Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

My roommate and I were reflecting on The Sopranos finale tonight and rehashing some of our favorite character and plot arcs. The inevitable discussion of how strong this past season has been compared to the few before it was addressed and we discussed the plot arcs that we liked the least.

Mine:
1. Furio and Carmela
God god god, did I hate this. I loved Furio before this nonsense. His introduction to Jersey (beating the hell out of the whore house whore and shooting the debtor in the leg) was so awesome. He was seemingly a loyal badass mofo. And then Carmela? Really? Her? Just a frustrating storyline overall for me. I didnt find it realistic, interesting, or exciting. Plus it reduced one of the shows best characters to a pussywhipped ninny.

2. Vito goes gay
At first this was awesome/hilarious/interesting. But after awhile, cmon. I didn't care about Vito and Johnnycakes and motorcycles and firemen. The fallout that the Soprano crew had to face was mildly interesting but after seeing Chase so on top of his game these past 7 eps, I just get frustrated that we wasted so much time on Vito. I didn't need to know what he was doing while he was gone.

3. Divorce!
My roommate disagreed with me but I felt like the divorce storyline was boring and predictable. At no point was I remotely concerned about the marriage and thought it was completely inevitable they reconcile. My roommate gives it points for being a realistic scenario.


So, what storylines did you all dislike? What do you disagree with here?

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

man, the divorce storyline was great imo, the acting was friggen amazing in the fight scene in the media room, it was a mirror image of my parents when I was younger.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

g,
the acting was def def def fantastic.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

Anything involving Janice. It would have been so awesome if Richie would have killed her instead.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

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Anything involving Janice. It would have been so awesome if Richie would have killed her instead.

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I disagree. I hate Janice and have wanted her to die forever... but shes usually mixed up in interesting stuff. I just hate her.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

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Anything involving Janice. It would have been so awesome if Richie would have killed her instead.

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I always hated janice and constantly wished for her to get offed, but i disagree, richie killing her would have been too simple a storyline. having her kill him was an awesome idea, those were some great scenes of tony taking care of it after.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

you've chosen some long-term ones - I think there are some brutally bad episode choices out there.

1. That one with the older lady who was a friend of Junior's/his father's.

WTF was that? And she knew Kennedy too, or something? What in the world was that nonsense and why was it on the Sopranos?

2. The episode with Columbus Day/Native Americans

It had a Sopranos take which made it funny, but why did they ever think this was a good subject for a show? I understand Italian pride, but this was ridiculous - an excuse to discuss every trite view of racism.

3. Paulie's mom not being his mom

This was standard soap-opera style drama - creating a storyline out of nothing.

btw, I felt the Vito storyline was very interesting - in that it demonstrated how difficult it is to give up on the lifestyle even if there's every reason in the world to do so. On a poker website I feel like that storyline should be even more compelling. The long scenes in 'Vermont' were necessary to set up the inevitable return - that he just couldn't hack it in normal life.

Furio was a bad actor - but I hardly think he was a pussywhipped ninny. It was also meant to be a kind of counterpoint to Tony's love for the mob boss in Italy, I think.

The divorce was bad because of its inevitability in both senses - the separation and reconciliation. I feel like Chase didn't know he was doing this many seasons of the show; had it ended earlier, this storyline could've been very good.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

Christopher going all Hollywood - dumb

Meadow dating that black kid - would never happen

Anything involving the spec house - boring

Paulies mother is really his aunt - who gives a [censored]

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

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Christopher going all Hollywood - dumb

Meadow dating that black kid - would never happen

Anything involving the spec house - boring

Paulies mother is really his aunt - who gives a [censored]

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QFT

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

And the episode where Chris meets the rapper and has Hesch pay him royalties for his songs or whatever. That was just stupid.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

Meadow dating the black kid was not at all out of the realm of possibility - and made for a good story; it also tied in with Tony's panic attacks.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

I enjoyed most of these one-off episodes and story lines that everyone is hating on. The show just can't be mob wars and hanging out at the Bing. It would have been better if the guy meadow dated was that black albino comedian guy.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

Two words: Dream sequences.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

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Two words: Dream sequences.

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get ready for the flamers

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

um, wow.


paulie's mom/aunt = hilarious and awesome. esp with paulie's history of killing a grandma.

meadow + black jewish dude = awesome and very realistic.

rapper episode is a classic. all the speeches about who is a real gangster are perfect and that is a great ep for developing chris' character.

chris' hollywood thing was def annoying but i think alot of that had to do with chis not becoming the character/figure that most of us wanted him to be. the hollywood thing, in retrospect, is ok, because it essentially helped lead to his death.

dream sequences were written awesomely and i kinda want them to tie kevin finnerty into the finale.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

chris's hollywood thing was very good when it was done in season 2 (I think?), but the later Hollywood thing was kind of lame.

Some of the dream sequences were written very well, others were just too out there. I definitely respect this dimension of the show and writing a dream is incredibly difficult - the coma dreams were VERY good, but some of the earlier dreams were weaker.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

"the coma dreams were VERY good"

i think this was what he was specifically referring to.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

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"the coma dreams were VERY good"

i think this was what he was specifically referring to.

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the coma dream where tony almost died was one of the few things that has evoked any real emotion from me in as long as I can remember. It wasnt sadness either, im not sure what it was.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

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And the episode where Chris meets the rapper and has Hesch pay him royalties for his songs or whatever. That was just stupid.

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I thought this was interesting and Hesh never did pay as far as we know.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

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1. That one with the older lady who was a friend of Junior's/his father's.

WTF was that? And she knew Kennedy too, or something? What in the world was that nonsense and why was it on the Sopranos?

2. The episode with Columbus Day/Native Americans

It had a Sopranos take which made it funny, but why did they ever think this was a good subject for a show? I understand Italian pride, but this was ridiculous - an excuse to discuss every trite view of racism.

3. Paulie's mom not being his mom

This was standard soap-opera style drama - creating a storyline out of nothing.



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I agree with all of these for the most part. Very good choices.

The Furio/Carmela thing was ok. I think it was within the realm of possibilty. The worst thing about it was losing the Furio character.

I'm having a tough time thinking of any other lacking storylines.

Re: Worst Sopranos storylines.... (no spoilers)
 

I don't get why, with the first true television masterpiece winding up tonight, you'd want to do a thread that focuses on the negatives. Can't we just revel in the show's brilliance for a week or so before getting all reflective about its weaknesses?