I was super-disappointed with Season Six, or Season Six A, or whatever we're supposed to call it. And the first scene of tonight's episode -- a retcon! -- had me prepped to assume the worst. But the rest of the episode was fantastic; not as taught or striking as the show was at the very beginning, but still packing a great combination of drama and humor, a range of tones, etc. Now I'm excited for the rest of the season.
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Sopranos Returns
08 Apr 2007 09:57 pm
Comments (32)
The more I think about it, the more I think of how unbelieable season five was. Besides the narratives concerning mob issues, it had elements of everything, from soap opera to comedy to classic literary conflicts. It came back with such momentum after what most people felt was a disappointing fourth season that season six almost had to fall behind.
"What is it that everyone hated about season 6?"
Maybe it's just the fact that I watched it with a bunch of my conservative Republican college friends, but the amount of time spent on Vito's homosexuality was too much for some, and not just because it didn't always centrally relate to issues with the mob family. Then there's always the complaint that there wasn't enough action.
what are you talking about, the homosexuality was great. that's why heller made yossarian armenian (or assyrian or whatever) - he needed to indicate alienation, and jews were too assimilated at that point (or so says wikipedia). homosexuality worked perfectly for the same purpose.
I don't usually do this, but let me be the first to say: you mean taut.
Who the hell cares about the Sopranos? Where's the Entourage thread?
I nearly jumped out of my chair when Vince said to wait on the gay-ass Edith Wharton movie until Ari can get Medellin. Vince and Ari!
Hate to be a pedant here - and I haven't seen the ep yet, just assume you're referring to the opening bit about the gun - but the pejorative use of 'retcon' generally means an alteration of known past details. I'd be surprised if Chase et al. had decided the fate of the gun at the beginning, but there's tons of literary precedent for a 'What Tony - and the reader - didn't know is...' gesture without resorting to tacky turns of phrase like 'retcon.'
Dunno, it just irks me to see this terminology elevated above its pejorative use, leaving behind all its implied criticisms of the sloppy, ill-conceived, unbelievably tiresome 'classic' comic books.
I loved Season 6. But I missed last night's premiere. Does anyone know how I can get my hands on (download?) a (legal) copy? Is HBO having a re-air any time this week?
Wax Banks is right. It's not a retcon.
"What is it that everyone hated about season 6?"
Backlash against the hype.
Years of idiots praising the show eventually turns some smart folks irrationally away from the show's merits.
Wax, McBain, click on the link. This kind of "additive," non-contradictory story alteration is an accepted use of the word retcon (and is, in fact, the context in which the word was coined (which I didn't know)). Alan Moore's Swamp Thing retcon being a famous example.
"This kind of "additive," non-contradictory story alteration is an accepted use of the word retcon"
Sure. For overinvolved fan-boys, at least.
For the rest of us, the older word "flashback" serves far better in such circumstances.
with a history of not heeding television conventions, the current show can create a strange tension that would be impossible on other shows -- what to make of the story of the kid who ends up in the swimming pool -- what in another show would be obvious foreshadowing -- for example?
Obviously this makes it more difficult to figure out where we are going, but my guess is that the story arc is about Meadow's perception of the family and the family business. Anyone else?
"Obviously this makes it more difficult to figure out where we are going, but my guess is that the story arc is about Meadow's perception of the family and the family business. Anyone else?"
Quite obviously, the show will conclude by revealing that the previous six seasons were all a hallucination by Little Steven during a drug overdose one night while on tour with Bruce Springsteen.
Van Zandt dreamed that he was an actor on a popular TV show, and that fever dream is what we've all been watching.
I mean, that should have been obvious to everyone since Season 2 or 3, no?
Petey - great call, although I am having trouble fitting the Season 6A dream sequences into that framework.
...and wouldn't there have been at least one appearance by Clarence Clemons.
Actually, now that I think about it, Petey, I do not find the Little Steven threory all that likely.
"wouldn't there have been at least one appearance by Clarence Clemons."
The episode Unidentified Black Males was all about The Big Man.
Jeez. I really didn't think this stuff needed any explanation.
What is it that everyone hated about season 6?
1) Too little Melfi. Remember when the therapy sessions were the centrepiece of the show, how they were the thing that made this different from the bog-standard gangster narrative?
2) Tony in a coma. The quasi-prophetic dreams are good for a scene or two every season. They're not enough to sustain multiple episodes, though.
3) Vito. It was an interesting sideplot, but the show's nominally about how Tony deals with his families, and for every 4 minutes of Vito eating johnny cakes, we got maybe one of Tony dealing with the issue. And even then it was usually someone sitting down with him and saying "Hey, this Vito thing concerns me." and Tony reacting. It seems they were trying to use this to further illustrate how T's near-death experience made him seriously consider the value and wonder of life, and that could be an interesting handicap/experience for a mob boss, but it didn't really pay off on this one.
4) AJ "growing up" had a lot of potential, but it was severely rushed. I have the feeling the writers wanted to do more with this but didn't think Robert Iler was a strong enough actor to carry the plot.
5) Very little tension on the mob stories, and what tension there was tended to dissipate quick. Tony's underlings are jockeying to replace him! No, wait, now they're not. Christopher is a loose cannon again! No, wait, now he's not. Tony has beef with New York! No, wait, now he doesn't.
"Very little tension on the mob stories, and what tension there was tended to dissipate quick."
It's always amazing to me how fixated on plot development less sophisticated audiences of movies and TV inevitably are.
I recently caught the wonderful movie, L'Enfant, and after seeing it, went to read the reviews. This one seemed to encapsulate the "Where's the plot?" cluelessness that never fails to amaze me.
Petey, are you serious? I ask not to be a dick, but because you've got some sarcastic posts in this thread, and castgating audiences as "less sophisticated" for insisting on plot and holding up French cinema as a superior alternative - that could go either way.
"Petey, are you serious?"
Quite. Plot is not why I watch The Sopranos.
"castgating audiences as "less sophisticated" for insisting on plot and holding up French cinema as a superior alternative - that could go either way."
I'm one of those annoying cineastes who actually thinks Jerry Lewis is a genius.
Since when is it "sophisticated" to disregard an absence of plot development?
Some of us are sophisticated enough to notice that nothing's happening other than navel gazing.
Petey,
just curious -- what are your thoughts on A Thin Red Line?
"just curious -- what are your thoughts on A Thin Red Line?"
While I thought sections of it were very nice, on the whole I couldn't really get into it. But there are two important caveats:
- I stupidly missed seeing it in the theater, and it's very much the kind of movie that plays better in the theater.
- I'm a lousy audience for war movies. It's the one genre I really have a bias against.
But to your point, I thought Malick's most recent outing, The New World, was incredibly good - it being a weakly plotted movie much like A Thin Red Line...
What is it with you Yanks and the pronunciation of "Canucks"
It's not Can-nooks, it's Can-rhymes with pucks
Anyhow, the seeming ease with which Bobby crossed the border into Canada (with a gun?) with his extensive criminal record doesn't ring true - unless he had excellent phony ID, he would have been turned away. I guess there is the possibility that they sneaked him in using Native land on the border but that should have been spelled out.
Anybody notice that just as Tony dropped his gun at the beginning of the episode, Bobby dropped his gun after carrying out the hit in Canada? Wonder what's up with that...Could this be a set up for a story-line where Bobby gets connected to the hit and then decides to rat on Tony???
"It's really a remarkable show. It makes The Wire, (which I truly love), look primitive."
I think you have that backwards ...
The gun dropping thing is old line technique; remember M. Corleone dropped the gun after killing Sollozzo and Police Commissioner McCluskey, as Clemenza had carefully instructed, presumably to avoid being caught with the gun once you've cleared the scene. Quick wipe to clear the prints, and out.
Now, that was in pre-DNA days, so one would assume it doesn't make sense anymore ...
The Sopranos at its best is great television, but it's a woefully inconsistent show. Some episodes just plain suck. There's nothing especially sophisticated about weak plotting; rather, it's the result of a lack of ideas. David Chase never intended the show to go this long, but the lure of syndication money kept him going long after he'd run out of steam. The best thing about last night's episode was the lack of Dr. Melfi. She's the Useless Counselor Troi of the Sopranos.
Better than the Sopranos is Showtime's Brotherhood, about Irish mobsters and mobster-like pols in Rhode Island. All the stuff you like about the Sopranos with the added novelties of plot lines, narrative arcs, etc. Plus, it's got Anabeth Gish sporting a wicked New England accent.
Petey --
"It's really a remarkable show. It makes The Wire, (which I truly love), look primitive."
The Wire is primitive because it's about brothers? Is that what you mean, you racist fuck?
The Wire is the best thing on television, but even at this late date The Sopranos still packs a punch.
I think 6A was clearly prelude to what's to come and the last episode there (in which Tony continually acts with enlightened self-interest) includes the only commentary from Dr. Melfi in some time that's been of much importance. Season 6 began with a made man trying to get Tony to let him retire to Florida and was almost entirely about people trying to find a way to live a different life. So far, no one has found a way and most have stopped trying. It looked for an episode or so like Vito might, but then he couldn't stay away and Tony's ambivalence wasn't protection enough. In the last episode of 6A, Dr. Melfi tells Tony how she expected his story about his nephew to turn out and last night Janis, of all people, tells Tony he's changed, but won't answer his inquiry as to how and more than once after that conversation worries that the change won't last. But it does. The question though is can a man who does what Tony does live a different life by acting with enlightened self-interest or will this only result in his being brought down by the now more ruthless predators who inhabit the same societal niche. I don't think there's much question as to what Chase's answer is going to be.
As a rule those who were least remarkable for intelligence showed the greater powers of survival. Such people recognized their own deficiencies and the superior intelligence of their opponents; fearing that they might lose a debate or find themselves out-maneuvered in intrigue by their quick-witted enemies, they boldly launched straight into action; while their opponents, over-confident in the belief that they would see what was happening in advance, and not thinking it necessary to seize by force what they could secure by policy, were the more easily destroyed because they were off their guard.
—Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
"The Wire is primitive because it's about brothers? Is that what you mean, you racist fuck?"
You've got a twisted mind, Tyrone. Go Cheney yourself.
Comments closed April 22, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
I never understood the disappointment with Season 6. Perhaps not the best season of the show's pretty impressive run, but still better than pretty much everything on television. What is it that everyone hated about season 6?
Posted by Eric the Political Hack | April 8, 2007 10:37 PM