The Sopranos: (how did I miss this for so long?)

I missed the later seasons (hard to follow HBO schedule). It's a great series, with tons of supporting characters. Pants does a superb job. My best early crush with this was Tony fighting with his sister, closing the door behind and smiling, cut to black, end of the episode.

Overall, there's a lot of good stuff.  In the middle of the series I thought they had some trouble seperating the wheat from the chaff, but once they decided the series was going to end (around the fifth season), it picks up a great deal. 

Schwartz is ready made for this thread. Is Sky channel a pay channel or they editing the crap out of the show? The edited version is good, but its worth seeing the show in all its R-rated glory.

 

I came late to the party as well. I started Season 1 when Season 3 or 4 was airing, but I blew through the DVDs in a few weekends. The show is ridiculously good, both in character development and plain old entertainment value. I'm partial to the earlier episodes because I love Tony's mom and the dynamic between them. And, the show moves into mob movie territory in the middle seasons, which aren't bad per se, but I like the quiet moments over the loud ones. The show doesn't provide any easy answers. Some characters are good people doing bad things, and others are freaking sociopaths (and don't deserve to be idolized). But in the end, it doesn't matter that these people are despicable, you care what happens to them anyway (and hopefully question your own morality for doing so). Glad you are on board. It's a fun ride!

I'm in the midst of my third (or so) pass through the series, about 4 episodes into season 5. The show ages like wine, and it's incredible the themes they were able to tie together from early seasons to late seasons. The sophistication of the filmmaking never ceases to amaze me either. I fucking love this show.

 

Present.  Although we do have a similar thread here.  These early episodes are fantastic, my only real issues being that Junior and Mikey are a tad more buffoonish/less threatening than later antagonists, and basically the whole episode "Isabella".  That's more than balanced out by the best material for Livia and Artie though, and the episode "College" (and "Nobody Knows Anything", and "I Dream Of Jeannie Cusamano").  I guess it's a little weird to watch the pilot now and see Gandolfini looking so (relatively) thin, or Adrianna and Silvio be introduced as bit players only to be rapidly retconned into major parts of the Sopranos lives, but why nitpick when everything else is so good?

People blacked out spoilers so its safe to peruse.

I marathoned the shit out of Sopranos when I picked up every season on DVD late last year. Just an amazing show, I actually kind of wish I'd seen it whilst it aired because I think the real passage of time might have made the latter seasons even better. It genuinely is an amazing show, it has a few misses, but it's consistently challenging, fascinating and morbidly entertaining. It's also remarkable in how unsentimental it is about its characters. It's a show with a very, very, dim view of humanity in general. 

They investigate virtually every angle and nuance of that particular relationship, and it results in some of the most rewarding moments of the show.

 

Lorraine Bracco won an Emmy for her performance in Season 3 (he said vaguely, without spoiling anything), and when you get to the episode in question, you'll know exactly WHY she earned it.

 

Funny thing -- have very recently been getting myself into a bit of a "Sopranos" headspace, and was thinking about marathoning the DVDs again sometime soon. Reading this thread just clinched it.

 

Goddammit.

 One of the best shows on mafia.