Subtle moments in The Sopranos that YOU only know.

She’s kind of doing a Trump media tour right now for attention

Random question - why is it that characters pronounce the word that implies a woman has very unsavory character as "hoe war" instead of the one syllable pronunciation? I don't think it's limited to just this show either, although other instances escape my mind.

They’re dumb wops bro

nah, most of the previously unknown cast members just weren't very good actors tbh

Except for Edie Falco - James Gandolfini was kind of already known.

So I finished my first actual rewatch, as until now I'd watch an episode here or there, maybe even a few in a row, but never even an entire season from start to finish. Here are my thoughts.

The issue with characters just appearing without any sort of backstory or a even mention of who they are or what they do - it goes into overdrive in the later seasons. I guess it doesn't hurt the show, and probably Chase just felt it wasn't needed and/or would've taken too much time. Still, I cannot think of another show where that happened so much.

I disliked the Melfi stuff less, but the stuff with Tony's mom more. Yes, it was well done how his mom was pulling the strings, but it was too drawn out and one note. With Melfi, it felt like she had less screen time than I'd remembered. Maybe my dislike for her the first time was because it meant there was no action; but the dynamic between her and Tony was more interesting the second time around, at least to me.

I think Ralph was on too long, and Richie not long enough. But both were great. I was not a fan of the Jackie Jr. stuff at all upon rewatch, and the Vito arc was not enjoyable because it was too easy to remember everything exactly, so it really felt like a rerun, whereas most everything else had nuances I didn't see or fully realize.

The Tony B stuff really did not age well to me. I wish there'd been more Feech.

I appreciated the characters of Janice, Arty and Johnny Sack more than I did at first. Janice is such a great character, and a great performance.

On the other hand, everything with his kids was less enjoyable. They were not net positives to the show in my mind, although the Noah and Meadow subplot was great.

One thing I can't shake is Tony's crew had as many if not more people cooperating with the FBI, yet Johnny is the one taken down? I guess we're supposed to believe that Tony's crew was more loyal? That one left me scratching my head.

Characters I found myself enjoying more the second time around were Mikey, Georgie, Makazian, Zellman, Sal Vitro, Feech, Hesh, and Agent Harris, among others.

Characters I found myself enjoying less were Furio, Sean and Matt, Julianna Skiff, Irina, and Skip, among others.

good stuff, thanks for sharing

i didn't notice all the characters just appearing in first viewing, but in rewatch was like "oh that's the guy who becomes more prominent in later seasons" and i think without knowing "oh that background character is going to be important later" is it suddenly disconcerting to me that they're never given an intro beyond "they used to sit at the table and laugh and now we're following them specifically"

melfi was definitely better on a rewatch as i better understood how she fell into things, i hated her and all scenes with her in the initial viewing

tony's mom was someone i completely ignored the first go round, i was just focused on mob stuff and didn't really appreciate it and all the backhanded compliments and such she made - i actually think a lot of that was due to having grown up around some narcissists and at initial viewing, not recognizing that was unusual behavior, she was just another regular elderly curmudgeon, only when i got older, understood various people in my life were narcissists, did her true malice finally show up (same with sister Jan who i viewed as a normal and decent person who sometimes got involved in bad situations on first viewing) - so seeing this as an older adult who was less ignorant of how certain people are was very eye opening and totally changed how i viewed the show and it allowed me to appreciate it on a much higher level

agree with all of ralphie, jackie jr, vito, & tony b were not good on rewatch (the scrabble board was elite storyboarding though)

and also felt like like richie and feech would elite characters who could have had a little more time - both could have singlehandidly driven extremely interesting plot points but were instead just tossed aside - kind of felt like how a bunch of characters on lost got duis so were quickly written out of the show instead of allowed to follow their intended plot arcs

agree 100% on janice, arty, & johnny - i always liked johnny but felt like i understood the dynamics he brought to the table better on a second viewing (all the ny stuff as well) but didn't like arty nor janice on first viewing but later i did

disagree on the kids, felt like the episodes that focused on them were great - finn at the construction site was some of the best scenes out there

agreed, for the amount of people in tony's crew cooperating with the feds, it's wild that nothing ever came of any of it - even the ones who weren't rats like paulie were still leaking stuff to ny

interesting about furio, i loved him on first viewing, but in second viewing, while i still loved him, i finally understood that he really didn't mean anything to the plot at all, he was just filler

Chase has said he emphasized finding Italian actors who grew up around Jersey and/or the mob, so not surprising that talent was sacrificed for fitting a certain demographic.

There've been stories about Robert Loggia (RIP) forgetting his lines while filming so they unfortunately had to write him off the show. I agree his character was great. The narrative I've read is they wanted Tony B to be in more than one season but they felt like they wrote themselves into a corner and killed him off - I liked his character but it is a good example of characters just randomly showing up. Like how does Tony never mention his cousin in the previous 4 seasons.

The same can probably be said about Ralphie given that he, Tony and Sil had their own crew when they were Jackie Jnr's age.

Who are the bad actors on this show?

My thoughts exactly. Were we watching the same show?

I love em all, but somehow the most famous in Buschemi may be the pick.

I finished that season recently and thought he was suppose to be low key?

I'm gonna read up on it...

Sopranos reddit seems to have a position opinion on his performance/character.

I didn't notice any bad acting!

I remember in the final season when christopher threw little paulie out of the window, that's when i began to suspect he may in the mafia

chris, you're in the mafia

Upon rewatch it really stood out to me that Margolis was just totally wrong to play that role, in part because of how we knew her from previous role. Sarah Shahi, who played the woman Tony did shrooms with in Vegas, would've been way better, but I guess they wanted someone who was older, although I'm not sure why.

Chris / Shooter McGavin relationship was just right though.

The only girl for Chris is the redhead from D-Girl

he really liked her

I watched his introduction last night and was waiting for him to break into McGavin.

Missed opportunity.

Wow. That really is the greatest impression of him ever.

I like Will Sasso's.