Looking forward to this The Sopranos prequel, to be released on October 1st in theaters and HBOMax.
Not going to say much here in the OP, let’s keep all The Many Saints of Newark spoilers out until Friday, please. Or, if you must, put them in boxes.
There are no limitations on The Sopranos spoilers, though. Not after a decade.
Also:
Rewatching season six and I resent every frame spent on AJ. Didn’t care for Junior’s story either, but his tale needed wrapping up - should have been shorter, though.
Why?.
Because we are wrapping up the show and character development on a minor character who isn’t even the focus of the show took time away from Bobby, Paulie, Tony, Carm, etc.
For example, I forgot how much time was spent watching AJ go to the shrink. May have been compelling TV in 2008, but in the rewatching, since we know the AJ story doesn’t go anywhere, it’s just fast-forward material nowadays.
AJ was very spoiled, sheltered, and entitled, while simultaneously extremely oblivious and naive about his family and the world. His storylines, as well as most of Meadows’ throughout the series, were clearly about Tony and Carmela’s failure as parents. They were so wrapped up in their own shit that their “parenting” amounted mostly to a lot of yelling and lip service. Look how clueless they were about how to punish Meadow for that party at Livia’s house. It never even occurred to them to make her go and clean it up, something she eventually goes and does on her own out of guilt.
From about season 4 on, once she’s past all the Jackie bullshit, Meadow is essentially the only fully functional adult in the immediate family, and she’s not even living in the house anymore at that point. Tony and Carmela weren’t responsible for that, she had to learn it and do it on her own. AJ is the contrast to that; he is helpless without Tony and Carmela, and even though we never get an epilogue, I’m pretty sure nothing good happens to AJ after the series ends (and Tony is presumed gone).
I get that.
My complaint is that too much of the final season of the sopranos is spent on AJ. Show-wise, it made little sense to do this much character development on a secondary character given that the series was ending.
Very few, I’m sure, went into season 6 saying ‘man, I hope we spend 4 episodes equivalent watching a 19yo fall to pieces because he got laid regularly for the first time in his life, then got cut off.’
Naw, it should have been handled in half the time. Or 2 seasons earlier. In the last season, though…? No. The AJ stuff just ate too much valuable time.
‘More Paulie, less AJ’ is my motto. Gonna put it on my tombstone.
My motto is I wish they would have wacked Paulie instead of Big Pussy at the end of S2 because 1) Big Pussy was a more interesting fully developed character and 2) The actor was a lot better.
Get a load of this guy!
Lol, I can see that. But Paulie was just good energy though, his presence crackled when on the screen. I much preferred Paulie as a character myself.
(Rewatching with the captions on, you catch far more malapropisms then without. Some of them were pretty good.)
AJ was just bribed not to join the Army. Now, the man who promised to bribe him is unable to fulfill that promise.
Assuming no big Kill Bill desire for revenge, he likely just goes and joins the Army.
Carmela is the one in the most trouble. Her future is Ginny Sacrimoni’s - loses everything, probably has to get a retail job. Glad she saw Paris before it was all over, though.
Paulie had some weird storylines. I liked the episode where the psychic talked to a couple of Paulies victims but then it got weird when he blamed his priest?? And the whole mother/aunt storyline was cringe. Paulie seemed like such an asshole.
She has the house and probably at least a mil or two in cash to use. Remember when Tony was about to get arrested and he gave his lawyer all that cash to hold for her?
Carmela could lose the house if it was purchased with income earned from a criminal enterprise (However, there may have been a line where they referenced the house being in her name, or “built by her father” - they did pack a lot in S6 A/B). Her receiving the money assumes… using another shows’ parlance… the lawyer is a criminal attorney and not a criminal attorney. If the latter, he may keep most or all of it himself.
Regardless, the free cash flow is over. Now is the time to conserve, and a million dollars won’t keep Carm in the lifestyle her parents were used to, much less herself.
Other than Carmela, Meadow’s internal life is probably the most changed by the death of Tony - I just rewatched the scene and she, very likely, was looking straight at her father when he was shot. One could easily develop a story line where she succumbs to the fatalism which is the Soprano legacy, thereby becoming a respected criminal in her own right. She wouldn’t be performing stick-ups, of course, but likely legal and financial fraud, possibly starting down this path as a means to help her mother hide income/assets.
Paulie was, culturally, the most Italian and least American of the bunch. He believed in his Saints, was likely the most devout of the group, definitely had Old World opinions on matters relating to sex and relations between the sexes, and, show-wise, he was used to bring a bit of comedic energy to a very dark television show.
He’s also the only one walking around by the end of the series, IIRC. His future is also murky - he could get out of the life altogether, take over from Tony, integrate with who is taking Phil’s place (least likely), or just go on a killing spree.
(Sil is also fucked - nobody is going to pay his hospital bills now, and this is a pre-ACA world where he can rack up hundreds of thousands of expenses on items which would be capped by the “Maximum Out of Pocket” today.)
I took a gander at the imdb page and I’m curious about…
Michael Imperioli’s role in the film. He’s the only cast member from the series credited. Unless it’s a flash forward, I can’t think of how he might fit in except as the narrator, maybe?. Also, Vera Farmiga as young Livia? That doesn’t seem quite right.
Pretty sure it’s a narrator/flashback role for Michael Imperioli. And Farmiga can do dark as shown in Bates Motel, so she… at least by experience alone… is a good choice for this role. I can think of far worse choices for Livia.
Didn’t she also stash a bunch of money away in actual bank accounts? And there was the whole thing with her build and selling a house.
I watched the whole series again fairly recently and I think they ended up not making that much on that house. She basically broke even. (apparently IRL that house sold for $2.3M)
And what she “stole” from Tony’s backyard stash was only $40k. She invested it, but even at 100% return, which she wouldn’t get, that’s not enough to live on the rest of her life. For her, that’s probably not even a year of spending.
However, it is mentioned many times that the house they live in is in Carmela’s name.
Of course, wasn’t it basically a scheme to get Tony’s money? He “invested” in it, but then she got all the profit. I agree, she won’t be able to keep up her lifestyle, but a big part of her story is knowing that eventually the gravy train is going to end (either with Tony dead or in prison) and preparing for it.
She bought the investment house with Tony’s money, so it is a non-starter.
Their home, while it may be in her name, the Feds will likely investigate where the money came from to purchase it. That could be an issue.
My guesses for ‘where are they now, 2021’…
AJ: Entered intelligence while in the army. Still in, going for 20 years, AJ is completely MAGA.
Meadow: Had a few bad years, addiction issues, at least one abortion, finally kicked her habit in 2015 and now works in the Newark public defenders office, getting monthly checks from Carmela. Has resigned herself to hearing ‘that’s Tony Sopranos kid’ for the rest of her life at the exact moment her father star began setting in local memory and her mother’s star began rising…
Carmela: Completely lost her shit for two months after she realized that Paulie had no interest in keeping her afloat. In time she lost pretty much all traceable assets to the Feds, to her own cash needs, etc. However, Carmela gained a second life as an early YouTube star, cashing in on her notoriety as she developed an Italian cooking channel sprinkled with anecdotes about being a Mob wife. This money was hers, not Tony’s, and she used it to build a social media empire pulling in $5 million a year on some channels by 2021. Just muscled the Pioneer Woman to the side, the very public 2015-2016 HGTV battle between the two was pretty ruthless. But Carmela was just more so.
Shame about the Pioneer Woman’s dogs, all of them just dying like that. Wonder what happened there?
Paulie: Dead. Probably a hard death too. Carm was pretty pissed when he wouldn’t even give her $20k.
Sil: Died in a state hospital.