Did you watch? I thought both shows were relatively uninteresting tonight. Maybe it's just me. I'm always happy to watch Christopher act like an idiot -- and "When are you going to stop playing the Adriana card?" was a great line -- but much of what went on tonight bored me.
Ditto "Big Love." Nicky's credit cards, yawn. Somebody turns out to be gay -- what an original plot turn! Bill's car drives up and parks in front of the house -- fascinating, please show that a hundred more times. Loved the missionaries though -- especially when they rode away on bikes and did the dorky hand turn signals. Really loved every syllable uttered by Tina Majorino. She's brilliant!
April 23, 2006
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There's nothing dorky about using hand signals for added bike safety!
(unless of course you are in full Mormon Missionary gear, but in that case, there are very few activities that don't come across as dorky)
Um, hello. . .CHRISTOFUH MUGGED LAUREN BACALL!?!?! How much more can you ask from a show?
Seriously, on my deathbed, the thing that will flash before my eyes? Bacall dog-cussing Mr. Moltisani. Brilliant.
XWL: It's dorky for two guys to extend the arm straight out, in precisely in unison and when they are making a gentle turn on a suburban street with absolutely no traffic.
Brady: Yeah, plus saying he loved her movie "The Haves and Have Nots."
TWM: I don't regard the gay theme as controversial. I regard it as a way overused plot device. It's already being used in the worst Sopranos story of the season, with Vito. It's so typical to take a tough guy and then have him turn out to be gay (a la "American Beauty"). Although it was kind of interesting how the Big Love guy acted. The plot needs him to come unmoored and wreck havoc (presumably on Roman).
Noumenon: I have to say I never watched "Buffy." I don't really watch any network dramas, and, aside from "Joan of Arcadia," hadn't watched any since "Hill Street Blues." I watched the first episode of "Lost" -- the description made it sound good -- and then didn't like it -- didn't like the actors.
I was folding laundry last night during the Sopranos, and it's just as well because it kept me awake. There was something off about the pacing of the episode, or maybe it was just too much dumb in one night -- both Christopher and Artie stories in one ep? Please, spread the stupid around more.
I don't think Kingsley (excuse me -- Sir Ben) looked bored, I think he was trying to not to look terrified, and trying equally hard not to laugh at the stupid mobsters, because laughing at them would surely result in physical harm. Those scenes were excruciating, though, because Chris & Little Carmine (whose mangled vocabulary still cracks me up) are too stupid to know how out-classed they were.
I can't stand Artie, never could, and having his story line be a major part of the episode made it difficult for me. I couldn't believe he would be stupid enough to taunt Benny like that in front of his wife & parents. Did he think that Tony could keep Benny in line in absentia? Yeah, Tone will stick up for Artie but Artie was asking for it, and he's lucky to be alive.
I also dislike how they are just leaving major plots dangling from week to week -- what's going on with Paulie Walnuts, his Aunt Ma, and that kid he knee-capped? Yeah, we got a few references to the Vito story line, but really: meh.
This season so far has had very little momentum since Tony came home from the hospital.
GrumpyTA said last week I think a theme for the season - or at least the last few episodes - has been that masculinity, or rather, a dying masculinity. Johnny Sack cried at his daughter's wedding. Tony beat up his hyper-masculine cousin to prove that he is still a man, or so I think. Vito was finally outted. Paulie discovered that he's a bastard. Silvio found out that he doesn't have what it takes to be a boss.
I thought of that this week when Artie was failing and flailing and then finally regained his Self when he went back to his mother's cookbook to cook the rabbbit he shot in his garden.
Other than that, the show seemed pretty empty this week. The hollywood stuff seems off key to me, like an excuse to have some marquee cameos. Yawn.
I agree with Ann and the others who found this weeks episode of the Sopranos boring. I felt like Chase and Co. were just walking in place.
The main purpose seemed to be to remind us of what an asshole Artie can be, possibly setting us up to accept it when something bad happens to him. As for Chris, the cultural disconnect between New Jersey hooddom and Hollywood seemed to put an end to Chris' pipedream. He resorted to type a grabbed what swag he could, coming up with only female goodies.
Chris' offering the designer carrying case for a lap dog to Tony was beautiful and seeing the legendary Lauren Bacall cold cocked by ninja Chris was a classic moment. Cheers to her for joining in on the fun.
Maybe you're right, Bad Penny. Hope so, anyway.
Both were kind of boring, I agree, but I can forgive Chase because he's been so compelling for, what, six seasons? And even when it's bad, it's really, really good (as Woody Allen once said about sex).
Big Love, OTOH, has run out of gas and targets of "satire" in a scant few episodes, resorting to the extraneous gay subplot. I can hear the pitch now: Desperate Housewives Meets Fundy Christians.
I'm still waiting for Big Love to deliver; I watch because I have a hunch that it might. I only "watch" the Sopranos when I'm doing something else.
Both shows bore me in a way because I don't like any of the characters. I root for all their undoing; that's inherently more boring than rooting for success. Very old fashioned of me prefer protagonists to anti-heroes, but there you go. I have unfashionable tastes.
The most interesting character to me on Big Love is the Tina Majorino character*, which is appropriate since Majorino, like me, is the outsider looking in. It's also interesting to look at the Big Love world through her eyes, because she's so different than I am.
None of the other characters make any sense to me at all.
*Is that her on on Veronica Mars sometimes? I like that show better than either the Sopranos or Big Love.
I'm not sure that the Big Love character is supposed to be gay. I was really expecting him to *kill* that drifter, not have sex with him. Especially once he got out that hunting knife just to make a sandwich.
Tina Majorino's character is definitely the best, though.
Nou: Yeah, I know. I just didn't have the time to get into it when it was around. I rarely watch anything on TV that tells a story. HBO is the big exception for me, and I got into "The Sopranos" and "Six Feet Under" through DVD sets, not by watching the regular show.
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