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The Sopranos Season 4 Episode 4 'The Weight' Full TV Reaction!!

The Sopranos Season 4 Episode 4 'The Weight' Full TV Reaction!!

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Junior was wearing a suit for court, not for the phone call.

David Murray

I loved Curatola as Johnny Sack. It's amazing the presence he had as a non-professional, especially when so many of his scenes are with Gandolfini. Edit: I shouldn't say non-professional. He had more experienxe than I thought. You are definitely right abiyt the David Lynch influence. I've read that David Chase was a pretty big fan of Twin Peaks. I'm glad someone got the dysentery joke. One of the best malapropism jokes until we get to Little Carmine.

Marcus Cato

Just a few notes. 1-Good call, you guys: Carm is definitely dragging AJ with her to Furio’s so she doesn’t do anything stupid. 2-The guy who told Paulie about Ralphie’s Ginny Sack joke was Little Paulie, Paulie’s nephew, when he was visiting Paulie in jail. Little Paulie’s been around for a while in the show, and was seen a few weeks ago unsuccessfully hitting on Adriana’s FBI agent “friend”. Like his uncle, Little Paulie also has a bit of a skunk stripe front and center in his hair. 3-I love how sensitive Johnny Sack is to the plight of women and society’s unfair body image double standards. He’s obviously given it a lot of thought, that is when he’s not beating men in the street and then pissing on them, or trying to have another man killed for a tasteless remark. Not since Alan Alda have we seen an Italian man so sympathetic to women’s issues.

Robert Livingood

"Create a little dysentery in the ranks" Vincent Curatola (Johnny Sack) had almost no acting experience prior to the Sopranos. It's amazing how he can hold his own with James Gandolfini in a lot of scenes. The scene with Lou Dimaggio in his house was most definitely inspired by David Lynch, with a twisted version of the Addams family. It shows how there's levels to ruthless murderers. Even Chris is flustered by these psychos. I think it also shows how old-fashioned and out of touch Junior is. He dresses up for a phone call lmao and he's sort of milquetoast during the exchange. He's basically a nonfactor except for some reminiscing about the past. There's a double standard that's mocked in this episode. The premise is how much Ginny Sack is ridiculed for her weight and in every other scene Tony is eating pastries with no real effort to exert moderation, unlike Ginny. Tony has to stop himself from laughing when John brings up the joke and tries to sympathize with how hard it is to lose weight even though he never really tries. There's also the Saks Fifth Avenue nightgown (Saks, like a play on Johnny and Ginny Sack?) that's a size small that Carmela can fit in, which contrasts with Ginny's rubenesque figure. In fact there's a lot of contrasts between Tony and Johnny's marriages. I think this episode did the whole "slice of life" narrative far better than the previous episode. This one was a classic imo. Episodes 5&6 are both very strong episodes. Like you've noticed, there's a lot of character development this season and is less aggressive than season 3, but oh man does it pay off. Oh and you're officially halfway through the series with this one.

Sol95

Season 4 is very slow and very subtle with some of its story points. It's sort of a transitional season as well, where a lot of storylines are being set up for the rest of the series. Watching it for the first time week to week on HBO, it felt like nothing was happening. It wasn't until it came out on DVD and I rewatched it knowing where all the storylines were headed that I could see how they were setting everything up the whole time.

Kevin Charley

When Janice broke up with Ralphie I thought the same thing that she was going to go '2 for 2'. Imagine Janice calling Tony to clean up Ralphie's body. Tony would probably start trying to set up all the guys he hates with Janice 😂 I think a big reason guys get involved with Janice despite knowing better is that she's a freak. I ain't going to kink shame Ralphie, but part of me feels like he told those guys that Janice wanted to peg him because he wanted to test out the waters and see if anyone else was into it. He wants someone to share his appreciation for pegging with lol

Jeffrey Miller

One thing I realized is that The Sopranos was one of the first TV shows to have this kind of continuing narrative. Nearly all TV for 50 years since TV's inception was episodic. There's a killer, they search, they find him all within the same episode. Maybe there's a 2-part episode but that was maybe once a season. So as much as each season of The Sopranos has an overarching plot and continuing storylines, a lot of it is still episodic. In the first season when Tony takes Meadow to visit colleges and he kills that rat who turned on the mob, that storyline isn't followed up on. There are no later references to that event at all. That's just for that episode. If you are curious about the Russian from "Pine Barrens", I think the same episodic aspect applies. David Chase expressed his frustration when people wanted every storyline to be followed up on, particularly this one. “Who gives a shit about this Russian?” We did that show! I don’t know where he is! Now we’ve got to go and figure that out?”

Ellie Miller

If you see someone give you guys a bad remark on YouTube, please have a sitdown with Carmine first.

Ellie Miller

Personally this episode is a fav of mine for the way it shows the absurdity of the culture around breaking balls. One minute it's all fun and games, the next minute people are talking about killing each other. I know the episode before this one is frequently cited as a least favorite of the Sopranos. Still some great moments in any Sopranos episode though.

Marcus Cato

Fun fact: The actor playing the old guy on oxygen also played Al Neri in The Godfather movies

Andrew

These two episodes are somewhat an odd fit, and it stood out for me during this viewing. But have no fear, this isn’t the template for the rest of the season. They’re still good, and I still value them in whole, but it serves as a reminder that every episode of even great series, aren’t going to be equal in weight or intensity. This series had an unusual, and at the time, an unprecedented type of development. Some of that struggle is evident to keen observers, and especially multiple-time viewers. During its run, the show took an occasional brief hiatus, not being bound by the strict seasonal template of broadcast TV. That has become accepted practice in following years, but at the time it was an unusual approach, and it revealed the realtime struggle that the show runners went through in crafting something that differed from previous expectations.

David Wilkins


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