I watched every single episode of the sopranos in just over six weeks

sus

Well-known member
The show has had a kind of reemergence in the current ultra hip online gestalt, possibly relevant to the Brooklyn culture mafia.

When I started watching I was accused by a friend of copying 'the cool kids.'

What about the show resonates with the moment?
This is true! I think it's because the show is about masculine hierarchy, power, and the mainstreaming of therapy culture, and the prevailing takes on these topics are being examined
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
This is true! I think it's because the show is about masculine hierarchy, power, and the mainstreaming of therapy culture, and the prevailing takes on these topics are being examined
I'm on a second watch right now and ofc there is a questioning of therapy culture at the end of the series but even in the first season its clear that melfi is in part culpable from the beginning
 

sus

Well-known member
You know I've actually never seen it but I'll take your word for it! I should, one of these days. I was just watching White Lotus last
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
I was a little disappointed with white lotus but there were periods in that show where everything clicked perfectly. reminded me a little of twin peaks in those bits in the way it balanced all the overlapping interests and desires
 
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IdleRich

IdleRich
I love that scene when they are staying in a hotel and Tony goes past Paulie's room and he is laughing again and again like a total fucking idiot at some moronic comedy. In fact it's not LIKE an idiot, he is an idiot, a total simpleton, of course we know this already as by now there have been fifty odd episodes, but this hammers it home so hard how... childlike he is. I often enjoy this trope in films of fuckwitted killers and totally uncool hitmen.

I think it's a sort of antidote to the glamourisation of ninja type outsider assassins in countless films and books over the years. If you get killed by Paulie Walnuts you are just as dead as if you get killed by the most deadly James Bond super sexy Russian secret agent... and it just reminds you of the mundanity of murder or something.

I was reminded of that scene at a party the other day. This French girl we know; beautiful, sophisticated, wealthy etc hired this big place in the country for her birthday party. Loads of people there, mainly French I suppose, and I was chatting to this guy at one point, turned out to be her brother, also strikingly handsome and so on... when he realised I was English he wanted to talk about comedy, British comedy, specifically Little Britain - and he was quoting all these scenes at me and laughing and laughing going "It's so funny ho ho ho" - it was weird, it felt grotesque, I never really seen the thing but I get the impression that it's not something a grown man - let alone a Parisienne sophisticate - should be laughing and spluttering over like that to the point where he can't talk. From then on I could only think of him as a child in the body of a man.
I found this a truly odd experience I wanna say. I tried to describe it to a few people IRL but I don't feel I managed to really get to the heart of it. Not sure if the fault was mine or that of my audience.
Can't really tell if I am doing better here, but I trying, and I am making it explicit... the contrast between his apparent sophistication and his taste, his looks and his brains... and this vacant but persistent chuckling. I found it quite disturbing, as though some totally lifelike robot had unexpectedly - ie with no warning at all, no red light to say the CPU was dangerously close to overheating - malfunctioned and gone into a bizarre and terrifying loop.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I was a little disappointed with white lotus but there were periods in that show where everything clicked perfectly. reminded me a little of twin peaks in those bits in the way it balanced all the overlapping interests and desires
What's White Lotus?
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Least revealing trailer ever, I don't even know if it's a film or a series, got a vague idea it's a comedy about testicular cancer. Gonna look it up and try and learn more.
 

Leo

Well-known member
final season of "money heist" from Spain was just released. never heard of it before but been seeing lots of hype for the finale so started watching the first season. it's decent, more "ocean's 11" flash than dark and nerve-racking.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
final season of "money heist" from Spain was just released. never heard of it before but been seeing lots of hype for the finale so started watching the first season. it's decent, more "ocean's 11" flash than dark and nerve-racking.
First season is great.
 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I love that scene when they are staying in a hotel and Tony goes past Paulie's room and he is laughing again and again like a total fucking idiot at some moronic comedy. In fact it's not LIKE an idiot, he is an idiot, a total simpleton, of course we know this already as by now there have been fifty odd episodes, but this hammers it home so hard how... childlike he is. I often enjoy this trope in films of fuckwitted killers and totally uncool hitmen.

I think it's a sort of antidote to the glamourisation of ninja type outsider assassins in countless films and books over the years. If you get killed by Paulie Walnuts you are just as dead as if you get killed by the most deadly James Bond super sexy Russian secret agent... and it just reminds you of the mundanity of murder or something.

I was reminded of that scene at a party the other day. This French girl we know; beautiful, sophisticated, wealthy etc hired this big place in the country for her birthday party. Loads of people there, mainly French I suppose, and I was chatting to this guy at one point, turned out to be her brother, also strikingly handsome and so on... when he realised I was English he wanted to talk about comedy, British comedy, specifically Little Britain - and he was quoting all these scenes at me and laughing and laughing going "It's so funny ho ho ho" - it was weird, it felt grotesque, I never really seen the thing but I get the impression that it's not something a grown man - let alone a Parisienne sophisticate - should be laughing and spluttering over like that to the point where he can't talk. From then on I could only think of him as a child in the body of a man.
Did this encounter make you wonder if there were any French things you like (music, films, whatever) that you really like, that some French version of you - let's call him Riche Ouàlche - might consider hopelessly uncool and unsophisticated?

Or is such a thing intrinsically inconceivable?
 

sus

Well-known member
I was a little disappointed with white lotus but there were periods in that show where everything clicked perfectly. reminded me a little of twin peaks in those bits in the way it balanced all the overlapping interests and desires
What disappointed ya?
 

sus

Well-known member
Least revealing trailer ever, I don't even know if it's a film or a series, got a vague idea it's a comedy about testicular cancer. Gonna look it up and try and learn more.
You gotta piece together the vibes instead of looking for plot. Here's what the trailer shows us: wealthy white families, hypochondria (psychosomatic issues), status maneuvering, power relations between the black masseuse/spa therapist and her wealthy client, inappropriate boundary violations (the Dad telling his kids about the swollen testicles; the lady asking her masseuse to dinner). Wealthy white people being assholes. Politics of the service industry. Possessiveness, ownership, the way the wealthy and powerful are literally selected for possessiveness and ownership and grabbing things, taking things, using their power to keep control of other people.
 

sus

Well-known member
Once the structural conditions are in place, the plot becomes obvious:

The wealthy, white, powerful people will come in, make a mess, make their problem everyone else's, mess up the lives of the powerless service workers. Then they'll figure out how to get their happy ending—using power—and waltz into the sunset, leaving the mess they've made behind them.
 

luka

Well-known member
Once the structural conditions are in place, the plot becomes obvious:
The wealthy, white, powerful people will come in, make a mess, make their problem everyone else's, mess up the lives of the powerless service workers. Then they'll figure out how to get their happy ending—using power—and waltz into the sunset, leaving the mess they've made behind them.
wicked, dont have to bother watching this now
 

sus

Well-known member
I'm trying here Luka do you see my trying I'm trying

I don't belong here and I don't fit in, but I want to connect with the people anyway, build bonds of acquaintanceship, and I'm putting in an effort, you can't say I am'n't
 

luka

Well-known member
i was actually silently appreciating your work there i thought it was very clever but i didnt say so
 
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