Best Sopranos episode

College for me - a brilliant bit of drama that would work just as well as a stand-alone piece as part of a series.

For me it's a toss-up between a few episodes where the stakes and tension are so high that it seems inevitable that one of the main characters is going to die, and where the tension is almost unbearable. Namely "The Weight" and "Irregular Around The Margins".

"Second Opinion" has my favorite scene of the whole series, where Carmela sees an old-school therapist who ends his long monologue with "One thing you can never say: that you haven't been told."

"The Pine Barrens" was one of the first episodes I watched; liked it a lot, but would've been more blown away if I had already been caught up in the series as a whole.

way too difficult, abstain

Kinda wish I hadn't voted for "The Pine Barrens", because it'll win anyway. "Christopher" and "The Blue Comet" are probably my second and third.

What's the name of the one where Gloria throws the steak at Tony? That one.

Pine Barrens

Is it really?! That episode really has got so many great moments.

It also has Meadow and Jackie Jr playing Scrabble.

"Oblique? No Spanish words"

That steak throwing moment and the fantastic argument that leads to it was the first thing that came into my mind, but there's probably episodes I enjoyed more. I'd have to trawl through the episode recaps on Wikipedia though, because most of these titles mean nothing to me.

Hahaha, I'd forgot about that. Jackie Jr was fucking brilliant!

Actually, after looking at Wikipedia, Pine Barrens deserves to win, if only for the mobile phone conversation between Paulie and Tony.

Top five off the top of my head: College, Pine Barrens, Employee of the Month, Funhouse, that one where the T1000 loses all his money at poker and gets fucked over by Tony.

My favorite episode is "Pine Barrens".

My favorite scene is that argument that Tony and Carmella had in the rec room during their separation. That shit was a little too real.

I watched "Second Opinion" again last night. The storyline with Junior and his favorite doctor (Kennedy) who blows him off when Junior goes to Sloan-Kittering for a second opinion is tops, as is the aforementioned scene with Carmela and Dr. Freud, but then there's some A.J. stuff in there that weakens it.

The success of "Pine Barrens" makes me wonder if the show would've been even better with more single-plot episodes, as opposed to two or three interweaving ones.

I tend to like the more self-contained episodes better. There are some frustratingly open-ended ones, especially in the later seasons, which seem to be keeping things ticking along rather than introducing new story elements/resolving old ones.

There are a couple of good mostly self-contained ones early in the last season: "Mr. and Mrs. John Sacramoni", "Luxury Lounge", and "The Ride" (classic).

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I know I'm probably in the smallest minority in the history of pop culture, but I loved the finale. I was totally, utterly sold on it all (to keep it spoiler-free for Chap)...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I know I'm probably in the smallest minority in the history of pop culture, but I loved the finale. I was totally, utterly sold on it all (to keep it spoiler-free for Chap)...

-- Savannah Smiles, Thursday, March 13, 2008 12:03 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

you are so not in the smallest minority in teh history of pop culture.

let this poll be a lesson

I would have voted for Pine Barrens if I'd seen this poll.

So I watched "Irregular Around The Margins" last week (my runner-up for best episode). What struck me was how there isn't a single subplot -- every scene of the entire episode hinges on the one incident with Tony and Ade, and at the same time it fits into the overall arc of the season (Ade and the FBI, Blundetto studying massage therapy). Such a good one.

so what do people think of the prospect of a Sopranos film

never seen any sopranos :D

I think it's a dumb idea.

Where are the final Deadwoods coming out that's what I want to know!

the serial nature and traditional pacing of the show would seem to render a feature film pointless, I gotta admit

i don't think they are (xpost)

are they really still talking about a sopranos film? it seems wholly unnecessary, unless it was some kind of of ultra-pared down, narrowly focused little story the way Pine Barrens was (mostly).

I dunno I just saw some blurb about it on yahoo - wouldn't surprise me that HBO would want to push their other big franchise following the Sex and the City movie's success

by season

1 - boca
2 - the knight in white satin armor
3 - pine barrens (a tip of the hat to 'another toothpick')
4 - whoever did this
5 - long term parking (a tip of the hat to 'marco polo')
6.1 - cold stones
6.2 - the second coming (a.j.'s botched suicide is one of the best scenes in the history of the show imo)

ralph is one of my favorite characters ever - the episodes where he was most prominently involved is maybe my favorite stretch of the show

1 - college
2 - house arrest
3 - pine barrens
4 - the weight
5 - cold cuts...or long term parking...or in camelot
6.1 - the ride
6.2 - this is really impossible. soprano home movies, remember when, or any of the last 4 episodes. kennedy and heidi!

i think The Weight might be my favourite overall

a&e plays sopranos at 1 central -- love coming home and kicking it w/ it on in the background

everyone looks soo young

man i fucking love silvio

ralph is one of my favorite characters ever - the episodes where he was most prominently involved is maybe my favorite stretch of the show

the ep where he tells the story about tony and jackie sr knocking off the poker game when they were kids, leading to jackie jr and his stoner buddies trying to rob moltisanti's game is one of my alltime faves. such a manipulative dude. plus some good pasta cooking tips.

I totally use Ralph's sauce tip every time I cook pasta!

Ralph is too much of a 1990s extreme/Se7en/Tarantino/sadist/nihilist element of the show for me. Too easy of a nemisis, compared to Blundetto or Vincent Whathisname. Loved Ralph's clothes, though.

Frank Vincent, I mean.

me too on the ralphie "breaking the seal" pasta tip

naw ralphie isnt a cartoony bad guy, he's way more complicated and weird than that

it made total sense that he was a submissive in bed

richie aprile is my favorite nemesis character

tone talking to janice about burying richie on a hill near some birds and trees is memorably great

http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c54102/x2_a23d0f

i think people voted for pine barrens because it's the only one that they could remember what it was about.

i think it's the only one with a name they remembered.

Had some scenery.

guys Ralphie does yoga

"manson lamps"

er RICHIE does yoga

was home sick the other day, idly caught some old episodes. all the malapropisms still crack me up... "hyperbolic chamber", "revenge is like serving cold cuts"

Quasimodo predicted all of this

We're in a fucking stagmire

the sacred and the propane

Why are you ostrafrying me

richie aprile is my favorite nemesis character

― ('_') (omar little), Sunday, January 31, 2010 12:32 PM Bookmark

I think that's Richie in Omar's dn!

I don't ever, ever remember the names of episodes, only seasons.

mayham!

hair apparent

Worst: absurdly rushes ep where Carmela and English teacher go from cuddle to sweatyfucks to breakup, buscemi from con down on his luck to American dream to Scarface, all in an hour.

First objectively terrible hour.

Cold cuts so fuckin good

Lauren Bacall. "Big fan. The haves and the have nots"

I think I missed the whole season with buscemi, still love this show better than nearly everything that came in its wake

Little Carmine never failed to deliver the goods. That dream he had about the "mellifluous box" still cracks me up.

I love re-watching old Scorsese movies to play Spot The Sopranos. Saw "Mean Streets" the other night, was cool to see the young Richie Aprile and also the guy who was the doc's ex as a heavy.

you can do the same w late 80s/early 90s Woody Allen movies

For me it is like The Larry Sanders Show. Keep re-watching it and the magic is still there.

like half the sopranos crew appears in goodfellas iirc,

looking it up, according to wikipedia there are 27 actors who are in both

a bunch of those are extra/non-speaking roles

Janice, Richie, Phil Leotardo, + some others all have parts in Allen films iirc

oh, Hesh is in Manhattan Murder Mystery

hmm scratch Phil Leotardo/Frank Vincent

oh lol I made a thread
Sopranos actors in other things

I keep lol'ing @

"She couldn't even handle a "Nancy Drew." It was too mysterious!"

I probably don't have a totally comprehensive rewatch of this show in me but I think about Pine Barrens a lot

Still working my through the rewatch--just finished "The Two Tonys," the S5 opener (0 votes above). Thought it was easily one of the greatest episodes. So much happening--the old-timers getting out of jail, the bear, Tony pursuing Dr. Melfi, Chris and Paulie fighting over tabs--and they move back and forth seamlessly. In the first scene, when you see the news report on the old guys getting out--and see, in quick succession, Steve Buscemi, Frank Vincent, and Robert Loggia--you know things are going to get really good. Also really liked Emmylous Harris's "Heaven Only Knows" at the beginning and end.

Great moments at the end of "Where's Johnny?": "I mean, don't you love me?"

(singular)

Steve Schirripa and Michael Imperioli pick their highlights:

Ten of the best Sopranos episodes, chosen by its stars

My first day on the set Vinnie came up to me and said: “You’re going to replace me. How many fat fucks could they have on one show!”

Imperioli wrote some great episodes, is my takeaway from that article