Holly Peenyo

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Woke up this morning...got yourself a gun...


Sunday evening I had a small Sopranos party. I gathered together some devoted fans who have been with the show from the very beginning. Before the show started, we found out that one of us had rented the DVD's of past seasons & had not actually been watching the show when it originally aired. He claimed he was "up to snuff" & dared us to quiz him, but we snatched the pomegranate martini out of his hand & threw his ass out, the charlatan. Eight seasons ago we started watching this incredible show on HBO & we were not in the mood for a Sopranos-come-lately interloper.


When I sit down to watch a new episode of The Sopranos, I get into a certain mindset. I block out all sensory information unrelated to the show & focus intently on the dialogue & action. It is almost an hypnotic state that is set in motion by the opening song. Woke Up This Morning. That song eases me right into Soprano-land & starts my one-hour journey to Jersey & into the minds of truly unreasonable characters. If I don't hear the song in its entirety, I rewind my recording & start over. I found out Sunday that I am not alone because, when the song began, the room fell quiet & people that had just been bouncing around & chattering, sat mesmerized.....some of them chicken-necking silently to the music.


Last season began, as viewers know, with Tony taking a bullet to the belly. This year I was surprised at how subtle & unsensational the first episode was. People like the ones perched in my living room, who know the show's patterns & predictables, will be watching for the usual events & conclusion. Circumstances happen that eventually make Tony kill someone & agonize over it. I think the writers are going to be less superficial than that for this last season. The opener was merely a family vacation, but the undertones in the dialogue & the seemingly innocuous behaviors of the characters were fascinating. Carmela & Janice exchanged harsh words in a rather benign dispute caused by surface tension. It was a tame scene....a tiff by the lake. The interesting part was the underlying reason for their tension. Tony had taken Janice's husband for a ride & they were afraid he was going to kill him. Neither of them voiced that concern, but you knew it was there because you, as a viewer, also felt it. Beneath all that was the realization that Tony Soprano's wife & sister are afraid of him.


I think it's going to be a cerebral season where the writers trust their audience to pick up the nuances they're throwing down. I'm sure there will be some bouncing boobs at the BadaBing & several bullets fired into foreheads, but I am hoping the series ends where it began...with Tony Soprano's introspective journey. We've seen him whack Uncle "not in the face" Pussy and chop up Joey Pants for torching his horse. We saw the tears in his eyes as he popped several caps into his own cousin, Steve Buscemi. Do I want to see him strive for some type of redemption by the last episode? Hell to the no. He is definitely beyond that. I want to see him struggling with the monster he knows he is. I will be very unhappy if this magnificent series ends with Tony getting hit by hundreds of bullets at a toll booth, or some sensationalized crap like that. I would like it to end with him at his shrink's office....still hashing it out with her.


You woke up this morning. All the love has gone.

Your Papa never told you about right and wrong.

7 Comments:

  • I found it both hilarious and entirely plausible that a knock-down, drag-out, breaking-windows-and-furniture fight between family members occurred in the middle of a game of Monopoly.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Thu Apr 12, 12:12:00 PM  

  • I totally understand about the Soprano-land mindset. My family is not allowed to talk to me until the previews for the next week's episode are over. I have been a fan from day one, I even went so far as to wanting to go to try out for a non-speaking role but a friend who had already tried that said that I wasn't Italian-looking enough (imagine that!!!) so I wouldn't have a chance.
    I just hope that the last episode isn't a let-down but I do agree I would like to see Tony sitting with Dr. Melfi discussing his latest anxiety attack, why he constantly cheats on Carmela or the many ways his mother screwed up his entire family and not have him go out in a blaze of gunfire. That wouldn't be a proper ending.

    By Blogger Barbara Hearn, at Thu Apr 12, 02:58:00 PM  

  • Hey Sis, doesn't every family have one of those fights over a board game?

    By Blogger Barbara Hearn, at Thu Apr 12, 02:59:00 PM  

  • Weapons have been drawn at my house over UNO.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Thu Apr 12, 05:10:00 PM  

  • I onced stabbed my cousin in the hand with a fork because he was trying to take the last piece of bacon

    By Blogger Perrin, at Sat Apr 14, 12:11:00 PM  

  • LOL at the last two comments!

    Alas, Tony and Co. did not have my undivided attention last night due to my rediscovery of The Sims 2 for PS2, but still, what an episode! I plan to watch it again this week on Comcast On Demand when I am not distracted by the little muttering people. The voices in my head are another story.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Mon Apr 16, 09:51:00 AM  

  • At least now the action is starting. RIP Gerry Torciano and Johnny Sack
    Also, you have got to check out "The Sopranos: Making Cleaver".

    By Blogger Barbara Hearn, at Mon Apr 16, 04:03:00 PM  

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