tony kills Chrissy by making him choke on his own blood similar to what Walter white did to Jesses girlfriend in season 3
The way the others, particularly Tony, used and then then discarded Chris is a microcosm of how the Mafia leeches off of society. He literally gave up the love of his life and Tony acts like Chris is the one who should be grateful for all he has done for him.
the scene where aj tried to drown himself and Tony saves him just hit me right in the gut my father has had to do something along those lines for me multiple times in my life im sobbing I love this show so much
The entire time I’m watching this show I think I’m most like Christopher when it turns out I’m aj soprano I felt exactly the same way he did when I was 20 about life and the world it was terrifying I was really sick
That episode is one of the best in the series, maybe my favorite I think. That moment. When tony says “my baby”
That final shot was emotionally gut wrenching I’ll never forget the day I was in the ER due to almost trying and my mom took me and left but a few hours later my dad just silently walked in and sat with me without saying a word for hours just to be there anyway this show is making me cry a lot lately lol
The way Tony runs and launches himself into the water is what really sells it. It is freezing cold and slippery, but at that point he has no regard for his body or anything else.
I half expected him to sit there and yell at him but once he realized what it was and what he did he didn’t hesitate
He goes back and forth between that tough love that he feels he is supposed to dish out and the more primal need to protect his children. He yells at him when he first sees him flailing around in the water, but once he realizes the situation it changes. It goes perfectly with an earlier Melfi scene where he compares AJ's problems to when your children are sick as babies and the pain it causes a parent because they wish they could trade places with them. There are so many times where Tony outwardly expresses disappointment and anger at how his son has developed but he blames everything on himself. He knows that he was also a college dropout and took the "easy" way out, and since Meadow seems mostly on the right path he is constantly tormented by the failings of his real son and his role as a father figure to Chris. In some ways the way his relationship with Chris ultimately ends gives him a different perspective on how to deal with AJ.
he uses the cowards way out phrase in a session and Dr melfi says “I think someone who doesn’t understand depression came up with that, but you do don’t you” that moment was really striking because Tony wants to pretend aj is an anomaly but he knows deep down exactly how he feels. and the way Carmela keeps throwing it back in his face like it’s all his fault he turned out this way ways away at him. It’s something I’ve thought about if I ever have kids someday tbh. Passing on the illness.
Tony is at that crossroads where he idolizes his father and wants to be like him but also understanding, mostly subconsciously, that a lot of his worst traits comes from his own father. You see him trying to be a more progressive modern dad in some senses (he begrudgingly goes along with the no corporal punishment rule with Carmela, he actively tries to be involved in his kids' events), but he is also a murderer. Everyone ends up screwing up their kids at least a little bit but not all of us have mothers like Livia.
I had great parents but yeah I inherited some behavioral traits from both of them I don’t particularly like
that’s a wrap. beautiful. knew how it ended but still. what a phenomenal final season. especially the second half. I think at least three of those episodes rank in my favorite of the show
I would mostly agree with that. The show got much better in the second half of the series, with Season 5 being a bit of a regression.
I spent my entire therapy session today talking about the last few episodes (my therapist is just a year or two older than me and has seen it)
I’ve been sitting with it and thinking about it and I’m having all these wild thoughts and idea I’m sure millions of people have been debating online for almost two decades at this point lol but I get it I understand why this is considered the crown jewel of prestige tv. I think the wire comes close and I’ve seen it many more times than this so I’m intimately more familiar with it but I still think there’s just something about the sopranos that sets it apart from any other story telling medium not just tv. I just can’t recall anything I’ve experienced that hits like this.
def would say it's between this and The Wire, and the third season of Twin Peaks fighting for the crown. but really they don't have to fight, they can all share it haha. they all feel like portraits of America, in radically different ways
I liked mad men but it was fucking slow at some points like I’m generally pretty forgiving about pacing when there’s a big pay off but man mad men dragged sometimes