I’ve been re-watching The Sopranos, and I’m curious what others think was the best story line during the series.
For me, it was Vito’s homosexuality. Although there were a few hints leading up to it, the episode where he’s seen dancing at a leather bar caught me completely by surprise.
That story line had a lot of substance. It was both funny and tragic, and took some interesting turns. The actor who played Vito did a great job with it.
What are your favorite stories from the series?
It was hard to watch but Adrianna’s gradual drift into being an informant and the inevitable result.
I think when Vito was blowing that guy in the truck that was more than a hint he was gay. (that was when Finn found out he was gay and quickly decided to get engaged to Meadow so he would not get whacked)
I liked the interaction with Johnny Sack and how he took over the NY family. BTW the actor who played Johnny was a contractor for a long time and started acting when he was around 40.
Tony’s at his best (well, most entertaining, anyway) when he has a nemesis. That means I most like the story arcs dealing with the rise and fall of Ralph Cifaretto, Richie Aprile, and Phil Leotardo, in that order, with a minor shout-out to Feech LaManna.
I liked Tony’s [del]brother[/del] (cousin?)… uh, Steve Buscemi, I forget the character’s name, but that was a great downward spiral, and kind of made me think how one little thing (punching out the Asian guy) can change the course of someone’s life so drastically.
His cousin was Tony Blundetto. I agree that was a very good story line. I also liked the scenes when he was in a coma and became Kevin Finnerty.
My personal favorite was Carmela’s screwed-up-almost-affair relationship with the priest who loved Italian food… I can’t remember his name right now but I always thought it showed a great juxtaposition to her relationship with Tony.
I miss that show. 
Christopher and Pauly, chasing the Russian through the Pine Barrens.
I liked Bobby Bacala’s overall story: how he went from being Junior’s babysitter into being way, way high in the organization to the point where he’s concidered important enough to be dealt with when the NY family is making their hit list in the final season. I guess one reason for liking it is that he was really quite the teddy bear and a genuinely good person, aside from the whole “being a criminal and a murderer working for the mafia” bit.
I think the Ralphie storyline in season four was my favorite… The last episode they really have you starting to feel for the guy w/ his kid getting injured and all that, and then Tony finds out that Ralphie killed his beloved horse… Oops. One of the most brutal fight scenes I’ve ever seen.
This isn’t really an “arc”.
I will say, that this story really pissed me off. I mean, what happened to the guy? He just evaporated. If he lived, there would have been hell to pay.
Yeah, I started thinking about it, and mostly I thought of story arcs that never got resolved. The crazy Russian; whatever happened to Furio (you gotta beeyon you 'at); why didn’t Dr Melfi tell Tony about the rape?
I thought Tony’s messed up relationship with Gloria Trillo, Annabella Sciorra’s character, was very disturbing and well-done. I also thought the Adriana story arc was interesting. Both did not end well for the woman in question, though. Another favorite has been mentioned, the Kevin Finnerty/coma dream story. I liked that a lot. I think the episode with the 40 minute dream is the one I’ve watched the most times.
I liked the whole Christopher getting involved with acting/movies, but I’m not sure if that qualifies as an arc, since it was sort of sporadic. It did culminate in “Cleaver” in the last season.
The Furio and Melfi rape stories were resolved.
[spoiler]Furio moved back to Italy after almost killing Tony in a fit of jealousy and some time after Carmela told Tony that she’d been in love with Furio Tony tells her that “if certain people see him, he’s dead”. So, we’re left with the assumption that he’s in Italy, hiding from his former mafia friends.
The Melfi rape was resolved also: at the end of the episode during their session, Melfi breaks down in tears and Tony inquires what’s wrong. She’s contemplating on telling him, but eventually decides in a good n’ moral way that it would be wrong to tell Tony and have the guy killed as a result, and says “No”, cut to credits.[/spoiler]
Without spoiling it for everyone by discussing in too much detail, I find each of those resolutions so unsatisfying that the arcs still feel unresolved to me. But I accept that it’s a matter of opinion.
I like that the Russian was never seen again. He didn’t need to be; that episode was about Christopher and Paulie, not about him. And what happened to Furio was that the actor who played him was talking to the media about future story developments, so he had to go, immediately if not sooner. As it was, I thought the character’s disappearance was plausible too. They set it up so that if he ever came back to the US, he was dead, so that was a resolution.
But Melfi not telling Tony about the rape still infuriates me. What about that guy’s future victims? You’d think a doctor would understand the likelihood that Employee of the Month would do the same thing as many times as he could get away with it. Just because it was over for her didn’t mean he was finished being a rapist.
Anyway, favorite arc. I second Vito; I love the episodes with him in Gayford, NH. Also, Christopher’s addiction, recovery and relapse. The intervention scene is priceless. I remember asking, “What’s Furio doing there?” “Muscle,” said Mr. Rilch. And sure enough, he had to intervene on the intervention.
Whoa. THAT’s why he went? Intense. They silenced me.
Yeah, but I think her thinking was that we can’t use vigilante justice for that. You can’t just go around having hired goons beat up, torture and kill people you don’t like. Innocent people get screwed over a lot of the time (just look at the last season of Sopranos!). I mean, at its core, what is the difference between her telling Tony to go out and kill this guy and anyone just killing someone they believe wronged them?
Also, Tony never does you a favor without getting something in return. If she had told him about the rape, and one of his guys killed the rapist, I imagine the Tony / Dr. Melfi breakup going a lot differently. He can hold the murder over her head, especially since she reported the rape to the cops.
One of my favorite moment of the series is when Dr. Melfi is talking to her shrink about the rapist and she says, “just to know, that I could crush him, like a bug…”
I think my favorite would be the Christopher-being-shot arc, where during his recovery period, he told Tony and Paulie about his trip to Hell and 3 o’clock. Paulie’s reaction to it was priceless and I loved when he went to the medium. That scene was pure gold.
Adrianne’s arc from the beginning was interesting, including her demise. It just showed how brutal and unforgiving that world is.
Tony’s mother was a great character, and when she died, the show missed the best, most manipulative character I’ve seen on TV in a long time. Janice was a pain in the ass, but Livia was pure evil.
Ralph’s character was great, and his rise and fall were well done.
The worst had to be Melfi. I admit a strong bias, as I hated the wooden acting of Lorraine Bracco, and the way she blew off Tony at the end really turned me off. It made me realize how useless her character was for the entire series. She was a real drain on the show, even though the idea of tony talking to a shrink was a vital part of Tony’s character.