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Pine barrens sopranos4/29/2023 Tim Van Patten has directed episodes of The Wire, Game of Thrones, Rome, Deadwood, and Touched By Angel, as well as Homicide: Life on the Street, Boardwalk Empire, and The Sopranos itself - note how certain shows keep coming up here. If the director of 'Pine Barrens' is best known as an actor, it is in keeping with its eccentricity that one of its writers is best known as a director. He subsequently went on to the leading role in Boardwalk Empire, a historical crime drama obviously influenced by The Sopranos, and a trophy cabinet full of Awards. It was the first, 'Trees Lounge,' which included Michael Imperioli - Chris in The Sopranos - in the cast, and which prompted David Chase, "showrunner" of The Sopranos, to ask Buscemi, with whom he had not worked before, to direct 'Pine Barrens.' The other, 'Animal Factory,' is a brutal prison drama which might have even the most hardline rightwinger on law and order wondering if it can be desirable to treat any human beings that way.Īfter the success of 'Pine Barrens,' Buscemi went on to direct three more episodes of The Sopranos and in the fifth season was persuaded to appear in the show in front of the camera as Tony Soprano's rather tragic cousin, Tony Blundetto. Both were realistic examinations of the murky underside of the "American Dream," good preparation for The Sopranos, and both attracted deserved critical acclaim, even if their pessimistic tone limited their box office appeal. He began by directing an episode of the highly respected Homicide: Life on the Street, a show in which he had appeared previously as an actor, and by the time he came to direct 'Pine Barrens' in 2001, he had already directed two full length feature films. He has become something of a "cult" item in his own right.Īs if this is not enough, Buscemi is also a very accomplished director. He has been employed memorably by, among others, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Tim Burton, Armando Iannucci, and the Coen Brothers, who keep killing him for some reason. This is the same Steve Buscemi whose presence as an actor is practically compulsory in every project with aspirations to be a "cult" film. The man who put it all together was director Steve Buscemi. It is possibly the episode most fans remember best, and it has several of the series' most quotable and quoted lines. This leads neatly to the second reason for its selection: it excels, even by the high standards of The Sopranos, in plot, dialogue, character development, performances, direction, camerawork, editing, musical cues, and use of location. If someone asked to see an episode of The Sopranos that sums up every everything excellent about the show, and could not be persuaded to watch the whole thing from the start, then 'Pine Barrens' is an easily accessible point of entry. Even if one views it out of sequence or watches it without having seen the show before - neither of which is recommended - one can pick up very quickly on what is happening. First, in a show notable for long story and character arcs, it is relatively free standing. That has to be found in the later seasons, because The Sopranos, like all good things in this life, only got better with age.Īmong those more mature episodes, there are many other credible candidates to be the best, but in the end 'Pine Barrens' is still the obvious choice for two reasons. It certainly deserves an honourable mention here as "First Runner Up," but it is not the definitive episode. It has been called "the episode that changed television forever" and there is a very strong case to be made that 'College' is the best episode of The Sopranos. It starts off a bit like the sort of independent movie that was fashionable in the Nineties and early Noughties, before everything got too serious, a charming, fairly light coming of age/family drama in which a teenage girl gets to know her father as they visit potential universities for her. The episode that really set the tone for this was 'College' early in the first season. Cinema was, of course, already well aware of that, but it is one thing for audiences to slum it in seedy company for a couple of hours and another thing altogether to keep them coming back week after week. It was The Sopranos that proved that it is not necessary for a protagonist, or protagonists, to be particularly sympathetic in order for their story to be compelling. Along with Hill Street Blues and The Wire, and as well as being an outstanding show in its own right, The Sopranos deserves a place in cultural history as a revolutionary moment in television drama.
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