"Made In America"
So - this is it - the last episode of THE SOPRANOS has aired, and as promised, this blog comes to close. At some point in life I might start on it again - but life has gotten busy - I spend my spare time these days doting on G., but even still - I think writing about these shows kind of misses the point with me. I'm going to basically review everything I've seen lately as well as stuff I think you should really check out.
THE OFFICE (BBC)
I've crowed enough about this show - but you must gets seasons 1 & 2 and the Xmas specials - watch them in order and see a truly amazing show that has what is probably the most satisfying finale of any tv show I've ever seen.
Grade: A +
THE OFFICE (BBC)
I've crowed enough about this show - but you must gets seasons 1 & 2 and the Xmas specials - watch them in order and see a truly amazing show that has what is probably the most satisfying finale of any tv show I've ever seen.
Grade: A +
I thought BORAT and JACKASS 2 were the funniest films of last year - and if you're just looking for great movies to watch, JESUS IS MAGIC, HAPPINESS, KILL BILL, BUGSY, OPEN WATER, THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (UNCUT DVD VERSION), ELECTION, THE YARDS, TERMINATOR 1 & 2 (the third kind of really sucked), BOOGIE NIGHTS, KEN PARK, KIDS, GUMMO, BULLY, ROCKY BALBOA (the whole series - but the last one was really great), AWAKENINGS - these are all films that if you haven't seen - you should. I'll probably throw out a few more for this big last blow out - but those are the first few that came to mind.
One thing I also love is collecting tv series on dvd. Yet, with the exception of THE SOPRANOS, my other two favorite dramas remain in limbo. WISEGUY, one of the best crime dramas EVER to hit the air has only appeared in a 4 box set - yet an entire season is missing, the arcs are shown out of order and key songs are replaced by library music. One episode even has a gaffe that JUST features Ken Wahl talking and not even the audio. And now they've pulled it - so in all likelihood, WISEGUY will never see the real light of dvd in any cohesive way (luckily I had all of them taped on HQ VHS - so I've successfully converted them.) - But HILL STREET BLUES? They released the first 2 seasons in very nice boxes (even though they were missing the great "Previously on Hill St. Blues" that set up the episodes, but now they've stopped. Season 3 was all ready to go - but the sales were disappointing. You know why that's so idiotic? Because they simply should have released all 7 seasons in one box set and made their money - but they were stupid and now we may NEVER get the finest cop drama EVER on DVD. This actually makes my blood boil - and yet - every season of SHE'S THE SHERIFF is available with audio commentary.
One thing I also love is collecting tv series on dvd. Yet, with the exception of THE SOPRANOS, my other two favorite dramas remain in limbo. WISEGUY, one of the best crime dramas EVER to hit the air has only appeared in a 4 box set - yet an entire season is missing, the arcs are shown out of order and key songs are replaced by library music. One episode even has a gaffe that JUST features Ken Wahl talking and not even the audio. And now they've pulled it - so in all likelihood, WISEGUY will never see the real light of dvd in any cohesive way (luckily I had all of them taped on HQ VHS - so I've successfully converted them.) - But HILL STREET BLUES? They released the first 2 seasons in very nice boxes (even though they were missing the great "Previously on Hill St. Blues" that set up the episodes, but now they've stopped. Season 3 was all ready to go - but the sales were disappointing. You know why that's so idiotic? Because they simply should have released all 7 seasons in one box set and made their money - but they were stupid and now we may NEVER get the finest cop drama EVER on DVD. This actually makes my blood boil - and yet - every season of SHE'S THE SHERIFF is available with audio commentary.
The LAND OF THE LOST dvds are really cool. Loaded with extras - and best of all - loaded with the silly/scary tv show that captured my imagination all those years ago.
IGBY GOES DOWN (VHS)
G. recently made me watch this and I thought it was really good. It's a super specific story about this kid who's kind of floating through life based on his parent's weird situation and it's very non-genre but I got pretty sucked in.
Grade: B
Grade: B
TIM AND ERIC'S AWESOME SHOW! (TOON)
I watched this the other night in a Hawaiian Condo - fucking brilliantly funny - or it was the booze - but I think it might've been both.
Grade: A
I watched this the other night in a Hawaiian Condo - fucking brilliantly funny - or it was the booze - but I think it might've been both.
Grade: A
I LOVE WONDERSHOWZEN (Get the dvds.)
LIVING IN OBLIVION is one of the greatest comedies ever made.
BROADCAST NEWS and MOONSTRUCK are genius.
TWO BROTHERS is awesome. (and wrenching.)
FREEWAY had the best opening 20 minutes for a tv movie EVER.
THE IDOLMAKER, MIRACLE MILE, MY BODYGUARD, MEATBALLS and LITTLE DARLINGS are some GREAT old movies.
THE GAME, with Michael Douglas - amazing.
I never saw the 2 follow up MATRIX movies - am I missing something?
TRAFFIC, the movie - is really good - and really overrated.
I traded in my NAKED GUN collection because I can't stand to see OJ in them.
TITANIC has some of the best scenes ever shot - and some of the worst.
UNDECLARED should've lasted longer.
THE X FILES really needed a better ending.
FRIENDS has exactly the ending the fans wanted - a really boring one.
MARY TYLER MOORE was a perfect show with a perfect ending. Also the only show to ever spawn two comedy sequels (Rhoda and The Ted Knight Show - (there might've even been a third) - and the only comedy EVER to spawn a one hour drama :LOU GRANT. (Lou Grant's boss was played by Nancy Marchand - Tony Soprano's mother, Livia.)
THE BEATLES' LOVE is best served by a 5.1 system. So is THE EAGLES FIRST FAREWELL TOUR.
LIVING IN OBLIVION is one of the greatest comedies ever made.
BROADCAST NEWS and MOONSTRUCK are genius.
TWO BROTHERS is awesome. (and wrenching.)
FREEWAY had the best opening 20 minutes for a tv movie EVER.
THE IDOLMAKER, MIRACLE MILE, MY BODYGUARD, MEATBALLS and LITTLE DARLINGS are some GREAT old movies.
THE GAME, with Michael Douglas - amazing.
I never saw the 2 follow up MATRIX movies - am I missing something?
TRAFFIC, the movie - is really good - and really overrated.
I traded in my NAKED GUN collection because I can't stand to see OJ in them.
TITANIC has some of the best scenes ever shot - and some of the worst.
UNDECLARED should've lasted longer.
THE X FILES really needed a better ending.
FRIENDS has exactly the ending the fans wanted - a really boring one.
MARY TYLER MOORE was a perfect show with a perfect ending. Also the only show to ever spawn two comedy sequels (Rhoda and The Ted Knight Show - (there might've even been a third) - and the only comedy EVER to spawn a one hour drama :LOU GRANT. (Lou Grant's boss was played by Nancy Marchand - Tony Soprano's mother, Livia.)
THE BEATLES' LOVE is best served by a 5.1 system. So is THE EAGLES FIRST FAREWELL TOUR.
THE WEDDING CRASHERS is really funny. The writer - Steven Faber is even funnier.
The 5.1 disc of DARK SIDE OF THE MOON is amazing.
THE SHIELD - 6.2 SEASON ENDING EPISODES (FX)
Enough with this "seasons 6.1 - 6.2" - it's really annoying. Beyond that - This last batch of SHIELD episodes have been awesome, dizzying, mature and trenchant. The performance of Walton Goggins as Shane has gone from annoying in season one to invaluable. The stuff with his guilt over Lem was great - Vic's performance (Chicklis) has NEVER been better as Vic, and if I had any complaints about this season, it was just that the Dutch stuff somehow never seemed as exciting as what was going on in the rest of the show, and that the finale just kind of was okay - it didn't really build to anything great. It reminded me of the first season finale, which became about how overall corruption was worse then anything Vic Mackey could do. It also seemed like they tried to cram so much in that all the Vic-Aceveda stuff, which should've been explosive, kind of felt a little by the numbers. Still, this was a series in top form, and I'm looking forward to the final season.
Grade: A
REAL WORLD: VEGAS REUNITED (MTV)
Nothing more fun then going back in time and seeing these true misfits share a place together in Vegas. I've only seen a few eps and although it's far from great, it's fun to see those characters again. Yet, if they REALLY want to please the fans - get the gang from REAL WORLD: HAWAII (the best season of the entire series history) - get those guys back together again. THAT would be something.
Grade: B -
ROCKY 3
Watched this with G. over the weekend - loved the angle of bringing back Apollo - Mickey's death was a little gimmicky - and that speech by Adrian at the beach was so badly over the top and poorly acted, me and G. were embarrassed watching it. Still, Mr. T. was a great opponent, Apollo was a great friend to Rocky and yes, their manly beach hugging at the end of "Gonna Fly Now" was something you probably wouldn't see today - but we fucking loved it! Great fight sequences and awesome last scene of Apollo's "favor." (I kept thinking it would be anal - but it turned out he just wanted another fight with the Rock.)
Grade: B +
The 5.1 disc of DARK SIDE OF THE MOON is amazing.
THE SHIELD - 6.2 SEASON ENDING EPISODES (FX)
Enough with this "seasons 6.1 - 6.2" - it's really annoying. Beyond that - This last batch of SHIELD episodes have been awesome, dizzying, mature and trenchant. The performance of Walton Goggins as Shane has gone from annoying in season one to invaluable. The stuff with his guilt over Lem was great - Vic's performance (Chicklis) has NEVER been better as Vic, and if I had any complaints about this season, it was just that the Dutch stuff somehow never seemed as exciting as what was going on in the rest of the show, and that the finale just kind of was okay - it didn't really build to anything great. It reminded me of the first season finale, which became about how overall corruption was worse then anything Vic Mackey could do. It also seemed like they tried to cram so much in that all the Vic-Aceveda stuff, which should've been explosive, kind of felt a little by the numbers. Still, this was a series in top form, and I'm looking forward to the final season.
Grade: A
REAL WORLD: VEGAS REUNITED (MTV)
Nothing more fun then going back in time and seeing these true misfits share a place together in Vegas. I've only seen a few eps and although it's far from great, it's fun to see those characters again. Yet, if they REALLY want to please the fans - get the gang from REAL WORLD: HAWAII (the best season of the entire series history) - get those guys back together again. THAT would be something.
Grade: B -
ROCKY 3
Watched this with G. over the weekend - loved the angle of bringing back Apollo - Mickey's death was a little gimmicky - and that speech by Adrian at the beach was so badly over the top and poorly acted, me and G. were embarrassed watching it. Still, Mr. T. was a great opponent, Apollo was a great friend to Rocky and yes, their manly beach hugging at the end of "Gonna Fly Now" was something you probably wouldn't see today - but we fucking loved it! Great fight sequences and awesome last scene of Apollo's "favor." (I kept thinking it would be anal - but it turned out he just wanted another fight with the Rock.)
Grade: B +
(and don't forget how much i LOVED ROCKY BALBOA)
THE ODD COUPLE (1st season dvd)
I bought this for G. - who's a big fan, but I haven't seen too much of it. But from what I have seen - it seems like a great gift to fans of the show packed to the gills with little extras - let's just hope they release all 5 seasons of this classic comedy that was funny right from the get go.
Grade: A
ALPHA DOG (DVD)
WAY better then I thought it would - Justin Timberlake is just great in his big screen debut, Emile Hirsh is perfect and this is yet another version of MEAN STREETS - this one set in the San Fernando Valley and based on a true story - but it kind of rocked. Not as hard as BULLY, which this film shares a lot of theme with, but it still kind of rocks.
Grade: B
LOST (3rd season Finale) (ABC)Wow. The show itself had been Lost - and then came the last 8 eps and each one seemed to top itself. I have to admit - I truly thought this show was creatively dead and they wouldn't be able to come back - they've proved me wrong. The ending was a mind-blower and I look forward to the 3 coming mini-seasons - however - let's not get crazy - do the short 3 seasons, like the deal you made with ABC - and end this fucking thing well. It's not epic enough to keep dragging out and it's taken enough wrong turns that I'd just like to see them wind down in a classic style. But at the moment, the ship is VERY steady.
Finale' Grade: A
Season Grade: B -
ON THE LOT (FOX)
Has become an addictive version of PROJECT GREENLIGHT - but where's Spielberg? And the student films - or whatever - all kind of REALLY suck. - UPDATE: Have seen a few more - apparently the ratings are in the basement so they're eliminating contestants off-air - which leads to a really chaotic mess. And the short films are getting fascinatingly worse.
Grade: C -
AMY WINEHOUSE CD
Buy it.
Now.
Awesome.
I just picked up the new McCartney CD "MEMORY ALMOST FULL" and at first listen, sounds like a gem.
STRANGER THEN FICTION (DVD)
I wanted to love this film. I didn't - but I really liked it. It just didn't have the emotion to keep up it's story - and it was very cold and distancing. And Emma Thompson seemed to be acting in a different movie. A much worse one. Still - it had some great story beats and a nice performance from Will Ferrel.
Grade: C +
THE OFFICE FINALE (NBC)
This came back from a wildly uneven season and scored with this finale - but comparisons to the BBC series are a serious joke. That said - this finale' was very well done, very eventful and hopefully a sign of great things to come for the series 4th season.
THE SARAH SILVERMAN SHOW (COM)
"Muffin' Man." I did not get that joke the first time around. This was my favorite episode in this short new series run, and I loved the TAB wars between the lovers.
Grade: A
RESCUE ME PREMIERE (FX)
THE ODD COUPLE (1st season dvd)
I bought this for G. - who's a big fan, but I haven't seen too much of it. But from what I have seen - it seems like a great gift to fans of the show packed to the gills with little extras - let's just hope they release all 5 seasons of this classic comedy that was funny right from the get go.
Grade: A
ALPHA DOG (DVD)
WAY better then I thought it would - Justin Timberlake is just great in his big screen debut, Emile Hirsh is perfect and this is yet another version of MEAN STREETS - this one set in the San Fernando Valley and based on a true story - but it kind of rocked. Not as hard as BULLY, which this film shares a lot of theme with, but it still kind of rocks.
Grade: B
LOST (3rd season Finale) (ABC)Wow. The show itself had been Lost - and then came the last 8 eps and each one seemed to top itself. I have to admit - I truly thought this show was creatively dead and they wouldn't be able to come back - they've proved me wrong. The ending was a mind-blower and I look forward to the 3 coming mini-seasons - however - let's not get crazy - do the short 3 seasons, like the deal you made with ABC - and end this fucking thing well. It's not epic enough to keep dragging out and it's taken enough wrong turns that I'd just like to see them wind down in a classic style. But at the moment, the ship is VERY steady.
Finale' Grade: A
Season Grade: B -
ON THE LOT (FOX)
Has become an addictive version of PROJECT GREENLIGHT - but where's Spielberg? And the student films - or whatever - all kind of REALLY suck. - UPDATE: Have seen a few more - apparently the ratings are in the basement so they're eliminating contestants off-air - which leads to a really chaotic mess. And the short films are getting fascinatingly worse.
Grade: C -
AMY WINEHOUSE CD
Buy it.
Now.
Awesome.
I just picked up the new McCartney CD "MEMORY ALMOST FULL" and at first listen, sounds like a gem.
STRANGER THEN FICTION (DVD)
I wanted to love this film. I didn't - but I really liked it. It just didn't have the emotion to keep up it's story - and it was very cold and distancing. And Emma Thompson seemed to be acting in a different movie. A much worse one. Still - it had some great story beats and a nice performance from Will Ferrel.
Grade: C +
THE OFFICE FINALE (NBC)
This came back from a wildly uneven season and scored with this finale - but comparisons to the BBC series are a serious joke. That said - this finale' was very well done, very eventful and hopefully a sign of great things to come for the series 4th season.
THE SARAH SILVERMAN SHOW (COM)
"Muffin' Man." I did not get that joke the first time around. This was my favorite episode in this short new series run, and I loved the TAB wars between the lovers.
Grade: A
RESCUE ME PREMIERE (FX)
I'll be watching - but the blog is over - so I guess we'll just never know what I thought of it. My prediction: about the same as all the previous seasons - good with inane moments of surrealness that went out with ALLY MCBEAL. 7 years ago. And if Leary spends half the premier talking to his dead relative - or different versions of himself - you'll know that he's simply taking stuff from better shows and doing nothing more then recycling them. This show is at it's very best when it's real and dangerous - not the warmed over fantasy bullshit.
PREDICTION GRADE: B -
UPDATE: I actually got a chance to see it. It was WAY better then I expected - and the firehouse explosion was hairy. AND - as of yet at least - no fucking fantasy sequences. And I loved the porn stuff with Tatum O'Neil.
Revised Grade: B +
The promos for DAMAGE on FX seem pretty good.
I started watching APOCOLYPTO and thought it starts off really good - even if Gibson does hate the Jews.
UPDATE: I finished the movie. It's real good. Real long. Real bloody. Real long. Real interesting and based in fact. And really fucking long.
Since this is the last time I'll be here, let me give you some more recommendations of stuff I've loved that I recommend wholeheartedly: TAXI and SEINFELD on DVD, TRAFFIK (the bbc series dvd), MURDER ONE (especially season 2), SOAP on DVD, THE HONEYMOONERS classic 39 all out on dvd, I love DRAWN TOGETHER on the Toon network - WINDY CITY HEAT is one of the best comedies EVER made (even though Perrry is now suing everybody involved), CRASH is great, RUDY is great, RAGING BULL is maybe the best film ever made, along with WIZARD OF OZ.
TAXI DRIVER and KING OF COMEDY are 2 great Scorsese movies - as well as one of my other all time favorites GOODFELLAS. DONNIE BRASCO and DEEP COVER are really good crime thrillers. I love THE FIRM, HARD CANDY, THE FAMILY MAN, GLADIATOR and GO.
Looking forward to the new BAD GIRLS: ROAD TRIP. MOTHER'S DAY is depraved and awesome. The EVIL DEAD series (3 movies) are all excellent. SPRINGSTEEN LIVE IN NYC is still his best concert dvd along with his HAMMERSMITH, ODEON disc (available in the BORN 2 RUN set.)
BILLY JOEL'S recent 12 GARDENS is a fantastic live cd. BAT OUT OF HELL 3 wasn't perfect but good enough to be a worthy conclusion - despite the absence of new Jim Steinman songs.
ELTON JOHN's DREAM TICKET dvd set - on Amazon for about 25 bux - is definitely the way to go on him.
ANGEL HEART is a great movie, as is AND THE BAND PLAYED ON.
JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE is the new king of late nite shows, period.
STERN ON DEMAND and THE STERN SIRIUS RADIO show are both solid A +. If you're in the car a lot - go for the radio show. If you're never in the car and don't want to install a radio - the ON DEMAND site (available only if you have ON DEMAND - which now is a digital cable thing) the tv show is the way to go - since almost everything great that happens on the radio is repeated in an edited (not for content but to make more cohesion out of them) form. Or do like me - get both.
FREAKS & GEEKS is a one of a kind show and everybody show own the 15 episode set.
AMONGST FRIENDS and BABY BOY are two overlooked gems.
PREDICTION GRADE: B -
UPDATE: I actually got a chance to see it. It was WAY better then I expected - and the firehouse explosion was hairy. AND - as of yet at least - no fucking fantasy sequences. And I loved the porn stuff with Tatum O'Neil.
Revised Grade: B +
The promos for DAMAGE on FX seem pretty good.
I started watching APOCOLYPTO and thought it starts off really good - even if Gibson does hate the Jews.
UPDATE: I finished the movie. It's real good. Real long. Real bloody. Real long. Real interesting and based in fact. And really fucking long.
Since this is the last time I'll be here, let me give you some more recommendations of stuff I've loved that I recommend wholeheartedly: TAXI and SEINFELD on DVD, TRAFFIK (the bbc series dvd), MURDER ONE (especially season 2), SOAP on DVD, THE HONEYMOONERS classic 39 all out on dvd, I love DRAWN TOGETHER on the Toon network - WINDY CITY HEAT is one of the best comedies EVER made (even though Perrry is now suing everybody involved), CRASH is great, RUDY is great, RAGING BULL is maybe the best film ever made, along with WIZARD OF OZ.
TAXI DRIVER and KING OF COMEDY are 2 great Scorsese movies - as well as one of my other all time favorites GOODFELLAS. DONNIE BRASCO and DEEP COVER are really good crime thrillers. I love THE FIRM, HARD CANDY, THE FAMILY MAN, GLADIATOR and GO.
Looking forward to the new BAD GIRLS: ROAD TRIP. MOTHER'S DAY is depraved and awesome. The EVIL DEAD series (3 movies) are all excellent. SPRINGSTEEN LIVE IN NYC is still his best concert dvd along with his HAMMERSMITH, ODEON disc (available in the BORN 2 RUN set.)
BILLY JOEL'S recent 12 GARDENS is a fantastic live cd. BAT OUT OF HELL 3 wasn't perfect but good enough to be a worthy conclusion - despite the absence of new Jim Steinman songs.
ELTON JOHN's DREAM TICKET dvd set - on Amazon for about 25 bux - is definitely the way to go on him.
ANGEL HEART is a great movie, as is AND THE BAND PLAYED ON.
JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE is the new king of late nite shows, period.
STERN ON DEMAND and THE STERN SIRIUS RADIO show are both solid A +. If you're in the car a lot - go for the radio show. If you're never in the car and don't want to install a radio - the ON DEMAND site (available only if you have ON DEMAND - which now is a digital cable thing) the tv show is the way to go - since almost everything great that happens on the radio is repeated in an edited (not for content but to make more cohesion out of them) form. Or do like me - get both.
FREAKS & GEEKS is a one of a kind show and everybody show own the 15 episode set.
AMONGST FRIENDS and BABY BOY are two overlooked gems.
HOUSE OF GAMES is David Mamet's finest film.
CHINATOWN is overrated.
CHINATOWN is overrated.
I just got the brand new SPRINGSTEEN 2007 DVD in New Orleans - if you were into that SEEGER SESSIONS cd, you'll LOVE this. It has blistering sound - re-worked versions of many hits - and Springsteen sounds awesome.
SUPERMAN RETURNS sucked.
I didn't really like ANY of the PIRATES movies. Sorry.
I still have never seen the ending of the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, nor any complete HARRY POTTER movie.
As great as NIGHT, DAWN and to a lesser degree, DAY OF THE DEAD was - that's how bad Romero's fourth film LAND OF THE DEAD was.
AUTO FOCUS is great, AMERICAN BEAUTY is stunning, and TOMMY BOY is still hilarious.
4 best WOODY films ever:
ANNIE HALL
MANHATTAN
HANNAH & HER SISTERS
CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS
Best 2 Oliver Stone films ever: SALVADOR and NATURAL BORN KILLERS (the unedited dvd version.)
THE FAMILY MAN, GHOST WORLD, CRUMB, STEVIE, THE LION KING and THE MINUS MAN all rock.
Okay - I could clearly do this forever - let me just get back to my reviews...
HOW TO MAKE LOVE LIKE A PORN STAR by Jenna Jameson with Neil Strauss (Hardcover)
I kind of loved this book and was addicted to it's wild storytelling and glimpse into a serious porn career, yet was missing some political take on the subject matter. It always blows my mind when some of these porn starlets write the book of their life, and don't see the sex as anything but a business part of the "biz" and Jenna certainly doesn't stop to think about any of the implications of her on screen sex - only if the money shot looks good. On some level, that's awesome. On another - it's really, tragically sad. All in all - a highly readable book, Jenna had a horrible life and I got really bored with the last chapters of Jenna just exploiting her image to become porn's biggest name. Not that I rooted against her, just that the last few chapters are just about her company and her money and it all gets a bit much. Much grittier is her rise to the "top." Highly reccomended reading. Neil Strauss is also a GREAT writer and I'm positive Jenna wouldn't have ended up with such a classy read had she not had the great Mr. Strauss helping her.
Grade: B
Okay - a few more favorites: DAZED AND CONFUSED, I really liked the 1st CHARLIES ANGELS (so sue me - Cameron Diaz' smile steals the show - and her happy dance in the morning) - I loved BABEL but wouldn't watch it again. THE DEPARTED is SERIOUSLY overrated. CASINO is not the best chapter in the Scorese mob cannon, but it's not bad at all.
UNFAITHFUL is a great thriller. SUPERMAN 1 & 2 are awesome - with part 1 being the better of the 2. The Donner cut neither adds or takes away from this - but SUPERMAN 1 is really where it's at. Of all the KING KONGS - the original had the most heart, but Peter Jackson's KONG was breathtaking - if ONLY for the relationship between KONG and Naomi Watts - and every other aspect of that movie - the time period - Jack Black, etc. - pretty much blew.
NIP/TUCK had 2 steller seasons, a pretty decent 3rd one - a REALLY uneven 4th one - yet somehow - I can't wait for season 5, set in Los Angeles. Oh - and I could care less if Julia comes back or not. And Matt is as useless as AJ.
If you haven't seen any Henry Jaglom films, you should.
I love ON DEMAND - but they HAVE to fix the fast-forwarding option problem. (It's too slow!)
KITANOS ON SUNSET is worth it to go at least once to try the filet mignon asparagus thng.
BEST FINALES EVER: MASH, NEWHEART, ST. ELSEWHERE, HILL ST. BLUES, DEADWOOD, MURDER ONE, THE OFFICE BBC (that one being THE BEST), the 1st season ender of VERONICA MARS, okay - getting off track.
WORST ENDING EVER.
Seinfeld.
BEST COMEDY EVER.
Seinfeld.
(With THE HONEYMOONERS coming close - but no one yet has come near the brilliance of the finest of SEINFELD, which was brilliant right up until that last fucking horror show they passed off as a finale.)
I will sorely miss THE KING OF QUEENS. I used to love IT'S YOUR MOVE. JAMES AT 15 was a GREAT show. PRISONER: CELL BLOCK H - great prison drama. OZ - fantastic (and another bad ending.) But the first season of OZ ranks up there with the best in tv history. The stuff between Beacher and Verne was the most frightening relationship I've ever seen on tv - to this day.
I think the SPIDERMAN movies are REALLY overrated.
I think HANNIBAL, the LAMBS sequel, is criminally underrated.
ELEPHANT, THE BROWN BUNNY, BUFFALO 66, LAST TANGO IN PARIS, HAPPINESS and MYSTERIOUS SKIN are all tough to love, GREAT movies. Especially HAPPINESS - which I found to be the most refreshing film about weirdoes in 8 years.
EZ STREETS was the best show that only got 6 episodes. And the BEST PILOT. EVER.
TWIN PEAKS was kind of great. It got bogged down in both the 2nd season and in parts of the movie - but overall - it's kind of a masterpiece.
Love the old STAR WARS TRILOGY - the new one was as brain dead as (fill in your own joke here.)
UNITED 93 and THIRTEEN are both great movies.
I didn't get into ELF.
I LOVE the 41 YEAR OLD VIRGIN (the uncut dvd version.) - Can't wait to see KNOCKED UP or SUPERBAD.
CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS is wrenching.
Why don't they release every season of the GREAT ST. ELSEWHERE already?
CHINA BEACH - why is there no dvd set?
THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW - 2nd best HBO show ever.
ENTOURAGE - pretty goddamned good.
LETTERMAN is GREAT.
LENO is as lame as it gets.
I don't get the Craig Ferguson show at ALL.
Conan hasn't made me laugh in 14 years.
Kimmel still has them all beat, but how in the fuck did they give Leno a show?
ELLIOT SMITH is great (he died.) Mitch Heberg was one of the funniest guys ever. (He died.)
THE EELS are awesome - their first 2 cds are the best.
I went to dinner last nite and it reminded and we were waiting for my friend's niece to show up - it totally reminded me of....
well, I guess I can put this off no longer.
This is the end of the blog. The end of the road - but first, before I drone on about everything else - let's get to the meat of this - the last batch of SOPRANOS EPISODES. Since I reviewed the first few already - I'll do short reviews of the first 5 or so - then get into the last 4 in depth:
THE SOPRANOS: THE FINAL SEASON (HBO) SPOILERS!
If you have NOT seen the final season of THE SOPRANOS - these synopsis will contain very sensitive details about major plotlines and story beats. If you are STILL only on episode 5, (THAT MEANS YOU, G!) READ NO FURTHER!!!!!!!! Reading further if you have not seen the show will only destroy your experience with the show.
THE SOPRANOS: THE FINAL SEASON!
NOTE: I generally loved the final season, and remember in my reviews I'm just being insanely nit-picky.
Episode 1 - SOPRANOS HOME MOVIES (HBO)
The season started off with a bang. A mostly good episode (save for almost every scene involving Janice.) It dealt mostly with Tony and Bobby's burgeoning relationship - and the scary turn it takes. I thought it was well played, the fight with Bobby and Tony was really hairy, and the results were horrifying. What a way to begin. It also marked the new tone of the next few episodes - which were just examing Tony's relationships with the major players - though we never got a REAL Tony/Carm episode in this cycle - but we've kind of been through that before.
Grade: A - (for all the Janice/Carm scenes - otherwise a straight A.)
The season started off with a bang. A mostly good episode (save for almost every scene involving Janice.) It dealt mostly with Tony and Bobby's burgeoning relationship - and the scary turn it takes. I thought it was well played, the fight with Bobby and Tony was really hairy, and the results were horrifying. What a way to begin. It also marked the new tone of the next few episodes - which were just examing Tony's relationships with the major players - though we never got a REAL Tony/Carm episode in this cycle - but we've kind of been through that before.
Grade: A - (for all the Janice/Carm scenes - otherwise a straight A.)
Episode 2: STAGE FIVE
An episode that featured the too-silly CLEAVER movie - which in reality - would have never seen a release. And it wasn't even good - it wasn't particularly funny...I think this might've worked better if they made it just seem like an average C slasher movie - instead of the over topless they gave it, rendering this "project" pretty laughable. Still - it included beats that furthered the Tony/Chrissy tension - yet I hate that so much of that came from this movie that would NEVER be a real movie ever in any universe. The Johnny Sack is sick in prison storyline - even with the nice guest turn by Sidney Pollack - was a snore. The actor is great so he made it work - but who cared that much? I mean - if Phil or Tony would've visited him (Tony visiting him seemed like a natural - though the show has taught us that you can't visit or you look guilty) - that might've been interesting. But otherwise - it had no bearing on the rest of the show. And the actress who played his overweight wife was never a strong player. Then at some point Phil appears to be giving a class to children about the history of his family - it was weird. The ending, with Phil getting worked up over Tony, and Christopher getting an ominous kiss by Tony during his kid's baptism - that was good stuff - overall, a push.
Grade: B -
EPISODE 3 - "Remember When"
The third ep Dealt very directly with the ongoing tension that had been building between Tony and Paulie. We learn that Tony used to really idolize Paulie, and it's always nice to see Beansie - and I liked the fact they had to go on the run and deal with each other. And I LOVED that Tony still can't deal with the fact that someone told Johnny Sac about the ass-mole remark. I thought the dinner scene was superb and a great example of Paulie opening his mouth too much - but by the time Tony and Paulie went on their boat ride, the whole thing had gotten a little much for it's own good, with the big pussy flashbacks that hit things right on the nose, and the shots of knifes and axes - just kind of overwritten for my taste - but still a pretty tasty episode.
Grade: B -
An episode that featured the too-silly CLEAVER movie - which in reality - would have never seen a release. And it wasn't even good - it wasn't particularly funny...I think this might've worked better if they made it just seem like an average C slasher movie - instead of the over topless they gave it, rendering this "project" pretty laughable. Still - it included beats that furthered the Tony/Chrissy tension - yet I hate that so much of that came from this movie that would NEVER be a real movie ever in any universe. The Johnny Sack is sick in prison storyline - even with the nice guest turn by Sidney Pollack - was a snore. The actor is great so he made it work - but who cared that much? I mean - if Phil or Tony would've visited him (Tony visiting him seemed like a natural - though the show has taught us that you can't visit or you look guilty) - that might've been interesting. But otherwise - it had no bearing on the rest of the show. And the actress who played his overweight wife was never a strong player. Then at some point Phil appears to be giving a class to children about the history of his family - it was weird. The ending, with Phil getting worked up over Tony, and Christopher getting an ominous kiss by Tony during his kid's baptism - that was good stuff - overall, a push.
Grade: B -
EPISODE 3 - "Remember When"
The third ep Dealt very directly with the ongoing tension that had been building between Tony and Paulie. We learn that Tony used to really idolize Paulie, and it's always nice to see Beansie - and I liked the fact they had to go on the run and deal with each other. And I LOVED that Tony still can't deal with the fact that someone told Johnny Sac about the ass-mole remark. I thought the dinner scene was superb and a great example of Paulie opening his mouth too much - but by the time Tony and Paulie went on their boat ride, the whole thing had gotten a little much for it's own good, with the big pussy flashbacks that hit things right on the nose, and the shots of knifes and axes - just kind of overwritten for my taste - but still a pretty tasty episode.
Grade: B -
Episode 4 - "Chasing It"
Now we were getting somewhere. While I enjoyed all the previous episodes to varying degrees, this was the first of a spate of last season brilliance. Tony is way in over his head in gambling debt - and he can't seem to catch a break. He's reduced to becoming a real degenerate gambler - and the self loathing is palpable. The stuff with Vito's kid - I really could've used a lot less of. But the true greatness of this ep came from the Tony/Hesh conflict. T had always treated Hesh with great reverence, and the disrespect he showed here was both disturbing and scary. Jerry Adler as Hesh had never had better moments, and even though the ending was sort of a cop-out, it worked well enough.
Grade: A
Episode 5: "Walk Like A Man" - written & directed by Terrence Winter
A superb episode that had Christopher finally fall back into his rabbit hole of addiction, loathing, self hatred - this one had it all. The Chrissy/Paulie wars have always been a high point of this series - and this was not only an exception - but a brilliant addition - and in many ways, our final story about Christopher. Imperioli's acting was superb, as was Gandolfini's and Sirico's (Paulie Walnuts.) Strange how Silvio didn't figure too much into these episodes - but hey, the guy never could really act.
But over the years I think I'd just grown to accept him. And let's face it - nobody was more of a drag on this show than Janice - so Silvio is a saint by comparison. But the meat of this ep, Chrissy's meetings at AA, his encounter with the writer of CLEAVER - the truly inspired direction and the scorched earth ending - brilliant. The site of Chrissy putting that tree back in the ground is definitely a series high point.
Grade: A +
Now we were getting somewhere. While I enjoyed all the previous episodes to varying degrees, this was the first of a spate of last season brilliance. Tony is way in over his head in gambling debt - and he can't seem to catch a break. He's reduced to becoming a real degenerate gambler - and the self loathing is palpable. The stuff with Vito's kid - I really could've used a lot less of. But the true greatness of this ep came from the Tony/Hesh conflict. T had always treated Hesh with great reverence, and the disrespect he showed here was both disturbing and scary. Jerry Adler as Hesh had never had better moments, and even though the ending was sort of a cop-out, it worked well enough.
Grade: A
Episode 5: "Walk Like A Man" - written & directed by Terrence Winter
A superb episode that had Christopher finally fall back into his rabbit hole of addiction, loathing, self hatred - this one had it all. The Chrissy/Paulie wars have always been a high point of this series - and this was not only an exception - but a brilliant addition - and in many ways, our final story about Christopher. Imperioli's acting was superb, as was Gandolfini's and Sirico's (Paulie Walnuts.) Strange how Silvio didn't figure too much into these episodes - but hey, the guy never could really act.
But over the years I think I'd just grown to accept him. And let's face it - nobody was more of a drag on this show than Janice - so Silvio is a saint by comparison. But the meat of this ep, Chrissy's meetings at AA, his encounter with the writer of CLEAVER - the truly inspired direction and the scorched earth ending - brilliant. The site of Chrissy putting that tree back in the ground is definitely a series high point.Grade: A +
Episode 6 - "Heidi & Kennedy"
Oh, Chrissy. The sight of him driving Tony in that baseball cap harkened back to even the pilot - and I don't know that I'll ever hear the song "Comfortably Numb" in quite the same way again. (By the way - that was NOT the Floyd version but a Roger Waters solo outting that had Van Morrison singing the famous back up vocals - it's available on both VAN MORRISON "At The Movies" and "The Departed" soundtrack.) The first 20 minutes of this episode is probably THE high water mark of the show - did IT happen cinematically or did it seem random? A little of both - but it simply worked. And then the rest of the show following Tony on his trek to Vegas - who knew that Tony was SO jealous of Christopher's lifestyle? Who knew that Tony was SUCH a monster? And who knew that this would be one of the most amazing episodes in the series history?
On a scale of 1 to 10 - this one got a 300. (joke stolen from S. Silverman)
A ++
Episode 7 - "The Second Coming"
Things got quite a bit calmer in this ep, which mostly dealt with AJ's depression - for the record - I thought he would do it. All in all - kind of comedown from the previous week. And not much talk about the events of the previous week, either.
Grade: B
Episode 8 - "The Blue Comet"
Usually the next-to-last ep of THE SOPRANOS are almost always the best - and this was great, but in reality, without the dynamics of the Tony/Christopher dance leading the episode - it mainly felt like we were glued to really secondary characters. And things are coming to a close. And Bobby - we needed more scenes with him to properly set that up - and his toy train store moment was - well, if I'm being super honest - completely over the top, over produced, and mostly - just plain over-directed. The cuts were what I'd expect from a 2nd year film student. And I don't have the time to talk about how ridiculous the Dr. Melfi stuff was. Her shrink would've never outed her like that - and she would've never shown him the door like that. No shrink in history would leave a patient mid-crisis like that. Still, the feelings of finality hung over this episode like never before.
UPDATE: I went and took a look - remember that flashback that Tony has where Bobby explains that getting whacked "You don't see anything - it just goes to black." - That was never in that episode - it must've been from footage that was shot and not used - very strange. UPDATE: I caught the show again and found that I was wrong - they did talk about it and it WAS shown.
Grade: B
Episode 9 - "Made In America" - The final Sopranos episode.
First off - I have to say that the best thing about the finale is that it wasn't so bad nor ridiculous that I don't think it's going to hurt the legacy of the show. Yet - there is much to talk about. Forgetting about all the hair brained theories that I've heard on the internet and radio all week - either T got whacked or he didn't - this is how I kind of feel. I've seen the episode 2 or 3 times - what can I say - I'm a SOPRANOS junkie and this WAS the finale. I'm going to talk about what I liked about it first.
In many ways - we got some great final scenes between Tony and some characters that - if not exactly closure - was enough to take away from. The last stuff with him and Paulie was GREAT - Paulie finally calling Tony a prick - Tony putting the squeeze on him - Paulie giving in....That was really great and a great summation of the relationship. His final scene with Jr. was - at least from my point of view - spectacular. Well written, well acted - well played. And there was some clear "adios, pal" signs afoot everywhere in the episode. I was really nervous when I heard that David Chase was both writing and directing the finale - while he is the genius that came up with the whole show, frankly - I think some of the worst (and best) ideas came from him - but I just find him more stiff then some of the other writers on the show. I think people like Terry Winter and Frank Renzulli and Robin Green and Mitch Burgess and Mathew Weiner - I think they turned the show into something truly special - and that Chase has been along for this great ride - but not the main man of the show. I remember being really scared when Larry David came back after not being at SEINFELD for 2 years to write the finale, and I remember thinking the show had evolved from what it had become - and that Larry David had also left the show with the horrible 7th season ender "The Envelopes." Truly a vile episode in the show's history and had the characters doing things I never believed they would do. David pushed that even further in his laugh-free final episode where he put these great characters into maybe the stupidest hour of "greatest hits" tv - anyway - enough about the SEINFELD finale - an hour that still haunts my soul to this day. Who would've ever thought that the last ep of SEINFELD would be the very worst ep of Seinfeld?
But that is not the case here - like it or loathe it - this was a finale that was indeed polarizing - but not the creative failure I had feared. However - I did think Chase would do something really weird and pretentious and he did not dissapoint.
Now - on to the bad parts of the finale.
I'll talk about the final scene in a bit, but let's talk about the fact that the final episode of the Sopranos ever had 20 FUCKING MINUTES of AJ. I agree the kid's gotten better as an actor - but 20 FUCKING MINUTES on listening to him talk about Al-Queda? Truly absurd. Dramatically, this could've been an electrifying episode had hey really gone for the Tony/Phil war - but instead - they kind of went around it. Do you remember Tony's reaction to hearing about Phil's fate? You don't? That's because there was none. Now you'll have people like my friend RALPH, who will say "But I thought the AJ stuff was great because he wanted to fight wars and then he just caved in for a job and a cool car." That's true. And it was ironic and even almost funny - but save that for another episode. Not the last one. One might argue that the true nature of the Soprano family was shown to be corrupt in the finale would be right - but maybe that's not exactly the best creative choice they could've gone down. I just tend to believe that the last episode of the greatest drama in the last 10 years shoul'dve been a GREAT Sopranos episode - not great BECAUSE it was the last one. And yet - it sort of was. I was just waiting for some more emotional payoff that never came. Tony and Chris never came up (except for that annoying cat storyline.)
As a final story - there was much drama to be exploited here and many great scenes that simply did not unfold. Instead, we got a very going-through-the-motions ending that resolved many things - but not in elegant fashion. Instead, we got mostly very - borderline clunky but workman like precise scenes depicting Tony trying to tie up some loose ends and win the war with Phil. On the plus side - we got a long awaited and really unexpected ending to the relationship with the FBI agent Harris. That stuff was pretty cool. (I think Agent Harris has started to think of himself as a Soprano.) But why all the references to Al-Queda that ultimately went nowhere? And could an SUV really explode from leaves? Still, it was an ok episode - much like Chase's first season closer, it was very workmanlike - hit all the beats, but did it in very non-elegant way and was just incredibly blunt. At least he didn't have Artie Bucco approach Tony with a machine gun (like he did in his first season finale.) If you ever want to ask yourself just how much Chase understands about his own series - know this: He absolutely went balls to the walls with HBO - fighting with them that Steven Van Zantd (Silvio) should play Tony.
Enough said.
Now about this ending scene: I've watched only about 23 times. It really was the best moment of the show because you knew it was ending - you knew this was it - and it was rife with unbelievable tension. Even when you watch it again - it really is a stunner. I don't need to talk about the specifics - people have not stopped talking about it all week. Though, as someone who really loved the soundtrack to all seasons, I loved him looking at the jukebox, finally settling by the Tony Bennet song, and then the Journey song comes on. Great. It was weird for the series to end in a completely unfamilar setting (though that resturaunt is a famous one in Jersey - for their onion rings.)
I initially really fucking hated the ending - but it became like a song to me that I didn't like at first. Now I'm the "brilliant" camp - I think. I still don't know - but in it's own way - it did assure that the show would live forever. On another hand - you can say that Chase had to make some tough choices in the finale and instead of making any - decided to make none and end on an arty, film school stunt that would make a great little short film - but the ending of the greatest show of all time? Yeah - but it still kind of works really fucking well. I always thought the end of the Sopranos would have to deal with the Tony/Chris relationship - to me - that was always the beating heart of the show, and Chrissy was always - next to Tony - the most fun, relatable and dynamic character. Not having him around for the last few eps was not to the show's befefit - but The Sopranos has always been a show (mostly) that ran on it's own terms. Even though seasons 2 and 3 got a little bogged down with the producers and writers being completely full of themselves, the show eventually got back to it's roots and returned with a hard-ass mentality that we'd never seen before. Just like Wiseguy's last scene between Vinnie and Sonny - this was tv as we'd never seen it before. The first season of OZ flirted with it - but now, truly - we have maybe the most pitch perfect show of all time.
And the ending - Don't Stop...
In retrospect I find myself gravitating to the idea that this is the perfect ending.....what can I say? Did T get whacked in front of his family - did they take down his whole family in retribution for the way Phil died? I have no idea - and I think you have to fill in the blank. Me, personally - Tony's alive - the family is alive, and life will go on for the crooks in Jersey.
Finale Episode Grade:
Either an A + or an F - depends how you look at it.
I can see the arguments of both and agree with both - however, in the final verdict:
I say - it worked.
A +
For one final 4 minutes, here's the last scene of the last episode of THE SOPRANOS:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mN1-3rX9XKk
Here are a buttload of articles on the final ep, the final scene, but first - the only interview with David Chase post-finale:
David Chase speaks!
Posted by Alan Sepinwall - NJ Ledger
June 11, 2007
What do you do when your TV world ends? You go to dinner, then keep quiet. Sunday night, "Sopranos" creator David Chase took his wife out for dinner in France, where he's fled to avoid "all the Monday morning quarterbacking" about the show's finale. After this exclusive interview, agreed to well before the season began, he intends to go into radio silence, letting the work -- especially the controversial final scene -- speak for itself.
"I have no interest in explaining, defending, reinterpreting, or adding to what is there," he says of the final scene.
"No one was trying to be audacious, honest to god," he adds. "We did what we thought we had to do. No one was trying to blow people's minds, or thinking, 'Wow, this'll (tick) them off.' People get the impression that you're trying to (mess) with them and it's not true. You're trying to entertain them."
In that scene, mob boss Tony Soprano waited at a Bloomfield ice cream parlor for his family to arrive, one by one. What was a seemingly benign family outing was shot and cut as the preamble to a tragedy, with Tony suspiciously eyeing one patron after another, the camera dwelling a little too long on Meadow's parallel parking and a man in a Members Only jacket's walk to the men's room. Just as the tension had been ratched up to unbearable levels, the series cut to black in mid-scene (and mid song) with no resolution.
"Anybody who wants to watch it, it's all there," says Chase, 61, who based the series in general (and Tony's relationship with mother Livia specifically) on his North Caldwell childhood.
Some fans have already assumed that the ambiguous ending was Chase setting up the oft-rumored "Sopranos" movie, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards.
"I don't think about (a movie) much," he says. "I never say never. An idea could pop into my head where I would go, 'Wow, that would make a great movie,' but I doubt it.
"I'm not being coy," he adds. "If something appeared that really made a good 'Sopranos' movie and you could invest in it and everybody else wanted to do it, I would do it. But I think we've kind of said it and done it."
Another problem: over the last season, Chase killed so many key characters. He's toyed with the idea of "going back to a day in 2006 that you didn't see, but then (Tony's children) would be older than they were then and you would know that Tony doesn't get killed. It's got problems."
(Earlier in the interview, he notes that his favorite part of the show was often the characters telling stories about the good ol' days of Tony's parents. Just a guess, but if Chase ever does a movie spin-off, it'll be set in Newark in the '60s.)
Since Chase is declining to offer his interpretation of the final scene, let me present two more of my own, which came to me with a good night's sleep and a lot of helpful reader e-mails:
Theory No. 1 (and the one I prefer): Chase is using the final scene to place the viewer into Tony's mindset. This is how he sees the world: every open door, every person walking past him could be coming to kill him, or arrest him, or otherwise harm him or his family. This is his life, even though the paranoia's rarely justified. We end without knowing what Tony's looking at because he never knows what's coming next.
Theory No. 2: In the scene on the boat in "Soprano Home Movies," repeated again last week, Bobby Bacala suggests that when you get killed, you don't see it coming. Certainly, our man in the Members Only jacket could have gone to the men's room to prepare for killing Tony (shades of the first "Godfather"), and the picture and sound cut out because Tony's life just did. (Or because we, as viewers, got whacked from our life with the show.)
Meanwhile, remember that 21-month hiatus between Seasons Five and Six? That was Chase thinking up the ending. HBO chairman Chris Albrecht came to him after Season Five and suggested thinking up a conclusion to the series; Chase agreed, on the condition that he get "a long break" to decide on an ending.
Originally, that ending was supposed to occur last year, but midway through production, the number of episodes was increased, and Chase stretched out certain plot elements while saving the major climaxes for this final batch of 9.
"If this had been one season, the Vito storyline would not have been so important," he says.
Much of this final season has featured Tony bullying, killing or otherwise alienating the members of his inner circle. After all those years viewing him as "the sympathetic mob boss," were we supposed to, like his therapist Dr. Melfi, finally wake up and smell the sociopath?
"From my perspective, there's nothing different about Tony in this season than there ever was," insists Chase. "To me, that's Tony."
Chase has had an ambivalent relationship with his fans, particularly the bloodthirsty whacking crowd who seemed to tune in only for the chance to see someone's head get blown off (or run over by an SUV). So was he reluctant to fill last week's penultimate episode, "The Blue Comet," with so many vivid death scenes?
"I'm the Number One fan of gangster movies," he says. "Martin Scorsese has no greater devotee than me. Like everyone else, I get off partly on the betrayals, the retributions, the swift justice. But what you come to realize when you do a series is you could be killing straw men all day long. Those murders only have any meaning when you've invested story in them. Otherwise, you might as well watch 'Cleaver.'"
One detail about the final scene that he'll discuss, however tentatively: the selection of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" as the song on the jukebox.
"It didn't take much time at all to pick it, but there was a lot of conversation after the fact. I did something I'd never done before: in the location van, with the crew, I was saying, 'What do you think?' When I said, 'Don't Stop Believin',' people went, 'What? Oh my god!' I said, 'I know, I know, just give a listen,' and little by little, people started coming around."
Whether viewers will have a similar time-delayed reaction to the finale as a whole, Chase doesn't know. ("I hear some people were very angry, and others were not, which is what I expected.") He's relaxing in France, then he'll try to make movies.
"It's been the greatest career experience of my life," he says. "There's nothing more in TV that I could say or would want to say."
Here's Chase on some other points about the finale and the season:
-After all the speculation that Agent Harris might turn Tony, instead we saw that Harris had turned, passing along info on Phil's whereabouts and cheering, "We're going to win this thing!" when learning of Phil's demise.
"This is based on an actual case of an FBI agent who got a little bit too partisan and excited during the Colombo wars of the '70s," says Chase of the story of Lindley DeVecchio, who supplied Harris' line.
-Speaking of Harris, Chase had no problem with never revealing what -- if anything -- terror suspects Muhammed and Ahmed were up to.
"This, to me, feels very real," he says. "The majority of these suspects, it's very hard for anybody to know what these people are doing. I don't even think Harris might know where they are. That was sort of the point of it: who knows if they are terrorists or if they're innocent pistachio salesmen? That's the fear that we are living with now."
Also, the apocryphal story -- repeated by me, unfortunately -- that Fox, when "Sopranos" was in development there, wanted Chase to have Tony help the FBI catch terrorists, wasn't true.
"What I said was, if I had done it at Fox, Tony would have been a gangster by day and helping the FBI by night, but we weren't there long enough for anyone to make that suggestion."
-I spent the last couple of weeks wrapping my brain around a theory supplied by reader Sam Lorber (and his daughter Emily) that the nine episodes of this season were each supposed to represent one of the nine circles of Hell from Dante's "The Divine Comedy." Told of the theory, Chase laughed and said, "No."
-Since Butchie was introduced as a guy who was pushing Phil to take out Tony, why did he turn on Phil and negotiate peace with Tony?
"I think Butch was an intelligent guy, he began to see that there was no need for it, that Phil's feelings were all caught up in what was esentially a convoluted personal grudge."
-Not from Chase, but I feel the need to debunk the e-mail that's making the rounds about all the Holsten's patrons being characters from earlier in the series. The actor playing Member's Only guy had never been on the show before, Tony killed at least, one if not both of his carjackers, and there are about 17 other things wrong with this popular but incorrect theory.
Posted by Alan Sepinwall - NJ Ledger
June 11, 2007
What do you do when your TV world ends? You go to dinner, then keep quiet. Sunday night, "Sopranos" creator David Chase took his wife out for dinner in France, where he's fled to avoid "all the Monday morning quarterbacking" about the show's finale. After this exclusive interview, agreed to well before the season began, he intends to go into radio silence, letting the work -- especially the controversial final scene -- speak for itself.
"I have no interest in explaining, defending, reinterpreting, or adding to what is there," he says of the final scene.
"No one was trying to be audacious, honest to god," he adds. "We did what we thought we had to do. No one was trying to blow people's minds, or thinking, 'Wow, this'll (tick) them off.' People get the impression that you're trying to (mess) with them and it's not true. You're trying to entertain them."
In that scene, mob boss Tony Soprano waited at a Bloomfield ice cream parlor for his family to arrive, one by one. What was a seemingly benign family outing was shot and cut as the preamble to a tragedy, with Tony suspiciously eyeing one patron after another, the camera dwelling a little too long on Meadow's parallel parking and a man in a Members Only jacket's walk to the men's room. Just as the tension had been ratched up to unbearable levels, the series cut to black in mid-scene (and mid song) with no resolution.
"Anybody who wants to watch it, it's all there," says Chase, 61, who based the series in general (and Tony's relationship with mother Livia specifically) on his North Caldwell childhood.
Some fans have already assumed that the ambiguous ending was Chase setting up the oft-rumored "Sopranos" movie, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards.
"I don't think about (a movie) much," he says. "I never say never. An idea could pop into my head where I would go, 'Wow, that would make a great movie,' but I doubt it.
"I'm not being coy," he adds. "If something appeared that really made a good 'Sopranos' movie and you could invest in it and everybody else wanted to do it, I would do it. But I think we've kind of said it and done it."
Another problem: over the last season, Chase killed so many key characters. He's toyed with the idea of "going back to a day in 2006 that you didn't see, but then (Tony's children) would be older than they were then and you would know that Tony doesn't get killed. It's got problems."
(Earlier in the interview, he notes that his favorite part of the show was often the characters telling stories about the good ol' days of Tony's parents. Just a guess, but if Chase ever does a movie spin-off, it'll be set in Newark in the '60s.)
Since Chase is declining to offer his interpretation of the final scene, let me present two more of my own, which came to me with a good night's sleep and a lot of helpful reader e-mails:
Theory No. 1 (and the one I prefer): Chase is using the final scene to place the viewer into Tony's mindset. This is how he sees the world: every open door, every person walking past him could be coming to kill him, or arrest him, or otherwise harm him or his family. This is his life, even though the paranoia's rarely justified. We end without knowing what Tony's looking at because he never knows what's coming next.
Theory No. 2: In the scene on the boat in "Soprano Home Movies," repeated again last week, Bobby Bacala suggests that when you get killed, you don't see it coming. Certainly, our man in the Members Only jacket could have gone to the men's room to prepare for killing Tony (shades of the first "Godfather"), and the picture and sound cut out because Tony's life just did. (Or because we, as viewers, got whacked from our life with the show.)
Meanwhile, remember that 21-month hiatus between Seasons Five and Six? That was Chase thinking up the ending. HBO chairman Chris Albrecht came to him after Season Five and suggested thinking up a conclusion to the series; Chase agreed, on the condition that he get "a long break" to decide on an ending.
Originally, that ending was supposed to occur last year, but midway through production, the number of episodes was increased, and Chase stretched out certain plot elements while saving the major climaxes for this final batch of 9.
"If this had been one season, the Vito storyline would not have been so important," he says.
Much of this final season has featured Tony bullying, killing or otherwise alienating the members of his inner circle. After all those years viewing him as "the sympathetic mob boss," were we supposed to, like his therapist Dr. Melfi, finally wake up and smell the sociopath?
"From my perspective, there's nothing different about Tony in this season than there ever was," insists Chase. "To me, that's Tony."
Chase has had an ambivalent relationship with his fans, particularly the bloodthirsty whacking crowd who seemed to tune in only for the chance to see someone's head get blown off (or run over by an SUV). So was he reluctant to fill last week's penultimate episode, "The Blue Comet," with so many vivid death scenes?
"I'm the Number One fan of gangster movies," he says. "Martin Scorsese has no greater devotee than me. Like everyone else, I get off partly on the betrayals, the retributions, the swift justice. But what you come to realize when you do a series is you could be killing straw men all day long. Those murders only have any meaning when you've invested story in them. Otherwise, you might as well watch 'Cleaver.'"
One detail about the final scene that he'll discuss, however tentatively: the selection of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" as the song on the jukebox.
"It didn't take much time at all to pick it, but there was a lot of conversation after the fact. I did something I'd never done before: in the location van, with the crew, I was saying, 'What do you think?' When I said, 'Don't Stop Believin',' people went, 'What? Oh my god!' I said, 'I know, I know, just give a listen,' and little by little, people started coming around."
Whether viewers will have a similar time-delayed reaction to the finale as a whole, Chase doesn't know. ("I hear some people were very angry, and others were not, which is what I expected.") He's relaxing in France, then he'll try to make movies.
"It's been the greatest career experience of my life," he says. "There's nothing more in TV that I could say or would want to say."
Here's Chase on some other points about the finale and the season:
-After all the speculation that Agent Harris might turn Tony, instead we saw that Harris had turned, passing along info on Phil's whereabouts and cheering, "We're going to win this thing!" when learning of Phil's demise.
"This is based on an actual case of an FBI agent who got a little bit too partisan and excited during the Colombo wars of the '70s," says Chase of the story of Lindley DeVecchio, who supplied Harris' line.
-Speaking of Harris, Chase had no problem with never revealing what -- if anything -- terror suspects Muhammed and Ahmed were up to.
"This, to me, feels very real," he says. "The majority of these suspects, it's very hard for anybody to know what these people are doing. I don't even think Harris might know where they are. That was sort of the point of it: who knows if they are terrorists or if they're innocent pistachio salesmen? That's the fear that we are living with now."
Also, the apocryphal story -- repeated by me, unfortunately -- that Fox, when "Sopranos" was in development there, wanted Chase to have Tony help the FBI catch terrorists, wasn't true.
"What I said was, if I had done it at Fox, Tony would have been a gangster by day and helping the FBI by night, but we weren't there long enough for anyone to make that suggestion."
-I spent the last couple of weeks wrapping my brain around a theory supplied by reader Sam Lorber (and his daughter Emily) that the nine episodes of this season were each supposed to represent one of the nine circles of Hell from Dante's "The Divine Comedy." Told of the theory, Chase laughed and said, "No."
-Since Butchie was introduced as a guy who was pushing Phil to take out Tony, why did he turn on Phil and negotiate peace with Tony?
"I think Butch was an intelligent guy, he began to see that there was no need for it, that Phil's feelings were all caught up in what was esentially a convoluted personal grudge."
-Not from Chase, but I feel the need to debunk the e-mail that's making the rounds about all the Holsten's patrons being characters from earlier in the series. The actor playing Member's Only guy had never been on the show before, Tony killed at least, one if not both of his carjackers, and there are about 17 other things wrong with this popular but incorrect theory.
THE BOSS SPEAKS!
The only interview around with JAMES GANDOLFINI!
James Gandolfini looks past 'Sopranos'
By FRAZIER MOORE, AP NEW YORK -
There was no decisive moment, no seismic shift, no ceremony when James Gandolfini put "The Sopranos" behind him. But he has. Comfortably. "I was told that it would be a transition," he says and shakes his head. "Not much. It's very calming to move on."
Gandolfini, of course, had played gangster-in-therapy Tony Soprano — earning raves, clout and unsought celebrity — since the HBO drama premiered in January 1999.
Now there's only one piece of unfinished business. The finale, which airs Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT, will bring to a close a saga as powerful and oddly relatable as anything ever seen on TV. This conclusion, however satisfying or disappointing, will surely leave "Sopranos" fans wanting more.
But not Gandolfini.
"The character has been with me for so long," he says, "it's a relief to let him go."
No wonder. For 86 episodes, Gandolfini submerged himself in that fiendish, tormented character. He channeled the dark world of "Sopranos" creator David Chase. He was regularly summoned to his own psychic danger zone. All in all, the experience was "wearing," he says.
There also was a physical toll. "The Sopranos" revolves around Tony, which meant Gandolfini had an exhausting workload.
"But in a way, being tired helped me play the character. If the guy had to look good and be handsome and happy, the hours we worked would certainly not help. They helped ME a great deal," he laughs. "I was allowed to be grumpy and tired and look like (crap)."
That was then. Whatever awaits Tony in the series-ender — prison, death or some sort of escape — Gandolfini has already laid him to rest.
Time after time, Gandolfini felt the end at Silvercup Studios in Queens, and on locations such as Tony's home turf of northern New Jersey. All during April, members of the large "Sopranos" cast would shoot their last scene with him, then leave forever. Then he'd shoot a last scene with another cast member, who would disappear.
"There wasn't any grand finale," he says.
Or was there? Gandolfini suddenly remembers his last scene alongside Steven Van Zandt, who since the beginning played Tony's loyal consigliere Silvio. "This is no indication of my feelings toward anyone else, but, for some reason, that really hit me when he left. Wow!"
Speaking to a reporter at HBO headquarters last week, Gandolfini, who recently signed a production deal with the network, was taking a break from screening footage for a documentary he's making about U.S. soldiers in Iraq who recover from near-fatal injuries.
Dressed casually in short sleeves, chinos and running shoes, the 45-year-old actor is down-to-earth and deferential, yet remains a formidable presence even without Tony's cockiness and mobster cred. His voice, while reflecting his New Jersey background, is richer, more robust than Tony's astringent delivery.
Though famously press-shy ever since "The Sopranos" blindsided him with stardom, Gandolfini has consented to this rare interview. Nursing coffee from a foam cup, he shares nearly an hour in agreeable give-and-take, only drawing the line when one too many questions delves into his acting technique: "Oh, please! Who gives a (crap)!" he scoffs. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be abrupt."
He misses no chance to deflect credit toward his colleagues.
"I might be in a lot of scenes, but the crew is in EVERY scene," he points out. "The crew is there 16 hours a day, every day.
"And the cast totally propped me up in many scenes. After three or four scenes sometimes I was adrift, and because (the editor) could cut to such other good actors, they were there to help me."
It was a two-way street, according to Michael Imperioli, who played Tony's hothead nephew Christopher, now dead (thanks to Tony's cold-hearted intervention) after a car crash a few episodes ago.
"Every time you go and do a scene with this guy," Imperioli said at the start of the season, "he manages to give 105 percent. That rubs off. That makes YOU work harder."
"I had the greatest sparring partner in the world, I had Muhammad Ali," said Lorraine Bracco, who, as Tony's psychiatrist Dr. Melfi, went one-on-one with Gandolfini in their penetrating therapy scenes. "He cares what he does, and does it extremely well."
Saying goodbye to the crew and his co-stars — yes, that was hard, Gandolfini concedes, even if saying goodbye to Tony wasn't.
Also hard: no more of those magnificent "Sopranos" scripts.
"Good writing will bring you to places you don't even expect sometimes," he marvels, meaning himself, and how the material could catch him off guard and take him somewhere new, even as he was performing it.
"It's a ride that I was along on, with everybody else," he says.
And like everybody else, he can't help feeling appalled by Tony's brutish misbehavior. After shooting a scene where Tony did something despicable, Gandolfini would sometimes upbraid his own character.
"I would shake my head and say, God, what a _!" Whereupon he helpfully substitutes his unpublishable outburst with a family friendly version: "What a jerk!"
So what's the truth? Does he like this jerk who was part of him for so long?
"I used to," he says. "But it's difficult toward the end. I think the thing with Christopher might have turned the corner." That was a soulless display: Fed up with his nephew's shortcomings, Tony pinched shut the nostrils of the gravely hurt Christopher, ensuring he would choke to death.
But wait! Gandolfini thinks a moment, and more of Tony's recent misdeeds — not homicidal, but clearly depraved — come to mind: "Maybe the gambling thing with Hesh. And maybe the thing with Tony Sirico (as Paulie Walnuts) on the boat.
"It's kind of one thing after another. Let's just say, it was a lot easier to like him in the beginning, than in the last few years."
But back then, maybe it wasn't so easy for Gandolfini to like himself. Early on, he felt a stronger kinship with Tony, mostly stemming from "that infantile temper that I certainly possessed much more of when I was younger."
Meanwhile, the writers fleshed out Tony by cribbing from Gandolfini — in particular, his temper.
"In the first year, maybe they would see that sometimes when I have anger, it's very funny. So they go with that. When I break something, it's funny. So they're gonna put it in again. And then I realize that I'm continually breaking things. So then I'm getting more angry because I have to continue breaking things. And then they decide, `Well, we've broken enough (stuff).'
"It was a learning process for all of us, I think."
All in the service of David Chase's vision. Pantomiming the pull Chase exerted over him (like everything on "The Sopranos"), Gandolfini playfully hooks his index finger in the corner of his mouth as if he were a trout at the end of Chase's line.
A decade ago, Gandolfini was certainly hooked when he read Chase's pilot script. A little-known character actor in his mid-30s (and the son of working-class parents who had grown up in Park Ridge, N.J.), he knew Tony was a role he was born to play. He also realized the cards were stacked against a beefy, balding, little-known actor landing the role.
But four years earlier, he'd made a brief appearance in Tony Scott's comically bloody thriller, "True Romance": a two-fisted confrontation with its star, Patricia Arquette. That performance won him his audition for Tony.
"True Romance" was also Edie Falco's first peek at the actor with whom she would be wed cinematically as Tony's wife, Carmela. "I sort of knew the name James Gandolfini," Falco recalled. "Then I watched the film, and he's in a scene where he beats the living daylights out of a woman. I thought, `Ohhhhhhh, OK. Welllll, let's see how THIS goes.'"
And how did it go? "It was maybe the most perfect working relationship," she said.
Now it's over. One concluding episode, shrouded in secrecy, remains to be aired. The Soprano home has been struck from Studio X at Silvercup. And Gandolfini, now done with Tony, is looking ahead to other roles, perhaps as Ernest Hemingway in a film he's developing for HBO.
"I don't even think I've proven myself, yet," he says. "The Tony character was from New Jersey, I'm from New Jersey — there's not a lot of stretching going on, here." Then he pauses, reconsiders, gives himself some credit. "In some ways, there is." He shrugs. "In a LOT of ways.
"But I have yet to begin the fight, I think."
James Gandolfini looks past 'Sopranos'
By FRAZIER MOORE, AP NEW YORK -
There was no decisive moment, no seismic shift, no ceremony when James Gandolfini put "The Sopranos" behind him. But he has. Comfortably. "I was told that it would be a transition," he says and shakes his head. "Not much. It's very calming to move on."
Gandolfini, of course, had played gangster-in-therapy Tony Soprano — earning raves, clout and unsought celebrity — since the HBO drama premiered in January 1999.
Now there's only one piece of unfinished business. The finale, which airs Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT, will bring to a close a saga as powerful and oddly relatable as anything ever seen on TV. This conclusion, however satisfying or disappointing, will surely leave "Sopranos" fans wanting more.
But not Gandolfini.
"The character has been with me for so long," he says, "it's a relief to let him go."
No wonder. For 86 episodes, Gandolfini submerged himself in that fiendish, tormented character. He channeled the dark world of "Sopranos" creator David Chase. He was regularly summoned to his own psychic danger zone. All in all, the experience was "wearing," he says.
There also was a physical toll. "The Sopranos" revolves around Tony, which meant Gandolfini had an exhausting workload.
"But in a way, being tired helped me play the character. If the guy had to look good and be handsome and happy, the hours we worked would certainly not help. They helped ME a great deal," he laughs. "I was allowed to be grumpy and tired and look like (crap)."
That was then. Whatever awaits Tony in the series-ender — prison, death or some sort of escape — Gandolfini has already laid him to rest.
Time after time, Gandolfini felt the end at Silvercup Studios in Queens, and on locations such as Tony's home turf of northern New Jersey. All during April, members of the large "Sopranos" cast would shoot their last scene with him, then leave forever. Then he'd shoot a last scene with another cast member, who would disappear.
"There wasn't any grand finale," he says.
Or was there? Gandolfini suddenly remembers his last scene alongside Steven Van Zandt, who since the beginning played Tony's loyal consigliere Silvio. "This is no indication of my feelings toward anyone else, but, for some reason, that really hit me when he left. Wow!"
Speaking to a reporter at HBO headquarters last week, Gandolfini, who recently signed a production deal with the network, was taking a break from screening footage for a documentary he's making about U.S. soldiers in Iraq who recover from near-fatal injuries.
Dressed casually in short sleeves, chinos and running shoes, the 45-year-old actor is down-to-earth and deferential, yet remains a formidable presence even without Tony's cockiness and mobster cred. His voice, while reflecting his New Jersey background, is richer, more robust than Tony's astringent delivery.
Though famously press-shy ever since "The Sopranos" blindsided him with stardom, Gandolfini has consented to this rare interview. Nursing coffee from a foam cup, he shares nearly an hour in agreeable give-and-take, only drawing the line when one too many questions delves into his acting technique: "Oh, please! Who gives a (crap)!" he scoffs. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be abrupt."
He misses no chance to deflect credit toward his colleagues.
"I might be in a lot of scenes, but the crew is in EVERY scene," he points out. "The crew is there 16 hours a day, every day.
"And the cast totally propped me up in many scenes. After three or four scenes sometimes I was adrift, and because (the editor) could cut to such other good actors, they were there to help me."
It was a two-way street, according to Michael Imperioli, who played Tony's hothead nephew Christopher, now dead (thanks to Tony's cold-hearted intervention) after a car crash a few episodes ago.
"Every time you go and do a scene with this guy," Imperioli said at the start of the season, "he manages to give 105 percent. That rubs off. That makes YOU work harder."
"I had the greatest sparring partner in the world, I had Muhammad Ali," said Lorraine Bracco, who, as Tony's psychiatrist Dr. Melfi, went one-on-one with Gandolfini in their penetrating therapy scenes. "He cares what he does, and does it extremely well."
Saying goodbye to the crew and his co-stars — yes, that was hard, Gandolfini concedes, even if saying goodbye to Tony wasn't.
Also hard: no more of those magnificent "Sopranos" scripts.
"Good writing will bring you to places you don't even expect sometimes," he marvels, meaning himself, and how the material could catch him off guard and take him somewhere new, even as he was performing it.
"It's a ride that I was along on, with everybody else," he says.
And like everybody else, he can't help feeling appalled by Tony's brutish misbehavior. After shooting a scene where Tony did something despicable, Gandolfini would sometimes upbraid his own character.
"I would shake my head and say, God, what a _!" Whereupon he helpfully substitutes his unpublishable outburst with a family friendly version: "What a jerk!"
So what's the truth? Does he like this jerk who was part of him for so long?
"I used to," he says. "But it's difficult toward the end. I think the thing with Christopher might have turned the corner." That was a soulless display: Fed up with his nephew's shortcomings, Tony pinched shut the nostrils of the gravely hurt Christopher, ensuring he would choke to death.
But wait! Gandolfini thinks a moment, and more of Tony's recent misdeeds — not homicidal, but clearly depraved — come to mind: "Maybe the gambling thing with Hesh. And maybe the thing with Tony Sirico (as Paulie Walnuts) on the boat.
"It's kind of one thing after another. Let's just say, it was a lot easier to like him in the beginning, than in the last few years."
But back then, maybe it wasn't so easy for Gandolfini to like himself. Early on, he felt a stronger kinship with Tony, mostly stemming from "that infantile temper that I certainly possessed much more of when I was younger."
Meanwhile, the writers fleshed out Tony by cribbing from Gandolfini — in particular, his temper.
"In the first year, maybe they would see that sometimes when I have anger, it's very funny. So they go with that. When I break something, it's funny. So they're gonna put it in again. And then I realize that I'm continually breaking things. So then I'm getting more angry because I have to continue breaking things. And then they decide, `Well, we've broken enough (stuff).'
"It was a learning process for all of us, I think."
All in the service of David Chase's vision. Pantomiming the pull Chase exerted over him (like everything on "The Sopranos"), Gandolfini playfully hooks his index finger in the corner of his mouth as if he were a trout at the end of Chase's line.
A decade ago, Gandolfini was certainly hooked when he read Chase's pilot script. A little-known character actor in his mid-30s (and the son of working-class parents who had grown up in Park Ridge, N.J.), he knew Tony was a role he was born to play. He also realized the cards were stacked against a beefy, balding, little-known actor landing the role.
But four years earlier, he'd made a brief appearance in Tony Scott's comically bloody thriller, "True Romance": a two-fisted confrontation with its star, Patricia Arquette. That performance won him his audition for Tony.
"True Romance" was also Edie Falco's first peek at the actor with whom she would be wed cinematically as Tony's wife, Carmela. "I sort of knew the name James Gandolfini," Falco recalled. "Then I watched the film, and he's in a scene where he beats the living daylights out of a woman. I thought, `Ohhhhhhh, OK. Welllll, let's see how THIS goes.'"
And how did it go? "It was maybe the most perfect working relationship," she said.
Now it's over. One concluding episode, shrouded in secrecy, remains to be aired. The Soprano home has been struck from Studio X at Silvercup. And Gandolfini, now done with Tony, is looking ahead to other roles, perhaps as Ernest Hemingway in a film he's developing for HBO.
"I don't even think I've proven myself, yet," he says. "The Tony character was from New Jersey, I'm from New Jersey — there's not a lot of stretching going on, here." Then he pauses, reconsiders, gives himself some credit. "In some ways, there is." He shrugs. "In a LOT of ways.
"But I have yet to begin the fight, I think."
THE SOPRANOS PREDICTION POOL: http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2007/06/08/sopranos/print.html
THE SOPRANOS EW FINAL REVIEW: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20040769_20040772_20042054,00.html
Thinking Tony got whacked?
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/15/television.sopranos.reut/index.html?eref=ew
A better EW review that hails the ending as the greatest thing ever:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20040769_20040772_20042736,00.html
A debate on the ending from various critics:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20040769_20040772_20042148,00.html
A Sopranos' movie?
http://news.aol.com/entertainment/tv/articles/_a/sopranos-movie-no-sure-thing/20070612064809990002
Don't Stop Believin' WAS the perfect song - here's what Journey front man Steve Perry has to say:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20042340,00.html
The Journey guitarist has a few words as well:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20040769_20040772_20042206,00.html
Footage from fans of behind the scenes of the final scene:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qxhlOjpBgT4&mode=related&search=
Interesting location footage of Meadow trying to parallel park - somebody shot this on their own:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q1q9w1f7pY8
And lastly - go here if you're really thinking T mighta gotten whacked:
http://tonyisdead.com/
And so - this blog has come to it's end. I started this blog about 3 years ago - it's gotten thousands of views and I'm really proud of it - but like David Chase - I'd rather go out leaving people wanting more. There are other - more complicated reasons I'm ending it - but that's best left to imagination.
Ah, fuck it - it's the last blog - I'll talk.
My editor-in-chief all these years was my little cat Lula, who passed 2 weeks ago - somehow writing these without her whirring at my feet has taken a lot of the fun out of this. Truth be told, I enjoyed Lula's company more then all these movies combined, and the brave way she took on cancer trumped any movie or tv show I could've ever seen. She was a very special little cat and the unoficial mascot of this blog.
If you take anything away from this - know that when you put your animal down - for an extra 50 dollars or so, you can have the vet come directly to your own house - of all the reccomendations I've ever made on this blog - this is strongest one - do it on your own terms and the pet's terms. Lula died in my bed, in my arms - and I couldn't imagine a more humane ending for her.
I have a pretty tough schedule these days - as I've had a pretty weird year - and I need to solely focus on my work for the next...who knows. Maybe one day one I slow down again I can do some of these again - you'll all be the first to know if that day comes. If you were a reader of this blog - be sure to send your email and i'll keep you on an update list if I ever do anything with it again.
Thanks to all the people who populated the comments boards. They've been a bit barren as of late - but I used to like when I'd write a review and get like - 12 comments on it. This was very very satisfying - and if you want to see earlier reviews - of which I've done a ton - look no further then this blog, as you can back track and get all the way to the first one.
This was actually the second incarnation of the Digital Couch, named by Heidi (who's engaged!) (long time readers of this blog know exactly who Heidi is.)
If you want to see the original version of this blog - it's all here at this site:
http://thedigitalcouch.blogspot.com/
THE GIRL - aka, Jess Zaino, is doing exceedingly well - she's now working a long contract with Home Shopping Network. You can google her and find out all about her blog and her sites, etc. - too many to list here, but she's been thriving and was a good friend to me when Lula started to get sick. (And still is a good friend.) If you want to check out her very popular blog -go here:
Thinking Tony got whacked?
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/15/television.sopranos.reut/index.html?eref=ew
A better EW review that hails the ending as the greatest thing ever:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20040769_20040772_20042736,00.html
A debate on the ending from various critics:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20040769_20040772_20042148,00.html
A Sopranos' movie?
http://news.aol.com/entertainment/tv/articles/_a/sopranos-movie-no-sure-thing/20070612064809990002
Don't Stop Believin' WAS the perfect song - here's what Journey front man Steve Perry has to say:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20042340,00.html
The Journey guitarist has a few words as well:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20040769_20040772_20042206,00.html
Footage from fans of behind the scenes of the final scene:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qxhlOjpBgT4&mode=related&search=
Interesting location footage of Meadow trying to parallel park - somebody shot this on their own:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q1q9w1f7pY8
And lastly - go here if you're really thinking T mighta gotten whacked:
http://tonyisdead.com/
And so - this blog has come to it's end. I started this blog about 3 years ago - it's gotten thousands of views and I'm really proud of it - but like David Chase - I'd rather go out leaving people wanting more. There are other - more complicated reasons I'm ending it - but that's best left to imagination.
Ah, fuck it - it's the last blog - I'll talk.
My editor-in-chief all these years was my little cat Lula, who passed 2 weeks ago - somehow writing these without her whirring at my feet has taken a lot of the fun out of this. Truth be told, I enjoyed Lula's company more then all these movies combined, and the brave way she took on cancer trumped any movie or tv show I could've ever seen. She was a very special little cat and the unoficial mascot of this blog.
If you take anything away from this - know that when you put your animal down - for an extra 50 dollars or so, you can have the vet come directly to your own house - of all the reccomendations I've ever made on this blog - this is strongest one - do it on your own terms and the pet's terms. Lula died in my bed, in my arms - and I couldn't imagine a more humane ending for her.I have a pretty tough schedule these days - as I've had a pretty weird year - and I need to solely focus on my work for the next...who knows. Maybe one day one I slow down again I can do some of these again - you'll all be the first to know if that day comes. If you were a reader of this blog - be sure to send your email and i'll keep you on an update list if I ever do anything with it again.
Thanks to all the people who populated the comments boards. They've been a bit barren as of late - but I used to like when I'd write a review and get like - 12 comments on it. This was very very satisfying - and if you want to see earlier reviews - of which I've done a ton - look no further then this blog, as you can back track and get all the way to the first one.
This was actually the second incarnation of the Digital Couch, named by Heidi (who's engaged!) (long time readers of this blog know exactly who Heidi is.)
If you want to see the original version of this blog - it's all here at this site:
http://thedigitalcouch.blogspot.com/
THE GIRL - aka, Jess Zaino, is doing exceedingly well - she's now working a long contract with Home Shopping Network. You can google her and find out all about her blog and her sites, etc. - too many to list here, but she's been thriving and was a good friend to me when Lula started to get sick. (And still is a good friend.) If you want to check out her very popular blog -go here:
jesszaino.blogspot.com
G. aka Genevieve continues to put up with me, for that alone she gets a gold star. This weekend we watched HARD CANDY and a great movie I'd never seen called STAR 80 which features a blistering performance from Eric Roberts. But the person you should really feel sorry for is G., who now has to listen to all my Digitial Couch style ramblings. Good thing she's beautiful inside and out.
Genevieve: A +
Actually - all my readers and pundits have been great, and this has been a really fun ride.
G. aka Genevieve continues to put up with me, for that alone she gets a gold star. This weekend we watched HARD CANDY and a great movie I'd never seen called STAR 80 which features a blistering performance from Eric Roberts. But the person you should really feel sorry for is G., who now has to listen to all my Digitial Couch style ramblings. Good thing she's beautiful inside and out.
Genevieve: A +
Actually - all my readers and pundits have been great, and this has been a really fun ride.
The apex of all the fun times with this blog might be about 8 months ago when Howard Stern plugged this site on his website. THAT was pretty fucking amazing.
Thanks to all the people who populated the comments section (which I'll continue to read and comment back on) - You don't have to sign up - u can leave anonymous comments. People like Laura W., Ally, John, Ralph C., Mark G., Jen R., Ron M., Mark W., David G., Jason W., Jake L., Jimbo, Lonnie M, Tony B. and many more that I can't think of right now.
Thanks again for reading this - I had a lot of fun writing it.
Good luck and thanks for all fish.
Digital Couch Out.
David, what a fucking week. First we lose the Sopranos, then your blog. Awful. Anyway - I just wanted to tell you that I have always enjoyed your reviews and commentary. Sometimes I disagree with some of your takes, often we're together on issues, and most of the time your commentary is insightful and well worth reading.
ReplyDeleteI hope you decide to do more blogging in the future - what the hell are you going to do after watching movies and TV shows??! Recharge your batteries and come back.
On this latest entry - the Sopranos stuff was great. Like you, I got a kick out of the last season, as well as this year's season of The Shield. I was fairly disappointed with how each ended as well, Sopranos more than The Shield.
I agree, way too much AJ, the terrorist plot that went nowhere (except into AJ's head apparently) and the brevity of things in the last episode - wasted time, a not so interesting take out of Phil, etc., etc.
I'd like to think the ending meant that things will be status quo - the family is together, danger always is just around the corner - or walking into a diner wearing a Members Only jacket, etc.
I really found it interesting that you went back and watched the lake episode and say the stuff flashed back to in the final episode never appeared in the original episode. Nice cheat if that's the case.
Anyway, you rock, thanks for all the time spent for your enjoyment, and for your own writing batting practice. Great stuff!
Mark W
Gret job, Pal. FOr the record, D and I loved the Sopranos ending. Haven't watched and been affected by a show like that in years. And for the people who dismissed it for not having closure, tough. It was the same show it always was, with the most mundane anti-hero ever. They wrote the show they wanted and intended to. The same way they did the series. Loved it!
ReplyDeleteThough I still loved the ending to Buffy season 5 the best. When she left the WB (The show was their flagship) for UPN. IF you were never a slayer fan you wouldn't get it but it was a huge favorite around the Barbieri house.
again, nice work. We'll miss it.
tb
Great run of a great blog, David. Congrats.
ReplyDeleteAdam
Ah, I am really going to miss this blog. There is way too much to comment on, so I will leave it at this -
ReplyDeleteBroadcast News is one of my all-time favorite films. I watched it again recently, and it's still so fucking great.
I was pretty underwhelmed by the Sopranos finale, but there were some scenes I loved (Tony and Junior, Phil's demise, the wrap-up of the AJ story). And...I LOVED the ending.
Fare thee well, Digital Couch.