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The Sopranos: Rewatch

As it seems focused on Dickie Moltisanti, I'd recommend a few Christopher-centric episodes.

1:4 Meadowlands (#8, the Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti, is another good choice)
2:7 D-Girl
2:13 Funhouse (not so much Christopher, but the end of Big Pussy)
3:11 Pine Barrens (not really relevant to the movie but the ep never gets old) Also ep 9, the Telltale Moozadell
4:1 For All Debts Public and Private (Christopher's revenge for his dad Dickie)
6:13 Home Movies (less Christopher, but still probably relevant to the movie)
6:18 Kennedy & Heidi (how the movie narrator died)

To narrow it down to 4, I'd say one of the first season eps and then the last three I listed.
 
RedJed said:
So this is a stretch I know, because this series has so many landmark episodes, but to prepare for the film this weekend, what three episodes (or maybe even five?) would be considered essential viewing as a lead-in? I watched the series eons ago, and would love a full binge of all of them, but it's just not gonna happen. But I do want to spend the next few nights reliving some of the best and perhaps relevant episodes to connect to the prequel film.
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Stole these from AVClub but they all feature either flashbacks or focus on Chris. I think they did a pretty good job and while I wouldn't even call these among the best episodes (not that they aren't still great) they may best supplement the movie.

46 Long (s1)
Down Neck (s1)
Fortunate Son (s3)
For All Debts Public and Private (s4)
Remember When (s6)
 
I liked “The Many Saints of Newark” but think it would’ve worked better as a mini-series. I know David Chase wanted to do a movie, though.
 
I guess this is where we comment on Many Saints.

I didn't think it was very good. It felt disjoined and thrown together. I think the pieces were there to make something good but it wasn't going to happen in two hours. The show did such a good job at slow burns that it is almost antithetical to try and make a movie but I was on board because it was something new. I thought the actors themselves did well. Farmiga did a great job as Livia and Michael Gandolfini (whom I initially had reservations about) exceeded my expectations. There were good actors in the roles of Dickie, Johnny, and Junior but I didn't feel like they had much to work with here, plot-wise or script-wise.

Ray Liotta playing two characters is off-putting at first but I read it was because they had a second actor in mind for the imprisoned uncle that wanted too much money. They would have been better off cutting out Dickie's father and letting Liotta just play the uncle, which was a much better character as the father really didn't add much to the story. Also, blink and you'll miss David Chase in a bit role as Ercole DiMeo (I sure did), titular boss of the crime family.

I also wasn't a big fan of Uncle Junior arranging for Dickie's death. We all know that Junior is petty, but I think having him go off over Dickie laughing at him falling almost made him too petty.

I told a friend of mine this after I saw it and I think it still accurately reflects my thoughts: "A bunch of stuff happened and then it ended."
 
While I enjoyed the film (and the episode hookups you guys provided offered a wonderful lead-in to this so thanks for that) I have to say that this was a bit of a letdown in execution. It did indeed feel very disjointed. However, the throwbacks and references to things from the series was abundant and well done. I can't imagine someone going blind into this without watching the series first, it just wouldnt resonate much at all unless you were fully aware of the backstory they were focusing on, and how that connected to things within the series
(biggest case in point being the Junior/Dickie thing and there still is a vague question on if Tony was aware of this? That never fully got answered of course).

They did clearly, however, set up potentially another Sopranos prequel film given where they ended. There still is alot of stuff to cover from a prequel background in how Tony rose up in the family and some of the flashbacks and situations referenced in the series (such as Tony's first big kill) were not really addressed here simply because the Tony character wasn't old enough when this film finished. I have a feeling in 3 or so years we will probably get another film (as Gandolfini ages himself, he did a tremendous job with his dad's character), or MAYBE a one-off mini series on HBO Max where we see the rise of Tony. That might depend how the box office is on this one.
 
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It was fine. Good performances and I was never bored, but something did feel off and I was never that engaged with it. Decent enough movie that I will forget about immediately.
 
Only took 14 years to let that cat out of the bag! When I rewatched the finale last month, that was pretty much the only way they could go with it but what took him so long to admit this?

I kinda thought a nice touch they could have done with the prequel film was in the least show Tony's gravestone instead of the focus on Christopher's only, but I guess that would have been the tip of the hat there. There also apparently was a scene they filmed (I think?) with Edie Falco reminiscing about the past, which again, would have nodded to Tony's death.
 
Laughing so hard at some of these comments:

 
I can't believe I remember this, but well around when Season 2 started, HBO had a pretty dinky website with Sopranos stuff (really cringe-stuff like Meadow's instant messages with Hunter, etc) and one of them was some FBI files talking about how 'informant number(whatever) has been found dead, but we think informant (whatever+1) is still undiscovered' It was talking about Pussy and Jimmy.
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I know we always knew but it is nice to get confirmation that Jimmy was a FUCKING RAT
 
So I'm watching Sopranos for the very first time and am at the end of season 3. I didn't read and of thos thread so apologize if this has been said already.

The last episode with Livia was really strange. I thought it was my TV because she looked computer generated and added in post. Turns out I was right. The actress died in real life so they CGI'ed her into a scene with Tony to send her off.
 
Quote feature is jacked up on my mobile browser, but I remember not noticing the CGI Livia when I first watched. I guess it was the small standard def TV in my dorm room lol
 
I don't think Tony was whacked at the diner. I just think he now realizes he has to look over his shoulder and pay extra close attention to his surroundings for the rest of his life.
 
He was whacked and David Chase said so. He was also really angry that he had to spell it out for people and went on a long tirade about people being unintelligent and/or needing to have everything made clear for people.
 
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