Sepinwall's book excerpt on The Sopranos: The Russian, and The End

Congratulations, oop, you're the first person ever to get pissed at Buck. POW, you are.

 

This is why you are one of my favorites.

 

I was frankly surprised to read that Chase even considered bringing back the Russian. Such a "LOST" move, as you note.

One thing that has always fascinated me about "The Sopranos" is how different the show would have turned out had the actress who played Livia lived. That surely rocked the creative process to the core, as I suspect that relationship was central to Chase's grand vision for the series.

 

as no doubt his FIRST fan around here, i say with full confidence how much alan sepinwall appreciates the love from SportsJournalists.com. why am i so confident that i was his first fan? well, not only did alan and i work at the star-ledger, we began our stints on the SAME DAY! alan and i had our 'welcome to the ledger' pow-wow with human resouuces together, aong sith bridget wentworth, who eventually became the paper's n.y. rangers beat writer.

alan, who was brought in as an tv/movies intern, and bridget were all eager and bright-eyed, single with no children and about 22, much like i was when i landed my first gig as a copyboy at the n.y. daily news. what i most remember is alan and bridget had NO questions, nothing to do but listen, while i came armed to grill the human resources assistant about the details of the magnificent health coverage and other things any experienced employee with a wife and three kids would want to know. they were like i was at 22 -- health coverage? who cares? i never get sick... pension?? 401k?? who cares? i'm 22. why's this guy asking so many questions? i apologized for making the meeting last so long. 'kids today,' i thought.

i learned that day how alan dreamed of becoming a tv critic one day, and how bridget wanted to cover hockey. i was so happy for them when their wishes came true not too long after that,,,

and what did you know? this alan kid was such a tv geek, a chils of thw '70s raised on th fonz and richie cunningham? he knew his shit and was passionate about it, and the ledger had oodles of space back then so he could pretty much write as long as he needed to. his reviews and fearures were immediaiely the most detailed i'd ever read. the kid had game.

alan always reminded me of brian benben on that hbo half-hour comedy. 'dream on,' which had snippets of old tv shows spliced in to reveal his thought process as a man who was raised by the tv shows he watched endlessly. much like i was a sports nerd, raised by sports on tv, alan's passion derived from the same source and passion.

and look at him now, all growsed up. bravo, alan, from the guy who asked all those annoying questions on your first day of school.

 

Not sure you are ever in position to throw stones accusing someone else of arrogance regarding television.

 

No doubt, there is plenty of truth in that statement. I stand by the claim, though. The most frequent criticisms of Friends here come from people who did not actually watch the show. Or watched two episodes, grew annoyed by its status as a yuppie/hipster/GenX darling, and declared that it sucked.

I think Grey's Anatomy is one of the dumbest shows ever, but at least I watched the damn thing, and cite reasonable reasons why it's so godawful. The same is true of Glee and LOST. At least I'm working with all the evidence.

 

I'm not sure how my opinion of 'Friends' is an attempt to prove my coolness.
I apologize. I did not intend to stir up any childhood school-cafeteria traumatic memories.

I will not, however, apologize for my use of the quote function in tandem with elipses.
It's a game-changer.

 

And as I say every time this comes up, I came by my dislike of Friends honestly. The wife enjoys it, even now.

 

Good point. That was a legendary character, but at the same time, I am not sure how much more they could have gotten from the role. The Janice character took some of the plot line and I thought that Aida Turturo was great.

 

This blog comment I read years ago summed up Pine Barrens for me:

People who consider the Russian a loose end completely miss the point, it’s like saying Pulp Fiction sucked because we never found out what was in the briefcase. The entire point of the character was the uncertainty of whether he was dead or alive, a menace out in the forest. To resolve that would strip the episode of a lot of its power.

You take away the dramatic tension of Pine Barrens if you learn that, in fact, the Russian was out there stalking Chris and Paulie "with his cock" as Paulie so perfectly put it. Part of what gives the story power is the uncertainty.

 

Exactly.