One of my favorite book series as a kid. Can't wait to see how they fuck it up.
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I, for one, want to herald the return of Molly Shannon. In both The White Lotus and The Other Two she completely embodies the characters, which aren't very dissimilar (her major fault is being Molly Shannon) but manage to save otherwise merely above average series.
Anyone see German show 'Dark?' Caught season 1 and it's pretty fab, especially if you dig time travel.
So um nobody judge me, but I just found out about the game show Moment of Truth and I'm obsessed with it. Does anyone remember it? 2008-09 on Fox I think. The most diabolical show I've ever seen. Pure evil. It's enthralling.
Since May of last year, I'd been watching The Sopranos on-and-off, and finally finished it yesterday.
The show is generally great, but I think my biggest, though still small, hindrance is having watched and loved Mad Men first. Despite being a supposedly more "boring" milieu, my feeling is that Matthew Weiner took what he learned from this, and then honed and sharpened the short-story-collection approach to near-perfection with his own show, without The Sopranos' occasional, but still more frequent, minor missteps (for example, I find the resolution of Tony/Melfi arc good, but the way Peter Bogdanovich's character is used as the catalyst a tad contrived and over the top for the show). Similarities abound, including dream sequences and parallel of characters (searching around doesn't find much so this may be a minority opinion, but to me AJ Soprano at times feel like a springboard for Glenn Bishop), so my feeling of comparison throughout the show is bit unavoidable.
As said though, still love it. The comparison just means that I find this an A- show, to Mad Men's A one. And this feels truly like a great, innovative series for the medium moving forwards. I also love the series finale better; James Gandolfini and Tony Soprano are one of the best marriage of character and actor ever, and remain unmatched; and the show may have a deeper bench of memorable, distinctive characters/actors more than any show ever. Like, one reason that Carmela seems to never get the misogynistic feedback many of her successors like Betty and Skyler receive is the way the show situated the character within this environment, and for Falco's fiercely empathic performance (she is the best at conveying her character feeling upset so much that we feel it along with her).
Seasons ranking:
5
6B
3
4
1
6A
2
(3 and 4 are borderline equal though; along with 6B, 3 may be the most consistent season, while 4 has the incredible second half to compensate for its first weaker one)
Top 10 favorite episodes (top 2 are definite fixes, while it's a bit of crapshoot ranking the rest; could have swapped one out for "Army of One" (3.13)) :
1. Whitecaps (4.13)
2. Long Term Parking (5.12)
3. Pine Barrens (3.11)
4. The Blue Comet (6.20)
5. Made in America (6.21)
6. I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano (1.13)
7. Irregular Around the Margins (5.05)
8. Mr. and Mrs. Sacramoni Request (6.05)
9. Whoever Did This (4.09)
10. The Second Coming (6.19)
Also, glad to see that even in the series finale, the comedy of AJ continues undefeated lmao
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Probably the best show of all time in my opinion, and there's certainly flaws. How could you not in 6 (7 seasons)? I feel like the show realized that Robert Iler was just a terrible actor and avoided any chance of him making things worse.
Interesting to discuss how Carmela Soprano doesn't get the feedback that other characters did. My own thinking is because she accepted it rather than pushback, until it affected her personally and directly. Whether it was feedback within her social circle, hearing someone over the phone, not getting a lawyer, or the results of her house... Otherwise, she was quite comfortable in her house and lifestyle.
Woah...
Just saw an ad for the new season of American Crime Story starring Beanie Feldstein as Monica Lewinsky. I don't have a hot take except I was shocked.
I think Peng was talking about Carmela not getting external pushback from viewers, rather than the internal kind from other characters within the show. At any rate, I still think the most likely explanation for the lack of sexism directed at Carmela is that the show ended before the rise of the modern online "manosphere" in the 2010's, which (to call back to another recent discussion) is also the reason why I feel the empowerment of women in the Lord Of The Rings movies didn't attract much "significant commentary" back in the early 2000's; but, just because a movie or a show is released during a time when misogyny is less visible doesn't mean that it doesn't exist anymore, or that the portrayal of empowered women in fiction doesn't inherently threaten the remaining patriarchy, because they do simply by virtue of existing. I mean, it's why Rey and the other women/people of color in the new Star Wars trilogy got as much sexist/racist blowback as they did, even though they came out in a time when culture had advanced somewhat in its portrayal of those groups.
I almost gave up on The Sopranos during season 4 (the one after 9/11). I thought it was awful for the most part - it finally got watchable right about the time I was about to give up. Season 3 is the best. I probably mentioned this before but the scenes in the Sopranos household throughout the series are always overlit reminding me of episodes of Roseanne. I think they had a low budget in the first season but decided to keep the same look for successive seasons. I have not watched Mad Men.
Game of Thrones?????????????????
Grey's Anatomy?
The Big Bang Theory?
The Shield and Hannibal that low?
Only four animated series?
No Sopranos!
Just avoid the replies.
Watched the first episode of The Wheel of Time - looks really good so far!