The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘The Sopranos’ Hall of Fame: Looking Back at “Irregular Around the Margins”

Episode Date: August 5, 2022

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Van Lathan, Wosny Lambre, and Justin Sayles revisit 'The Sopranos' by looking back at Episode 5 of Season 5: “Irregular Around the Margins.” Hosts: Bill Simmons, Van Lathan, Wosny Lambre, and Justin Sayles Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Wisney Lambert, Van Lathen, Justin Sales. We were doing a Sopranos Hall of Fame episode, season five. Episode five. It is called Irregular Around the Margins. It premiered April 4th, 2004. It won Emmys for Michael Imperioli

and Jada Mateo. It was part of the season five Emmy winning season, the first one for the Sopranos. there's some, you go back and look at the Emmys and say, like the practice. That's what I was about to say. It's crazy. It's crazy.

This year, season five, Gandalfini lost best actor to James Spader in the practice. That's a thing that actually happened. And then the biggest slide of all, Justin Sales, who ranked every episode for the ringer, he only ranked this episode 21st at, 80, 88, something like that. 86. 86. It's sales. This is a top 10 or 12 episode. What were you thinking? Can I defend myself? Go ahead. It's in my personal top 10. But with that list, I tried to be a little more general. I tried to speak. Like, I tried to take into other people's accounts. And I spoke to a lot of people and they kept on convincing me, move it down and down. And here's a lesson. Always go what you got. And I did it on this one. Stop listening to the pleads, Justin. I feel terrible. This is in my personal top 10. I love this episode. This is like when the Knicks are like, we. We wanted to trade for Donovan Mitchell.

It was in our gut. But we just couldn't do it. What were the justifications for moving it down? I think just people thought the other episodes were more important or better. Trying to spread the wealth between the seasons. Look, I think like once you get inside the top 30, like the 30 to 20, it's kind of hard to pick between them because there's just like there's just so many good episodes. I think like the top 10 like you start having like real discussions. But I think like 30 to 20, like any of those episodes could have really.

been in any order. And it's just like, however you felt that day, however, like, you know, what conversations you had with somebody who convinced you to move it to wherever. Van, I think season five, and we'll get in the episode in a second, I think season five is my favorite season, hands down. I don't even know what the number two season is, but this is my favorite. People, the people listening, you don't remember it as this deep Bishemi season. We got introduced to, frankly Atardo. We got, we had some features. some feature episodes and separated Tony, who I really loved. I love when characters either are separated or they fall off the wagon or my two sweet

spots. Ben, this was your favorite season? Yeah, so I think the combination of those things, number one, Blondetto provided such an amazing wrinkle in Tony's life. It was really, he represented in so many ways the last vestige of humanity that Tony would have. Tony was holding on to regret, which essentially made him kind of human, right? Because his regret from having the panic attack, and now we see the justification for him

finally working all this stuff out. It was a deep shame that had been there for a very, very long time. That plus the separation from Carmela, the Dalians, or the thought of a Dalian's with Adriana. The season represents in a lot of ways Tony fighting for the last little bit. bit of humanity he has, in my opinion, because after that, it's completely and totally gone. Like, everybody gets a chance to buy in.

Carmela buys back in at some point. She buys back in. He's off the hinges again. Everyone gets a chance to sort of reaffirm who they are in this season, and a lot of the characters allowed them to do that, you know? What do you have, last favorite? Yeah, I would say so. But I'm partial.

We were talking about season four. before this. And obviously season five is better because it delivers on more of the drama. There's a lot less fat, right? Like it moves the story along a lot more crisp than previous seasons where they take these side roads. But, you know, I liked the episode where Artie is loaning this dude, $50,000 of Tony's money. And he's talking himself up in the mirror before he goes over there and inevitably gets his ass kicked. Then he, blames Tony for the whole episode as he's laying there in the hospital. Like, some of the more absurdist funny stuff is what resonates with me in the show.

Obviously, the drama and the violence and all of that speaks to me as well. But it's just the hilarity of it all. Sometimes, like, Johnny Sack, like, when he's raising his voice and he's calling his boss's kid a disgusting cock sucker, like, that type of stuff resonates with me a lot. I like season four a lot as well, but season five is just like, it's just perfect TV, especially for drama. Why's just added himself as a Johnny Sack guy. Yes, I am. Sales, is this the Tony almost fucked Adriana episode for you or is this the Tony almost killed Christopher episode for you?

Oh, it's the Tony almost fucked Adriana episode. That's how I feel to. Yeah. And, you know, I got to say watching this again, and I've done a whole rewatch. I thought they could have milk this. They could have milk the sexual attention for multiple episodes. I think there's...

God knows they've done it in the past with priests and freaking underlings. I think it was better than they didn't know. And do you want to hear my thoughts on this? Yeah, make the case. So I'll tell you why it was better than they did. Because for me, and the priest thing is different.

The priest basically doesn't have a dick, right? Like the priest is... He's the unique in Game of Thrones, basically. He's the unique in Game of Thrones, right? So that is going to be all about feelings, all about emotions. You're going to draw around it. The longer the Tony and the Adriana sort of thing goes, for me personally, I felt like the further I would have gotten from Tony's character.

They weren't quite ready to kick the audience away from him quite yet, because Tony doesn't only flirt with her. He justifies to Chris about why he's not good enough for her and outwardly thinks about what his life would be if he usurped his nephew's fiance and took her for himself. And started a new family with her. And started a new family with it. The moment we go there and the longer that goes, the more I start to want something bad to happen to this guy.

And the show was always about putting us on the edge with him to where we understood he was a bad guy, but we're related to him just enough that we rooted for him. And it would have been harder to do the longer that went on for me. Let me ask you something, Van. Did you change your mind about Puff Daddy after he started dating Lori Harvey after his son? It's totally different. It's totally different. It's totally different. I don't want to tell you why it's because I don't want to diss nobody.

Okay. It's totally different. I just wanted to see your face when I asked you that. Sales, what do you think? Did you want to multiple episodes or was 25 minutes good enough for you? It was kind of the whole episode, right? I think this episode is interesting that usually there's a bunch of B and C plots, And this one was just all about this.

Like the entire episode front to back was just about their attraction and the fallout from it. Like even the Chris stuff is all related to it. Everything in this episode is related to that. I don't know because I don't know if I like need multiple episodes of this. I feel like they kind of hit it all.

Yeah. Like the... Well, he's unraveling because the first time we see him in this episode he's coming out of the bathroom clearly did Coke and runs it to bed up. Were you surprised at the Coke? Because he had no...

never done it as far as I can remember in the show before that. Yeah, I think you're right. I wasn't surprised because every now and again, Tony, like, you know, he'll be talking to Christopher and he'll smoke a cigarette, right? Like, he indulges in stuff every now and again. And of course, like, anybody who eats that much, drinks that much, fucks that much, I'm not going to be surprised that they, you know, indulge in other stuff, right? Like, he likes to indulge himself.

So that, I don't know. I've seen this step with Tony's character that he might go on a bender that way because he has, he doesn't, he's so impulsive and he literally has no limitations in his life. He never withholds anything from himself. So I'm not really surprised by that. That's why this season six, when he goes off the rails with gambling for an episode, which kind of comes out of nowhere, but it goes to your point. This guy is ready to go off the rails with just about any aspect of his life. I was thinking as I was rewatching this time around, how many takes Gandoffini must have eaten food in

where he actually eats? Because there's episodes where, like, in the season six where Paul is like, they're on the boat and he's like, here I made you some baked ziti. Gainolfini's like, there's no trick editing. He's fucking housing the big ziti. And by the way, not only is he eating it,

he has a way of making food look delicious but inhaling it at the same time. Like he's breathing so old. Hard as he eats, but he's taken, there's one scene I remember, I don't know what he's eating, right? But remember the scene when Jackie Jr. comes into the restaurant and he looks at him, he's like, lose the glasses. Remember when he's trying to tell Jackie Jr. that he didn't kill Richie, which, you know, he's eating some pasta. And the sound of the fork clinking the pasta as he rapsed on his fork and the clams and whatever, whatever, every time I see that, I'm like, babe, should we get pasta in this? night. You know what I mean? And the food is like a character in that scene. Like Tony's,

like he's manipulating the food as to kind of denote how unimportant Jackie is to him at the point that he's sitting there, you know? The Tony eating is kind of like a full body experience, right? Like the sounds and just like everything, the breathing and just everything about it. I've never seen someone make eating such a physical act. He's right. He's right. The other thing he does with that is any scene where Tony gets a blowjob is like this full body spasm. He hits his head, both when,

oh, oh, oh, those are, those are just two things. But yeah, I think Gandalfini put on at least 25 pounds as he was filming the show. Oh,

more. More, more, more, more, more, more. Remember they say he gained 60 pounds to play. God, damn. You go back to season one,

and he's actually, like, you know, he's a big guy, but he's spelt. Right. By the time you get to season five, you're like, oh, he's a big dude. Like even in this episode where he takes his shirt off in the back room with the crazy horse,

you're like, oh, this is a big. Well, the oral history book that Jim Miller did, Gandoffini, I mean, he took the role home with them, I think, in a lot of ways. And that's one of the interesting things about the rewatch when you're doing it fast. He changes. Meadow just becomes an adult woman. and then AJ obviously we get the seven stages

of AJ as it goes. So in this episode it's the one of the reasons is a Hall of Famer is this is the beginning of the end for Adriana but also Christopher this is it. It all until this episode it's hinted a couple times

and obviously we know Adriana's she's talking to the FBI like we know that's probably not going to end perfectly we've already seen how that's ended a couple times but he hits her in this episode, he freaks out on her and kicks her out. She's kind of gone, she's past some line where you know now, she's probably not making this out of the season

leading to either the best or the second best episode in the history of the show, Long Door Parking. I think it's a crucial episode for both of them, and I was psyched that they both won the Emmy. With her, though, with Adriana, Drea de Mateo, I watched this and I'm just like, she's a fantastic actress. I actually don't understand what happened to her after the show. She did Joey.

Joey. I know. She did Joey, but like, yeah. Like, I just, am I crazy to think there should have been more here from a dramatic standpoint? I'll tell you something, Bill. We all know what's happening here. You're thinking to yourself, this is absolutely one of the most beautiful people in television at the time. And a good actress.

And a good actress. And by the way, they gave her. a lot to do in this season. A lot to do. And she nailed it all. And you just wonder when somebody has a full backer's like that, like, you know, kind of, kind of where they go. But you never know how things, it was,

that was a, that was a, when you look at that time, there were a lot of young actresses coming out of Hollywood, a lot of people in the big movie type of situations too. So, you know, maybe she just kind of got lost in the shuffle. The Joey situation was. I think that Joey thing definitely handicapped her little. I feel like when you're a quote unquote ethnic white from the northeast, like they kind of start typecasting you in Hollywood, right?

Like they're not going to let her play some woman from Texas or, you know, from Los Angeles or Southern California or something. Like you kind of have to be this northeastern Italian person. And I think that's probably what happened to her too because, yeah, like you, I'm a fan. I think she was in that Jennifer Lopez, Ray Leod. the joint. Shades of blue. I forget what, I think it's shades of blue

where like Ray Leota's like this crazy crooked cop. It was like a network drama. I watched it because J-Lo was in it. I'm not going to allow you guys. Oh, I do remember that show. I do remember that show. J-Lo came to TV.

Well, we talked about this with The Wire, too. I think, and we talked about it when we did the Polly episode. These shows mattered so much. And they were so indelible, it was hard to see the characters and other roles. Like, I remember I was watching that the kidnapping movie that Hallie Barry did when her kid gets kidnapped at the playground

and she has to go get him. And at some point, Imperiali's just a random guy who shows up for 20 minutes. And he's just Christopher. Like you can't kind of separate it. And I think that's one of the things that, you know, even somebody like Edie Falco, she did Nurse Jackie, she did some other stuff, but it was just so hard to separate her from Carmel. I think Gandalfini had that too.

Did sales, did anyone shed it completely or no? God, no major characters, no one is coming to mind. I think of even like Edie Falco. She won Emmys for Nurse Jackie, and we still don't think of her that. We don't think of her as that. We think of her as Carmela. Like, when I heard that she was getting cast as Hillary Clinton

in the American crime story, I was like, oh, that makes sense, because Carmelo was kind of like a version of Hillary Clinton, if you think about it. And stand by your man, Justin. Hey. Hey, look. Hillary became a senator,

Carmga, her spec house. It's all kind of the same. Us Oz fans way back when. Damn, were you watching or did you watch belatedly, Oz? Oh, I watched it the moment that it came out as a horrified teenager. She was in us. She was in had a really big role in the first season. And then the second season was on both shows at the same time.

It was fucking weird. And it was like, that's the Oz lady. Why is she on this show? And this was a thing for, HBO for me at the time, right? Yeah. Because Oz came on and she was on Oz and then she was on the Sopranos and then

like the wire came out and it was doing the same thing. There was a bunch of people from the wire that were from Oz that were on the wire. Like a lot of them. Michael K. Williams. Yeah. Michael K. Williams. You had

the guy who played Hurt or Carver was on there. You had the Kenny Wangler's character. My man, they were on it. So there was a bunch of people on there. So I already knew her. But to be honest with you, she did a fantastic job

in changing up from Oz to the Sopranos. She was totally different in the two shows. Totally different. Yes, I agree. A really great actor. Yeah.

So this episode, AJ and Tony, it's, I think the last episode were their roommates, which I could have, I could have done another couple episodes of just guys coming over to eat pizza with them. It's the last, it's the last normal Cousin Tony episode.

Because Bushemi goes off the rails in episode six. It has the blowjob montage as it becomes a game of telephone with what happened in the car. Was she giving him a bulljab or not? I love that. Later, Uncle Judor saying, apparently he came all over the visor. one of the funniest moments in the show. It has some great, great, great, just scenes. Like the first scene when they're playing,

the whole dart scene, where it's all of a sudden it's like, wait a second, this is looking to- what's happening? What's going on here? And then she drops the dart and she's kind of down on the floor for the extra three-sad.

It's like, wait, what is happening? And it gets interrupted. That scene's amazing. the blowjob montage, the Chris showing up at the strip joint. And it's probably still, it's probably his funniest moment of this season. It's all over. Everyone enjoy the evening. Unhappy customer.

Yeah. When he says, you know what to do down there over the bullhorn? Oh my God. You know who one of the security guards that Paul Christopher was, right? Who? Tony Saragusa. Oh. Wow.

Sirius was one of the mobbed-up little goons who dragged Christopher out when... Is this at the same time as 25th hour? I was going to say it. He does some pretty piss-poor acting in that movie. He's in that movie for about three minutes long. Well, if you ever had to pick an NFL player that doubled as a mob associate, it would probably be 27. Yeah, he definitely Tony.

It's a high first round pick. You have the Chris attacking Adriana, which is really tough. And they did such a nice job over the course of. two and a half seasons where, you know, you just feel so bad for Adriana. They even, like, they give her ear to bowel syndrome and diarrhea over the, you know, a couple episodes here, which is just, they're just removing even like the part where you think she's attractive. It's like now she's just running the bathroom to go take a shit, you know, five times

an episode. So let's talk about that for, can I say one thing about that real quick, is do you remember how Chris mocks her about that? Yeah. So the episode does something really subtle to where. Chris is to where they show that Tony actually appreciates her. You know what I mean?

To what they show Tony actually appreciates her. He thinks of her as more than what Christopher does. Yeah, he connects her there on it, mentions his mother, how she had it too. Yeah, while Chris is making fun of her. And that plans to see for something that I didn't expect to see in the episode, which is not Tony's attraction to her. Every man in the show was attracted to her,

but her attraction to him, which is at least hinted at the show. Whatever would have happened. He explains it to Melfy. He says her father ran out on her when she was young. I was like, whoa, that's some new information. Never, I don't. Sales, they never mentioned that before, right?

I don't think directly now. But there's her mother. Her mother is in the series throughout. There's no mention of a father. Yeah, and her mom is single. Like, you know, there's a scene one time where she's given the mom dating advice, like, oh, don't call him again. He's obviously bad for you.

Like, it's obvious that the mom basically had to raise her by herself because they got like this buddy buddy relationship. But yeah, like Tony being into her makes sense, right? Like, she's obviously she's Italian. She's clearly comfortable with how these mobsters move. Like, she's beautiful. Like, it makes all the sense that he would be into her. Well, you also, this is one of my favorite.

TV devices, the cheating episode where there's not actually cheating. Oh, man. It's like mental cheating. A line's been crossed, even though no line has been crossed. And they do, I mean, this has happened in a lot of shows. There's some long looks. Because we know. We know.

We know. We know. We know. We know what's going on in these people's head. They really fucked in the car. Junior's really right. We know. But it just didn't happen.

The deer probably saved lives. what's going on in Dover why was the cocaine in Dover Sales what was that what's the geography here oh god I don't I don't

He wrecked every episode You don't have a Sopranos map Well I don't know Delaware Is Dover supposed to be Delaware Yeah Dover's in Delaware So it's like It's right over

I mean Delaware is a state That borders New Jersey And that's a pretty far ride For cocaine Yeah it seems like He has a strip joint You can't get cocaine Go on man

Remember he said cross-eye Billy has already left the Bing. So they had to go to Dover. I think like the whole idea was to get them in a place that like when the car crash happened. Like why the hell are you down there? Right. Way away from home. Like if they crashed on the term like, they could just say we were like, I was driving her home. You know, but like because it was Dover, something had to be going on.

That leads to this great moment where when Chris first learns the news, he tries to rationalize it really quickly. And he's like, ah, yeah, she's got an aunt that's really sick. that Tony knows. They must have been out there. Is Tony okay? Yeah. I think he was lying. Oh, he definitely was lying.

I think he was lying to throw those guys off the scent. Because, man, there are certain things about the Sopranos. One thing that always crosses and translates is just the toxic boneheaded way that men are. Because, like, that conversation to where those guys are looking at Chris, and are insinuating that with their emotions that Tony was having sex with Adriana, you've either been on one side of that conversation. Yeah.

Either your boys would be like, hey, bro, hey man, cool, you seen, you seen Shanine? Right. We saw. Yeah. Yeah, you know what I mean? And like, and then there's dudes. You never want to come out and say it

because dudes always want to avoid hard conversations, right? So we can just insinuate it and just let it be there. You know what the hell I'm talking about. We don't even need to address this head on. Well, it's also Chris's worst nightmare. What I love about it, though, is like Chris doesn't even, he seems more upset by people thinking it happened than whether it actually happened. Absolutely.

Everything he says is like, you know, when he's beating her up and it's horrific, but even in the middle of it, he's like, everybody knows about it. Everyone's talking about it. The surgeon says, Georgie says the surgeon said you were moaning his name on the operating table she didn't even have an operation you know she was just in the hospital

yeah and you know what that is too it's like so much of this world is about pretension and keeping up appearances like they do the the sham dinner at a certain point in the episode but a lot of the life is about how things look when like you know it's like

yo Tony a ball a Don doesn't wear shorts at a barbecue like so much of it is about image making and how things are supposed to look a certain way. And so you understand why Christopher is, like, so obsessed with this because he looks crazy. Well, he has the one great line. He does the...

And now I look like Joe Jerkoff. Right. Joe Jerkoff. He became the coach of the Giants for two years, I think. Do you know what? Do you know what I think about the dinner? I think the dinner is the realest thing about this whole episode. I think...

Putting on the public face. Yep. I think it's the most intentional thing in the episode. Almost everything in the episode that happens is an accident either a lucky one or an unlucky one. The only time in the episode that they actually come together and be like, yo, because even Tony going to Carmela and being like, please do this for me. That was everybody almost surrendering to the lifestyle that they're in and making the decision to do it. Everything else that, even though, even though, the fact, even like Hill Harper's amazing cameo in this, like a different doctor might have totally freaked the fuck out or whatever. They just happen to get the right

type of pretentious guy that is more about having that conversation with Blondetto than anything else, right? So much in this episode is just bad luck or misfortune. The one thing that the characters do control at the end is the fact that they have to clean it

all up. Boy, He calls him Soriano, so I don't think he was too familiar with the Moffey family. Was Dover? He's Dover. Yeah, true. Ben, do you still keep in touch with cross-eyed Bobby or no? Cross-Eead Billy or Cross-ed Bobby, was it? Billy.

I don't keep in touch with Cross-Eye-Billy. Why did we get a story arc with Cross-Eye Billy? I'm really disappointed. Could we have spent 15 minutes with him? Just finding out why he had the nickname Croside Billy? This scene culminates in the we think Tony's going to shoot, Christopher outdoors. It's filmed like Mystic River style almost.

And the voice of reason ends up being cousin Tony in one of his last lucid moments. There's this alternate universe where he's just the voice of reason guy for much longer than just five episodes. But the show makes the decision in the next episode to kind of have him break. Sales, why did they make him break halfway through the season? Because I think like the ultimate point of Tony besides how it relates to Tony Soprano, the ultimate point of Tony B. was like it's kind of the same thing that happened with Vito in season six where it's just

this life pulls you back in. Like you can't escape this life. Like even somebody like Tony B who's clearly much more intelligent than these guys, he still gets pulled back in. What I really like about this episode, when I was rewatching this last night, what I was thinking was, is there an alternate universe? in which Tony B ends up the boss. Like if he never goes to prison

and like, would things be better or worse, right? Like, he's obviously also very impulsive as we see throughout the rest of the season. He's just as impulsive as Tony Soprano. And he's maybe not as savvy, but he's certainly a lot more intelligent. And like, would things be a lot different for that family? Like, would the business be better?

Would they be better run? We had a 168 IQ. I don't think it's possible, but somehow Tony thought that was true. What do you think, Could Tony B have run the business? So there's a difference between Tony and him is that, you know, Tony, we see Tony flash out, right? But I think when we see Tony flash out, there's a little bit.

Tony only flashes out on people he knows he can flash out on. Tony sees angles on. Tony will kill Ralphie in his house because he knows he can kill Ralphie in the house, right? He knows he can do that. Tony B is really a good. gangster. He might be the biggest gangster that was from the New Jersey crew, if you asked me.

He was smart. He was sure of himself. Remember when? And he was very understated. He's to me like a throwback mobster almost. Remember when he's going back and forth with Tony and Tony's yelling at him? And he doesn't yell back. He goes, you're crowding me.

He just tells him very slyly, you crowd me. Like, give me some space. Like, you know, I love you. but back the fuck up. I think that he was a mobster out of time to me. I think he was more of a throwback to the way things used to be done. Having said that,

I think he probably waxed a couple of people too many before he gets to be the boss. I think he ends up killing the wrong guy like way before the whack. If he does become the boss, though, they are infinitely better off. Of course. Like he's smarter, he's more understated.

And he's also, in ways more human. Is Tony a good boss is a good kind of lingering question with this show? It seems like any negotiation, his offer is always just, all right, we'll give you 25%. He starts with the same number every time, no matter what. It's just his default. Over and over again, he puts the wrong people around him. If for some reason doesn't seem to recognize the veto thing in season six is, you know,

I don't think he's a bad boss, but calling him a good boss would seem like a crazy stretch. And I think a lot of the point of Tony B, too, is just to contrast and be like, look, just by dumb luck kind of that Tony Soprano happens to be the boss of his family. He could have ended up in jail. And where a lot of his behaviors would not have been rewarded. You know, like the federal penitentiary or even on the state level, whatever, county level, you don't really get like, it. makes, it changes you in ways. And like, you see how it changed Tony B. And you see how, you know, staying out, becoming the knighted one.

And ultimately becoming a boss of his family. How it was affected Tony's life. Where he just, he just thinks he could take and have everything that he ever wants at every single moment. Um, it's just hilarious, man, to watch. In this episode, like, there's just so many, so many good moments. Like, when Carmela throws the pizza at him. And he picks it back up.

The food moments in this episode. The food moments in this episode are great. There's that and there's Christopher throwing the sandwich at Vito. Right. Which is also a great moment as well because when Tony is talking to Chris and he basically turns the tables on him, it just shows you like the mind rape that Tony has been pulling all in this dude. Yeah.

The entire freaking. even back to like, quote unquote, giving him his father's hit man, right? Like, oh, this is the dude that killed your father. But really it's like, I just want to have something on you. Right. Like, he's just been mind raping Chris from the beginning. Like when he's like, oh, I need a, I need a successor. Chris is like, no, I want to be 10 steps away from the Fed so that if anything happens,

you'll be the one that takes the fall. Like, this episode does a lot of that stuff too. Just like Tony is a horrific guy. Justin, do you realize how mad you got to be to throw a sandwich at somebody? That scene is so funny. That sandwich, like you, Chris comes, he's got the sandwich. No, I want to know what the big joke is. He takes a fully made sandwich and throws it at me.

It's like a football. That he calls him a parade float. Just so phenomenal. Yeah. So what you were saying about, the way that Tony Soprano treats Christopher, the moment where Chris goes into the back room of the Bing and Tony's scraping the dog shit out of his loafers

and then he's just like, here, can you toss this in the can? That is like actually the most alpha shit that I can possibly imagine. Ever, bro. If that were me and, you know, someone that I cared deeply about thought that I had hooked up with their fianc I would not approach it like that. I would approach it with like, I'm sorry.

It's fucked up. It doesn't look like that. You know, like blah, blah, blah. I love you. Like, that's not what Tony Soprano does. Tony Soprano may think these things for a split second. I don't know if he does. But his reaction is, how am I going to assert my power over this situation?

And it's by making him throw out literal dog shit. And it's just that's why I'm not a mafia boss for many reasons, but that's one of them. Yeah, I think Tony... Absolutely. I think Tony got canceled. If he had stayed alive, he would have been canceled in the last five years for some of his discretions. I think you might have been into some trouble.

So this is a crucial, crucial episode. In general, this season, the feature, like those first four episodes are kind of the starters we get to introduce. But from here on, it just goes. It's just humming from that point on. we forgot to mention Jesus Christ, she's a good looking woman and she wants to fuck Barney Rubble

with the FBI person. Just a brutal cut down by the random How did you guys feel about the blank-faced FBI lady who was trying to get information out of Adriana that acting performance? I hated her. She was never...

Never I'm born with her. Least favorite characters in the whole show. Me too. What do you guys think? I hated her as much as I loved the first Patsy L-A-H Danielle

Oh Danielle Yeah she was good I loved her Super good Danielle Chicholalla Yeah I think it's It's weird to have somebody who All right

You want to get stuff out of me But yet you're treating me like Absolute shit Like that doesn't That doesn't seem to make sense You're supposed to build the rapport They're supposed to be a There's no carrot with this woman

It's all stick right And that's what makes Her character a little bit empty Like if you have any savvy and you're good at your job and you're going to get this woman to help you. Of course there's the stick of like, we're the feds.

We can lock you up for the rest of your damn life if we so please. But there's also got to be enticements there and this woman is never offering any enticements. They treat Adriana as bad as anyone. Yeah. And Adriana is kind of not savvy enough to realize she had some out.

Which again, another crystal for fuck up, by the way. Like if that's your girl, that is your, you know, the person you live with, the person you spend the most time with, that you never give her a speech or sit down about, this is exactly what you do when the cops come and pick you up. It's just like, you're an idiot. Like that Carmelo would never do any of this shit.

Like, nobody who, you know, these guys cared about and had in their lives would behave in the way Adriana did. To me, that's a direct reflection on Chris. I got to be honest with you about something about that. of all the things I like about the show, I never saw Asiana flipping as believable. Like, never. I never saw it as believable.

Like, you know what you're right then? Because even when, like, when, when, um, freaking Jackie Jr. dies and his sister's like, yeah, like, you know what the vibes is. Like, this is the family business. Baba Bob. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what you're talking about.

I don't know why you would talk like that in front of strangers, like blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, you're right. It feels like everybody's in on the game except for her. It's like you see a lot of the other reasons because they're multiple guys. Tony's crew is a sieve. Yeah. Like you see multiple guys in the New Jersey crews flip and you all know the reasons

why they flip. And like, you know, those are guys that were looking at real major. time and had all these political reasons why they would flip. For her to flip in that situation and never even talk to Christopher about that, like, I understand that has never, ever, ever on every rewatch I've ever done, it has never made sense to me. I think it's like, no. No, go ahead.

My bad, man. No, no, no, my bad. I think on some level they set up like how naive she is and I can see it on that level. But at the same time, this is Richie Appreel's niece. And it just doesn't make sense to me that Richie Appreel's niece does not know how the game goes enough that she would do this.

Can I give you my number one doesn't make sense to me? What? Watching this a lot of episodes in a row. So multiple people just disappear, right? Big Pussy disappears. Richie Appreel disappears. Adriana disappears.

Tony B. disappears. Ralphie? Ralphie, there's five major characters that just disappear. You would think like at the ringer. Like if Chris Ryan one day was just gone, I'm like, where's Chris?

I'm like, Chris had a fight with his wife. He left. Have he talked to him? No. And it just kind of drop it. And Chris Ryan was just gone. And then that was it. And I'd be like, what happened to Chris?

And a year later and we just never, I feel like we would talk about that still. And on the show, these people just leave and nobody says anything from that point on. There's never any, where's Wallace, string? Right. You know what's funny?

Is you're bringing that up and it doesn't make sense to the ringer, but that's how they used to do it at TMC. Like, just be off the show. Like, they would never refer to that person ever again, ever. So maybe we were like,

that person's like not online. They're not tweeting. Oh, yeah. I see what you mean. Like they're gone. Literally, there's no, trace of the person and nobody has seen them since they left up sales as you have a take on this i have to defend chris ryan's honor i think chris ryan could stand up and do the time i don't think he'd flip i

don't think we have to worry about this with chris very fair uh all right we're gonna go but who won this episode oh what do you got sales who's the winner christopher adrian or tony uh i have to pick one of them you got to go with tony if you got if i have to pick one of those three you got to go with Tony. I mean, like performance, impact, whole thing. Who's the best, best character in the episode? I think this is a great, I think this is one of the great Adriana episodes. I think, like, performance-wise, like,

I think you gotta go with her. Everything about Adriano's episode is phenomenal. Yeah, he's right. He's right. I thought the same. She was incredible. All right, that's it for the prestige TV pod. Dan, Waz, Sales. Good to see. As always, check out sales's, uh, Sopranos rankings as well. You can just find them on the ringer. Google. Rannos, rankings, the ringer, this show shouldn't have been 21st.

Thanks to Jesse Lopez for producing. We'll see you next time. This episode is brought to you by Netflix's remarkably bright creatures. What if a Pacific octopus held the key to a mystery that could heal your heart? Well, that's Tova's reality. An elderly widow working at an aquarium. Tova forms an unlikely friendship with the crumudgeonly Marcellus, whose remarkable intelligence leads her to a life-changing discovery.

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