tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10506214.post1081818330890777572..comments2024-01-23T13:41:41.463-05:00Comments on The Forager Blog: TV Chat: The SopranosJon Hastingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01030406521787423155noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10506214.post-26841367020592214482009-10-29T04:17:33.997-04:002009-10-29T04:17:33.997-04:00I totally agree with you that the second half was ...I totally agree with you that the second half was better than the first.In particular season1 of the show has some technical errors but you cant really spot them when you <a href="http://sopranos.download-tvshows.com/" rel="nofollow">watch sopranos season</a> 1.But after this season the show has really picked a nice pace.jsalexandrahttp://sopranos.download-tvshows.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10506214.post-90162045142522309192007-04-09T18:50:00.000-04:002007-04-09T18:50:00.000-04:00The thing with Ralphie is that he seems to me to b...The thing with Ralphie is that he seems to me to be the show's example of a character who is much worse than Tony's central crew. The point the show makes about Ralphie is that his beating of the woman <I>to death</I> is gratuitous. Though Tony (barely) puts up with him for a while, I knew (as did most people watching the show) that eventually he'd be "whacked" - i.e., he beats a woman to death, but eventually he gets his.<BR/><BR/>The show has had a bunch of these characters, who seem to be there partly to set off the main characters as "not being so bad" considering (i.e. "at least Paulie is no Ralphie").<BR/><BR/>This might be a completely personal thing, but my low point with the show was after Sylvio murdered Adriana and a friend of mine (who liked the show a lot) talked, non-ironically, about her "deserving what she got". I don't really think that the show's creators saw it <I>that</I> simply (rather, we were probably supposed to see that she was playing with fire all along...), but there's a way that they, to a certain extent, seemed to buy into a lot of the macho, code-of-honor bullshit.<BR/><BR/>But Season 6 seems to me (so far) to be a bit more clear-eyed: I especially like the emphasis on (and criticism of) the whole "alpha male" thing: that to stay in charge it's as important for Tony to be top thug as it is for him to be a Machiavellian plotter.<BR/><BR/>Part of my issue with the show is that it mixes the black humor of <I>Goodfellas</I> and <I>Casino</I> with the family dynasty tragedy of <I>The Godfather</I>, and those things don't always work well together. <I>Goodfellas</I> and <I>Casino</I> work partly because we're distanced from the criminal characters: I don't think were meant to <I>care</I> about them the way we're meant to care about Michael Corleone's descent into the abyss. brother killed. This is partly because Henry Hill is a pretty amoral (sociopathic?) character: he's always (and only) out for himself. Michael is (much) more complex: he's driven by a desire to protect his family and keep it strong, but tragically/ironically he ends up destroying it.<BR/><BR/>Part of the strength of <I>The Sopranos</I> is that it <I>does</I> try to mix these things together: as opposed to a show like <I>The Wire</I>, which stylistically/tonally is all-of-a-piece, <I>The Sopranos</I> is much more like a Gothic cathedral - there's an overarching pattern, but, episode-by-episode there's a lot of room for variation. However, I think this has also led to the pandering I talked about in my original post.<BR/><BR/>But I definitely have <I>mixed</I> feelings: I think that it is ingenuous for the show's supporters to deny that the show <I>has</I> pandered to its "Bro" audience. At the same time, the show, as a whole, is so good that I'd never condemn it in toto for its attempts to please <I>all</I> of its audience, even if those attempts make it hard for me to take sometimes.Jon Hastingshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01030406521787423155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10506214.post-65295769781474837862007-04-07T14:06:00.000-04:002007-04-07T14:06:00.000-04:00Oh dear, I meant Season Three. I get my Ralphie se...Oh dear, I meant Season Three. I get my Ralphie seasons mixed up.<BR/><BR/>--<A HREF="http://www.alltooflat.com/about/personal/sean" REL="nofollow">Sean</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10506214.post-48876082208814364922007-04-06T18:25:00.000-04:002007-04-06T18:25:00.000-04:00Jon, I actually think the turning point for the sh...Jon, I actually think the turning point for the show from "funny bad guys" to "Jesus Christ, that's awful" was Season Four, specifically the "University" episode during which Ralphie beat his pregnant young stripper girlfriend to death. I think Chase has said that in that ep in particular, but elsewhere as well, he's gone out of his way to make the point that these are not the proverbial hookers with hearts of gold.<BR/><BR/>--<A HREF="http://www.alltooflat.com/about/personal/sean" REL="nofollow">Sean</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com