot. Maybe Tony has a panic attack. Maybe Tony has a heart attack as a result of elevated stress levels after years of unhealthy living. There is no definitive explanation. And that’s exactly the intended vibe, IMO, multiplicities of valid readings. No resolution. The show doesn’t hide its David Lynch influence but suddenly there’s exactly one definitive reading on a very Lynchian finale? Nah.

Edit: This is all a long way of saying “Wait why do they still have those promos on Deadwood anyway?”

 

Ironically I've just started watching this two-part documentary on Max that features a one-on-one interview with David Chase; along with bits about casting and interviews with some of the primary actors. It includes screen tests for roles; including Tony's by a handful of different actors. Believe it or not, even Steven Van Zandt read lines for Tony at one point lol.

 

I always thought the supposed assassin in the finale was weird, as though he was a manifestation of Tony's anxieties rather than completely "real." Not just the "Members Only" attire that was used before to symbolically mean Mafia, but also how conspicuous he is generally: the attire, the nervousness, lurking, looking around. Seems like in "reality" they would send a more experienced professional to kill someone like Tony, or at least someone who would be in and out (like most hits we see in the series) rather than let everyone in the restaurant get the best possible description of him wearing an outdated fad shirt.

 

It’s possible the Members Only dude is there for so long because he’s waiting for Meadow to show up.

 

I always think he is Davey (Robert Patrick)

 

I know I've seen the last ep, but I don't think I was all looking for clues. I think I just thought - 'oh, they've decided not to do a dramatic / violent end 'cos that's what people would expect.'

 

Oh no wait that's the guy who went to the bathroom but there is a guy in a hat that looks just like Davey trying to hide his face kinda.

I still choose to believe they all left the restaurant and carried on with their night.

 

For me, it's Join The Club & Mayham, for all the Kevin Finnerty stuff; sure, there's some decent symbolism, but too much of it is a ponderous bore.

 

I thought the Members Only jacket guy was there as a misdirect, just like the two guys that walk in that Tony does look up at. If Tony got killed in that scene, I think it's by someone we didn't see either. If it happened there at all, it could be whoever opened the door at the very end... or obviously that could have just been Meadow, since she had finally successfully parked her car right before that. Overall, though, I think it's just as likely that they did all finish their dinner and go home. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter, because for Tony it really could just be a matter of time... minutes, hours, days. Who knows. It's actually kind of amazing that guys like Junior even survived to old age.

 

I think the bleakest ending is that life just goes on for him. Maybe his unhealthy lifestyle puts him in an early grave, maybe he gets whacked, maybe the FBI gets him. What does it matter at that point? He turned down every chance he had to get out; his coma was almost as though literal angels and demons or whatever were telling him he's going to hell. While I think Melfi is wrong about him being a complete sociopath, her crappy therapy did make him worse. His family is no better. Carmela and Meadow had opportunities to get better and they took the easy way, and by the end of the series AJ seems to be set on the same path. They're all sitting in the same booth trapped both by the choices people made for them and the choices they made themselves.

 

Well, at least they’re enjoying those onion rings.