Wiseguy wrote: ↑Fri Jul 22, 2022 1:06 pm
Season 6 gripes just off the top of my head...
First and foremost, too many damn episodes. 21 instead of the standard 13. Great, if you have the material to make it work, but Chase & Co. didn't. It was about the HBO money. A lot of down time and treading water, as I said. Less would have been more.
It seemed like Junior shooting Tony was just an excuse for Chase to have yet
another dream sequence. If I never hear the name "Kevin Finnerty" again, it will be too soon. I get diving into the psychology of it all (a major part of what the show was about) but this just seemed repetitive.
The whole gay Vito/Johnny Cakes thing. Obvious nod to D'Amato. OK. But you take up huge chunks of multiple episodes with that?
Chris' Cleaver movie. The whole thing just seemed boring and pointless.
And speaking of boring and pointless, Tony's whole Vegas...peyote..."I get it!" trip. What is that even about?
AJ's depression. OK, the kid that didn't care about anything now cares about everything. But the character development in that regard was poor and didn't make a lot of sense.
There was some good tension between Tony and Chris. The scene where they embrace at Chris' baby's ceremony is really good but his death was anticlimactic. Was it really even necessary at all? Or did Chase simply want to kill off another major character since it was near the end and it didn't matter as much?
I've mentioned before how Phil seems to let his brother being killed slide but then, for seemingly little to no reason ("Leonardo to Leotardo?") decides to play hardball with Tony. Butchie is all for going on the warpath and pushes Phil to do so but then, inexplicably, is the one wanting a truce later on. Again, not really developed well.
Tony wants Paulie to take over the Aprile crew? What crew? As a matter of fact, who of consequence was even left in the family? Pussy long dead. Furio long gone. Richie dead. Gigi dead. Ralph dead. Tony B dead. Vito dead. Eugene dead. Burt dead. Bobby dead. Ray Curto (who was informing) dead. Carlo flipped. Larry Barese flipped also? Silvio in a permanent coma. Junior senile. As far as active made guys you had, what, Tony, Paulie, and Patsy? It's why the writers had to bring in characters like Walden out of nowhere. Maybe they could make Benny and Little Paulie. LOL.
All that is not to say Season 6 didn't have it's moments. It did.
The Monopoly game from hell.
Paulie beefing with Vito over the split from the Colombian robbery, i.e. Paulie taking the exact opposite stance he did when he had the beef with Ralph over another robbery earlier in the series. Too funny.
Ben Kingsley...."FOCK!"
Phil's "pygmy thing over in Jersey" monologue.
The intricacies of beefing with NY over Barone Sanitation, dumping asbestos, etc. The kind of "inside baseball" only those who follow the mob can appreciate.
Any dialogue from Little Carmine.
Johnny Sac's beef with Rusty.
Etc.
The 5th season set things up perfectly for a normal 13 episode 6th season where they would have had enough time, but not too much, to keep the good stuff above, wrap up the NJ vs. NY war, etc.