I'm thinking about buying the series on DVD. Anybody already done this? I'm curious about the extra features. Worthwhile?

From the reviews I've read, I guess one set came out in 2008, then another in 2009. The second one was cheaper, but didn't have the "How the music was chosen for certain scenes" feature, which sounds pretty damned cool. Also, if you've bought one of these, do any of the episodes include commentary tracks from cast/crew?

I bought 1-5 in a chunk then the rest when they came out so not sure about what may have been added to the complete series sets, but in general director/cast commentary is pretty good, have watched all and enjoyed them, they don't do every ep but tend to do either director or cast commentary for the "bigger" eps.

I've only seen through season 2, so I'm not going to read this thread too carefully; but there is this scene in season 2 where tony and the psychiatrist start doing sessions together again after she flips out, and you can just tell that something has changed. When they first start going together Tony is all reserved, kind of coy about what he does; but when they get back together you can tell tony doesn't care anymore and kind of wants to **** with her; "you know where I was last night? I was at a whore house beating the **** out of some deadbeat" or something like that. Gives me chills.

Totally stupid minutiae but thought I might actually be one of the few weirdos in here that got the reference:

When Tony first visits Johnny Sacks NJ home, Sack ends the conversation with "See if you can help me get this Rain Bird unstuck, I'm in a strange new world here."

Rain Bird is a brand of irrigation products but most sprinkler companies only buy their rain censors which are usually known simply as "Rain Birds." They detect how much rain is falling to turn off the system when it rains to save water. They get jammed all the time from sediment buildup and dirt when people put them to close to the ground causing them to shut the system down.

Always thought it was kind of an obscure thing for them to put in but possibly more common than I think.

Here's another one I remember reading about. It's in the episode when Paulie gets out of jail (irl he was having back surgery so they wrote the story line of him being in jail) I think is Season 4. After the party the next morning, Cousin Brian who has fallen asleep on the stage (stripper stage) at the Bing he sits up and positions himself almost exactly like the neon sign of a stripper in the background...visual imagery that Tony's crew just see's Brian as another whore perhaps.

Grabbed a quick screenshot of what I'm talking about.

Wow, good catch. Definitely something that David Chase would do.

Why wouldn't he just have him put his leg up then ?

Nice job!

Love it

the moment when patsy parisi, in conjunction with butch "the little guy" deconcini, had tony (and possibly paulie) wacked in order to usurp control of the nj family.

the time was right and patsy finally got revenge for his twin brother's death, in addition to claiming the title of boss.

OMG, I had never considered Patsy being behind that. Wasn't he the one busting Vito's chops a million years ago when Vito was boasting about needing to buy new clothes after dropping a ton of weight, and and Vito retorted, "What's that YOU got on, Members Only? How old is that?"

So T gets whacked by a guy in a Members Only jacket--a guy whose character shows up in the closing credits as "Members Only Guy" or something.

I like it! I'm hereby ON the "Patsy moved on Tony Soprano" bandwagon! WHO'S WITH ME?

The guy who got made fun of for wearing a Member's Only jacket was Eugene Pontecorvo.

There's nothing at all in the show that even hints at that, Patsy was shown to be complacent and comfortable in his spot for a long time and was soon to be related to Tony.

Thought patsy almost got shot but managed to run away outside the bing when NY was in attack mode

God dammit!

Meh, I can see him easily slipping back to anger over his brother. Imagine if NY *did* back Patsy in a move on Tony, the first thing they'd do is get a few drinks in him and start asking, "How can you work with the guy who whacked your brother?"

Again, if we want to cling to the NY+Patsy theory as closely as I seem to, Patsy setting up the ambush that took out Silvio, and the assassins allowing him to escape, adds up.

But Patsy wasn't running through those woods like a guy who was expecting a free getaway. Oh well, this little exercise was fun for a minute there.

If Patsy was involved, there are plenty of ways to explain away the hit at the Bing. NY didn't get him involved until afterward, for example. Maybe Patsy and Butch knew they would have to wait until Phil was dead so that Tony would let his guard down.

I don't think there's a definite answer as to how it happened, although I've been convinced by the evidence and the reading I've done that Tony does die in the end.

what about when, in season 3, patsy pointed a gun at tony through tony's window but then chickened out?

patsy has deffinitely always resented tony for having his brother wacked and has even gone so far as to try to kill tony. however, he has always known that he would not be able to get away with killing a boss and as such contented himself with playing the role of devoted soldier.

until, all of a sudden, he's placed in a situation where he could well find himself as boss if he plays his cards right. the top underlings to tony (christopher, silvio, carlo and bobby bacala) are now dead, likely to die, or flipped to the FBI, thus leaving only patsy and paulie to juke it out for the title if tony were to die. and frankly, who would support paulie taking over the big job? he's much too impulsive.

on top of this, patsy would likely have support from new york to take out tony. while butch (the likely boss after phil's death) agreed to lay off tony while phil was still acting boss, the manner of phil's death may have offended him (no open casket due to the crushed skull, killed right in front of his family, etc.) furthermore, with tony dead, the families will have essentially traded a boss for a boss and there will be no need for any retaliation in the future and they could go about doing business as usual. also due to his son's relationship with meadow, patsy would likely know where the sopranos were eating dinner, allowing him to send "members only guy" there to wack tony.

patsy, out of everyone left in the show, has the greatest motivation to see tony dead. he will finally see revenge for his dead brother and at the same time, may well be able to claim the title of boss. i see no reason patsy would want tony alive.

look at the camera shots on patsy and his wife in the last two episodes. his wife is shown to be coveting carmella's china, etc., while patsy is shown to be in a role of power all the time (tony bringing him a drink rather than the other way around, people coming to him for discussions at his beckon, etc.)

Don't know if anyone has linked this very lengthy piece (I'm sure someone has at some point) but it covers a ton of the "Tony dies at the end" stuff as well as some of the stuff about Patsy that wutang has mentioned.

plus remember patsy is frequently shown undermining tony's decisions and words (esp. re: ralph cifaretto, stealing from the esplanade construction site--which patsy continued doing despite tony asking him not to, making christopher acting capo while paulie was in jail, and many other things). patsy deffinitely did not respect tony as boss.

as far as patsy being in league with NY when sil got hit, i think that's ridiculous. if you look at him when he is running away, he is running with absolute abandon.

This touches on another good point towards Patsy being involved, which hasn't been mentioned today

i read the link. the only point of contention i really have about it is that it sems to imply that patrick parisi and or jason parisi might be involved in the plot. i see no evidence for this really (especially for patrick, as he seems to be an upstanding citizen).

the bolded part in nath's last post also makes sense, though i prefer to think of patsy as a cold, calculating mastermind who operates out of shrewdness for business rather than out of fear of tony.

btw, i first stumbled across the idea of patsy ordering the hit on tony on a sopranos forum but i think either i forgot the name or it no longer exists.

i think it's pretty obvious that tony did get wacked. the question is who would have to motivation to have it done. patsy is the only person who makes sense to me but i would like to hear who else might have done it.

Well said sir, good points (also good tidbit Nath.)
Guess I've just never seen Patsy like that, not even as even being ambitious. Obviously he was near the breaking point with Tony back then but since then he just seemed to sit in his place and deal and be happy.

My mind has been changed though in possibilities, nice.

It was never spoken to in the show but if you kill a 5 families boss without consent you are going to die there's just no way around it. A family close to the Lupertazzis with a personal beef it could be one not even close, the soprano family/crew in the show were at the height of a lot of publicity and beefs it makes sense any or all of them would see to have him killed. Always feel like this should have been factored into Tonys decision but they didnt go that route.

For all the people who believe Tony was killed (I personally lean towards he probably was, but also think it could have been intentionally ambiguous in the off chance the opportunity/desire to make movies arose): what is the explanation for how the hit man knows where Tony and his family will be eating ahead of time?

Can't remember if it was a regular dinner spot for them, I remember it seemed as if they had eaten there before, but I can't see how it could have been with enough regularity for a hit man to be waiting on them.