Tag Archive: commentary

Re-Watching the Sopranos – Season 4

October 18, 2012 0 Comments

Sorry for the long gap between this post and my post on season 3. I had planned on doing these weekly, but other things have taken priority. Anyway, onto the post…and as always, SPOILERS abound. One of my favorite episodes of the entire series comes up halfway through season 4, specifically “The Weight,” an episode dealing with Johnny Sack’s obese wife. This poignant and funny episode stands out because it’s one of the rare times we feel bad for a cast member. The Sopranos generally gave the audience few characters we could truly sympathize with. You can name only a handful before running out of options. Dr. Melfi is the major one, naturally. She is in many ways the show’s conscience. Artie is another (though…
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Television

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Re-Watching the Sopranos – Season 3

April 30, 2012 2 Comments

When I started this series of blog posts, I meant to do it weekly. Life got in the way. But hey, here I is! I’m back. And here’s more. As I’ve mentioned, these posts are full of SPOILERS. If you have not watched the series and think you will one day, avoid them. If you have, read and argue with me below. As I also mentioned, these are meant to be casual posts. I put my time in when it comes to studying cinema. Now I’m just here to have fun. Watching this again in rapid succession, it really struck me how little happened in season 3. The only two storylines that begin and are resolved are Jackie Jr. (with a predictable/inevitable ending) and Tony’s new girl…
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Television

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Re-Watching the Sopranos – Season 2

April 2, 2012 4 Comments

Picking up from last week, when I began posting about my recent re-watch of The Sopranos. As with last week, I will freely post SPOILERS, so don’t read if you haven’t seen these episodes. Also, I’ll be light and quick; these are just some fast impressions, not deep essays on the show. For a great in-depth, episode-by-episode look at the show, read this excellent series of essays. Following the groundbreaking creation that was season 1 of The Sopranos, it wouldn’t have been hard to imagine the show failing to live up to the amazing potential it displayed. We’ve all heard of the Sophomore Slump, the idea that living up to a stellar first performance is a near impossible mountain to climb. It has happened time…
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Television

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Re-Watching the Sopranos – Season 1

March 26, 2012 2 Comments

I’ve said before that HBO changed the the way I watch TV. The emphasis on strong writing, stellar acting, big production values, and season-long storylines drew me back into television after a long period of having abandoned the idea of it being something worthwhile. Prior to a change in my TV habits, I had given up watching broadcast TV altogether. There seemed better things to see and better things to watch (such as Hitchcock films). But HBO’s bold, expansive programming changed all that, and these days I prefer long television dramas to movies. It all started with The Sopranos, a landmark series by any measure. This is a show that took the groundbreaking efforts of Hill Street Blues and blew them into the stratosphere. No…
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Lost – On daddy issues

July 14, 2009 0 Comments

WARNING: The following contains SPOILERS for the television show Lost. If you have not caught up through season 5, do not read this. It will spoil your enjoyment of the show. Lost makes no great attempt to hide its recurring themes. Faith versus reason (as I’ve already discussed), free will versus fate, and redemption and rebirth are not just subtle thematic elements of the show, they are right up front and center. These aspects of the show’s thematic heart are oft discussed, but a common element more infrequently discussed is the sins of the father; trying to rise above deep parental issues, specifically father issues. Not that Lost has made this theme a big secret. After all, the eleventh episode of the very first season…
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Television

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