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

john eden

male pale and stale
I did rewatch the first series of the Sopranos recently though and it was wicked. I think that is the 3rd time for me.
 

linebaugh

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?
 

version

Well-known member
What about the show resonates with the moment?
The impression I get re: the "ultra hip online gestalt" is that it's part of the semi-ironic celebration of masculinity they've adopted out of spite/impatience with liberal identity politics. That and they just like to adopt contrarian positions and be on the outside. It's the same thing with them cheering on and enjoying Trump and Anna Khachiyan saying Paul Hollywood's the ideal man.
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
Thats probably it. The show itself also dealt with the ways middle america was to be excluded by/from oncoming liberal identity politics as an arm of the changing economic landscape.
 

version

Well-known member
It's also a good show, which helps. And it's old enough that it looks and feels different to what's available atm. You can throw late 90s/early 2000s nostalgia in the mix too.
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
theres a self awareness to it aswell. sometimes the show plays out in live action the italian memes that for whatever reason (probably a nostalgia thing- you see a fair amount of goodfellas memes) are popular

 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
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?

Its genius

It never defaults to any coked out Scorsese moves with editing, the humour is monumental, too many insanely insightful quotes, dream sequences, the day starting with Tony’s paper pick up and fridge dive and every major character being able to alchemically dance with whoever else is in a scene. It even has the grace to store the violence up for when its actually needed, plus every season has an antagonist - Richie, Ralphie, Tony B, NY simmering in the background. From the sacred to the propane

Not long until the prequel, quietly hoping it isn’t a turd as the trees start glowing scarlet and copper
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Saw someone* on fb saying that objectively Ralphie isn't morally any worse than the others, but I beg to differ.



*Joe Muggs in fact
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
Richie is a psychopath, Ralph is a sociopathic narcissist, Tony B an idiot with terrible luck and NY the reason for the hit
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
But also... most of them kill people cos it's that or go to prison or be killed yourself, but Ralphie beats that young girl to death for no reason... he burns the horse, he phones Paulie's mum pretending to be police and says that Paulie has been arrested for touching young boys. He's actively vindictive.
 

luka

Well-known member
not watched it. looks awful. and even if i did watch it i'd be determined to hate it just to upset you lot!
 

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.
 
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