March 7 can’t come soon enough for me. At HBO.com there’s a quicktime clip from one of the episodes from the upcoming season 5. Tony and Carmela are having an argument (go figure), and Tony loses his temper (no way!!), spouting off about how his wife was chasing “that fucking immigrant,” and how he’s “a dead man.” I guess this means Furio’s gonna have a bad year. Also, I caught the very end of the preview shown on the Golden Globes broadcast, but what I saw looked like gold. Robert Loggia returns to mob life, and Steve Buscemi gets in front of the camera. I’m also curious as to what the FBI has up their sleeve, and what’s gonna happen between the New York and New Jersey syndicates, and where Paulie’s loyalties really lie.
I think after Carmine didn’t even recognize Paulie at the end of last season that his loyalties will be firmly in place in Jersey. I wonder if Furio is even going to be back this season. I have a feeling that his storyline is going to be left off the table for a long time, sort of like the missing Russian in the Pine Barrens.
When that missing Russian shows up I’m going to applaud. What a great dangling thread…I’m sure it’ll pop back in when we least expect it (at least, I hope so).
I don’t think the Russian himself will show up. It’d be great if he could but he was shot in the head and left in the woods. I like that they haven’t forgotten about it as well though and I think in the long run some sort of end will come of it.
Paulie acted quite dedicated to Tony after Carmine didn’t know who he was at the wedding you’re right. I expect Paulie to be one of the first guys to start up the possible mob war between NY and NJ.
Furio could pop back up but I think it’d work better if Tony thought he was due to circumstances and not know for awhile, leave you guessing if he came back to kill Tony and take Carm or if it’s all Tony being paranoid.
Just 23 more episodes to go. I can’t believe it anyone want to shoot out some ideas on the end?
I love the Sopranos but leaving the Russian plot thread dangling out there was bullshit. Remember the Russian probably got away. Paulie and Chris’s car had disappeared during the night. The Russian boss had made a big deal about how this guy was like a brother to him. You’d think if he vanished the guy would have wanted to talk to Tony. That whole thing doesn’t make sense and they better come up with a good way to resolve it.
Bobisanalien is right about how the Russians would know that Tony’s crew would be responsible for their missing comrade. The Russian boss who was friendly with Tony even knew that his buddy owed Sylvio money.
“The Sopranos” does this a lot. One of Tony’s captains is a character named Raymond Curto. He’s an older guy who wears glasses who has been on the show periodically since it started. In the beginning of the third season it was revealed that he is wearing a wire for the feds. They showed that once and have yet to address it again. That character still shows up and is privy to all the private meetings that a captain should be but they’ve never shown him again with the feds. It’s the one part of the show that drives me nuts even more than the missing Russian.
I found this bit of news online, while I was attempting to track down that preview shown during the GG telecast on Sunday.:
Quote:
| The Sopranos creator David Chase is famously tight-lipped about upcoming plotlines. He’s even got his badass cast whipped like kittens when it comes to secrecy. Perhaps they fear sleeping with da fishes — á la Big Pussy Bonpensiero — if they spill a spoiler? Fortunately, Chase recently spared a few hints about Season 5 (starting March 7 on HBO) at the Television Critics Association press tour in Hollywood. Here’s what we learned… “The ticking off point of the fifth season is based on an article that I read in the Newark Star Ledger, about the highly publicized RICO cases of the '80s,” Chase said. “They put a lot of guys away back then — it was when they really ‘broke the back of the Mafia’ is what they said. I read that a lot of those guys are now getting out of jail. They’ve served their time and they are hitting the streets again. So the show begins with what we call the Mafia, Class of 2004, hitting the streets. That’s the departure point.” Enter sometime Sopranos director Steve Buscemi in the role of Tony Blundetto — who is Tony Soprano’s cousin, on his late, hated mother Livia’s side. “Steve is one of the guys [released from jail],” Chase revealed. “[The cousins] were sort of partners in crime 17, 18 years ago.” Asked if his character will still be alive by the end of this season, Buscemi laughed. “I keep my head, if that’s what [you mean],” he wisecracked, then quickly changed the subject. Hmmm… What about fave returning characters? Will we ever see Carmela’s crush, Furio, who suddenly left town? And what about that Russian guy from the Pine Barrens? “He’s gone” was Chase’s terse response to questions about both men. Chase also dismissed the idea of a big-screen Sopranos movie. “I mean, I probably wouldn’t say no to that completely,” he said, “but I think [the] last 10 episodes [which Season 6 comprises] will be that movie. That’s the plan.” But let’s not jump ahead of ourselves, Sopranos aficionados. First, we get to enjoy the fifth season, which Chase attempts to sum up thusly: “I’d say it has to do with limitations of family and friendship in a materialist world. And also the fact that Tony Soprano is sort of a mature boss. He’s been doing this for quite awhile now, and it’s about what it takes to be a leader, I suppose, despite your feelings.” |
Source: http://entertainment.iwon.com/celebg...13_2004_2.html
I agree on the Russian bit, as that was the middle of Season 3. I think it was just a plot device to get Chris and Paulie stuck out in the snow-covered Pine Barrens and show them in a helpless state. I fucking loved that episode! Steve Buscemi directed it, if I remember correctly.
I also saw that tremendous promo spot that aired during the final 15 minutes of the Golden Globes telecast on Sunday night and cannot wait!
Also, I just heard from one my cousins who lives in Jersey close to where they film. He said they’ve been filming pickups down the street for some time now.
March 7th cannot come soon enough!
Steve Busemi did in fact direct that episode.
Why wasn’t his character mentioned ever before? I like that they add fresh blood into the show but why not mention him before hand.
Don’t get me wrong though I’m excited to see him on the show and I think he’ll be great even though he’s coming in so late in the game.
Buscemi’s character probably wasn’t mentioned before most likely because Chase created him on a whim. It probably wasn’t planned. He read the article about the guys getting out of jail, was inspired to write the new season with that storyline included, wrote the character and then probably approached Buscemi when he thought he might fit well in the role. At least that’s my take on it.
And if I remember correctly, Joe Pantoliano’s character of Ralph Cifaretto was never properly introduced. I remember that he just showed up in one of the first episodes of Season 3 and I was like “WTF?!” It wasn’t until a few episodes later that he was properly introduced and you learned his background.
On a separate note, I just read that several of the Sopranos cast just scored some money into a lawsuit they filed against Best Buy.
The official site has re-launched with all new content for the upcoming season, including complete song lists for every exisiting episode and much more!
Hell hath no fury like the family…
I like that that a few plotlines are left dangling, and may or may not be resolved. Kind of like life, isn’ it kids?
The man can do a jumping split while grabbing his crotch. I believe that entitles him to do whatever he wants.
^^^ snerk.
I read somewhere – and I sadly can’t provide a link – that Chase confirms that the Russian in the Woods will not be coming back for vengence. Which is a bummer, because I’d love to see Christopha and Paulie’s faces when he showed up.
But if we’re exchanging Buscemi for Scary Russian, I’d say the audience came out on top.
Does anyone know who Robert Loggia’s character is?
I’d guess he’s somehow connected to the NY families. Through the trailers I’ve seen he’s in some pretty intense scenes, which makes me think he’ll be instigating himself into a war between the NY and NJ familes.
Waaaay back in 2002, I heard that you could actually download the first 4 episodes of the Sopranos Season 4 pre-air. I would never do such a thing, of course.
Just out of curiousity, I wonder if the first four episodes of Season 5 are out there in cyberspace somewhere. I wonder … I’m just wondering over here.
Only a week and a half until the only show on TV I truly love begins. Yay!
And no, I don’t want to have its babies.
Quote:
| Originally posted by scudd And no, I don’t want to have its babies. |
well, maybe Christopher’s
Anyone got guesses on who will make it out of this season alive?
Since it’s only got 23 more episodes to go before it’s send off I think this is where shit truly starts to hit the fan.
The NY Times had a great interview with David Chase yesterday in the Arts and Leisure section. Here’s an excerpt:
HEFFERNAN: I’ll tell you a moment I thought was funny. Tony is urging Christopher to avenge his father’s killing. Christopher is reminiscing about his dead father, saying he got shot down when he was bringing home a crib. And Tony says: “It was a stack of TV trays, actually. But it could have been a crib.”
CHASE: I wrote that. What that’s really about is — it’s really very easy to write “The Sopranos,” because everything that everybody says is untrue. Complete falsehoods, self-justifications, rationalizations, outright lies, fantasies and miscommunication. For that reason, I think there’s always sort of a joke going on, which is that these people aren’t communicating at all. These people are kidding themselves, and lying to themselves and to each other all the time.
So when you talk about Christopher and the crib, did he make that up? Who told him the father was carrying a crib?
HEFFERNAN: I assume his mother did.
CHASE: You think his mother did? I think he embellished it himself. I think once he began to hear that his father was a criminal, and when he heard his mother complaining about his bum father all the time, he — somewhere along the line, not even consciously — added the crib himself. He gets all blubbery and his eyes start to water when he’s talking about this crib. Like that makes it more tragic. This guy was a hoodlum and he got gunned down on the street. Period.
HEFFERNAN: But a man carrying a crib: that’s exactly what you want your father to be. Giving all his attention to you.
CHASE: Right. Unfortunately, Tony makes it into the worst possible thing he could have been carrying, which is TV trays.
HEFFERNAN: But since everyone’s always lying, why does Tony take the time even to correct Christopher on this point?
CHASE: Because something in Christopher’s self-pity and self-hagiography is annoying to Tony. He has to deflate him, say: “That’s not what happened. And don’t make yourself better than me because your dad was carrying a crib, O.K.?”
That’s some good stuff. I’m trying to post a link to the article but it doesn’t seem to be working.
As for my guess, I don’t think Walnuts will make it.