I think one of the best hot takes is that it’s heavily implied that Phil Leotardo did in fact do 20 years in the can, however it’s not verbally mentioned.
Yup, and it's also on Chrissie for not properly training her in how to handle the cops. Despite Ade being connected to the mafia, she was never properly taught on how to deal with things like the FBI.
I think Vito's death is less about his sexuality and more about the allure of the gangster lifestyle and the price you pay to participate. Vito was obviously wrong to bail on his family but he still ultimately managed to do what Carmine Jr had done which is to successfully get away from the lifestyle. Eugene wasn't allowed to leave, Christopher was too afraid to leave but Vito actually had a chance. Instead, he chose to go back
like Ugly Face Andre in The Wire, he doesn't know anything outside of his town and ends up just getting back in. Vito actually had a chance at getting away because of his money but he had nothing going for him outside. He couldn't even work a normal job because he was used to people working for him.
Also, for Phil it was less about Vito being gay and more about him still being mad about Blundetto killing Billy and Phil still wanting to kill a Sopranos family associate himself as revenge. Tony S took his chance to kill Tony B so he used the gay thing as an excuse to get his revenge by killing Vito.
Phil was allegedly in the joint for _20 years_. He wasn’t just jerking off into a sock that whole time. His homophobia was very real and like most homophobia, it was about his own self-loathing.
The dream sequences in this show are so well done. In most shows they seem to be used as bait or to show what could have happened but the sopranos uses them so well that it's justified.
I didn’t even realise how common it was for people to hate Melfi and her scenes, I see her as a vital character in the show and their scenes are just as much about her character development as Tony’s, especially when she doesn’t tell him anything in Employee of the Month
I found the Melfi scenes a lot less interesting on a rewatch. Theyre very good the first time through, but knowing that they dont really amount to anything for Tonys growth as a character makes them feel a little pointless on a rewatch. Theyre also almost always a 1v1 scene so you don't get any new dynamics there.
@@teksnotdead902that’s not true. Tony indeed gets worse and utilizes the therapy to his advantage as a criminal. He’s not just an immovable rock. he does do a lot of steps forward and then steps back. But what would you expect? The therapy to actually work?? I don’t even know how that could possibly look like. It’s all about nuance and depth, and Melfi scenes are a crucial way to amplify the complexity of the show. It’s crazy that anyone would dislike it to me
@@opaljk4835 I don’t dislike them, but they only apply to Tony and Melfi. I get so much more out of group scenes at the Bing or in the Soprano household. The therapy scenes are kind of on an island in a way.
The psychological approach to the story and characters is what sets the Sopranos apart from other mob movies / shows. It's practically the selling point of the whole thing and Melfi is one of the biggest parts of that point.
I loved season 1 because of the power struggle between Corrado and Tony. Season 1 was probably my favorite season, and I know this is blasphemous but the back half of season 6 is probably my least favorite.
@@AnneHathawayRules Yeah I thought season 1 was peak Junior for sure. Season 5 and 2nd half of six were when the show was most dark and least rewatchable for me for sure.
I actually saw some people reacting to the show saying "wait what he was an interior decorator" like wait are you serious right now can you really not infer what that means 😅😅
24:08 I think this scene implies Vito can quickly identify the most expensive item not because he's a good decorator, but due to his skills as a criminal--i.e. casing. No matter how far Vito flees from New Jersey, he's unable to escape his criminal past and is ultimately undone by its allure.
I always thought the whole thing was so hilarious. Tony basically had Junior's top 2 guys killed. Mikey Palmice and Chucky Signore. But he gets so pissed when Junior questions his athleticism.
I think the Vito gay storyline is more about how the mafia, a very old traditional organization, deals with things in the modern age. It's going back to one of the central themes of the show of a declining mob in a modern world. If the show continued into the 2010s and 2020s, you would have the mob having to navigate other emerging issues. Could you imagine the glorified crew during COVID, arguing about masks, CDC regulations, and vaccines 😂
The one criticism that Many Saints of Newark gets that I don’t agree with is that they “ruined it by making it woke.” Like it wasn’t good, but if you’re a genuine sopranos fan, you love a show that has subplots about a gay mobster, interracial dating, drug abuse, toxic masculinity and toxic femininity, and has an over-arcing story about a mob boss who seeks therapy. Sopranos was covering social issues long before woke was even a thing.
Lmao implying the lawyer wouldn't want you to sign shit without his knowledge. He gets paid even more due to having to drag shit out in court. Imagine thinking attorneys are your friends or are looking out for you lololol and not leeches&ticks looking to suck you dry.
@@Yostubathis is something an elementary schooler would think. If you get involved with the feds and either die or get locked up your lawyer aint getting a piece of your wallet ever again. You think they go through all the hoops to become a lawyer just to lose customers?
I think people also misunderstand that to the family in regards to Adrianna, if she did go to them about the FBI they would likely have wacked her anyways.
Agree with Nate, first of all the Matoosh situation was like wtf ... why would u hide that from your husband, that's so odd, but also the second she knows her bff is FBI, you go to Chrissy, and he goes to Tony and at that point Adrianna would only be seen as a dumb@ss instead of a rat, and the situation coulda been saved.
@@Bobby.B619 Are you kidding me? These mob guys whack people for inconveniencing them the slightest bit. Remember Christopher and Paulie with the waiter? Vito and that random civilian asking to get insurance involved? There was a very real possibility Tony especially would have killed her just for being so naive and stupid she'd let a literal undercover employee of the government into his home, never mind get so close to her that she learns things about Christopher. He'd do it just to cover the lawyer fees he'd need to cover for her alone probably. She was fucked either way. The stupid thing was trusting her addict, unloyal and abusive idiot fiancé.
I'm not 100 percent sure about that. Look at Feech, Tony B, Uncle Philly, Angelo, Richie - all these guys who did long bids in the can several decades (20 years for Phil). There's a code that if you get caught, you clam up, you don't rat on your fellow mobsters to save your ass and do less time, and when you get out, they welcome you back and take care of you. So I think in Ade's case if she went to Tony, he probably would have coached her through it. Her situation was different because the Feds planted an undercover spy posing as a friend, so she feared it already looked like she was working with them when she didn't know. But at that point she hadn't given them anything, she tells Tony they tricked me, they had this agent pretend to be my friend, I had no idea, I'm sorry I brought her to your house I didn't know I didn't tell her anything...I think Tony advises her to just shut up, do a short bid on the drug charges and they welcome her back as a hero. The Feds took advantage of Ade's naivete. She should have lawyered up.
My hot takes: #1 - Uncle Philly was too modest about his time in the can. Hardly ever spoke about it. How much time did he do again? #2 - Ginny Sack was the hottest babe in the entire series. I'd totally hit that. I'm not joking either. You know she gets down and dirty between the sheets if Johnny Sack is willing to commit murder for her honor. In fact, I'm pretty sure that after Tony dies, Carmela flies to Italy to finally pledge her love to Furio only to find Ginny beat her to it and she and Furio are furiously banging. #3 - The show ended too early and needed more seasons. I would have liked to see more about Carmella and the kids eventually coming to terms with their complicity with Tony's mob life. Was there ever something that Tony could do that was so bad that it would motivate Carm to walk out the door and live the life of a simply Denny's waitress in a crappy little apartment? Was Meadow on her way to becoming a clueless mob wife like her mother as well as a crooked mob lawyer or would she see the light? Was AJ going to become a movie producer under Little Carmine's subspecies? I do think AJ out of anyone had the best chance of going legit and getting out of the mob life. #4 - I don't think Paulie helped get Tony killed but he most likely took over NJ as a sort of regional manager reporting directly to NYC. NJ basically gets absorbed as an NYC mob subdivision. #5 - Sil only fired a warning shot that landed on the ground next to Ade's head to warn her against ratting then put her on a plane to Fiji. She's fine and now married to another man with a big nose because she has the hots for men with big noses but this one is a lot nicer to her and doesnt beat her.
#6 - After Tony dies, Artie is killed by Benny Fazio, Criminal Mastermind because Artie no longer has Tony's protection. #7 - I didn't like the way Chrissy went out. One of the best characters in the series and he dies because of Kennedy and Heidi? BTW Heidi was a hit girl in the employ of Uncle Philly. #8 - The racoon that Tony swerved to avoid hitting and ended up in a big crash was also a hit varmint in the employ of Uncle Philly #9 - The vipers killed Tony. Payback for the wine he stole. #10 - Or possibly Georgie did it because of all the unnecessary beatings Tony gave him
I think Tony Blundetto would have worked perfectly if there was more setup for him. Imagine if they had Buchemi in for a couple episodes of season 2, he gets pinched but then he gets out for season 5 as a changed man, although he kept the code. Ofc you can't plan stuff like that, but my biggest issue was just that suddenly Tony had a new, very important family member, basically a brother, that we had never heard of and nobody had mentioned before.
I never thought the show was meant to be liberal or conservative, I view it as a depiction in the mind of a bunch of corrupt guys in the mafia that NO ONE is supposed to ‘agree’ with.
Same here. To me Sopranos is almost like South Park in the sense that it shits on everyone and thus no one gets a pass from the show's nihilistic outlook. If the show makes any general judgement then perhaps it says that the older generations were (technically) superior to the modern ones, at least within the confines of the mafia's circle. I say that because the two best and most universally agreed on bosses in the show are Carmine Senior and Jackie Aprile who were mostly stoic, pragmatic and intelligent, while everyone else who followed in their footsteps was a neurotic mess. That's also why I don't agree with the common "toxic masculinity" arguement because if it actually were in effect then previous bosses such as those two should be even worse than their replacements. That and Janice is supposed to be a feminist but she's as much of a hypocrite as her brother, in addition Livia exists as an irradiated origin point of narcissism which would go on to infect all others in her family. So even there the show doesn't take any one side. But getting back to the bosses, on the other hand such characters are balanced by the remaining ones like Junior, both of Tony's parents, arguably Bobby's father who was a psycho, etc. So overall even that (debatable) point I initially brought up is flimsy at best. Ultimately, the only apparent point the Sopranos makes is that almost all people are selfish scumbags, that life sucks until you turn yourself into a sociopath (then it's merely bearable), and that eventually it all ends in a random and arbitrary manner.
It's neither. It's a leftist show, leftists hate both liberals and conservatives because, like it or not, both are right wing ideas. Most of the shows people see as center that laughs at both sides are actually leftists laughing at liberals and conservatives, but americans don't see it because they think liberals are in the left. Maybe this is gonna blow americans minds, but yes, liberals are right wing, and the left is almost non existant politically. For most of the world, America is a nutjob far right country that's a couple of steps away from military dictatorship.
Yea it’s not liberal. It just depicts a group of conservative guys and shows how their conservative views are outdated and don’t work. Jokes aside, I think you’re reacting this way because of the modern connotation to the word “liberal”. It’s pretty obvious that the show is critiquing conservative viewpoints.
The Vito being gay story was absolutely important. It’s a big detractor to the idea that the mafia provides a glamorous lifestyle. The mafia has a very specific set of norms that if someone associated with them deviates from, they don’t just ostracize that person. They kill that person. Tony almost got killed for seeing a psychiatrist. And he would’ve in the real mafia. It just shows the viewer how many liberal freedoms they have by not being in the mafia.
Well, it was more because Phil thought he was disrespecting his family because Vito was cheating on his wife (Phil’s sister) with men. It wasn’t just because he was gay, but I can see were you’re coming from
@@the2theonly672Bruh everyone cheats on their wife in this show, no one has an issue with doing that in the mafia but johnny sack. Every time they refer to Vito they call him a faggot, when Phil is talking about clipping Tony one of his reasons is that he “harbored a faggot”. The ENTIRE point of contention is that he likes men. Phil just mentions the family part to add salt to the wound
@@the2theonly672 there was also some self loathing mixed in there. There are several lines that could hint to Phil having gay interactions while he was in jail. Even David Chase himself said that Phil was battling with some closeted issues, although he was never self aware enough to realize it himself
The dream sequence take irked me. Those were by far some of my favorite episodes. They truly depicted how fever dreams feel while also showing the inflection of Tony’s alternate dream life versus his own.
Anyone who dislike the dream scenes can accurstely be categorized as bozos. If I’m having a convo about the show and the person say this, I immediately dismiss eveeything they’ve said and what they will say.
Pine barrens is not a good intro to the Sopranos cause it's not reflective of the show. It's a gag episode about supporting characters that only works so well because we alrdy love the characters by the time we get to it
I saw another video that said Phil was so focused on killing Vito because Phil himself was on the DL in prison. In the scene in the room where Vito is killed, you see Phil tightly gripping the edges of the bed as if it was something Phil was hiding inside.
I agree! I saw some theories that Phill needs to kill and beat Vito so that it can justify any homosexual activities he may have been doing while in prison. It’s for sure just a theory but it’s super interesting and really makes you dive deeper into these great characters!
Season 1 has a good stand alone episode. It's the one Breaking Bad copies a shot from, College. I also believe it is Tony's first on-screen kill, and I think David Chase likes it as a stand alone/short film
As out of place as dreams may be in the genre, I feel like it is used purposefully to show more inside the character's heads, what haunts them, some things they leave out if they discuss them with others. Especially since the audience is already observing the actors express with the character both their overt words, the reason they choose these words and what their motives are, the secrets they hide from other characters and fail to hide from themselves, it's a lot they give you. I feel like the dreams don't exploit the fake-out too much or without clues
The Vito question I think is important because it is actually very much essential to Tony's development through the series, indirectly. We see through Vito what Tony struggles with, longing to be a person free of the convictions he's long lived with, the shit he's been born into, and obviously going into what is for him forbidden territory. For Vito, this was embracing his homosexuality. For Tony, as we saw following his recovery from the gunshot and initially embracing the "each day's a gift" inclination, it was trying to be a man with more humanity than was compatible with his role in life, that of a ruthless gangster, and we all saw which tendency won out in the end. The Vito arc is a variation on a theme of the show, this struggle between who one is and who one could be, and how that can very much be a matter of life and death.
I have a hot take. People who think season 5 is weak, Tony Blundetto is a bad character, and/or don’t like or see the need for the dream sequences completely miss the entire point of the show and would probably be better off watching Marvel movies on an endless loop. These are probably the same people who, when the show was on its original run, complained whenever there weren’t enough people being whacked.
I always liked Tony B but I didn't like the dream episode when I was young - the one where Tony dreams he's like a law abiding salesman or something. Now that I'm older I realize the point was to show that while Tony wishes he'd never been drawn into the mafia life so he wouldnt have all these problems, he probably would have a lot of problems as a civilian anyway, he'd cheat on his wife and overeat and be depressed and unhappy etc.
You're so real for giving love to Adriana and Carmella, I find a lot of these shows with the lead being super masculine or badass ( or being perceived as such ) their women counterparts are always blamed for taking away from that somehow. I think it's hilarious to say Adriana deserved what she got when we were shown time and time again how much she valued Christopher and their relationship and how he only treated her worse as the seasons went on. Kinda scary people can sit through all that and still be on the side of "she deserved it" love your takes Kino!!!
The writers set it up so that Ade was put into a position where she felt had no choice but to cooperate with the FBI to help Chrissy. Otherwise, she would not have done it and would have accepted jail time to avoid it. Keep in mind as much as they rail against rats - any of those guys - Tony, Chrissy, Paulie, etc would totally turn rat to spare themselves time in the can. Sil is the only one who I think would not rat and take can time like a man.
Just subscribed after watching this video. Pretty refreshing to hear such an educated and level-headed approach to this show. I think you hit a very important point about the show's overall approach to plot--it's why we never really get a great picture of the mob structure except when a piece of it was relevant to that episode's story. Regarding season 1, though, it established key themes--especially the family drama (larger than the mob drama/action) and Tony being an immoral guy.
Carmela was terrible, she was unremarkable and acted like she was better then others, also she keeps trying to convince herself that she's a good person, she lives her life in splendor from money that people literally died because of.
Just rewatched Sopranos HBO reran this January 2024 and I realized that Carmelo was a total witch. Watching it 25 years later with different eyes and some life lessons on the way.
After watching The Many Saints of Newark, I have to agree with you. Terrence Winter, Matthew Weiner, Robin Green and Mitch Burgess were the strongest writers on the staff.
Speaking as someone who hates dream sequences in most things, the dream sequences in The Sopranos are some of my favourite scenes in any show or movie period. The key difference between dreams in The Sopranos and dreams in 99% of other media is that The Sopranos doesn't use dreams as lazy excuse to do something shocking to grab the audience only to then avoid the dramatic consequences, which is what most shows and movies do, and it's just cheap drama. The Sopranos is different, as it exclusively uses dreams to give insight on Tony as a character, a window into Tony's subconscious, with those insights then actually carrying over into the real drama of the show once Tony wakes up (e.g. Tony coming to accept that Puss is a rat or that Blundetto's suspicious behaviour is inevitably leading to something too big to ignore, just to name a few). Also, with very few and brief exceptions which in-context break the following rule with good reason, the dreams are always very explicitly established to be dreams through clever visuals and even using distinctly different editing and cinematography from how the show is usually presented, so the audience is "in on it" and not being tricked for shock value. If The Sopranos had lesser writers and directors, we would have got dreams where all of Tony's family get killed off and ones of Tony killing Christopher or Puss, editied and presented like any other scene, only to suddenly cut to Tony waking up, thus undoing the drama and undermining the potential dramatic weight scenes that that could have had otherwise. Imagine how much LESS of an impact Christopher's death would have had if Tony had dreamt about doing it prior to the episode where it actually happens. That's the kind of lazy drama most shows/movies use dreams for, but The Sopranos NEVER did that, instead always using dreams to show meaningful and lasting character insight. That's why the dream sequences in The Sopranos work and are not the lazy writing crutch they tend to be in other stuff.
Fun fact I read: Phil actually only mentions being in prison for 20 years, 3 times in the show. He was in 30 episodes so its actually only 0.1 times per episode. Now he does mention prison a couple more times in conversation, but not the 20 years part. For example "When I was in the can, my kid brother Billy took care of Paddy and the grandkids" or “he’s never been in the can, not really”
There is one detail that makes me think Jimmy might not have been a rat. In the final episode of the first season the FBI boss said that it was his idea to set a wire in the Green Grove and everyone else in the agency thought it was a waste of time. If Jimmy was a rat he would probably tell the agency that he and all the other capos put their mothers in that nursing home.
The Blundetto thing is crazy to me. The prevailing opinion used to be the opposite of that and season 4 was often be talked about as the worst. Which I never got
She was a full grown woman who didn't give a fuck that her boyfriend was a murderer as long as she got nice things. Your counter argument is just repeating that she was a "naeive young girl that just wanted to help her family" is patently wrong.
Big plothole I just noticed after 20 years: Would Carlo really flip on Tony, given the fact that Tony witnessed him committing a murder with evidence in hand? It would seem like if Carlo ever ratted on Tony, Tony would lose all incentive to not tell the Feds that Carlo killed Fat Dom. Now you might argue that Tony would clam up about it to protect Sil, but Tony could just say that Carlo acted alone and it would be Tony's word against Carlo. I'm not sure Carlo would want to shake that tree knowing that Tony could easily implicate him in a murder.
On the Vito arc. Anyone schooled in mob history should know an actual boss of the "Jersey mob " The De Cavalcante Family", was found to be Gay. and was killed for it.
Happy new year kino, I met sopranos last year and your channel helped me a lot to understand a lot of things and themes in the show that I didn't understand when I watched it, I hope there's a lot more soprano content to come in 2024, Anyway, $4 a pound
The dream sequences are my absolutely FAVOURITE part of the show, never once have I seen dreams as accurately represented in any media as they are in the Sopranos
@@supersaiyanzero386id give it a 0 it was terrible even as a stand alone movie. Dickie was Tony's mentor but in saints they barley spoke before he died
Here’s a hot take. Tony Soprano is the main antagonist is season 2, 3, 4, and half way through 5. He deliberately sandbags, disrespects, and alienates certain guys who for the most part would help the DiMeo family. For example, take both Richie and Jackie Jr Aprile. It’s clear that Tony doesn’t want an Aprile to become powerful or popular due to his position as street boss. And in Richie’s defense, he has legitimate gripes that Tony ignores and rules against. And it’s obvious he doesn’t want Jackie Jr to be involved with the family because he’s Jackie’s son. Doesn’t want the son of the most well respected boss to gain ground. Feech from Season 5 gets the same Richie Aprile treatment from Tony. Throughout Season 3 and 4, Tony is jealous of Ralphie. Ralph is better looking and a better earner. And just like Richie, Ralph isn’t afraid of Tony. He even disrespects Tony in front of everyone. Then of course Tony is jealous that Ralph has a good looking girlfriend which Tony later takes from Ralphie.
Jackie Jr - Tony was BFFs with his father, Jackie Sr, who did not want Jackie Jr in the life so Tony was trying to respect his wishes and keep him out of it. Jackie Jr had the money and connections to suceeed either as a mobster or in the straight civilian life, should have picked the latter, ended up screwing up both. Richie - Suffered from can-itis, where guys come out of the can after 10-20 years and think they should have alll the success they would have had if they'd been earning for 20 years. Richie thought he should be boss and didn't follow orders. Ralphie - Tony shouldnt have stolen his gf, but Ralphie did kill a 20 year old girl carrying his baby at the club which was a pretty horrible thing to forget even if she was a hoowah.
I hate Meadow far more than I hate. AJ. Meadow betrayed her ideals of protecting innocent people in need to protect criminals like her father because she wants to see her and her family as a victim of sustemic racism.
I agree with the Adriana take. People want to act like she's some innocent lambykins but she knew the money she had came from extortion, murder and theft. And then when she got picked up by the FBI, she could have just taken her prison stay but she chose not to and reaped what she sowed.
8:31 what Mad Men dream sequence are you referring to? The one in Mystery Date when Don in real life has an encounter with Andrea who he once had a fling with and then dreams he has sex with her then kills her? For those who haven't see the episode, he had a bad fever so after he kills her, he wakes up and realizes it was all a fever dream. I think that was the single longest dream sequence in Mad Men. Like Tony's dream in "The Test Dream", it took up most of Don's storyline in that episode. Great video!
Adriana knew what was going on. She was born into that life and chose to stay in it and she enjoyed the high life privileges she got from it. She just cracked like Jackie and Matt.
18:05 When you say that "some of his ideas are wrong" you choose to play the scene in which they discuss crime. While Tony gets lots of things wrong, in this scene he is spitting straight facts, while Meadow is spouting deluded liberal talking points and obviously doesn't really know what she's talking about. It's things like this that make it not so straightforward to call it a "liberal show". It tends to show people as being inconsistent and hypocritical no matter what their position.
I think you forgot about that part of Leotardo being gay himself. He literally comes out of a closet to kill Vito, Chase himself has confirmed this. It's very clear.
Chase is desperate for relevance. You can't come out ten years later an say "oh this happened" when you said it was open ended for so long. Chase directed two episodes the first an the last the worst ones.
@@basedbane787 Chase might not have directed it but he wrote the episode. It's his characters. And he mostly lets the show speak for itself, he won't confirm or deny wether Tony dies at the end either.
I understand the Carmela hate more than hating Skylar White. Skylar was legitimately a victim. Carmela is a complicit hypocrite. Now, yes, I certainly think there are people who hate Carmela just because of their own issues with women. And you have a point when you say "point me out a character in Sopranos who ISN'T selfish/a hypocrite/etc." I think what gets under people's skin about Carmela is that, as Tony says, "she acts like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth". She has a very morally-superior and sanctimonious attitude for a person who knowingly benefits from blood money. And I think that just makes a lot of people's blood boil. It's also why people love the scene where the Jewish psychiatrist calls out all her bullshit. That being said though, it IS fair to say that at the end of the day, she's not objectively one of the most reprehensible characters on the show, she's not a murderous psycho like Ralphie or Ritchie. And I agree that she's an amazingly well-written character. She's complex.
I think the fact the season 1 shows its age a lot more than the others fits in perfectly with one of the shows major theme of the transition of old to new
Hot take: The Furio/Carmella romance arc was terrible and ruined an otherwise good character in Furio. The whole arc was cringey at best and was rather lack luster. We could have done without that storyline, because they did with Vic the contractor too. It didn't work then either but made more sense than a made guy doing it.
I am also kind of an Adriana simp. lol. And regarding Paulie, he's one of the best characters and he's so funny. Stil, Paulie's yammering about things nearly got some people killed like Ralphie, since he told Johnny Sack the joke about Ginny. And Christopher too. How? In the episode Irregular Around the Margins, when Paulie was on the phone hearing about Adriana "suffering a severe blow to the head", he has this WTF expression in his face, and it was most likely that he spread the rumor leading to this game of telephone.
22:08 Vito’s time in New Hampshire were some of my favourite episodes, it, like the therapy is an important part of the show. The show needs time away from just killing and drama. We follow many characters in their lives, not just Tony
The songs that Tony looks at on the table jukebox are clues. For example: the 80s hit song: “Who Will You Run To?” by Heart Who will you run to when it all falls down? Who's gonna pick your world up off of the ground?
Personally i dont believe they were implying Vito as a decorator when picking the vase so much as its another example too him of a life where he is free to be himself. Before this he sees the gay couple in the diner who are comfortably living their existence. The diner, antiques, quaint little town. Its all a calling to Vito showing he could live this way and there are people who do. Unlike all the hiding and sneaking he has to do when in New Jersey.
I think you're right. Vito is handed what is basically a fantasy fairy tale, a small hospitable town that is accepting and free from judgement. A place where he can freely be himself. He even gets a stereotypical fireman biker archetype randomly landing in his lap, if you will, despite Vito himself being bellow average in the looks department. In short he gets it all. But it's not free. The price is a life of constant and hard honest work. He has to say no to his previous life of easy money and power. Vito couldn't do that. Most characters in the show were also like him. I like to think that Carmine Jr. managed to get out since that's what his dream was about and his wife seemed supportive. But even he was still present at the final sitdown so I don't know.
@@GeneralProfessor 100% I didn't think of the sacrifice part but you're absolutely right. He has everything fall into his lap but cannot sacrifice the pull of his old life. Super interesting.
On my first watch I didn’t fw tony blundetto but now on rewatch he is one of my favourite characters. I think the fact that he doesn’t quite fit in makes him a lot scarier, and hearing all these brutal acts he’s committed in contrast with his appearance is incredibly ominous. Also I think his arc serves the story just fine, he doesn’t need to be more than he is
I have to disagree on the series pilot, it’s one of my favorite episodes of the whole series and when I started my first watch it floored me and got me hooked instantly.
i think the dreams in the sopranos are better than any other show or movie, because they are showing us subconscious emotions within the characters, without directly stating it, with great strange metaphors
Hot take: That animal Blundetto had compromised himself while in the can. That's why he was so close to Angelo Garepe and why he flew off the handle when he got clipped. They had a past.
I love all the dream sequences except for the coma dream. That one went on way too long and most people got the point well before it was over. Plus, it lacked the surreal, dreamland quality of the other scenes. The car ride scenes and the scenes on the pier were especially brilliant. The coma dream really did nothing for Tony's character development and afterward, his commitment to treating every day as a gift and even the "who am I and where am I going" part would have been even more poignant without the coma dream. Think about how much more powerful it would have been if he temporarily woke up from a coma and said "who am I? where am I going?" and then later had no recollection of saying that, or why.
Sopranos did dreams and hallucinations really well. Isabella was insanely well executed with the culmination of everything being an AMAZING showdown with soprano and unidentified black males Stuck in my head for a week straight.
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Hottest take I have: no character on the show suffered more than Paulie, I mean how much more betrayal can one man take?
He's been stabbed in the heart 😢
I don't know man... Artie Bucco was paid back with non-stop ass rpe by his employees
He was the biggest whinger. That stunt he pulled going to
Johnny Sack behind Tony’s back
@@juanmontoya7324 he was just another victim of Benny Fazio criminal mastermind
omg I freakin . . .almost choked on my burrito!!!! made me literally laugh out loud
I think one of the best hot takes is that it’s heavily implied that Phil Leotardo did in fact do 20 years in the can, however it’s not verbally mentioned.
Not once 🤷♂️
He was in the can, Phil Leotardo?
20 years?! Thats fucking crazy. Why am I only just hearing about this
If that wasn't enough, some seem to think he may have compromised during those 20 years in question
He was never in the can! It took him 20 years to go home and get his focking shinebox.
Adriannas biggest mistake was not asking for a lawyer the moment they picked her up
Yup, and it's also on Chrissie for not properly training her in how to handle the cops. Despite Ade being connected to the mafia, she was never properly taught on how to deal with things like the FBI.
@@blackfox4138true. Chrissy was unreliable and unintelligent. The H did it to him.
Indeed, they really had nothing on her in the beginning. Neil Mink could have made it all disappear.
I agree but Adrianna was too dumb and knieve
She should have better called Saul
I think Vito's death is less about his sexuality and more about the allure of the gangster lifestyle and the price you pay to participate. Vito was obviously wrong to bail on his family but he still ultimately managed to do what Carmine Jr had done which is to successfully get away from the lifestyle. Eugene wasn't allowed to leave, Christopher was too afraid to leave but Vito actually had a chance. Instead, he chose to go back
like Ugly Face Andre in The Wire, he doesn't know anything outside of his town and ends up just getting back in. Vito actually had a chance at getting away because of his money but he had nothing going for him outside. He couldn't even work a normal job because he was used to people working for him.
@@SantomPhhe could, he just didn't want to
Too lazy. Wanted the easy money
Also, for Phil it was less about Vito being gay and more about him still being mad about Blundetto killing Billy and Phil still wanting to kill a Sopranos family associate himself as revenge. Tony S took his chance to kill Tony B so he used the gay thing as an excuse to get his revenge by killing Vito.
Phil was allegedly in the joint for _20 years_.
He wasn’t just jerking off into a sock that whole time.
His homophobia was very real and like most homophobia, it was about his own self-loathing.
The dream sequences in this show are so well done. In most shows they seem to be used as bait or to show what could have happened but the sopranos uses them so well that it's justified.
Charmaine sucking on Tony’s thumb while he’s railing her 😂
Nailed it
They're not necessarily necessery, but I like that they're there.
'The Test Dream' is my favourite episode for that very reason.
Thoes are my faverite epsodes
I didn’t even realise how common it was for people to hate Melfi and her scenes, I see her as a vital character in the show and their scenes are just as much about her character development as Tony’s, especially when she doesn’t tell him anything in Employee of the Month
I found the Melfi scenes a lot less interesting on a rewatch. Theyre very good the first time through, but knowing that they dont really amount to anything for Tonys growth as a character makes them feel a little pointless on a rewatch. Theyre also almost always a 1v1 scene so you don't get any new dynamics there.
@@teksnotdead902that’s not true. Tony indeed gets worse and utilizes the therapy to his advantage as a criminal. He’s not just an immovable rock. he does do a lot of steps forward and then steps back. But what would you expect? The therapy to actually work?? I don’t even know how that could possibly look like. It’s all about nuance and depth, and Melfi scenes are a crucial way to amplify the complexity of the show. It’s crazy that anyone would dislike it to me
@@opaljk4835 I don’t dislike them, but they only apply to Tony and Melfi. I get so much more out of group scenes at the Bing or in the Soprano household. The therapy scenes are kind of on an island in a way.
I like Melfi
The psychological approach to the story and characters is what sets the Sopranos apart from other mob movies / shows. It's practically the selling point of the whole thing and Melfi is one of the biggest parts of that point.
Season 1 is actually my favorite season. I like when the show is more lighthearted and about Tony's home life vs his mafia life.
Yeah I almost did a spit take when dude said that was the worst season
My favorite too along with season 3. Livia being the main villain was amazing.
I loved season 1 because of the power struggle between Corrado and Tony. Season 1 was probably my favorite season, and I know this is blasphemous but the back half of season 6 is probably my least favorite.
@@AnneHathawayRules Yeah I thought season 1 was peak Junior for sure. Season 5 and 2nd half of six were when the show was most dark and least rewatchable for me for sure.
Hot Take: I don't think Valery was an interior decorator.
True, if he was his house wouldnt have looked like shit.
I actually saw some people reacting to the show saying "wait what he was an interior decorator" like wait are you serious right now can you really not infer what that means 😅😅
24:08 I think this scene implies Vito can quickly identify the most expensive item not because he's a good decorator, but due to his skills as a criminal--i.e. casing. No matter how far Vito flees from New Jersey, he's unable to escape his criminal past and is ultimately undone by its allure.
This is a good take.
Gay AND criminal. Instant win
Hot take: Tony never had the makings of a varsity athlete. Certain people still get upset whenever I bring this up, and I'm not sure why.
That’s not true..he lettered in football
I always thought the whole thing was so hilarious. Tony basically had Junior's top 2 guys killed. Mikey Palmice and Chucky Signore. But he gets so pissed when Junior questions his athleticism.
Ooh!!!... you know the girl cousins read the comments on this channel!
tonys a hothouse flower
they don't like the way you talk? get them out of your house
I think the Vito gay storyline is more about how the mafia, a very old traditional organization, deals with things in the modern age. It's going back to one of the central themes of the show of a declining mob in a modern world. If the show continued into the 2010s and 2020s, you would have the mob having to navigate other emerging issues. Could you imagine the glorified crew during COVID, arguing about masks, CDC regulations, and vaccines 😂
Crypto scams and setting up yourube shorts accounts for some extra income
in season 1 Tony realizes even in Italy traditions are broken, with a woman boss running things.
2020 Sopranos Chrissy: "Yo T, me and Brendan are gonna hijack a truck full of hand sanitizers and resell 'em on the street for a 70 percent markup."
@@SantomPhseason 2
The one criticism that Many Saints of Newark gets that I don’t agree with is that they “ruined it by making it woke.” Like it wasn’t good, but if you’re a genuine sopranos fan, you love a show that has subplots about a gay mobster, interracial dating, drug abuse, toxic masculinity and toxic femininity, and has an over-arcing story about a mob boss who seeks therapy. Sopranos was covering social issues long before woke was even a thing.
My hot take is that “A hit is a Hit” is actually a good episode and important because it establishes how the characters are trapped in their life.
I don’t have the same hate as a lot of fans have for this episode. I see what you see in it
This is why you ALWAYS have an attorney look over any paperwork you're going to sign, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT INVOLVES THE FBI
Lmao implying the lawyer wouldn't want you to sign shit without his knowledge. He gets paid even more due to having to drag shit out in court. Imagine thinking attorneys are your friends or are looking out for you lololol and not leeches&ticks looking to suck you dry.
Saul Goodman ova here
@jm11111whatever happened there??
@@Yostubathis is something an elementary schooler would think. If you get involved with the feds and either die or get locked up your lawyer aint getting a piece of your wallet ever again. You think they go through all the hoops to become a lawyer just to lose customers?
I think people also misunderstand that to the family in regards to Adrianna, if she did go to them about the FBI they would likely have wacked her anyways.
No she would have went to Tony straight up and acted scared to tell Chris Tony would have probably coached her through it somehow
Agree with Nate, first of all the Matoosh situation was like wtf ... why would u hide that from your husband, that's so odd, but also the second she knows her bff is FBI, you go to Chrissy, and he goes to Tony and at that point Adrianna would only be seen as a dumb@ss instead of a rat, and the situation coulda been saved.
It's dumb that they didn't have a procedure for getting forced to rat for the FBI. It would have solved a lot of problems
@@Bobby.B619 Are you kidding me? These mob guys whack people for inconveniencing them the slightest bit. Remember Christopher and Paulie with the waiter? Vito and that random civilian asking to get insurance involved? There was a very real possibility Tony especially would have killed her just for being so naive and stupid she'd let a literal undercover employee of the government into his home, never mind get so close to her that she learns things about Christopher. He'd do it just to cover the lawyer fees he'd need to cover for her alone probably. She was fucked either way. The stupid thing was trusting her addict, unloyal and abusive idiot fiancé.
I'm not 100 percent sure about that. Look at Feech, Tony B, Uncle Philly, Angelo, Richie - all these guys who did long bids in the can several decades (20 years for Phil). There's a code that if you get caught, you clam up, you don't rat on your fellow mobsters to save your ass and do less time, and when you get out, they welcome you back and take care of you.
So I think in Ade's case if she went to Tony, he probably would have coached her through it. Her situation was different because the Feds planted an undercover spy posing as a friend, so she feared it already looked like she was working with them when she didn't know. But at that point she hadn't given them anything, she tells Tony they tricked me, they had this agent pretend to be my friend, I had no idea, I'm sorry I brought her to your house I didn't know I didn't tell her anything...I think Tony advises her to just shut up, do a short bid on the drug charges and they welcome her back as a hero.
The Feds took advantage of Ade's naivete. She should have lawyered up.
My hot takes:
#1 - Uncle Philly was too modest about his time in the can. Hardly ever spoke about it. How much time did he do again?
#2 - Ginny Sack was the hottest babe in the entire series. I'd totally hit that. I'm not joking either. You know she gets down and dirty between the sheets if Johnny Sack is willing to commit murder for her honor. In fact, I'm pretty sure that after Tony dies, Carmela flies to Italy to finally pledge her love to Furio only to find Ginny beat her to it and she and Furio are furiously banging.
#3 - The show ended too early and needed more seasons. I would have liked to see more about Carmella and the kids eventually coming to terms with their complicity with Tony's mob life. Was there ever something that Tony could do that was so bad that it would motivate Carm to walk out the door and live the life of a simply Denny's waitress in a crappy little apartment? Was Meadow on her way to becoming a clueless mob wife like her mother as well as a crooked mob lawyer or would she see the light? Was AJ going to become a movie producer under Little Carmine's subspecies? I do think AJ out of anyone had the best chance of going legit and getting out of the mob life.
#4 - I don't think Paulie helped get Tony killed but he most likely took over NJ as a sort of regional manager reporting directly to NYC. NJ basically gets absorbed as an NYC mob subdivision.
#5 - Sil only fired a warning shot that landed on the ground next to Ade's head to warn her against ratting then put her on a plane to Fiji. She's fine and now married to another man with a big nose because she has the hots for men with big noses but this one is a lot nicer to her and doesnt beat her.
#6 - After Tony dies, Artie is killed by Benny Fazio, Criminal Mastermind because Artie no longer has Tony's protection.
#7 - I didn't like the way Chrissy went out. One of the best characters in the series and he dies because of Kennedy and Heidi? BTW Heidi was a hit girl in the employ of Uncle Philly.
#8 - The racoon that Tony swerved to avoid hitting and ended up in a big crash was also a hit varmint in the employ of Uncle Philly
#9 - The vipers killed Tony. Payback for the wine he stole.
#10 - Or possibly Georgie did it because of all the unnecessary beatings Tony gave him
I think Tony Blundetto would have worked perfectly if there was more setup for him. Imagine if they had Buchemi in for a couple episodes of season 2, he gets pinched but then he gets out for season 5 as a changed man, although he kept the code. Ofc you can't plan stuff like that, but my biggest issue was just that suddenly Tony had a new, very important family member, basically a brother, that we had never heard of and nobody had mentioned before.
I never thought the show was meant to be liberal or conservative, I view it as a depiction in the mind of a bunch of corrupt guys in the mafia that NO ONE is supposed to ‘agree’ with.
Same here. To me Sopranos is almost like South Park in the sense that it shits on everyone and thus no one gets a pass from the show's nihilistic outlook.
If the show makes any general judgement then perhaps it says that the older generations were (technically) superior to the modern ones, at least within the confines of the mafia's circle. I say that because the two best and most universally agreed on bosses in the show are Carmine Senior and Jackie Aprile who were mostly stoic, pragmatic and intelligent, while everyone else who followed in their footsteps was a neurotic mess. That's also why I don't agree with the common "toxic masculinity" arguement because if it actually were in effect then previous bosses such as those two should be even worse than their replacements. That and Janice is supposed to be a feminist but she's as much of a hypocrite as her brother, in addition Livia exists as an irradiated origin point of narcissism which would go on to infect all others in her family. So even there the show doesn't take any one side. But getting back to the bosses, on the other hand such characters are balanced by the remaining ones like Junior, both of Tony's parents, arguably Bobby's father who was a psycho, etc. So overall even that (debatable) point I initially brought up is flimsy at best.
Ultimately, the only apparent point the Sopranos makes is that almost all people are selfish scumbags, that life sucks until you turn yourself into a sociopath (then it's merely bearable), and that eventually it all ends in a random and arbitrary manner.
It's neither. It's a leftist show, leftists hate both liberals and conservatives because, like it or not, both are right wing ideas. Most of the shows people see as center that laughs at both sides are actually leftists laughing at liberals and conservatives, but americans don't see it because they think liberals are in the left. Maybe this is gonna blow americans minds, but yes, liberals are right wing, and the left is almost non existant politically. For most of the world, America is a nutjob far right country that's a couple of steps away from military dictatorship.
Its art
Yea it’s not liberal. It just depicts a group of conservative guys and shows how their conservative views are outdated and don’t work.
Jokes aside, I think you’re reacting this way because of the modern connotation to the word “liberal”. It’s pretty obvious that the show is critiquing conservative viewpoints.
@@gangsta8929Hell by today's standards of what chuds consider "woke", Sopranos is pretty woke all things considered.
The Vito being gay story was absolutely important. It’s a big detractor to the idea that the mafia provides a glamorous lifestyle. The mafia has a very specific set of norms that if someone associated with them deviates from, they don’t just ostracize that person. They kill that person. Tony almost got killed for seeing a psychiatrist. And he would’ve in the real mafia. It just shows the viewer how many liberal freedoms they have by not being in the mafia.
Well, it was more because Phil thought he was disrespecting his family because Vito was cheating on his wife (Phil’s sister) with men. It wasn’t just because he was gay, but I can see were you’re coming from
@@the2theonly672Bruh everyone cheats on their wife in this show, no one has an issue with doing that in the mafia but johnny sack. Every time they refer to Vito they call him a faggot, when Phil is talking about clipping Tony one of his reasons is that he “harbored a faggot”. The ENTIRE point of contention is that he likes men. Phil just mentions the family part to add salt to the wound
@@the2theonly672 there was also some self loathing mixed in there. There are several lines that could hint to Phil having gay interactions while he was in jail. Even David Chase himself said that Phil was battling with some closeted issues, although he was never self aware enough to realize it himself
The dream sequence take irked me. Those were by far some of my favorite episodes. They truly depicted how fever dreams feel while also showing the inflection of Tony’s alternate dream life versus his own.
It’s just kinda goofy
@@DanJuegaI think that’s the point. Dreams ARE goofy and unserious, yet they tell you more about a person than words can.
@@naddit No. I mean the concept of exploring a character through dreams is goofy. It’s like a parody.
Anyone who dislike the dream scenes can accurstely be categorized as bozos. If I’m having a convo about the show and the person say this, I immediately dismiss eveeything they’ve said and what they will say.
Pine barrens is not a good intro to the Sopranos cause it's not reflective of the show. It's a gag episode about supporting characters that only works so well because we alrdy love the characters by the time we get to it
I saw another video that said Phil was so focused on killing Vito because Phil himself was on the DL in prison. In the scene in the room where Vito is killed, you see Phil tightly gripping the edges of the bed as if it was something Phil was hiding inside.
I agree! I saw some theories that Phill needs to kill and beat Vito so that it can justify any homosexual activities he may have been doing while in prison. It’s for sure just a theory but it’s super interesting and really makes you dive deeper into these great characters!
I mean he literally came out of the closet he was hiding in when they killed Vito
Season 1 has a good stand alone episode. It's the one Breaking Bad copies a shot from, College. I also believe it is Tony's first on-screen kill, and I think David Chase likes it as a stand alone/short film
Ever thought about making a video on James Gandolfinis other movie/TV roles? I saw The Drop on HBO Max, and it was amazing!
He was great in The Mexican.
Does anybody remember he played John Cusack's big brother in Money for Nothing
in the loop!!
The movie ENOUGH SAID
ROMCOM. AMAZING. ALLEGEDLY
As out of place as dreams may be in the genre, I feel like it is used purposefully to show more inside the character's heads, what haunts them, some things they leave out if they discuss them with others. Especially since the audience is already observing the actors express with the character both their overt words, the reason they choose these words and what their motives are, the secrets they hide from other characters and fail to hide from themselves, it's a lot they give you. I feel like the dreams don't exploit the fake-out too much or without clues
After another watch of the scene, I actually think that Silvio had a bigger part in killing Adriana than anyone else
Totally on point with introducing The Sopranos with the rare stand-alone Pine Barrens. One of the best episodes ever!
Season 5 was my personal favorite, love the mob and personal drama. And it has so many memorable episodes.
Long term parking: )
The Vito question I think is important because it is actually very much essential to Tony's development through the series, indirectly. We see through Vito what Tony struggles with, longing to be a person free of the convictions he's long lived with, the shit he's been born into, and obviously going into what is for him forbidden territory. For Vito, this was embracing his homosexuality. For Tony, as we saw following his recovery from the gunshot and initially embracing the "each day's a gift" inclination, it was trying to be a man with more humanity than was compatible with his role in life, that of a ruthless gangster, and we all saw which tendency won out in the end. The Vito arc is a variation on a theme of the show, this struggle between who one is and who one could be, and how that can very much be a matter of life and death.
well said
This video should be titled “Terrible Opinions About The Sopranos”
I have a hot take. People who think season 5 is weak, Tony Blundetto is a bad character, and/or don’t like or see the need for the dream sequences completely miss the entire point of the show and would probably be better off watching Marvel movies on an endless loop. These are probably the same people who, when the show was on its original run, complained whenever there weren’t enough people being whacked.
I always liked Tony B but I didn't like the dream episode when I was young - the one where Tony dreams he's like a law abiding salesman or something. Now that I'm older I realize the point was to show that while Tony wishes he'd never been drawn into the mafia life so he wouldnt have all these problems, he probably would have a lot of problems as a civilian anyway, he'd cheat on his wife and overeat and be depressed and unhappy etc.
Agree!!!!!
You're so real for giving love to Adriana and Carmella, I find a lot of these shows with the lead being super masculine or badass ( or being perceived as such ) their women counterparts are always blamed for taking away from that somehow. I think it's hilarious to say Adriana deserved what she got when we were shown time and time again how much she valued Christopher and their relationship and how he only treated her worse as the seasons went on. Kinda scary people can sit through all that and still be on the side of "she deserved it" love your takes Kino!!!
The writers set it up so that Ade was put into a position where she felt had no choice but to cooperate with the FBI to help Chrissy. Otherwise, she would not have done it and would have accepted jail time to avoid it.
Keep in mind as much as they rail against rats - any of those guys - Tony, Chrissy, Paulie, etc would totally turn rat to spare themselves time in the can. Sil is the only one who I think would not rat and take can time like a man.
Kino, my biggest hot take is that you are the greatest RUclipsr to ever live.
Thats not a hot take its just a fact
Charles Schwab over here...
Pure Kino? the greatest RUclipsr? What ever happened to Gary Cooper, the strong silent type.
@@jed123e oh!?!
Just subscribed after watching this video. Pretty refreshing to hear such an educated and level-headed approach to this show. I think you hit a very important point about the show's overall approach to plot--it's why we never really get a great picture of the mob structure except when a piece of it was relevant to that episode's story. Regarding season 1, though, it established key themes--especially the family drama (larger than the mob drama/action) and Tony being an immoral guy.
Carmela was terrible, she was unremarkable and acted like she was better then others, also she keeps trying to convince herself that she's a good person, she lives her life in splendor from money that people literally died because of.
Just rewatched Sopranos HBO reran this January 2024 and I realized that Carmelo was a total witch. Watching it 25 years later with different eyes and some life lessons on the way.
They should have extended Jackie Jr for another season where he stumbles as being an associate in Ralphies crew before killing him off.
Yes an doing more jobs with Chris. The kid was surrounded by mobsters an never asked any of them to bring him in or teach him
Hot take, David Chase was the weakest writer on the show and his involvement generally reduced the quality of the show.
After watching The Many Saints of Newark, I have to agree with you. Terrence Winter, Matthew Weiner, Robin Green and Mitch Burgess were the strongest writers on the staff.
I guess you could make a comparison to George Lucas: gave the world a great idea, but was not necessarily the best writer/director.
@@littlekingtrashmouth9219 Lack of self control, that's the problem.
Speaking as someone who hates dream sequences in most things, the dream sequences in The Sopranos are some of my favourite scenes in any show or movie period. The key difference between dreams in The Sopranos and dreams in 99% of other media is that The Sopranos doesn't use dreams as lazy excuse to do something shocking to grab the audience only to then avoid the dramatic consequences, which is what most shows and movies do, and it's just cheap drama. The Sopranos is different, as it exclusively uses dreams to give insight on Tony as a character, a window into Tony's subconscious, with those insights then actually carrying over into the real drama of the show once Tony wakes up (e.g. Tony coming to accept that Puss is a rat or that Blundetto's suspicious behaviour is inevitably leading to something too big to ignore, just to name a few).
Also, with very few and brief exceptions which in-context break the following rule with good reason, the dreams are always very explicitly established to be dreams through clever visuals and even using distinctly different editing and cinematography from how the show is usually presented, so the audience is "in on it" and not being tricked for shock value. If The Sopranos had lesser writers and directors, we would have got dreams where all of Tony's family get killed off and ones of Tony killing Christopher or Puss, editied and presented like any other scene, only to suddenly cut to Tony waking up, thus undoing the drama and undermining the potential dramatic weight scenes that that could have had otherwise. Imagine how much LESS of an impact Christopher's death would have had if Tony had dreamt about doing it prior to the episode where it actually happens. That's the kind of lazy drama most shows/movies use dreams for, but The Sopranos NEVER did that, instead always using dreams to show meaningful and lasting character insight.
That's why the dream sequences in The Sopranos work and are not the lazy writing crutch they tend to be in other stuff.
Christopher loved the idea of an Adriana. I think it pretty much ends there though.
Ralphie didn't have anything to do with Pie-O-My stable burning down. It was Valentina.
What is your theory on that.
If this is so how ironic that she suffered from burns.
I actually really liked “The Test Dream”, And I also genuinely think that it’s one of the best episodes of the entire series.
Phil Leotardo's biggest mistake was that he didn't mention enough that he spend 20 years in the can !
Fun fact I read: Phil actually only mentions being in prison for 20 years, 3 times in the show. He was in 30 episodes so its actually only 0.1 times per episode. Now he does mention prison a couple more times in conversation, but not the 20 years part. For example "When I was in the can, my kid brother Billy took care of Paddy and the grandkids" or “he’s never been in the can, not really”
@@BENNY_MACanother fun fact from the balkans
24:12 i always interpreted Vito picking out the high value vase was because he could spot high value items to steal
I always thought it was just the salesman being a salesman and wanting to make a sale by flattering the customer.
Hey Kino you should do a video on ranking the Sopranos seasons from worst to best. I think that’d be a good video and I’d love to see it!
There is one detail that makes me think Jimmy might not have been a rat. In the final episode of the first season the FBI boss said that it was his idea to set a wire in the Green Grove and everyone else in the agency thought it was a waste of time. If Jimmy was a rat he would probably tell the agency that he and all the other capos put their mothers in that nursing home.
Thing is he mightve been bullshiting cuz cmon its the feds.
He could have been a rat for local or state police.
The Blundetto thing is crazy to me. The prevailing opinion used to be the opposite of that and season 4 was often be talked about as the worst. Which I never got
She was a full grown woman who didn't give a fuck that her boyfriend was a murderer as long as she got nice things. Your counter argument is just repeating that she was a "naeive young girl that just wanted to help her family" is patently wrong.
Big plothole I just noticed after 20 years:
Would Carlo really flip on Tony, given the fact that Tony witnessed him committing a murder with evidence in hand? It would seem like if Carlo ever ratted on Tony, Tony would lose all incentive to not tell the Feds that Carlo killed Fat Dom. Now you might argue that Tony would clam up about it to protect Sil, but Tony could just say that Carlo acted alone and it would be Tony's word against Carlo. I'm not sure Carlo would want to shake that tree knowing that Tony could easily implicate him in a murder.
On the Vito arc. Anyone schooled in mob history should know an actual boss of the "Jersey mob " The De Cavalcante Family", was found to be Gay. and was killed for it.
Love this video format, and would want to see it again! Great work!
Happy new year kino, I met sopranos last year and your channel helped me a lot to understand a lot of things and themes in the show that I didn't understand when I watched it, I hope there's a lot more soprano content to come in 2024, Anyway, $4 a pound
Not a hot take at all: we should have a 25th anniversary streaming special
Thanks!
Thank you for the support!
The dream sequences are my absolutely FAVOURITE part of the show, never once have I seen dreams as accurately represented in any media as they are in the Sopranos
I wanted to see the ending to the sopranos but I compromised I watched the many saints of Newark
I tried to be SO CHARITIBLE but i give it a 6.5/10
@@supersaiyanzero386id give it a 0 it was terrible even as a stand alone movie. Dickie was Tony's mentor but in saints they barley spoke before he died
You got some balls kid, I'll give you that much.
You'll give me what i tell you to give me
And I'm not a fuckin' kid!
@@chickenwyngs3646Relax. It's just an expression.
I guess Vito was the true interior decorator lol.
Here’s a hot take. Tony Soprano is the main antagonist is season 2, 3, 4, and half way through 5. He deliberately sandbags, disrespects, and alienates certain guys who for the most part would help the DiMeo family. For example, take both Richie and Jackie Jr Aprile. It’s clear that Tony doesn’t want an Aprile to become powerful or popular due to his position as street boss. And in Richie’s defense, he has legitimate gripes that Tony ignores and rules against. And it’s obvious he doesn’t want Jackie Jr to be involved with the family because he’s Jackie’s son. Doesn’t want the son of the most well respected boss to gain ground. Feech from Season 5 gets the same Richie Aprile treatment from Tony.
Throughout Season 3 and 4, Tony is jealous of Ralphie. Ralph is better looking and a better earner. And just like Richie, Ralph isn’t afraid of Tony. He even disrespects Tony in front of everyone. Then of course Tony is jealous that Ralph has a good looking girlfriend which Tony later takes from Ralphie.
Jackie Jr - Tony was BFFs with his father, Jackie Sr, who did not want Jackie Jr in the life so Tony was trying to respect his wishes and keep him out of it. Jackie Jr had the money and connections to suceeed either as a mobster or in the straight civilian life, should have picked the latter, ended up screwing up both.
Richie - Suffered from can-itis, where guys come out of the can after 10-20 years and think they should have alll the success they would have had if they'd been earning for 20 years. Richie thought he should be boss and didn't follow orders.
Ralphie - Tony shouldnt have stolen his gf, but Ralphie did kill a 20 year old girl carrying his baby at the club which was a pretty horrible thing to forget even if she was a hoowah.
ralphie is better looking than tony??!! what???!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 can we add this to the hot takes
There's the intro we love! Keep up the great work
I think season 3 thematically might not be the best season but I think it has some of the best standalone episodes
I hate Meadow far more than I hate. AJ. Meadow betrayed her ideals of protecting innocent people in need to protect criminals like her father because she wants to see her and her family as a victim of sustemic racism.
to me, vito's arc was not about him being gay, it was about how little the mob understands the real world
🔥 take: John Sacrimoni is the most underrated sopranos character
They could make a show on young Johnny sac if saints of Newark wasn't so terrible
I agree with the Adriana take. People want to act like she's some innocent lambykins but she knew the money she had came from extortion, murder and theft. And then when she got picked up by the FBI, she could have just taken her prison stay but she chose not to and reaped what she sowed.
Do you think Carmella or even Meadow would do the time or rat Tony out? They both knew what he was doing.
@@km09876-tcarmella would definitely do the time
8:31 what Mad Men dream sequence are you referring to? The one in Mystery Date when Don in real life has an encounter with Andrea who he once had a fling with and then dreams he has sex with her then kills her? For those who haven't see the episode, he had a bad fever so after he kills her, he wakes up and realizes it was all a fever dream. I think that was the single longest dream sequence in Mad Men. Like Tony's dream in "The Test Dream", it took up most of Don's storyline in that episode. Great video!
Adriana knew what was going on. She was born into that life and chose to stay in it and she enjoyed the high life privileges she got from it. She just cracked like Jackie and Matt.
Paulie is definitely not "loyle to his capo"
Great video! Nice surprise to kickoff 2024! Happy New Year Kino!
18:05 When you say that "some of his ideas are wrong" you choose to play the scene in which they discuss crime. While Tony gets lots of things wrong, in this scene he is spitting straight facts, while Meadow is spouting deluded liberal talking points and obviously doesn't really know what she's talking about. It's things like this that make it not so straightforward to call it a "liberal show". It tends to show people as being inconsistent and hypocritical no matter what their position.
24:17 I had interpreted that as just communicating to us that Vito could've lived a softer life and been into art and other things.
I think you forgot about that part of Leotardo being gay himself. He literally comes out of a closet to kill Vito, Chase himself has confirmed this. It's very clear.
Chase is desperate for relevance. You can't come out ten years later an say "oh this happened" when you said it was open ended for so long. Chase directed two episodes the first an the last the worst ones.
@@basedbane787 Chase might not have directed it but he wrote the episode. It's his characters. And he mostly lets the show speak for itself, he won't confirm or deny wether Tony dies at the end either.
- Finn didn't actually see Vito blowin the Security Guard, it was Gino...
The dream sequences were some of my favorite parts of the show and I'm sad to see people want them completely erased
I understand the Carmela hate more than hating Skylar White. Skylar was legitimately a victim. Carmela is a complicit hypocrite. Now, yes, I certainly think there are people who hate Carmela just because of their own issues with women. And you have a point when you say "point me out a character in Sopranos who ISN'T selfish/a hypocrite/etc." I think what gets under people's skin about Carmela is that, as Tony says, "she acts like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth". She has a very morally-superior and sanctimonious attitude for a person who knowingly benefits from blood money. And I think that just makes a lot of people's blood boil. It's also why people love the scene where the Jewish psychiatrist calls out all her bullshit. That being said though, it IS fair to say that at the end of the day, she's not objectively one of the most reprehensible characters on the show, she's not a murderous psycho like Ralphie or Ritchie. And I agree that she's an amazingly well-written character. She's complex.
I think the fact the season 1 shows its age a lot more than the others fits in perfectly with one of the shows major theme of the transition of old to new
The dream sequences are one of my favourite things in the show. I relate to them because mine often don't make sense either.
Vito's storyline is based on something that actually happened in the Jersey mafia.
Hot take: The Furio/Carmella romance arc was terrible and ruined an otherwise good character in Furio. The whole arc was cringey at best and was rather lack luster. We could have done without that storyline, because they did with Vic the contractor too. It didn't work then either but made more sense than a made guy doing it.
Yeah, when I started watching the Sopranos with my dad, I showed him Pine barrens first, and then we watched from the beginning, it works.
Thanks for the response, Kino! Your Sopranos analysis is probably the best on the Internet.
More creative than Spielberg!
I am also kind of an Adriana simp. lol.
And regarding Paulie, he's one of the best characters and he's so funny. Stil, Paulie's yammering about things nearly got some people killed like Ralphie, since he told Johnny Sack the joke about Ginny. And Christopher too. How? In the episode Irregular Around the Margins, when Paulie was on the phone hearing about Adriana "suffering a severe blow to the head", he has this WTF expression in his face, and it was most likely that he spread the rumor leading to this game of telephone.
There should be a joke about Vito and being an interior decorator, but I can't think of one.
Great video keep these up
great video, cool community interaction
Yeah that was great,do more of these please and thank you
22:08 Vito’s time in New Hampshire were some of my favourite episodes, it, like the therapy is an important part of the show. The show needs time away from just killing and drama. We follow many characters in their lives, not just Tony
The songs that Tony looks at on the table jukebox are clues. For example: the 80s hit song: “Who Will You Run To?” by Heart
Who will you run to when it all falls down?
Who's gonna pick your world up off of the ground?
Awesome video. Thanks Kino!!!
Liberal in 1999 was the same as being conservative in 2023.
Liberals in 2023 tend to be conservatives who say blm so really nothings changed.
It would be interesting to see the show tackle issues today.
Chrissy: "Yo T, I'm gonna get a sex change so you gotta use my proper pronouns."
The best answer lol
Personally i dont believe they were implying Vito as a decorator when picking the vase so much as its another example too him of a life where he is free to be himself. Before this he sees the gay couple in the diner who are comfortably living their existence. The diner, antiques, quaint little town. Its all a calling to Vito showing he could live this way and there are people who do. Unlike all the hiding and sneaking he has to do when in New Jersey.
I think you're right. Vito is handed what is basically a fantasy fairy tale, a small hospitable town that is accepting and free from judgement. A place where he can freely be himself. He even gets a stereotypical fireman biker archetype randomly landing in his lap, if you will, despite Vito himself being bellow average in the looks department. In short he gets it all. But it's not free. The price is a life of constant and hard honest work. He has to say no to his previous life of easy money and power. Vito couldn't do that. Most characters in the show were also like him. I like to think that Carmine Jr. managed to get out since that's what his dream was about and his wife seemed supportive. But even he was still present at the final sitdown so I don't know.
@@GeneralProfessor 100% I didn't think of the sacrifice part but you're absolutely right. He has everything fall into his lap but cannot sacrifice the pull of his old life. Super interesting.
On my first watch I didn’t fw tony blundetto but now on rewatch he is one of my favourite characters. I think the fact that he doesn’t quite fit in makes him a lot scarier, and hearing all these brutal acts he’s committed in contrast with his appearance is incredibly ominous. Also I think his arc serves the story just fine, he doesn’t need to be more than he is
I have to disagree on the series pilot, it’s one of my favorite episodes of the whole series and when I started my first watch it floored me and got me hooked instantly.
i think the dreams in the sopranos are better than any other show or movie, because they are showing us subconscious emotions within the characters, without directly stating it, with great strange metaphors
Lived Blundetto and S5 was my favorite
Hot Take: Up in the Club 🎶 should be the real intro Song.
The entire season of Dallas was a dream. The entire show of NewHart was a dream by Bob Newheart
great vid, more please
Hot take: That animal Blundetto had compromised himself while in the can. That's why he was so close to Angelo Garepe and why he flew off the handle when he got clipped. They had a past.
I love all the dream sequences except for the coma dream. That one went on way too long and most people got the point well before it was over. Plus, it lacked the surreal, dreamland quality of the other scenes. The car ride scenes and the scenes on the pier were especially brilliant. The coma dream really did nothing for Tony's character development and afterward, his commitment to treating every day as a gift and even the "who am I and where am I going" part would have been even more poignant without the coma dream. Think about how much more powerful it would have been if he temporarily woke up from a coma and said "who am I? where am I going?" and then later had no recollection of saying that, or why.
Sopranos did dreams and hallucinations really well. Isabella was insanely well executed with the culmination of everything being an AMAZING showdown with soprano and unidentified black males
Stuck in my head for a week straight.
Catching up on your channel, I wish RUclips would at least take me out to dinner before f-ing me by not recommending you in my algorithm lately😂