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

I just went to a local model train show out here on Long Island. It was pretty spectacular (taking up the basement of a church), and among the highlights of it was the actual train set used in a memorable Sopranos episode. The episode itself had been filmed on Long Island at a train shop; and this set had eventually made its way back to LI after so many years.

Spoiler

 

The sadness when Bobby says that his son “isn’t interested” always gets to me; nobody in fact respected his model train hobby.

 

Finally watched the entire series over about a 2 1/2 month period about a year ago. (Did not have HBO went it first aired and literally had not seen a single entire episode until then--though I had seen clips of the last episode, so I definitely knew where it was all headed...!).

Loved, loved, loved it! What an amazing actor Gandolfini was. It was often mesmerizing just watching the range of different emotions he could portray so subtly and naturally.

 

Yes, but he never had the makings of a varsity athlete.

 

That's the last time I have Sunday dinner here!

 

I think the only reason I haven't started another rewatch is I can only take so much of the pure soap opera drama route they went with Furio who was legit one of the most bad ass characters in S2 and 3.

 

I mean half the point of the show is that all this macho posturing and self-proclaimed badassery is really just unhinged emotional repression and facilitated by dumb luck, so I liked the idea that Furio, who is definitely the closest to actually embodying the archetype the main characters aspire to, is “taken out” by something they would perceive as non-masculine, namely courtly love.

Mind you it also helps my opinion that Carmela is probably my favorite character after Tony and it’s really good material for her story.

 

I'd argue too that Richie Aprile comes close to that, maybe, out of all the characters born stateside, or at least the one who thinks of himself of that way ("I'm from the old school" ); also I'd argue he's the biggest ******* ever to appear on the show... he just oozes hate, etc.

 

Edit: Whoops, I was getting Richie and Ralph mixed up. Yeah Richie is definitely the closest - and we see exactly how that pans out domestically.

 

Yessss! Always felt that Benny ought to have been the trigger man there.