Search - The Sopranos: Season 6, Part 1 on DVD

"We've been dancing around this topic for years"

E. Kutinsky | Seattle, WA | 09/24/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's lonely in the ranks that believe that season 6 of The Sopranos was as good, if not better, than the seasons before it, but I am convinced that the first 12 episodes of season 6 are amongst the bravest, best written, and most telling episodes of the series. The Sopranos has long been a show with the most complex, multi-layered characters on television, but by using the mantra of "Who am I, where am I going" as a rallying point, season 6 probed the nature of what drives its family, and gets in intense focus of who each of them is. The problem, I think, was that it did its job TOO well this season - it's not that there wasn't action (the death count this year was as high as any other, and Tony does, after all, nearly die himself), but that because the show wanted so much to get the specifics of the ordinary right, it's easy to overlook the rather consternated implications of their everyday events. What I mean is that in showing each character at his/her essence, we get what really drives them, but we don't necessarily get that explained to us - we, for example, identify with Carmela's sense of longing and uncertainty staring off at the Eiffel Tower, or we register that Paulie is adrift in guilt and anxiety over his actions in life, but we get it in the details of their everyday action and, these characters experiencing these implications alone, get little of that wrapped up for us. To me, that speaks to a level of characterization and examination that doesn't exist in television and barely exists in film - it probes the specifics of its fictional characters so precisely, it winds up speaking to the heart of what drives Americans and the materialism of American culture that makes things like mobs possible. In that, it brings forth insurance agent, real estate claimsmen and salesmen, actors, and (in one unforgettable shout-out) Dick Cheney - comparisons of the same urges. Yet this season does more than critique the impulses, it allows them to exist, allows all of their very real virtues to be present, and lets them arise from its characters distinct, full-bodied personalities - money helps keep AJ out of jail, gets him laid, repairs Tony's relationship with his sister, keeps Carmela from probing too deeply into Adriana's murder, gets Tony reasonable health care, and nearly spares Vito's life and stops a cross-river gang war. I may be alone in the level to which the Sopranos makes me think, but I do think David Chase's intentions are to use his astonishingly vivid characters to go into depth about the American mentality (or, they're not, and it's just a product of three dimensional writing). However, even if it weren't, the season gives you extraordinary moments to savor - Paulie's confrontation with mortality ("The Ride"), Carmela crying at Tony's bedside ("Join The Club"), Christopher's gut-shaking relapse ("Kaisha," with a fearless guest turn by Juliana Marguilles), AJ's inability to carry out his "big plan" against Junior ("Johnny Cakes"), and, unforgettably, Philly's cold stare as his machinations to kill Vito are achieved ("Cold Stones"). They're moments of magnificent acting that fulfill characters even as it surprises you with their humanity and personality. And, in the premiere, "Members Only," it gives you it all in an hour - a suicide, heart attack, and gun shot that seem to tell you everything you've ever needed to know about the mob life, about why they - if not you - do what they do."

Another landmark for the series

Jeffrey A. Lunt | 11/09/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Many people are complaining about the purchase price of this collection of 12 episodes (with 8 episodes on the way). People are whinning because every season has been 13 episodes in length. Also, keep in mind that the series is not yet finished; 8 more episodes will debut in 2007. Season 6 will be 20 episodes total (in case you can't count... 12 + 8 = 20).

Consider the total running time of this collection: 12 episodes at 720 minutes. This is signifficant...

Here's the breakdown:

Season 1: 680 minutes in 13 episodes
Season 2: 780 minutes in 13 episodes
Season 3: 780 minutes in 13 episodes
Season 4: 800 minutes in 13 episodes
Season 5: 780 Minutes in 13 episodes
Season 6, Part 1: 720 minutes in 12 episodes
Season 6, Part 2: --- Minutes in 8 episodes

Stop complaining about this pricetag on this set! The price is well worth the cost when you consider the running time! Season 6, Part 1 was just as good as Seasons 2,3,4, and 5.

The show had me laughing aloud even though I was the only person watching at my home. The show imroves with age; The Sopranos are here to stay (even IF the series is drawing to a close).

ONE COMPLAINT (bases on my opinion): Not enough Uncle Junior! Corado Soprano is one of my favorite characters and we didn't see him enough! Hopefully, Uncle Junior will play a bigger role in the upcoming year..."

Read the fine print, people.

amyem | Florida | 10/06/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This set contains 12 episodes, just like all the previous seasons. Season 6 was always meant to have two parts, part 1 with 12 episodes, part 2 with 8 episodes. It remains to be seen how much the part 2 DVD will cost, but for now, you are really not getting ripped off."

Season 6 shows "the life" controls Tony, not vice versa

calvinnme | 01/23/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I seem to have a different opinion from so many other viewers, since I really enjoyed the first half of season six. Seeing Tony get shot, not by season one's physically and mentally vigorous Uncle Junior, as I had kept anticipating that season, but by the toothless demented Uncle Junior, believing he was shooting someone else entirely was priceless irony. I loved the part with Tony in the coma in our world, while -wherever he was - he was exactly what he had always dreaded being - a nobody. Worse, he's a traveling salesman who is "trapped" and unable to get home. When Tony comes out of his coma, he vows to change and take every day as a gift, but later he is gradually pulled back into his old ways, since his position as boss really gives him no alternative.

Lots of people didn't like the Vito mini-arc, but I loved it. After being outed in the most conspicuous and non-ambiguous way imaginable, Vito finds it necessary to leave town to avoid Phil's wrath. He arrives in small-town New Hampshire, and there he winds up luckier than he deserves to be. He finds love in the Morgan Spurlock look-alike cook "Johnny Cakes" at the local diner, and the two move in together. Vito's new love is even able to overlook Vito's obvious moral failings, such as his lies about his true occupation. Johnny Cakes hooks him up with a job, and Vito has escaped the death sentence that awaits him back home, with a pretty Norman Rockwell-ish life in his current situation and a shot at genuine happiness. The problem is - Vito is still Vito. To him what 99% of people face every day - rising early to go to a job that is genuine hard work for average pay - is purgatory to him. He misses the all-night card games, the big city life, and the fact that making a living there just involves sitting around a construction site and making collections. Thus Vito runs out on Johnny Cakes and goes back to New Jersey, thinking he can make things right and get back into "the life". Just in case we have any doubt Vito has changed, there is a little incident on his way back home that lays our doubts to rest.

I think the Vito arc superimposed on Tony's shooting and recovery just drive home the fact that even though these guys think they're king of all they survey, "the life" really owns them all, not vice versa. They're kidding themselves to think otherwise. Tony believed he could make things different, and Vito believed he could make things the way they had been before. Both were wrong.

There are also lighter moments. The scene with Christopher brainstorming his movie project with the "help" of his kidnapped and beaten AA sponsor is hilarious, as is his mugging Lauren Bacall just to get her gift basket. Then there's the matter of Paulie finding out he is not who he thought he was. All-in-all a worthwhile and thought-provoking 12 episodes.

However, I still think I'll wait until after season six has completed airing to buy. The series will definitely be over by then, and I am anticipating some kind of "Collector's Edition" for the whole series. I just don't want to wind up with buyer's remorse like I did with the separate seasons of "Homicide" that I bought, only to have the entire series come out in a collector's edition that was much cheaper than the individual seasons with all kinds of bonus footage to boot."