I don't think Janice is that naive. She knows the score—no way does Richie take over if Tony is still breathing. She may be able to push Richie's and her guilt down into her subconscious—the show is all about he many ways we superchimps find to lie to ourselves—but no way does she not know what she is doing.

Nah—a lot of Christians are sluts; look at the "abstinence only" Palins. I've known two strippers who moonlighted as whores (and I mean "known" in the biblical sense) and who professed great faith in Jesus. A little fucking won't keep you out of heaven if you've been washed in the blood of the Lamb.

EVL will forever be my favorite.

Good. The movie is cheesy and stupid and over-blown, like a biblical epic, but it is also (thanks to Lynch and Herbert) so weird that it really feels like the culturual product of the far future. It's a masterpiece so deeply flawed it cannot be said to be truly good and yet it cannot be dismissed, either.

I'd read that blog when it was much shorter, before he'd added a lot of that material (including the Cat/Adrianna connection, which my brother observed as well). Very strong case that Patsy is behind it, right down to the twinned names.

Funny this review should run next to an MYOF on Dune
Sounds like the books have some themes in common. Or as Eva and Che sing it: "There is evil, ever around, fundamental, system of government quite incidental."

I think Cooz is a little compromised—he enjoys showing off his mob buddy a bit too much in "A Hit Is a Hit."

It is an important distinction, though I wonder if it was as much of one in 1964.

By the way, I did not SPOILER warning anything I wrote because this thread is one huge spoiler, as it discusses the finale.

Butchie! Thanks, totally blanked. Could you give me a link to that passage on Patsy—I'd love to read it.

Tom S., the show also presents characters who actaully do state strong moral postions—Melfi's ex-husband and shrink come to mind—as effete douchebags. The only exceptions that come to mind are the old black preacher from season 1 (now telling us we love Cetera—he totally saves that commercial) and (sigh: SPOILER)…

David Proval also kills with the line-reading "You're flex-ing!"

Who has amotive? Most proximate would be Phil's right hand man, the little guy who ominously tells Tony "we need to stop meeting like this" in the hospital after Phil has his heart attack and is temporarily willing to back off. At this point, he had been fed up w/ Phil but he was not a fan of Tony. Plus, he hit me…

What's funny is that I watched that scene with a girl who had been in an abusive relationship for four years and she couldn't get over how much Janice overreacted.

Janice doesn't know Richie plans to move on Tony?
Janice is behind it! "It should be you," "Mailmen make more than that," "He doesn't want you around his kids"—Janice pulls Richie's strrings more brazenly than Livia ever pulled Junior's. There's no way she doesn't know what she's doing.

As much as I cling to my Dawkinsian atheism and as much as I knowingly smirk at refereences to The Passion's OTT torture porn aesthetic, I remeber coming out of that movie and sobbing in my car.

Me too—it has a a septum. Vaginas do not—unless, of course, you are Claire Nouveau.

I posted this elsewhwere but it might be helpful here:

I watched some of that Nostagia Chick thing. Annoying on at least three different levels.

The heart plugs were a way to underscore the sexual sadistic (and yes, gay—part of the Baron's evil in book and film both is that he is gay) depravity in a literally heart-stopping manner.