The Sopranos 1x02 Reaction
Added 2024-08-18 23:43:47 +0000 UTC
Comments
Awe this is the first mafia related show/movie you’ve ever seen😂 acting boss is basically the temporary boss of the family
Eli Brigante
2024-09-19 01:04:58 +0000 UTCi knew her from desperate housewives before i watched this
bobby
2024-09-02 22:12:32 +0000 UTCshe is jax baby momma in sons of Anarchy
T0ast
2024-08-20 23:09:51 +0000 UTCI didn’t think the actress for Chris’s girlfriend is that popular outside of people who’ve seen the sopranos.
the chosen one
2024-08-20 09:35:39 +0000 UTCThe wire is so good they had to take ten minutes to talk about it just because bodie was in it for a minute. Not complaining.
the chosen one
2024-08-20 09:34:02 +0000 UTCGlad you’re enjoying it! There’s no show quite like it
Darrach
2024-08-19 20:54:22 +0000 UTCYou guys mentioned it but yeah the unexpected comedy bits are what made me love this show. You can have one scene of Tony discussing serious mafia business and the next is Carmela whipping out an AK47 on her daughter
mundanelotus
2024-08-19 19:19:39 +0000 UTCyou're completely right about the family dynamics being more familiar than the ones usually shown in americans shows/movies. i've lived with my grandparents for years while we were in uruguay and when my grandmother was too old to be alone there she came to stay at our house in spain until she passed. also, just the way they interact with each other. this show is a treat and i've just watched two episodes.
sand_fl
2024-08-19 18:29:40 +0000 UTCYou know I struggled the same way you did trying to recognize Bodie, no shot really focuses on his face and eventually I just went "nah I think I'm just being racist" lol, turns out it IS Bodie and I'm NOT racist.
Nina
2024-08-19 17:31:56 +0000 UTCwho doesnt know the term ganja??? :OOO
Marshall_Four_Twenty
2024-08-19 13:09:35 +0000 UTCHey, just a quick question, given that this is shown fairly often. Wouldnt YT flagged or even take down the video for showing the strippers half naked that clearly? (eg min 10:03 - 10:10).
MOS
2024-08-19 12:48:23 +0000 UTC“Ganja” is slang for weed. Tony’s being racist there. Lol
Thomas De Peña
2024-08-19 12:46:00 +0000 UTCCarmella is my favourite character, I love her so much. I think she is the best written female character ever.
Cole
2024-08-19 12:42:19 +0000 UTCThere was times I was thinking if it was actually a comedy with dramatic elements with how funny it gets.
Cole
2024-08-19 11:37:37 +0000 UTCS1E2 - ‘46 Long’ “IT’S A RETIREMENT COMMUNITY!” Now the show really gets off the ground, and we see the marked difference in cinematography and tonal choices from the Pilot. We open with a scene of mobsters listening to the news about the end of the mob. Drug trafficking is mentioned as a cause, meanwhile Silvio does his best Godfather impression. No coincidence I’m sure, as Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part 1 takes an open stance against the Mafia being involved in drug trafficking, as he foresees it will greatly damage them in the long run, which it of course did. Another ironic parallel in this scene is when the Mob expert on TV mentions that there has been a “disregarding of the old rules” as to why the Mafia golden age is over. Tony replies “if the shoe fits” in agreeance. Later, when Brendan steals another truck and gets a civilian killed, breaking the rules clearly laid down, Tony reprimands them, but also keeps a number of the suits for his own profit. ‘46 Long’ is a suit size a man like Tony would wear, and so we see this disregard of old school rules coming directly from him also, hence the episode title. Interesting to note that the one time Tony can recall his mother laughing and happy is when his father fell and tripped down some stairs. We see Tony displace guilt over not taking in his mother to Carmela, despite the fact he is the reason she isn’t allowed to stay with them. Tony later displaces his anger at Georgie, the bartender at the strip club, when he can’t work the phone. This reminds him of Livia also being unable to work the phone, and we even hear Georgie have the same issue “is that an operator or an answering machine?” before Tony attacks him. Tony also repeats phrases he hears in therapy, despite not understanding them fully. He tries to repeat Dr Melfi’s words about the retirement community being more like “a hotel in Cap D’Antibes”, a place in the French Riveria that Tony has no doubt never heard of. Tony tried to repeat this only to say “Captain Teebs” instead hahaha. Tony did the same thing of copying Melfi’s words in the Pilot as well, an interesting trait. I love how David Chase makes his opinions on corporatism and chain stores clear early on, as the logo for the coffeehouse Pussy and Paulie investigate is in the shape of radiation symbol in the window, like it’s an infectious biohazard lol. Some mobster language you may not be familiar with: “guest of the government”: Jackie, the acting boss, says this in reference to the actual boss of the crime family, meaning he is currently in prison and unavailable. “Made”: very common term if you’ve seen any gangster media. To be ‘made’ is to be sworn in as a member of Cosa Nostra: The Sicilian Mafia. Being a made man means you cannot be harmed or killed without explicit permission, and it also means you are a member for life, under oath until death. You are officially part of the Mafia family, from this point forward.
Darrach
2024-08-19 11:25:48 +0000 UTCSpeaking on the comedy, honestly The Sopranos is a Family Dramedy that just happens to have Mob stuff in it. On pure comedy alone , this show is hilarious.
Karabo
2024-08-19 10:49:39 +0000 UTCI missed out on following along with The Wire, so I'm hype to be here for Sopranos. I remember this show was big enough that as a kid I knew somebody who would throw watch parties at his house with a handful of people each episode
Yarrow
2024-08-19 04:24:23 +0000 UTCDamn, you guys are already talking about some of the themes that's gonna be addressed way down the line. Also I just noticed something on this rewatch. The real reason Tony beat Georgie in the last scene is because (besides him being annoying) the specific line he said when he was making a call: "is that an operator or an answering machine?". His mother said this line too earlier on the episode. Right after Tony denied having anger towards his mother when talking to Dr. Melfi, he projected his own mother onto poor Georgie and just beat the shit out of him lmao. Talk about repressed feelings
enchantertim
2024-08-19 03:02:27 +0000 UTCThe realism of the sopranos is one of my favourite parts. It doesn’t feel like actors on a set it feels a camera is recording people living their lives.
Cole
2024-08-19 02:46:23 +0000 UTCYeah, so much of this show is in conversation with the representation of the mafia in those films. The Sopranos is a post-Godfather story -- like Tony says, he has come in at the end of things. The grandeur and romanticism of the Corleone era is over, replaced by the ugly thuggery we see from Christopher and Paulie. This episode is especially up-front with that comparison, with Silvio quoting Michael Corleone and with the roundtable conversation about mandatory minimum sentences for involvement drug trafficking that opens the episode, a flashpoint issue that also plays a huge role in the The Godfather. And of course this is all running in parallel to The Sopranos (and The Godfather) interrogating the broader state of America. The first season of this show is pre-9/11, but it is already a show about a nation in decline, one corrupted by the moral rot of the 21st century.
Mike
2024-08-19 02:45:16 +0000 UTChell nah and they dont need to see the third one at all
Josip
2024-08-19 02:43:05 +0000 UTCI think even if they don’t watch the biggest take-away for viewers who’ve seen those films is the stark difference between them and the lives of characters in Sopranos None of the romance or aura of these classics is present in the lives of Tony and his crew, they’re all so awkward and even pathetic in comparison
space colon
2024-08-19 02:18:22 +0000 UTCI think you guys hit on a main appeal of Sopranos in the discussion. Tony navigates relatable problems that let us see every side of him: a father, a son, a husband, a boss, an employee, a friend, a client in therapy, etc etc He’s possibly the most fully realized fictional character
space colon
2024-08-19 01:46:53 +0000 UTCLadies I appreciate you starting this show! Is there anyway we could get The Godfather Trilogy reacted to? I know you don’t really do movie reactions but it’s the perfect time for it. Again many thanks for doing this series!
UNC
2024-08-19 01:46:40 +0000 UTCThe Sopranos presented to television the most gray and complex characters we could ever see, at many points we will question the morality of their actions but inevitably we end up getting emotionally involved with these characters. And personally for me, Christopher is one of the main ones in this regard... I really believe that you two will like his storyline.
ashton
2024-08-19 01:43:07 +0000 UTCY'all will pick up things as you watch ... but this show is very specifically a post-Godfather/Goodfellas/etc show, and it would help a lot to watch those. Learning what "Made" means via inference is a lot different than actually watching the movie scenes about people getting made that're literally running through these characters' heads as they say that stuff.
Nick P
2024-08-19 01:09:00 +0000 UTCThe (very general) breakdown of the crime families: At the top is The Boss. Sometimes called "The Don", caporegime (which is also used for a different position depending on which country we're talking about), etc. The Boss in theory has nobody above them and has the final say in ANY issues within the family. In this episode you met Jackie, who is the Acting Boss because the "real" Boss is in jail. The character Jackie was not in the first episode, they created him after writing the pilot. The Consigliere is an advisor to The Boss. They don't have direct authority over the lower members, but since they speak one-to-one with The Boss they're essentially the second in command. So far you have not seen a consigliere yet. At the head of individual crews are the Captains, which is the other rank called "caporegime" depending on the country. Starting in this episode Tony is a Captain, and so is Uncle Junior. Everybody else we've met is a member of Tony's "crew". Made Men are the level below Captains, and is the rank where you are IN the family. You're supposed to have proved yourself, you are supposed to be trusted, and you're supposed to get the benefits and protections of the group. The books being "closed" means that no new people are being Made. Pussy and Paulie -- the two men who were searching for the car -- are each Made Men. The lowest level are Associates. They're technically not even in the family at all. Anybody non-Italian can never rise above Associate by default. Christopher and Brandon are Associates now. Money flows UP in all ways. Associates go out and commit crimes and then give a cut to the people above them. Those people then give a cut of what they get to THEIR superiors. So Christopher pays Tony, Tony pays Jackie, and Jackie doesn't pay anybody. The conflict in this episode is that Comley Trucking has been paying Uncle Junior "protection money" for years. That's a very common scheme, where criminals extort money from a business by offering "protection" from other criminals. Even though everybody knows that they're the ones who will do violence if the money ever stops, they do also have to keep other criminals away for the sake of keeping the scheme going. So, when somebody from Tony's crew (Christopher and Brandon) robs a business that pays Junior protection money, Junior takes it as an insult and Tony's people have to make restitution to Junior.
JBK405
2024-08-19 01:00:20 +0000 UTCI will put it in terms that you might understand regarding how the whole ranks and hierarchy of the mafia works. So imagine that all the crews are houses like GoT and all of the houses answer to one king.. well is similar here. All the crews in this case answer to one mob boss which at the moment is Jackie. Now he is acting boss at the moment because it’s implied the previous one before him is in jail doing time. They don’t give much details besides that. The whole “made guy” thing is basically when a member of the mafia goes one rank up… usually the boss is the one who has to approve anyone from any crew to become a made guy. The show will go into detail later as to how do you become a made guy and the other ranks of the mafia. Also Tony’s crew and Junior’s are different but respond to the same boss since he is the one who has a final say when it comes to issues among the crews.
Jack SV
2024-08-19 00:19:42 +0000 UTC"Made" means being a sworn in, officiall member of a Sicilian or American mafia. Made men can not be fucked with.
Brandonsuplex
2024-08-19 00:12:39 +0000 UTCYes I was hoping you'd recognize Bodie!
HenryM
2024-08-19 00:03:17 +0000 UTC
