S1E1 — The Sopranos

Weird Way Media. M h, Hello everyone, and welcome to What No Fucking ZD. It's a I would say, as you like to put with our shabby Detective. Yet another Plumbo podcast, What No Fucking ZD? Yet another Sopranos podcast.

I am the host of the Culture Cast, Christashuo, and I'm joined on this journey for the first time. Now. It's normally me watching things with Mike that I had never seen or hadn't seen in a one. This time, Mike is the movie here, your friend of mine all the way from the Projection Booth podcast, the Internet's best movie podcast, folks. If you're not listening to it, you're friend of mine.

Mike White, I would like to be known as Mike Walnuts. Mikey Walnuts. Sure, hey, Mikey Walnuts. That's a pretty good one. Mikey Walnuts or.

Some variation on pussy. I'm not sure which. Uh, the pussy, little pussy, medium pussy. What about? Uh?

I don't know. No one in the right mind would be called bald pussy, right, I wouldn't think so, Uh, I don't know. Yeah, big pussy, little pussy seems like the only direction you can go. Yeah, we have to think of her gangster names. Chris.

I like to think mine would be something silly, like from Mafia, like like Chris hot dog on a stick, like Stash, he's just some stupid or like what is it like Jerry the mail Box as Stone in that movie where it's the guy inside of the mail guy inside of the mailbox. But, folks, if you're here listening to this show, we're not going to be talking about Mafia Jane Austen's Mafia, though I'm sure it might come up from time to time given the subject matter of this show. No, folks, we're going to be taking a look at one of my favorite shows of all time and a show that Mike has never seen before, a little show that started all the way back in nineteen ninety nine and ended in two thousand and seven, HBO's The Sopranos.

So the show was created by David Chase, someone that we have a little bit of experience with, given that we did a Cole Chack The Nightstalker Show, and that was where he got his start on that show in the right was he was leading the writers' room. No, I think eventually he was yeah, yeah, yeah. So we have a little bit of experience with David Chase. So before we talk a little bit about The Sopranos, Mike, you and I do movie podcasts and TV show podcasts that aren't this one. So if you want to hear more of our thoughts, Weirdingwaymedia dot com is where you would go.

But what what are your thoughts and experiences with David Chase, specifically before we get into before we get in to the show properly. Other than Colchak, I really don't have much frame of reference for him, and I don't know why I didn't necessarily watch The Sopranos when it was on. It seems like I would have liked it, but just never saw it. I want to say maybe I saw bits and pieces of an episode, but I am not sure. I think he also worked a little bit on Rockford Files, which I definitely watched that when I was growing up.

But yeah, I can't say like, oh, yeah, I'm a big David Chase fan because I'm just not familiar with his work that much. No, that's I mean, this is this is kind of it. I mean, you know, this is like this is the thing obviously in a lot of ways. So yeah, I wanted to ask you because again, you know, we kind of I mentioned in the intro that this is the role reversal show because normally, I think two of the three podcasts that we've done, just the two of us. I had seen Colechak.

I mean we talked about that the first episode of that, but Barney Miller in Colombo, I had not seen any uh, And I had my reasons, Namely, I was not alive because I am not. I guess you were. You were a kid when Barney Miller was on, right. Oh yeah, yeah, Well I was born in seventy two, so I definitely saw some of the episodes while they were airing and then a lot in reruns. Right, So with this, we were both alive.

I was nine when this show started in seventeen when the show ended. So and you were you had been what in your mid twenties. Yeah, probably later twenties, Yeah, probably twenty seven, No, twenty I guess twenty seven would have been about it. Yeah. So yeah, I did want to ask, like, you know, why why didn't you watch this?

Like again, like because you know, again, if if you've listened to our stuff before, you know that Mike and I are huge fans of mobster stuff myself specifically. I mean, I mean, we're both HU fans of Goodfellows, but I gone on record multiple times saying Goodfellows my favorite movie. But we're not not fans of mobster stuff. So it's kind of and I know how much of a fan of Goodfellows you are, and this is in a lot of ways an extension of that, at least tonally. So Yeah, it is kind of surprising to me that you never, like eat like, I don't know, like, don't you've never struck me as a contrarian, Like you wouldn't have not watched this because you just were like fuck that.

I just want to be that guy, Like you don't strike me as a contrarian in that way. So I was kind of surprised to learn you had never seen the show before. Yeah, and I was watching HBO at the time because this was also the time that Sex and the City was on, and I was an avid Sex and the City fan, and I feel like there was at least another HBO show that was going on at the time. Yeah, Six Feet or Six Feet Under I also watched, So maybe I was just going for like the kinder Jitler weirder stuff than the mobster stuff. I don't know what it was.

I mean, it couldn't have been Abya objecting my wife objecting, because she's okay with mobster stuff as well. I mean, she watches a lot of intrigue stuff, so yeah, I don't think it was her saying, oh, turn this off. I just don't even remember watching it and getting into it. I'm not sure why I stayed away from this one. Maybe it was, you know, with certain things like Beam of Thrones.

Never really watched Game of Thrones, and then once I heard that it was ending and heard the disaster of the last season, I was like, I guess I don't really ever need to watch this, Whereas with this one, I mean, I know how it ends. The outcry, the hue and cry about the ending was enough that it even penetrated my bubble, but I don't really know too much more about it other than just, you know, people sitting around in a diner with Journey playing and fading to black and going to black for forever spoilers. Mike, my god. That's the crazy thing about this show is you don't have to know a damn thing about this show to know how you already know how the show ends like that, and you know I don't. I personally do not think and I'm going to say this now seven years ahead of time before we get to the end of this show where we cover that episode.

I don't think the ending. Knowing the ending ahead of time is going to hurt your enjoyment of the show. I think, more than anything else, what it's going to do is probably shine a light as to who was complaining about it and why, And in my opinion, I think they give a very good reason to do the ending the way that they did. I don't want to talk about it now, but I've never had a problem with the ending, and I knew it going into it as well, because like yourself, I didn't watch this when this was on. I was, like I said, started when I was nine, finished when I was seventeen, so I could have watched it.

I was watching Dexter in high school when it was on, so it's not like I wasn't watching stuff that was on a pay for television network. I don't know why I never watched this. I did watch it a little bit with my folks. At one point we had the first season on DVD, and we watched a couple handful of the episodes, but we didn't get through all of them. Regardless of what my parents say, they're convinced they watched the whole show.

I was like, you have not seen eighty six episodes of whatever of the Sopranos. I saw the whole thing. No, you did not, So I know I hadn't watched it all before. In twenty twenty, I sat down with my wife and we watched the whole show. And she really likes Goodfellas.

She liked Goodfellas before she met me, which keeper and I mean again as someone who liked Goodfellas as well, this is kind of a natural extension of that. And so her and I watched it in twenty twenty. We would just leave it on sometimes after we watched it and shuffle the episodes. So you know, again, I've seen the show all the way through now, probably two and a half times, and then read as much literally sure as I could absorb at the time. So the Michael Imperioli and Steve Shrippa book, and then there's a couple other kind of fan books out there that are about the show.

Uh, the Steve Shrippa and Michael Imperioli. Book is obviously based on the podcast that they did that was very successful and now it has concluded as well. So uh yeah. So now we're here at the beginning of the first season of The Sopranos. Uh.

And so, Mike, I think before we talk about the episode and the kind of the beginning the pilot and everything about it, uh, I wanted to ask you what did you think of the intro song, the theme song for the show. I can't say I'm a big band of this. Maybe it'll start to grow on me. It reminded me a lot of I mean, who does it or it sounds like Leonard Cohen. It's excuse me, it's the Alabama three.

Okay is the name of the band, and this is They're a British band, and this is in a lot of ways, they're kind of claim to fame. This is what they're known for. Is this one singular? Woke up this morning? I get you not liking it though.

Yeah, it didn't do too much for me. It didn't really have a rock and bead or anything. It was just like, okay, and this is still the era of full opening credits, you know, right, I think My favorite opening credits are things like Castle where it's just like they show the title card and they have the little musicals thing, Da da da da da. That's it, and then the credits are over the episode. I don't have to sit through a whole credit sequence.

Yeah, there are a couple of credit sequences where I will watch them every single time. Task Master is one, Barney Miller is another. But and of course, I mean Kolchak's was one of the best opening credit sequences ever. But this one, I think I might start hitting skip intro. It's fair.

I mean, I get it, and yeah, I mean, thankfully you have that option so you don't have to be bothered in to it them. We live in a world where we have skip intro. Yeah. I like the song. I'm a huge fan.

I think it's one of those things that just I had heard the song before I had seen the show, and now that I've seen the show, I think it will start to grow on you. I hope if it doesn't, eh, you know, weird spoken hip hop is not for everybody. I don't know how to classify what it is. It's a weird milange of things that almost kind of only works as a theme song for a show in a lot of ways, there's a lot of like characterization of someone in the song, and they go out of their way to keep talking about like the person who the song is about, which is obviously I mean in reference to the lead character of the show, James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano. So speaking of Tony Soprano, let's talk about the opening episode the show Apthlete titled Pilot or The Sopranos, however you want to look at it, And yeah, we open with James Gandolfini waiting in doctor Melfie's a waiting room, who is his therapist.

Then that's where the show starts. So we're essentially off to the races with exactly what you're expecting you're going to get with the Sopranos, which is a mobster in a therapist's office. And I knew the conceit. I just wasn't exactly sure how they pull it off. So when she very sternly warns him about what he can and can't talk about, I was like, oh, okay, that's pretty cool.

Loree Brocco she looks amazing in this episode. She just looks terrific. And I just love her so much and it was just so great to see her and I love all the powersuits that she's wearing. And then Dandelfini, I would kill for his wardrobe. So cool.

Yeah, I mean we start out with you know, again, if you're a fan of Goodfellas, I mean you have James Gandolfini, and then the next person is Lorraine Broco, who is you know, second as big as big of a character in this shows as Tony Soprana is going to be, but obviously a massive part of Goodfellas as well because she played Henry Hill's wife. But yeah, you know, the thing for me about this show is he goes from Goodfellas to then this, and then from this you can even take it one step further into Boardwalk Empire, which has lots of people from this show, and it's also a Terrence Winter show, and he was a huge part of what would make the later seasons of this show a huge success. But the fact that it's just James Gandolfini and Loran Broco to open this episode and ground the episode for the most part, and for the most part, it's a framing device that's used for half of the episode, I think is very smart, and as the show goes on, you will see certain things that are repeated at the beginning of every season that you see for the first time here.

Namely, I think almost every season has him walking down the driveway or some variation of it to get a paper or there's something like that. So there's gonna be these kind of rhyming pattern things throughout the show, and him going to see doctor Melphie is a constant from here until the final episode as well. But I just love that the idea of the show. Obviously Mobster walks into a therapist's office. They just they open with it, and it's so smart to have it act as the framing device throughout.

The Witch came first this or Analyze this. I think the Analyzed this and this came out the same year. They both came out in ninety nine. Yeah, so Analyze this was March and then this was January, so this came out a couple months two months early, but they came out the same year. But obviously, and that's the thing, you know, I don't know, I mean, in between seasons, we might do some of the kind of tertiary things that surround this show.

One of them is the uh, the involvement of George Enne Walkin and Sheila Jaffe, who were doing a lot of casting before this show, and they did a lot of casting on the show. George Enne Walkin is married to Chris Walkin, obviously, but her and Sheila Jaffe were casting a lot of stuff before The Sopranos, and then they ended up getting a lot of the people for the Sopranos from the stuff they'd worked on before, like the involvement later in later seasons of Steve Busemi and some of the other big actors. But they had worked with James Gandelfini as well before, so that was kind of the connection there. But analyze this is a weird one because, yeah, it's essentially the same conceit. I mean, the show goes way off the rails and way different places obviously than that movie does.

That movie, I think is a little bit more. Would say, have a conventional narrative surrounding what that initial idea is. I mean, obviously, with The Sopranos, a mobster walks into a therapist's office cannot sustain you for an entire show. I mean, not as the singular, sole focus of eighty six episodes. So well, I'm glad that they're using this conceit because it gives us an excuse to have Tony Sperano provide a voiceover, so he's really he becomes our narrator for at least this first episode.

I'm very curious to see where this goes, because, as we've talked about many many times, the pilot can be vastly different than the rest of the show. You know, it's that whole seeing Berdie Miller's apartment in the first episode and then you never see it again. You know, so well, what are we going to see in this pilot that we don't see ever again? Or do they just embellish things? Do they change things?

Is it going to be the same cast? I mean, these are very familiar faces to me, all of these people that I see in this pilot, with the exception of the kids because I just don't know the kids that well. But you know, Tony Sirichio, Steven van zandt Vincent Pastore, Michael Imperioli, Edie Falco, Lorraine Brocco, James Gandolfini, even Nancy marsha On and I can't remember the guy that plays Uncle Junior. All of these yes, all of these guys are so familiar to me. There's a reason the kids don't look familiar because the the the the actress who plays Hunter Scangerello is David Chase's real life daughter.

By the way, By the way, uh fun fun piece of information. She I think is like the third person to show up on screen in the show because it's Tony soprano Laren Brocco, and then uh Michelle de Chaserray, which is David Chase's daughter. So yeah, that's probably that's that's the other reason. Yeah, the cast of this show just gets better, by the way, obviously, like it's in a very good spot to start. There will be some people that leave, there will be a lot of people that are added that I think you're going to really enjoy.

But yeah, I to mention here since it's funny because again you have never seen the show before. Now I understand why you liked doing the Barney Miller and Colombo shows the way you were, because it's interesting because I know the next episode. I think the next episode actually is where the show hits its stride, because the first episode is very strange. Having watched it, now like four times and having seen the show all the way through the first episode is strange because there is no narration in this show. It is for this episode, I believe in this episode alone.

I mean, I'm sure I'll take some pushback if I'm wrong, but I don't believe there is any narration in any other episode. I think it's used solely here for the sole purpose of essentially expositioning us into the ground, which I think is done defintely here, and it could have been really poorly done if it were someone else. But there there's a lot of there's a lot of groundwork to lay for the show, and there's a lot of people in the show. I mean, it's an on it it's an on cast. Yes, I mean you have your main players, but the show is a very active show.

It's always moving. There's a lot of moving parts and people that are coming in and out that show up for a while and never show up again. But yeah, the narration is a this episode thing. I don't want to break the blow that we have here, but I just have to bring it up because it's going to be something that just tortures me through the entire run of this which is Stephen Vansayant. Wait why Stephen van.

Sayant looks like a dick Tracy villain. And I just I can't get over the hair. Oh, I just don't know. I mean, because you know, I grew up watching you know, music videos, and that was my exposure to Bruce Springsteen in a street band and everything, and I'm used to little Stevie with the bandana on. And I guess that's maybe the difference between the musician and the actor is when he takes the bandana off or something.

But I just I don't buy that his hair is real, and I don't buy sometimes that his face is real. He does not. He looks like a cartoon character. He doesn't look like he can be a real person. Sylvia Dante is is a I'm actually surprised you're not saying the same thing about Tony Cerrico's Polly Walnuts because he looks he looks like the hair looks.

Yeah, they look like they look like stylized mobster. Oh yeah, yeah, that cracks me up. Yeah, Silvio Dante is his interesting character. I get what. I get what you're getting at.

I had no prior exposure to Stephen van Zant. I'm not a Bruce Springsteve guy, the boss as they call him. I believe it is a kinky fucking nickname. By the way, I don't know why anyone else doesn't find it to be as kinky as I do. So I had no prior experience with Stephen van Zant.

So he does have his face is really expressive, and he a great nose. I'll tell you that much like you know, I'm with you, yes, but I think to be fair though, I think like everybody on this show has a great nose. I guess they're all that's the thing. Everybody in the show. They are Italian, So that is the thing I appreciate, is that it you know again, like it all feels very authentic.

But yes, I mean it does feel like stunt casting at the start. But I think he will come to grow on you. I think he will. I think he will by the end of the show. Grow.

Oh. I have no problems with him. He just he I can't take my eyes off of him when he's on screen because he just doesn't look real to me. Uncanny Valley, Yeah, yeah. He almost looks like a computer sim interesting.

Okay, what is it? Is? It? His face or the hair. I think it's the hair, because when he wears the bagana, I can see him better than I can when it's the hair, because I just stare at the hair, and I stare at the hairline, and I keep thinking, is that a wig?

Is he does he? You just lift that off at the end of the day, like what happened was with this. I believe that is his hair. Yeah, but it's just it's tough for me to believe. He just doesn't look like a real person to me.

Are you? Are you? I think the issue is he's just he wasn't in Goodfellas with that hair, so you couldn't have a frame of reference to what he looked like before given that almost every I mean, like a lot of the other like supporting actors in this show have been I mean you mentioned Vincent Pastori, Tony Si Rico god and you know Michael and Michael Imperioli who can smoke a cigarette in the rain without it going out as they would like to say, Yeah, it's uh. And I think Dominic kenzies in Goodfellas, right, or he's in he's in Godfather Part two? I think you right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm familiar more with like shows up in like All the President's Men and then Justice for All. But yeah, he looks so different by this point in his life that I'm just like, I know, I know this guy's face, but where do I know it from? So I do want to ask you because you kind of you you mentioned his wardrobe already, James Gandolphini. Oh yeah, right now, Gandel isn't an interesting one because I remember when he was first kind of starting out, and he would show up in things like True Romance. True Romance is the thing I always think.

Of, or Get Shorty. I think he's gonna get Shorty as well. Okay, Yeah, It's like I knew more of his smaller roles and I never really saw him in anything big like. I think probably the biggest thing I saw him in was O Goad. It was one where it was like we're locking down New York.

I think with maybe Bruce Willis. Does that sound familiar? M oh Man that like, I I'm looking, I'm seeing if I can find it. So, oh wow, he was actually in the Last Boy Scout. I didn't realize that money for Nothing, Uh Angie Crimson tie, Oh, I forgot Crimson tied.

In an eight millimeter Yeah, and surviving. You know what I'm going to say this, He's actually surviving Christmas is actually pretty funny. The Last Castle, the Court martiall General rallies together twelve hundred inmates to rise against a corrupt and sadistic warden that had nothing to do with taking over New York, but it was Robert Redford, Gandelfini and Mark Ruffalo. Wow, everybody who lives in New York, don't take offense to Mike calling your city a giant prison. See fucking got them all.

I guess. Hey, no, I grew up watching The Escape from New York. So it's just a couple of bridges and it's cut off and there you go. That's all you need, really, I think. For me, Oh yeah, he is a number one.

James Gandolfini for me. The moment he's on screen, he he he draws you in and he's and his eye in his eye lines with that statue, and just his look and the way he carries himself. If he weren't such a fucking socio path, you could learn a lot from the way he carries himself. But unfortunately he's a fucking socio path. So nothing you not a lot to learn from the man, but the way that he carries himself and just that weird energy that James Gandolfini had.

That again like this, obviously you know there was another actor who was cast in the role, and really, yeah, I don't want to talk about it too much because he's in the second episode of the show. He's actually still in the show, but it was between him and Gandolphini, and they kind of went back and forth and they ended up going with Gandolfini. But again they were like, well, we just kind of want you in the sh show anyway, so we'll give you a part. And it's an interesting part that they end up giving the actor. But I don't know if this show would be as important for where TV is now if it wasn't James Gandolfini, because he's just so believable, Like I don't I've heard what he sounds like normally, and it's close to Tony soprano, but Tony soprano is a voice that he's doing.

It's a it's a it's a full, full, fully fledged character, but it's also a voice that he's doing. It's a it's a version of his own voice. But I don't know just Tony Soprano as a character. I think, for me is one of like one of the few characters on television where every time I watched the performance of James Gandolfini, I never see the string. I all, it's just it's it's everything is everything is a fully realized character from this episode on.

I mean it's just the narration alone, I think helps really cement how charismatic he is. But I also think it just goes to show like you don't need it the entire show because his performance, like I said, it only gets better and it's it's really good here. Well, I'm very curious because I'm thinking about him and I'm just like, Okay, yeah, he is a sociopath. I'm not seeing a lot of that in this first episode. He's just very put upon and he's got all these problems with his family and the freaking Ducks, you know, right.

I love the Ducks. I absolutely love the Ducks. But I'm just like, Okay, how evil is he going to get? You know, how much of an anti hero is he? Because that's the thing I'd like about Henry Hill gets a nice name check in this episode right right to Michael imperioly, which I love a lot, But I'm just like with Henry, it takes a while and I'm trying to think.

I mean, it's mostly Tommy and Jimmy doing the real treacherous stuff. You know that Henry's up to no good, but you don't tend to see it too often. Until he's like dangling a guy over the lion pit type of thing. You don't see him. You know, he's not kicking Billy bats on the floor.

You know, he's the guy that Tom's apologizing to about getting blood on his floor. So it's like, what is what is? How bad is Tony Soprano going to get? And am I going to be able to stick with him? You know?

Of course we've seen many anti heroes. I'm sure if I watched Hannibal, I would probably be very much rooting for Hannibal rather than Will Will Graham, right, And it's at the. Other I don't think at any point in that show you're not supposed to root for Hannibal. To be honest with you, as someone who's a huge fan of that show, my takeaway from that show will always be this is Hannibal's show, and everybody else is just fucking around with him like he's he is the He's the ultimate master of his domain. But I see what you're getting at.

But this is like, this is granddaddy of them all. In my opinion, this is where all of this starts in terms of TV anti heroes. Is this character in this show, at least in a contemporary setting. Even when I think of other mobster characters like Michael Corleone or even I can't remember the last name of. Scarface Montana, Tony Montana.

Yeah, like Tony Montana played by Paul Mooney, I can get behind, But Tony Montana played by al Pacino, I can't get behind, just because he's too much of a mad dog who and he just needs to be put down. It'd be like watching the second Batman movie from the point of view of the Joker. It's like it's too much, you know. So. But Michael Corleone, he rides that line very well.

You know, he's definitely it's the journey of him through these movies, and we see him start off as not necessarily innocent, you know, he definitely killed people during the war, but and he knows what his family's businesses, but he tells Kay, you know that's my family, that's not me. And then it's the corruption of Michael Corley and I through the rest of those films, and especially through the first one, and then by the second one, it's more like, Okay, I'm gonna cement my power type of thing. So yeah, I'm just curious how this ride with Tony Soprano is going to be well. And that's the thing I'm excited to go on this journey with you on is the is the character of Tony Soprano is. Yes, he is the focus.

Yes, he is the main star of the show. His journey is the I mean again, you know what the ending is. So you know that he is the last one on screen. You know you know how this ends. Again, it's not a spoiler at this point, folks.

Show has been off for fifty so you know where this goes. So you know that Tony Soprano is clearly the main focus of the show. But to your point, it is a fun It is a fun journey, and I am very excited to see because I think for me, like you said, I mean, you've already kind of mentioned some things that they have clearly have already shown that they're going to draw from, and then they've already named things that they know exist, like a Henry Hill. So a Goodfellas must exist in this universe or something must exist again, just using the clues of them mentioning Henry Hill. But to your point, where Tony Soprano starts now is as palatable as I think he will ever be for the people that were fence riding about this show, because again, nineteen ninety nine, right, this is a very basic setup to this show.

They would not do this now. They would not set this show up now this way. They would not hold back as long as they may or may not hold back on any of the things they're going to do, because I think people's expectations have been conditioned by shows like this one. Okay, all right, yeah, I am curious to see how we get to see him change, because there are even things in this first episode just him showing up at the one dining place with his obvious girlfriend and they don't say boo about it. They're just oh, at this restaurant and they don't even really point it out.

And then there's the thing with the hat and that he got from JFK all this kind of stuff, and I'm like, all right, because I think the other really interesting character for me is going to be Carmela and just to see how she changes, because I think Edie Falco is a stick of dynamite and I'm very curious to see if they know how to use her in this, and I imagine they do. She is again like, this is obviously Tony Soprano's show, but it's in a lot of ways, and we've mentioned him a couple of times. It's Michael Imperioli's show as well in a lot of ways. I mean, he serves the he's the Russell Crow to Tony Soprano's guy Pierce, if we're using La Confidential as kind of a comparison. But at the same time, like you mentioned, Carmela is I don't know.

I love Edie Falco. I mean I watched all of Nurse Jackie before I watch this show, and I loved her in that, and she's just, yeah, she's a she is perfect for this role in every imaginable way. And yeh, she is one hundred percent a equal for Tony Soprano. And you can already tell just the way I mean that line that she delivers to him when he's going into the MRI machine, that's because you're gonna go to hell when you die, is Yes, she fucking cuts right through his ass, this six foot three mobster, and she just cuts him to ribbon with one line. Uh and again, like you said, I mean it just I think it goes to show the power and force of an actress like Edie Falco, who yeah, she's I mean again, she's been in a lot of stuff, but this is I mean, this is just this is a this is the role as far as I'm concerned.

I mean, I think for a lot of people, this show is the role for them. Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Tony Sirico, Stephen van zandt. When were they ever given as much time as they're going to be given in this show, do you know what I mean? Like in anything, none of these actors, for the most part before this, we're given like eighty six up. So it's of anything like.

That's the other thing about this show is you can already tell like in a lot of ways, it's similar to the things that we already watch where they're giving character actors room to run and do whatever the fuck they want, and that for me is like Barney Miller. That's what we love about Barney Miller is that it is a character actors show. And you can already tell what this show like. The people that they're bringing in are not a Robert de Niro and a Joe Peshi. You know, like those names never come up in this show because they don't need them.

The character actors that they've got you can already sell are going to be able to support the weight of this show. Yeah. No, this cast is incredible. And yeah, I'm just like, okay, just I mean even just picking one at random, like Vince Pestori, just give me more of this guy. I love this guy.

Whenever he shows up in anything, it's like yes, please, And just him explaining to Christopher about the boy of the check guy and just oh, you don't want to do this? Who want to do that? I'm just like, Oh, he knows a lot more than people probably think he knows. And I was just I'm very excited to see more big Pussy. I Yeah, Vincent Pastori, just his I love his energy.

He just seems so like prickly all the time. But yeah, I don't know we mentioned Michael Imperioli, Christopher is he's a lot as a character. I think you can already tell that he's a lot as a character. And I think Michael Imperioli, for me, I have seen him in nothing else other than the movie that we watched last year for your show, Office Killer, because he's in Matt and then obviously Goodfellas, where he has a small but pivotal role in that film. But the energy, I mean, everybody's energy in this show is really unique and interesting.

But he, I don't know, he he he embodies such a weird late nineties energy of a certain kind of like angry young man that it really feels that odds already in this first episode with what the rest of the the cogniscenti, as it were, are okay with dealing with because you see the way Tony reacts when he's like I heard Henry Hill got lots of money for his story and my cousin's got a girl in Hollywood, and you know, and Tony about fucking rips his head off, and like you can already see just that little that little idea of like I can make money off of myself in a way that is more personal to me and less about the business. And you know, the family this thing of ours, Like I find it interesting again sitting here rewatching it, Like how quickly they're already at the idea of like the young and the old are not going to get along.

But it's Michael Imperioli and Tony are already butting heads. But then Tony is butting heads with Dominic Keynes as well, So you have this weird kind of circular story of the old and the young getting not getting along, but also the old and the older not getting along with each other. Yeah, And to just the look on his mother's face when Uncle Junior is driving her around, it's just like, oh yeah, there's definitely she's going to cause some trouble. I have a feeling so in Nancy Marshan. Is Wow, Oh, just what.

A performance that she's giving in this this just and I feel like I know this woman already. Just nothing is good enough. It's always just whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Her whole thing is like I won't answer the phone after dark. I just think these weird little things are just like I could kill my mother because she has all these just backwards ideas and won't listen to anything that I have to say.

No, wonder, this guy's in therapy. So the fun the funniest. But one of the most bizarre stories that I can personal stories that I can relate to this is when I was watching this with my parents, who had no idea what the show was about. The moment this character came on screen, Mom more or less started to have a visceral reaction because this character reminds her more or less one percent of her own mother, which is as horrifying as its sound. But the old cronish Italian mother who nothing is ever good enough for is so real.

And and if you listen to interviews with David Chase, and we'll be talking a lot about mister David Chase and where a lot of these things come from. Guess who this character was based off of. Yeah, I mean it was based off of his own mother obviously, Yeah. Yeah, and she for me, I think, for as good as everybody else is. The character of Livia Soprano is without a doubt, the most horrific character in this show, because it feels too real.

Like you said, it's so it's I can't divorce Nancy Marshaan from this character so hard that when I see her in Naked Gun, I almost forget it's a different I almost think it's a different actress, you know, because like this character is so awful and off putting, and just every line that she says just drips with disdain and malice and just passive aggressive. Oh running off, where are you going? Like fucking god? Damn? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Oh, everybody knows daughters take better care their mother's, Like I swear to fucking God, and yeah, and you know, he I think, I mean, one of the best lines in this episode, other than the what no fucking ZD line from Robert Eiler, is a what am I doing buying CDs for a broken record?

Is Tony's reaction to his mother, who just can't be satiated with the CD play or the boom Blox that he gets off the back of the truck for and the the CDs, you know, and uh, yeah, she's just so fucking miserable. But again, it's a perfect contrast to the kind of weird, upbeat energy that Tony Soprano has again as a mobster. He just he has this weird energy around his family that it's almost like he doesn't realize he's a monster, or he forgets he's a mobster when he's around his family. Yeah, oh man, Yeah, I'm just I'm having flashbacks here. It's yeah, she's awful, Like yeah, like you said, there's a reason why he's in therapy.

In the physicality, just the long, stringy, greasy looking hair and just you know, the housecoats and stuff. And I'm like, yeah, this reminds me of my grandmother and a little bit of my mom. The whole thing with the CD player. I mean, you know how many times have I transferred my mom's old forty fives from one medium to another? And I'm just like, Mom, you know, I can get you all these things on CD.

It's really okay, No, no, I want my records, my records. It's like, oh oh yeah, yeah, like I said, my mom's not like that, thankfully so. But I take solace in the fact of knowing that there have been people that have dealt with this in in more healthy ways than becoming a mobster. Yeah, we haven't mentioned him yet another and again we're we're just kind of mentioning everybody in this episode. There's not a lot of plot here.

In a lot of ways, it's this is a just getting to know you episode, more or less seeing what's going on. Christopher Murders a a well. I call him a pollock, but he's not. I don't understand how he doesn't realize that Czechoslovakia is different than polar. Oh my god, you're not prepared for all of the oh what's the term for saying for saying some for a phrase that you say in correct?

Oh, malpropism. There are a lot of malpropisms in this show, a lot of them, and there aren't a lot in this first episode, but in the second and everything else, you'll see him. But that's kind of like the first hint of it. But yeah, that I think that scene in the in sat Realities with the cocaine on the on the cleaver uh and the will you like a sausage? Is yeah, and they call him email.

Yeah. Michael Imperioli plays just such an asshole in this show, like just unrepentant. There is very little to like about him as a character in the show. Michael Pioli is an actor. I mean I've heard his you know, heard the Sopranos podcast that they did plenty He's a fantastic guy, seems like really funny, well knowledgeable, but he plays a dickhead so perfectly.

No, I thought you said that you were okay, Tommy. The the thing where when he when when he and Tony are in the car together initially and he's like, I was, I didn't feel good this morning, so I didn't call him last night, but also didn't call him this morning because I didn't feel that. My mom said I shouldn't even come in. It's like, oh my god, you pathetic fuck like you. Everybody knows somebody like that who always has an excuse for ev.

And who has to be told everything to do in the right or order or else. He'll just be like, well, you told me to do it this way, and it's like you can't follow lot. It just feels like he has none of that internal logic. Yeah. Well, and again, what what a bad job to have without internal logic being a mobster?

Yeah? Does does John Ventimiglia this the restaurant owner? Does he come back in more episodes? He is a He is a reoccurring character throughout the entire show. Okay, cool, because I was gonna mention John Ventimiglia my god.

I saw him in Mickey Blue Eyes before I ever saw this, and he is playing a Tony Soprano type character actually more playing like a Sonny from the Godfather character in Mickey Blue Eyes, which is weird given the character that he plays and is going to play throughout the run of this show, which is the friend of the Mobsters. I went to high school with Tony Soprano. Right right. I do like his wife, and she's you can't have to get from him, you can't do that, and she's unknowingly screwing stuff up. And at the same time it's like, yeah, she she knows what's up.

And I'm like, right, I appreciate that, lady. Yeah he I mean, obviously there's a I can't remember the name of the guy who's a lambist because he has to go on the lamb and from uh Goodfellas. You know. Oh, if he was here anymore'd be a fucking stool, that guy, you know, right right, Like I thought he was going to be that guy, but yeah, he's just so not mobster. I'm like, oh, okay, this is interesting how this is going to play out, because yeah, he is clueless at least in this episode, he seems very clueless as to everything that's going on around him.

Well and again, I mean you mentioned Catherine Rducci, who she's fantastic, and again like there has to be some level headed characters in this show, because yes, this is a show about mobsters, and yes, Edie Falco says, well, that's because you're going to hell when you die. No, you are too. You're a mobster's wife, like you don't. You don't get to split hairs here when you're benefiting. And that's one of the conversations that the show has with the audience, is that idea of where where do these lines intersect and cross and what is the line one is willing to cross?

And I think it's interesting. Again we're already seeing with with Kevin Arducci's character, like none line. You don't go near it at all, because again, you see what happens when you do. Your restaurant gets blown up, your restaurant, And I don't know if it would be better to have someone murdered in your restaurant versus having your restaurant blow up. I feel like they're both pretty terrible, But to blow up your friend's restaurant entirely maybe worse than just letting someone die in the restaurant.

I don't know. Like again, everybody's connected up there anyway, so it's not like people wouldn't expect it maybe to happen, or it's a possibility. Yeah. I think it was the right move because this way he's going to collect that insurance money, because if it was the other way, he you would just go out of business. Right right, like Tony says, you can't can't do anything about bad reviews if people want to stop eating at your restaurant.

Right And then fucking yea Christopher opens up his mouth and you're just like, what the fuck are you doing? I feel like you're gonna say that a lot in this show. God that But that's the thing. It's you can already see kind of how everybody is already in an interesting lane and how they're going to interact with each other, and they've already again, like as as different as the rest of the show is going to be from this initial episode, from this pilot episode, it is really impressive to see David Chase just putting all this stuff down because I can tell you mostly everything that's introduced in this episode is going to be an important thing for the rest of the show, and like, I don't I can't think of many shows that the opening episode is as like, this is a strong opening episode.

You could theoretically watch just this episode and then he done well. It kind of felt like a movie, like a self tame movie, especially the way that we end on the shot of the pool, and it's just was such a nice way to end it. And I just kept saying, those ducks better not come back, they better not come back. And then when they just left it at the empty pool, I was like, all right, this is good. It's very good.

But you can see David like, this is I think one of two episodes that's directed by mister David Chase, the second episode being made in America, which, by the way, Mike is the final episode. Oh, very nice, And that's kind of the way you should do it, you know, just started off set that tone. Obviously he's in control of the writer's room and the writing and he's the producer. I mean, this is such a David Chase joint that it just makes total sense. But yeah, just come back, start it off and wrap it up.

I love that. I'm surprised he doesn't do like end of season beginning of season episode as well, but hey, us to have a great crew that he can trust. Yeah, you know, this first episode is written and directed by David Chase. The next episode only has David Chase's name on it. Yeah, some of the people that were going to see like the big big names like the like the Terrence Winter don't show up for a while.

But in some good hands right now with Jason Cahill who would work on Fringe as well as this show, and also Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess wrote a lot of episodes and they were a writing team that were writing. They wrote a lot of the early seasons of this show. But what's interesting is this first episode, like you said, very contained, but also gives you kind of an idea of some of the some of the things that are going to be plot lines moving forward. But it does kind of introduce a lot, but then comes right back down at the end with you know, the birthday party and bringing Tony and you know, Christopher back together at the end to have this kind of I would say, pretty pivotal pivotabal it till conversation that I think does kind of help to once again set the tone of where their relationship is going, which is I want to do things my way, but you want me to do things your way, and neither the two shall really meet because of it's the mob dude, like, there's not a lot of room here for creative expression.

And again, as we can see with Michael Imperioli's character, creative expression might be something that he is really interested in as a character. Well, I was curious as far as would Tony have had that reaction at the end of this episode and talk about, you know all, my father never gave me praise for anything either, would he have said that? Would he have ended this with his arm around him? If he hadn't gone to those therapy sessions with doctor Melfie, you know, has he already started to change? Of course, Carmela says, oh, you're so different.

Something's going on. What's happening? And you know, there's the whole thing about the prozac. And I was very glad that Loraine Broncos said up state that doctor Malfie said them straight with the whole It takes weeks for this to take effect. Might have even been just a placebo effect for him.

But would he have done that? Do you think at the end, if he hadn't started to get in touch with his feelings more. I don't. I don't think so. I think, you know, obviously, again if we look at this as just this is the one episode and it's kind of self contained, like he gets his own little journey in this episode, and I think that that.

I think that the way he reacts, and I mean obviously he's crying, like he's crying in the scene before, he's showing some vulnerability as a character and again as a man in a in a in a culture where you know, any sort of emotionality that's shown is you know, you're called all sorts of terrible names. But it's interesting because I don't think he would have reacted that way. He would have smacked, you know, or I mean worse. Maybe again, you know, we do see you know, you mentioned, you know, when will Tony Soprano start doing things that a riphensible. He hits a guy with a sixty thousand dollars lexus at the beginning, and then he starts punching his broken leg.

Yeah, so I mean there is that. I mean, I do understand what you mean by like really reprehensible, but I don't think that they could have done that here and gotten away with what they get away with at the end of the episode by giving him a little mini arc within this episode of showing that yes, Tony Soprana wants to change or is willing to change, or at least giving the idea of changing more than a passing thought. But I have a question for you, what do you think about the idea that Lorraine Broncos doctor Melfie has already more or less made a massive decision to treat a mobster, which is a massive, massive no no in reality, there is no universe where you, as a therapist would be doing this, obviously, but I'm curious what your thoughts are are initially on Lobraine Bronco more or less being like, I know you're gonna be a mobster and talk about killing people.

She just comes out and says it, more or less like I'm just curious, like what your thoughts are on her as a character? Well, yeah, I mean, obviously there's a lot of fluting going down, but from Tony to her, she's got that jerk gass. What is he husband or boyfriend? I'm guessing boyfriend? Boyfriend?

Okay, so that line, that Karen line of I gotta admit it turned me on. That kept going through my head while I was watching this, Just like it, I could already tell, yeah, she's gonna she's crossing that line and not looking back as far as having this mobster as are patient. And even though she gives that little, you know, there are certain things you can say and certain things you can't say. You know, even though there's that I thought she would say but it's okay, you can tell me anything, and she didn't say that. But yet at the same time, Yeah, she's she's crossing boundaries like crazy, and I'm just I'm waiting for her to get more into the mix.

I don't think that she's just going to be in that. I mean, obviously we've already seen she's not just going to be in the office. We already get her outside of the office and interacting with Tony outside the office. I my prediction is just a lot more of that to the point where maybe she has to do something for him or to something has to go on to put her in danger, and then you get to see the real liiant come out of Tony because she's the only person that's protecting him and making him feel good about himself, and so he has to really go after whoever's going to put her in danger. I'm I'm, I am glad to see that you have made a prediction already, because yeah, she's uh, all right.

I think it's interesting. I think it's interesting because, like you mentioned, the character has made a decision already that like is so unprofessionally. Oh yeah, like it's unprofessional. It's a bad idea, like no real therapist would do this. I mean just like I mean, obviously the analyze this is played for laughs, and there's a little bit of laughs here, at least with the idea of this mobster sitting in a room telling his feelings to a woman after you know, he's beaten the shit out of someone and broken their legs.

So there's a mean, there's a fair amount of comedy to that juxtaposition alone. But yeah, yeah, you had coffee. But her, as a therapist, has already like given up the ghosts. She's made a decision like I'm going to treat this mobster who again, like you mentioned, with her boyfriend, it's known in this universe already, as you know, he's a mob boss. He's the boss of this family, so or at least are well enough known.

I mean, I don't think they really define anything at this juncture in time, So I will walk back what I said because they don't define it. They just say, oh, you know, you know. That is right, right. He obviously has to be somewhat in the news or something. I mean, I remember Gambino being talked a lot about before he went to Trout, before he was arrested.

I mean, you even somebody all the way out here in Michigan knows the names of mobsters from New York. So I don't that much anymore. You know, I don't know who the current COPO is, but you know, salute. Uh yeah, it's I was John Gotti, right, Like, it's kind of like a John Gotti esque thing. Yeah, But but Tony Sobrano is much more reserved than John Gotti ever was.

Well, he just seems like a sleeping tiger, you know that, those little things like him, Yeah, him hitting that guy in the leg. I'm just like that, that's a slap for Tony. That's nothing like. He hasn't even started to lose his temper yet. And I'm just I'm curious to see wherekan ALPHENI can take it, because he's he's nowhere near ten right now.

He's playing this at like a like a three or four. He's playing it beautifully, but just he's down there, and I'm he's got a lot of a lot of root who to grow when it comes to the anger and to the expressions of anger. So I'm I'm really curious to see what. Happens and the different kinds of anger too, which is the even more fun part I'm going to see again, Like this is this show at the end of the day, is a character study of one deeply flawed human being and what their life journey is that so many of us, thankfully will never get to experience or unthankfully, depending on who you are. If you always want to be a gangster, you may be Henry Hill or I mean, look, let's just be Frank here.

Who the fuck wouldn't want to be a mobster? Look, I'm three quarters Italian. I'd like to be a mobster, but I don't want to be a mobster. The part where you get shot in the back of the head, Like, that's the part that sucks. But who wouldn't want I mean this the way the lifestyle is portrayed.

There are a lot of positives and a lot of things that are really appealing. Obviously the respect in the community, the intimidation in the community. I want some kids to take my mother's shoes home from the store for. Is out of respect. But I mean, no, who doesn't that sound appealing to, like, you know, and that's the thing.

Yeah. But at the same time, and I think Fellas is a good job of this is at some point this was all built on shaky foundation. It's got to come crash it now. And I love that line from Tony at the beginning of the show where he goes, I feel like the best times are passes. I feel like I didn't get into the ground floor.

I feel like it's over. And you know what A what a late nineties sentiment A Mike. I mean, that's the thing. I mean, that's the other cultural context of this show that I think is important to talk about is this show came out in nineteen ninety nine, pre e y two K and it doesn't It feels like it at times when they're walking around with boomboxes and CD players, But what they're talking about the actual themes of the show, and at least the theme of this episode is a timeless quintessential that. Means this is pre nine to eleven.

Are think I have a very special episode of The Sopranos to deal with the nine to eleven trauma. So I wanted to ask you if you noticed, because we talked about the intro of the show. Did you notice in the intro of the show the twin Tower? Sure did, Sure did. So I will tell you that, similarly to Barney Miller, there will be a change in the intro in two thousand and one.

So wow, yeah, I mean again, like there's this, this came out, This came out at a weird time, like a time a time before times as it were, like I don't know how else to put it, like it, you know, nineteen ninety nine feels in a lot of ways quaint compared to now, Like ye know, well, that's that's the thing that I always think about with this show is like, obviously it's a shame James Gandolfini has passed away. I would go on record saying if Gandolfini was still alive, we would have more soprano because I don't think anybody would be able to help themselves from having Gandolfini's soprano having any sort of commentary on the world right now and him in this world right now would be a fucking trip and a half.

But yeah, he's not with us anymore, so you know, but this feels weird because it's just it's commenting on a time and play that feels so foreign, and it feels so just we feel so detached from this reality of nineteen ninety nine. Well, even Meadow when she's on her computer and you get that big, chunky CRT screen and then that huge pixelated image comes up on there and I'm like, wow, Yeah, it's nineteen ninety nine, all right, that's for sure. Yeah, Like, did Tony Soprano ever have a smartphone? I mean that they think he ended. I think this show ended before iPhone one came out.

Yeah, iPhone one came out in like seven or eight, So yes, that's I mean, that's my point, Like this, this show is a very weird time. It's onna it's ninety nine to two thousand and seven, which for me personally feels like a specific range of time Like that I can almost like point to the things that were happening because like just out of elementary school into middle school. Then by the time the show is over, I'm an adult quote unquote. Yeah, the world changes so drastically through this show that you know you mentioned. Yeah, pre nine to eleven.

God, what a weird time. Huh. Yeah, just I think I was working at well, I guess it was two jobs, maybe three at this point. That's how I tend to measure my time is through where I was working at the time. And maybe it was just that I was working a fucking crazy amount of hours or something.

That's why I didn't watch the show. Maybe it was just one too many things. But yeah, I can definitely put myself back in those days, and it was the nascent days of the internet that I was working on, so this seeing that screen really brought back a lot for me. And then yeah, all the electronics and things. And I'm trying to think if I even saw a cell phone in this because this is uh, I mean, cell phones were definitely around at this point.

I had a flip phone at this time, so I'm sure that that makes their lives a lot easier When it comes to me in these phone calls, you don't have to you know, walk totty down to the phone booth anymore. If you think the technology is funny now, if you think the technological anachronisms are funny now. There is a subplot coming up in one of the episodes this season that I always laugh at because it makes the show feel like it was in the early nineties. So yeah, I will say nothing else, but when we get to it, you will know exactly what I am talking about, because it stands out there aren't a lot again, Like the show feels a little timeless, but a little not because of some of the technology stuff. But I think the theme of I feel like I came in at the end, I can empathize with that, like even now in twenty twenty three, Like I think any millennial would say, like I feel like we came in at the end here, like well, these good times that you asked all as we're talking about, like where are those?

Please? Like I would like some more good times. It's funny because I feel exactly the same, even though I'm a different generation. I'm just like, oh, yeah, no, the things definitely changed when I was younger, and they're not the good times anymore. So it's pretty funny.

It's like even to think, you know, oh, well, a lot of people a few years older than I am when they graduated high school, if they graduated high school, it was a very you know, we've got the big three year round here. So as a matter of where my dad worked, I'll work at that same factory and I'll work there for the rest of my days and I'll get the pension when I'm done, and that's it. And by the time I was graduating high school, that wasn't an option anymore. But also by the time I was graduating high school, I didn't have to, you know, take out seventy thousand dollars worth of student loans to pay for college. Whereas you know, you your generation probably got hit a lot harder than me.

So it's funny. I think each generation asked themselves, like, what happened? Why did I come in now when all the good things happened already seventy thousand? You know, I have a friend that had three hundred sixty thousand dollars dead. He's made it all off now, but he had it at one point.

He's a doctor, So there you go. I mean, right, it is. It is funny. I mean, you mentioned like every generation feels that way. I mean these so Tony is he's like my parents AI because he's old.

I mean he's older than you. I mean he's like I want to say, he's probably in his forties in this at the beginning of the show, and by the end of it, I mean he's like in his early fifties. So he was born in the sixties. So yeah, I don't know. The other thing that we haven't seen a lot of yet, and boy, it shows up real quick.

There's a little bit of generational I mean we see it with his mom, but there's some racism that we're gonna get the whole show, and it's boy, it's gonna becoming hot and heavy and you'll see. But his mom with the I don't like to hear about it. Don't upset me, Like, oh yeah, but I like that the show juxtaposes, you know again, I've like I came in at the end, and then you have these the older generation feeling like they're just hanging around and not doing anything and not being given a part of the society to exist in anymore. So it feels like they've hung around too long as opposed to coming in at the end. So I like that we get to see kind of three disparate conversations with three different generations about how they feel about where they are in the world right now before we even really see anything.

And again, really nothing happens in this episode already already Buko's restaurant gets blown up, and that's it. So like, it gives us so little to see in terms of what is going to happen, but it gives us so much information as to who these characters are that by the end of this episode, I genuinely feel like all of the characters that you're supposed to care about and will care about and at least have an idea as to who they are, the show's already the show has already done a good enough job in introducing all of these characters. There's like twenty right now, is what it feels like, and it's just going to get bigger and there's just going to be more. And I'm I'm excited to see your thoughts on the second episode, because the second episode in a lot of ways feels like a complete reboot of the show.

Like it feels like we, like you've already mentioned with Barney Miller, like oh, but let's do these other things instead now. And it's weird because these first episodes are so odd, all of them. On most shows, like the Barney Miller episode, first episode was just man, what would it have been like if we had been watching that show this whole time? It would almost be interesting when we're done with Barney Miller to go back and rewatch that pilot. And I would say same thing for this show.

From what you're saying, it sounds like it would be an interesting thing to go back at the end and rewatch this pilot and compare to where we ended up versus where we're starting out. Yeah, yeah, it's again. This show is. I think we're gonna have a lot of fun with it. I think, you know, we're gonna have a lot more conversations about ducks and sausage and fucking ZD and everything else.

Gava goool No Gaba goool yet Yeah no god they Oh yeah, no, I guess yeah, I'm here for the gop goool, right right? Zio is there for the gabba goool? Yeah? They fucking name drop gobbagool. In the first episode, well, it was funny because the spelling on the captions is not what I thought gobbagool was going to be spelled bike so, but yesterday I was just having a weird time with captions.

There was a lot of things where I'm like, that's not how you spell that. Oh man, Yeah, I'm I'm really excited to see where we go with this show, and I'm excited to again, I'm just excited to experience it with you because you've been so kind to share so many things that you really love with me, and now I'm kind of getting to do the same. So I'm really excited. And like I said, now I understand kind of where some of the joy comes from in this is kind of knowing what you don't know, but getting to see you experience it is something that I'm already enjoying, just getting to have these conversations about this show that I love so much with someone whose opinion I genuinely care a lot about. So yeah, man, I'm excited to see where you think that this goes.

And I hope you use the word ajita in your daily vocabulary a lot more because it's gonna come back up a whole lot. I just like, it's like I got ajita every day. Well, it's funny. I was I used Cirsus yesterday, and so Ajita would have worked just as well. Dojita every day?

The gays and the military folks, my god, whatever, if they could see the world now. Like I said, I mean, that's the thing that I love about this show is really watching it in nineteen ninety nine and being like, where would these characters be now and what the fuck would they think about twenty three? Yeah, running Trump's legal defense fund Rice. I mean, that's the thing. I mean, this ends.

This when this show ended is two thousand and seven, like that, even like when the show started feels like a long time ago, but even when the show ended feels like a long time ago. So yeah, I do you have anything else you want to talk about? No, And I think I'm good. I think that it feels like this conversation has come to a natural end. Cool.

So yeah, on that note, on the next episode of What No Fucking ZD, we'll be talking about the second episode of the first season of The Sopranos, which is aptly titled forty six long, and it is once again written by David Chase. So, uh yeah, I can't wait, because, like I said, the second episode is a I think the second episode is a fucking banger. I think every episode of this show is pretty good for the most part. There are some episodes that are distinctly bad like everything else, but the second I'm excited because again, like the second episode feels like a shot in the arm and a show that already is just firing on all cylinders to begin with. So this this show is a monthly show, so you will hear us once a month, not weekly, folks.

We already have too many weekly shows. We can't be doing it. Yeah we could if we if we could, if we were able to do this the time, but we can't at the moment. So you'll be hearing this monthly, and that means we're going to be about seven years on down the road with this show. So strap in, folks, because once a month, eighty six episodes.

That's a lot. We did the math before we started. So that's that's what you can expect from this show. Is a once a month show. When do we want to when do we want to say?

We're recording this the first first week of the month, So what what what are we thinking? Like? Last well, what is I guess what's the release schedule right now? We have a slot open the very first Friday of every month used to be the Twilight Zone show, So if we want to slot it in for first Friday of the month, that would work. Okay, yeah, it would be a little time to edit.

Yeah, so yeah, So we'll be posting this show once a month, the first Friday of every month. So listen on the weekend and listen on your drive to work on a happy Friday. We'll send you home in a good mood listening to us talk about the Sopranos and David Chase and James Gandolfini and everything in between. Because hey, the second episode there's actually a plot to talk about, so well we won't just be talking about what the characters are doing the whole time. We'll actually have some plot things to talk about.

So until then, Mike, where can people find you? And the things that you work on? Everything that I work on is available at weirdingwaymedia dot com, from the projection booth to the Colchack tapes, which I would highly recommend if folks like David Chase go back and be familiar with his early work with the works of Carl Colchak. So yeah, everything is there at that website everything you could ever desire, everything you could ever wish for. And I'll echo that Weirdingwaymedia dot Com is where you can find this show, all the shows that I work on, all the shows that Mike works on, and all the shows that our friends work on, which are eightiestv Ladies, Twisted and on Cork Night, Mister Walter's Dark Destinations, film entaries, feminine critique.

I've just named a bunch of them. You could go listen to all of them, and you should Overtwirdingwaymedia dot Com. As for this show, Yeah, as for this show, please, I don't know. I haven't picked theme song yet, so I can't really be anch in that. It doesn't matter anyways.

I can just do it on the second episode. Because they did whatever the fuck they want an episode new. So yeah, make sure to check out this show once a month like rate and review the show wherever you get it, which is more than likely iTunes, And yeah, make sure to come back next month. We talk about the second episode, first season of The Sopranos