Some minor things I never knew before but discovered whilst browsing some Wikipedia pages
The actor who plays Hunter is David Chaseās daughter.
Dominic Chianese is somehow still alive.
Federico Castelluccio (Furio) bought a painting that turned out to be worth ten million dollars
The scenes between Vito and Jim are the best thing about the whole series for me. The relationships through all six series that arenāt transactional and are genuinely tender you can count on one hand. Carmela and the decoratorās the only other one that comes to mind without looking.
Doesnāt get hardly any screen time but Bobby and Karen counts I guess. Carmelaās parents?
Artie and Charmaine are such great characters, involved but not involved, conflicted with their own complicated issues. Artieās loserism and charmaineās history with tony casting a murky light over everything. So good, man.
A thing that struck me on this watch (and maybe Iām imagining it) is that thereās quite a clunky key change between Artie and Tony in series one. Iirc at the beginning theyāre childhood friends, but not really that close, and yet by the end of that series they seem to have morphed into lifelong buddies with a deep history.
In fact now I think about it maybe that change happens right after the pilot. The time gap might perhaps explain a decision to make it a closer relationship.
Yeah Iām sure youāre right, lots of clunky stuff about the first season innit. Though tbh most of the really terrible stuff I think of from season 1 is mostly in the pilot. Cartoon punch sound effects when they do over the college professor. Carmela whipping out an AK47 or whatever being possibly the biggest clunker of all though, ha.
I found the Carmela and Tony reconciliation stuff a bit clumsily done. The marriage seems definitively over, and relations are ice cold, then he just offers to buy her some land and she forgets all about it. Maybe Iām slightly misremembering.
Yeah I donāt love that stuff either, all the screaming and crying feels a bit like
but yeah thereās also the fact that carmela realises sheās pretty fucked if she leaves him and that he could (and will) make her life very miserable
Which in essence is something sheās known right from the beginning but visibly only comes to realise is inevitable gradually over the entire run
Although come series five when the bear turns up sheās seemingly without a clue when it comes to the guns in her house.
Nah itās when she goes to every lawyer in town and not one of them will touch her, and sheās looking out the window at that huge piece of shit floating in the pool that she realises that she has no option but to reconcile with him.
No option that would enable her to continue living the lifestyle sheās used to, anyway.
The teacher episode where he instantly calls her out on her manipulation is a big one too. She is so used to doing it that she doesnāt even realize she is doing it - that moment of insight that she is better off with a big stupid prick that she can transact with to get what she wants from life is swiftly followed by āfund my career as a property developer and do better at lying about the other women and I will come backā.
From that point on she is all in, even backing him when he quits therapy. Entirely corrupted and colluding in his self destruction rather than trying to provide some sort of bulwark against it.
You could almost say that they took the midnight train going aaaaannnyyyywheeeerrrreee.
Alright, ahm oot.
The way she uses her suspicions about Adrianaās death to pressure Tony into financing the spec house and muscling the building inspector too. Soon as she gets it she drops the subject 
Yeah, well beyond the moral event horizon by then. āI think our family member may have killed my friend and Iām pretty sure you covered it up - can I please get what I want now please?ā
But dressed up as concern rather than blackmail so she can still lie to herself about what type of person she is.
Damn, what a show. Can think of very little else that is as dark and as darkly funny.
Still randomly think of the line āI could do my memoirs, finallyā all the time. What other team or writers would have the nerve to put that in such a harrowing scene and have it work beautifully.
