Subtle moments in The Sopranos that YOU only know.
Stole the thread title from the Arrested Development fans. Didn't open that thread, because I've never seen the show, but I instantly felt like the All Time leader in subtle moments among tv shows, deserved such a thread.
Also, I love it when crap like this is pointed out to me, so I'm hoping you guys will bring up a few things I might have missed.
One ground rule for the thread: no discussion of the final scene. It's been done. Over and over and over...
Off the top of my head, to get it started:
--Carmela lovingly helps a recuperating Tony get dressed in a nice shirt for a "business meeting", taking extra attention while doing the buttons for him. Only Tony isn't going to a business meeting, he's going to bang that real estate milf. As she's tearing his clothes off, he suddenly bails.
If you didn't notice the way she was fumbling with his shirt buttons, you may not have caught what triggered his memory of the woman who devoted herself to nursing him back to health, and the guilt he felt for betraying her yet again....so he bailed.
--Tony stays faithful for a while, but Faithful Tony is a tough thing to manage, and it all ends when he gives a stripper from the Bing a ride home, and she blows him while he drives. Where's the subtlety? When it becomes clear that Tony's grunting and scowling isn't another panic attack, but rather an orgasm thanks to a girl we didn't know was in his lap, we realize that music cranking in the car is AC/DC screaming, "Well I'm back! Yes I'm back! Hell I'm back!" Faithful, "Every day is a gift" Tony is gone, and the old Tony is back. Yes he's back. Hell he's back.
--The last line in the Pine Barrens episode (you know, the episode where Paulie botches a simple money pick-up, turns it into possibly a huge issue of contention with the Russian mob, and alienates his top lieutenant, Christopher, utterly embarrassing himself in the process), Tony tells Paulie, "You've got mayonnaise on your chin. Mayonnaise! Mayonnaise!" If you missed the symbolism of that line, he's telling Paulie, "You've got egg on your face."
--The last shot of
, where Paulie asks Johnny Sac to assure him that whatever they discuss won't leave the table. Johnny gives a classic non-answer...then we see the ferry boat taking all that info across the river to Manhattan, while Paulie digs at an empty bowl and gets nothing.
God, I loved that show.
