"Sure, having a black president has done nothing to change anything regarding race in America,” he says. “But what I did notice is that Barack Obama becomes president and suddenly black people who are well-spoken are working more. This new market for the well-spoken black actor is all due to Obama. He got inaugurated and I started working like a fiend – hired by the same people who would previously ask: ‘Have you always spoken like that?’ It’s like, you know what, motherfuckers, yes, I have.”
There’s about 20 genuinely great characters over the five series. Would end up naming half the cast if I had to give my list of favourite characters. Mad.
Miles better than the Sopranos imo but I don’t begrudge people thinking differently.
That’s kinda the point in Ziggy’s character. Everyone else has some sort of underlying drive. It’s like Bunk said, “man’s gotta have a code.” Ziggy is supposed to show what happens when the working class is dying and is transitioning to the ‘underclass’ - just a mixture of cluelessness and nihilism.
With that in mind, one of my favourite scenes is when his cousin talks to Prop Joe. Perfectly captures difference between the two classes. Ironically the difference is mostly driven by the underclass’ access to (a specific type of) capital, which the working class don’t have (Frank gains access, but doesn’t understand how power relations work between those who control this type of capital and doesn’t change his values accordingly, and so pays the price).
The thing with the Sopranos is that I’m never sure about its subject matter and how it naturally still ends up glorifying it. Just something slightly off comparative to The Wire which depicts bad people in a way you can sympathise but don’t feel there’s anything ‘great’ about them.
There is of course a side point about amazing episodic writing - of which The Sopranos may be the best final example even over Mad Men - vs the modern single story season idea, which The Wire is probably still the pinnacle. In this sense I can’t ever choose between these shows.
yeah Spider Stacey. he has a fairly minor role, but Steve Earle was given a lot of heavy-lifting that he couldn’t really pull off.
also it’s surely not that weird giving a musician a minor role in Treme, which is largely about music.