I'm going to latch on to Famous_Mortimer's point about Substance D's positive effects being almost completely ignored in the book. When an addict reaches the terminal endpoint of the addictive cycle (Such as Freck at the beginning or Arctor at the end), does it matter at ALL what pleasure he was getting when he…

Leonard mentioned Naked Lunch as a point of comparison in the "drug addiction sucks" genre, which takes a very different approach towards depicting the mental, ethical and spiritual destruction wrought by chronic drug abuse. I find it telling that both the "straight arrows" here (and I count myself among their number)…

I found the first half of Season Six got a *little* obviously stretched out, with Vito's arc taking longer than I think it would've had it come in an earlier season. Regardless of what issues there may have been with that front half, if any, the absolutely amazing second half of season six sent the series out on an…

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A poet who happened to possess particular sexual talents of which he was culture-bound to feel completely ashamed. You're absolutely right about Junior, LRC: whatever his talents were, they were entirely unsuited for the world of organized crime, and Junior was never able to come to grips with that reality.

Well, characterizing some characters as "flawed" and others as "terrible" really just becomes a semantic division, and an entirely subjective one at that. If your interpretive angle is that the female characters are depicted as "terrible" people, while their male counterparts qualify merely as "flawed", that's all…

That's very true, Swibble. I guess there was no way Linklater could have done the scramble suit in a low-budget way without the rotoscoping, but apart from that, I found the technique kind of distracting, and not nearly so integral to the film's message and construction as it had been in Waking Life. Plus, the…

While I normally cast some movie actor in my imagined reconstruction of what I'm reading, being mentally stuck with Keanu as Bob Arctor was mildly frustrating.

I agree with Zodiac: A Hit is a Hit is easily the weakest episode of Season 1. Still, it's got some fabulous lines for Hesh…

Ben Kingsley's appearance in Luxury Lounge was totally worth it, if only for getting to hear Christopher address him as "Sir Ben."

So much of Junior's affection/resentment/murderous hatred for Tony is bound up in his genuine respect for Tony's insight and ability. This will get a bit more play in Season 2, but one of the best aspects to the writing of the Tony/Junior is that underneath all the jockeying for power and homicidal plots, there is a…

You know, LRC, I agree with you. While Melfi always had a necessary function in the Sopranos, as a device to plumb Tony's psychological depths, at times to provide backstory exposition in later seasons, and to provide a forum for verbalizing some of Tony's internal conflicts, as a human character, most of her drama is…

For all of Tony's intelligence, which is perhaps his greatest weapon as a Mafia chieftain during the series, his relative lack of education, and, moreover, his being born into a society that places little to no value on education consistently places Tony at a disadvantage. All of Tony's cronies (Big Pussy being an…

LRC, if the characteristics you've listed amongst Great Gatsby's female characters qualifies the book as misogynistic, where does that leave the men? They're just as pathological and screwed up as the womenfolk. Jay Gatsby is a possessive, self-pitying and self-destructive boob, albeit a dashing, oh-so-dashing boob.…

It's coming later this season, but the wide-eyed innocence of "I…I don't know what you're talking about" when Junior asks for her blessing to have Tony killed is probably my very favorite Livia moment, which is saying a lot.

Swibble, sorry to hear that you won't be joining us for the discussion this time out. Enjoy the hiking trip, though! I too, agree that the book's ending was its principal weakness. I hadn't thought about where a better stopping point would potentially have been, but your suggestion would've worked much better for me…

I felt a little spoiled going into this one, as I have already seen the Linklater film, but I found the book more consistent and thereby more successful than the film. Actually, I loved the book, truth be told. Funny, sharply observant (this book NAILS the alienating sprawl that is Southern California), and…

C'mon, this is easy: Lorraine Bracco in Season 2!

I read an interview with Chase once where he discussed how College was such a pivotal episode in the initial 13-episode run of the show. I may be wrong, but I remember him saying that HBO suggested having Mr. Witness Protection try and fail to kill Tony first, so as to make him less sympathetic when Tony does kill…

@riggy: