Jump to content

The TV Thread

The Unknown Poster
 Share

Recommended Posts

wbbfan Grand Master

wbbfan

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

SOA was not event in the same league as sopranos. We can agree to disagree though. I just find it perplexing that someone would love SOA and dislike sopranos when they are essentially the same genre but one has better acting and writing. 

Sopranos was about twenty characters deep. 

I love the genre, soa's taper down after the first 2-3 or so seasons was greater then sopranos but with a better ending and a much stronger first stretch. Sopranos i dont find to have such a strong stretch at any point. Id say hands down the supporting acting and writting was a lot better on soa. James gandolfini is truly top tier in that genre. Up there with the best from the godfather. Despite writing that was less then his acting. Aside from him it was real house wives of new jersey. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 5.5k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

Rich
Rich

This is true for the majority of people though.  This is human nature.  All of us have said and done stupid things in our 20s but it never used to be on social media forever.     “Cancelling” f

Taynted_Fayth
Taynted_Fayth

Season 3 starts Canada day

Brandon
Brandon

Nope it should be 3 guys who identify as 3 lady witches... 

The Unknown Poster Newbie

The Unknown Poster

Posted
  • Author
Posted
1 minute ago, wbbfan said:

I love the genre, soa's taper down after the first 2-3 or so seasons was greater then sopranos but with a better ending and a much stronger first stretch. Sopranos i dont find to have such a strong stretch at any point. Id say hands down the supporting acting and writting was a lot better on soa. James gandolfini is truly top tier in that genre. Up there with the best from the godfather. Despite writing that was less then his acting. Aside from him it was real house wives of new jersey. 

SOA had some good actors.  The lead, for me, was the weakest guy and unfortunately had to carry much of the load.  I dont dislike him and Im sure he's gotten better.  But I found him to have very limited range.  Which season did they go to Ireland, the 2nd?  That was an awful season.

Both shows suffered a bit after they paid off their main story which for Sopranos was really after Junior tries to take out Tony.  That first season is the most structured.  And for SOA, once the gf bit the dust it sort of got away from them a bit.

One thing that did always bug me about the Sopranos was the small size of Tony's crew.  It was used as a plot point from time to time (Chris always wanting to go to war with New York and Tony telling him they couldnt).  But by the time the 6th season roles around you really have such a limited crew it really almost makes no sense for New York to be willing to negotiate.  Plus all the rats.  But that was Chase feeling that all mobsters are irredeemable and either horrible people or rats or both.  He established early that you either go to jail or die.  And good for him, I guess, for being committed to his vision but had he taken a more popular approach to the series and delivered what fans wanted, maybe it would have been a bit more enjoyable at the end rather then the rushed and emotionally deflated last few episodes.

There was a scene in Season 6 where Meadow is accosted by a New York guy.  And she's telling her mom when Tony walks in and he asks whats wrong and initially Meadow says nothing.  And I remember thinking 'wow they're not going to let tony find out'...but then she told him.  And it was really a moment that fans wanted to see Tony act in an heroic manner.


As I said before if you watch Boardwalk Empire it has so many similar themes to Sopranos but "goes there".  The wife is more openly complicit.  The "cousin" more openly turns on his mentor.  The old school guy and the current boss have a more overt "war".  There is actually a super violent war with New York.  There is a "heroic" badass scene where the quiet misunderstood bad guy goes full scarface and saves a child.  Really good series.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
wbbfan Grand Master

wbbfan

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

SOA had some good actors.  The lead, for me, was the weakest guy and unfortunately had to carry much of the load.  I dont dislike him and Im sure he's gotten better.  But I found him to have very limited range.  Which season did they go to Ireland, the 2nd?  That was an awful season.

Both shows suffered a bit after they paid off their main story which for Sopranos was really after Junior tries to take out Tony.  That first season is the most structured.  And for SOA, once the gf bit the dust it sort of got away from them a bit.

One thing that did always bug me about the Sopranos was the small size of Tony's crew.  It was used as a plot point from time to time (Chris always wanting to go to war with New York and Tony telling him they couldnt).  But by the time the 6th season roles around you really have such a limited crew it really almost makes no sense for New York to be willing to negotiate.  Plus all the rats.  But that was Chase feeling that all mobsters are irredeemable and either horrible people or rats or both.  He established early that you either go to jail or die.  And good for him, I guess, for being committed to his vision but had he taken a more popular approach to the series and delivered what fans wanted, maybe it would have been a bit more enjoyable at the end rather then the rushed and emotionally deflated last few episodes.

There was a scene in Season 6 where Meadow is accosted by a New York guy.  And she's telling her mom when Tony walks in and he asks whats wrong and initially Meadow says nothing.  And I remember thinking 'wow they're not going to let tony find out'...but then she told him.  And it was really a moment that fans wanted to see Tony act in an heroic manner.


As I said before if you watch Boardwalk Empire it has so many similar themes to Sopranos but "goes there".  The wife is more openly complicit.  The "cousin" more openly turns on his mentor.  The old school guy and the current boss have a more overt "war".  There is actually a super violent war with New York.  There is a "heroic" badass scene where the quiet misunderstood bad guy goes full scarface and saves a child.  Really good series.

I tend to agree that the supporting cast was stronger then the hunam. Ireland was s3 iirc. And yeah it was the turn down point. If they had ended it with the FBI womans death at the end of s2 it would have been soo much better. 

certainly a case of vision and ideals getting in the way of good story telling. Drea de matteo who acted in both was probably the next best character. They had potential with supporting gangsters like paulie and silvio but seemed to try to piss it away as much as possible. But when you put ideology before quality thatll happen. 

I havent watched boardwalk empire yet. Its on the list to get around to though. It sounds good and i hear nothing but good things about it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
The Unknown Poster Newbie

The Unknown Poster

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Boardwalk is really really good.  Amazing sets and visuals.  They re-built the Jersey Boardwalk to film on and its really remarkable.  Im not even a huge fan of Steve Buscemi and it might be an example of a show where the supporting actors were better than the lead.  There was thought given to pitching the lead to James Galdolfini as the real person the lead was based on was more like James than Buscemi but they knew all anyone would see would be Tony Soprano.

Winters said he had an idea to bring Gandolfini into the show in later seasons but he sadly died.  Really good.  There is one character everyone says cant act but he plays his part well (similar to Charlie Hunam actually). 

So yes, highly recommended.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
wbbfan Grand Master

wbbfan

Posted
Posted
On 5/3/2017 at 9:47 AM, The Unknown Poster said:

Boardwalk is really really good.  Amazing sets and visuals.  They re-built the Jersey Boardwalk to film on and its really remarkable.  Im not even a huge fan of Steve Buscemi and it might be an example of a show where the supporting actors were better than the lead.  There was thought given to pitching the lead to James Galdolfini as the real person the lead was based on was more like James than Buscemi but they knew all anyone would see would be Tony Soprano.

Winters said he had an idea to bring Gandolfini into the show in later seasons but he sadly died.  Really good.  There is one character everyone says cant act but he plays his part well (similar to Charlie Hunam actually). 

So yes, highly recommended.

Yeah im pretty luke warm on buscemi. Was soo tragic when gandolfini passed. He might have had to fight off type casting like soo many other greats in the genre but he showed fantastic depth and skills as tony. 

21 hours ago, 17to85 said:

I think we've all been waiting far too long for Matt Murdoch to show up as someone's lawyer

Soo much this. I was sure when they were taking luke cage away thats what was gonna happen. Or in iron fist as night nurse alluded to him. 

Each of the individual stories had some really good bits and strengths. (save JJ which i still havent gotten back to try and finish again) If they do the marvel thing and make the sum of the pieces  greater then their individual weight defenders is going to be amazing. Right now i am most excited for thor 3, then defenders. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Noeller Grand Master

Noeller

Posted
Posted

I'm not-so-patiently waiting to see what happens with Will Forte's mostly-fantastic Last Man On Earth. Last word was they were very close to getting the axe, and he was on Twitter basically begging people to watch...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
iHeart Grand Master

iHeart

Posted
Posted

dear god.....why won't it die? I know Seacrest said, for now at the end of the last episode, but come on.....oh yeah and they want to air it on sunday nights, Once could be screwed for sure, unless they find a different time slot, yeah look how well it's going for Quantico right now, it'll probably end up in a death slot

 

http://tvline.com/2017/05/05/american-idol-reboot-abc-revival-fox/

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rich Experienced

Rich

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Anyone catch American Gods?  its a Starz show (so I dont know how to watch it) but it was highly touted.  Fuller left Star Trek to devote his time to developing it.

I've read the book it was based on, so looking forward to finding  a way to get my hands on the series.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
iHeart Grand Master

iHeart

Posted
Posted (edited)

oh man, well tvline may have just spoiled what will happen sunday night. My only regret with this show is that I didn't watch the first season.....because well around the time it was having it's first season I was still watching the Simpsons and oh yeah the Jets were having their first season as well

 

http://tvline.com/2017/05/08/jennifer-morrison-leaving-once-upon-a-time-season-6/

Edited by iHeart
Link to comment
Share on other sites
iHeart Grand Master

iHeart

Posted
Posted (edited)
22 minutes ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

No Jen no OUAT.

well Nashville doesn't have one of it's main stars anymore and it got renewed for a 6th season. 

 

But considering that ratings are dipping and I'm not exactly in love with what they have planned for the 7th season.......sigh and I was just getting over Rayna's death on Nashville

 

oh and by the way, several cast members contracts are up this season

Edited by iHeart
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

×
×
  • Create New...