A Sopranos listicle!

SPOILERS!

 

Best character: Livia. Even more fathomless than Ruth Gordon's satanic coffee klatcher in Rosemary's Baby. I could never read the precise level of her deceit/evil. A virtuoso, hypnotic performance from Nancy Marchand even in Max Headroom mode. 

Second-best character: Janice. I've known so many people like Janice in my life and The Sopranos is the only show I know of to get the character right. The accuracy could split an apple in the next county. Aida Turturro, we're not worthy. 

Best episode: "Two Tonys" Season 5, Episode 1

Most infuriating episode: "Two Tonys"

Best season: 5

Most dour season (not a negative critique): 4, the first post-9/11 season

Season with the sharpest, most redolent costumes: 4, particularly Carm's.

Percentage of the series I remembered from when I first watched the thing 17 damn years ago: About 5% including almost all murders ever. 

Amount of times I screamed out loud: Lost count.

Weirdest moment: The freeze frame and wipe in "Cold Cuts" that no one involved with the production seems to remember. See it here. 

Secret comedic geniuses: The Sopranos kids because they get away with saying shit to Tony that would get anyone else whacked.

Grossest food: The tripe and tomatoes Richie brings Carm. 

Shows The Sopranos is better than (of shows I have watched in their entirety): Mad Men, Game of Thrones, The Leftovers, Succession, others.

Show I cannot say The Sopranos is better than since I am stuck in Season 2: The Wire but... (coughs)

Series that disproves the theory that I loved The Sopranos (and any other series) because I watched it with someone: Rectify (although I did watch it the second time through with the Mr.)

Books that I will read now that I've finished The Sopranos (again): Nick Braccia, Off the Back of a Truck - Unofficial Contraband for the Sopranos Fan; Dana Polan, The Sopranos.

What I would say to anyone who refuses to watch the show due to its thorough unpleasantness: Yeah, don't. 

Best ending to a series ever: The Sopranos

Where I will be going soon to enjoy some onion rings: Holsten's in Bloomfield, NJ