Latest news with #EdieFalco
Daily Mail
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The Sopranos fans are going crazy over the 'strangest edit in the entire show' from revered series - as bizarre scene from 21 years ago resurfaces
It's been more than two decades since The Sopranos first graced our screens - but the landmark HBO series still finds ways to surprise its fans. And this time, it's not a plot twist or a cryptic dream sequence that's setting social media alight. Rather, fans can't get enough of a jarringly produced scene from Season 5, Episode 10, titled Cold Cuts, that's being widely dubbed online as 'the strangest edit in the entire show'. The moment in question features Carmela Soprano - Tony's elegant but long-suffering wife - played by Edie Falco. She has a final, awkward encounter with school guidance counsellor Robert Wegler (David Strathairn), with whom she shared a brief and ill-fated romance earlier in the season. Following a tense confrontation a few episodes before, in which Wegler accused Carmela of using intimacy as a means to manipulate his grading of her underachieving son A.J., the relationship ended abruptly. But in Cold Cuts, the two crossed paths again at school. Clearly uncomfortable, Carmela blurted out: 'I'm going back to my husband.' The camera then lingered on Carmela turning away from Wegler. Fans can't get enough of a jarringly produced scene from Season 5, Episode 10, titled Cold Cuts, that's being widely dubbed online as 'the strangest edit in the entire show' She walked off - following which the scene inexplicably shifted into super-slow motion, complete with an odd, breathless silence. Viewers watched her pace away at an almost glacial crawl before the image abruptly froze mid-stride. Then a wipe transition slid across the screen, PowerPoint-style, ushering in the next scene at a lake where other characters are relaxing. Cue baffled Sopranos fans across the internet. 'Is that the ol' PowerPoint swipe?' one viewer asked on X (formerly Twitter), capturing the collective bewilderment. Another joked: 'Edited like a movie project I made for class in the 8th grade.' The post, shared by X user The Sopranos Guy, has racked up thousands of likes and hordes of perplexed comments Fans of the show were quick to express their amazement at the unusual editing choices from the series widely regarded as the best of all time One commenter wrote: 'I thought my stream froze the first couple watch-throughs,' while another echoed: 'I thought it froze at first'. And another chimed in: 'That was an old school way of ending a story line. "And that was it! Wrap it up boys!"' Another viewer suggested that the intentionally strange editing was a wink to the audience, symbolising Carmela's acute embarrassment and Wegler's stunned reaction to the emotional bombshell she'd just dropped. A few eagle-eyed cinephiles were quick to spot potential influences. The transition, they argued, might be a stylistic nod to Akira Kurosawa - the legendary Japanese filmmaker known for pioneering the wipe transition - or even Star Wars creator George Lucas, who famously borrowed the technique for his galaxy-spanning saga. Still, most agreed that the moment feels wildly out of step with the otherwise tight, understated direction the show is known for. 'First-time director got cute. Never returned again. Great episode though,' one viewer quipped. Cold Cuts remains a critically acclaimed entry in the series, delving into themes of familial resentment and emotional repression with typical Sopranos flair. But that one odd edit has somehow managed to upstage the episode's deeper emotional beats - if only temporarily. Whether it was a deliberate stylistic choice or an overzealous moment in the editing suite, the transition has now entered the annals of Sopranos lore. And in a show celebrated for its layers of meaning and artistic subtlety, perhaps the strangest twist of all is that fans are still debating a mid-season cut more than 20 years on.
Daily Mail
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Sopranos star reveals James Gandolfini's savage two-word response to that infamous ending
It's been nearly 18 years since HBO 's The Sopranos ended with one of the most controversial series finales of all time, with star Lorraine Bracco revealing how her co-star James Gandolfini really thought of the ending. The series was a massive hit for HBO, following Gandolfini's Tony Soprano and his New Jersey mafia family, running six seasons spanning 86 episodes. Bracco, 70, played Tony Soprano's psychiatrist, Jennifer Melfi, throughout the show's run, where it amassed 21 Emmys and is credited for starting the Second Golden Age of Television. For as popular and beloved as the series was, the finale, written and directed by series creator David Chase, is still among the most controversial of all time. The final scene takes place at Holsten's diner in New Jersey, where Tony is in a booth with his family, his eyes darting to the door every time the bell rings when someone enters. Bracco was promoting her new Netflix film Nonnas, when Fallon asked her to clear up a rumor that she didn't love The Sopranos ending, revealing her co-star Gandolfini's stunned two-word response: 'That's it?" It's been nearly 18 years since HBO 's The Sopranos ended with one of the most controversial series finales of all time, with star Lorraine Bracco revealing how her co-star James Gandolfini really thought of the ending. The final scene shows Tony waiting at Holsten's, ultimately joined one-by-one by his wife Carmela (Edie Falco) and son A.J. (Robert Iler) as Journey's Don't Stop Believin' is playing at the table's jukebox, while he keeps eyeing the door every time it opens and the bell rings. They're waiting for his daughter Meadow (Jamie Lynn Sigler), who is running towards the diner, the bell rings one last time as he looks up, and the show ends abruptly with a final cut to black that the show's legions of fans did not see coming. While the ending didn't sit well with many of the show's fans, it apparently also didn't sit well with Gandolfini himself, according to Bracco. 'I'll tell you the truth, I was sitting next to Jimmy Gandolfini. And he just went like this,' as she stands up to mimic the actor, quoting him stating, 'That's it? That's it?' She added, 'And you know how he always used to push his hair back, and he just walked out. He was like, "That's it?" He couldn't believe it. I said, "Yeah, I guess that's it.' Bracco didn't seem to be a fan of it herself, though she admitted, 'You know, the only thing I can say is people are still talking about it. So, I guess David did do something interesting.' Holsten's is a real diner Bloomfield, New Jersey, which auctioned off the same booth The Sopranos sat in for over $82K last year. Creator David Chase has never confirmed whether Tony Soprano lived or died after the infamous cut to black, though he did open up in 2021 about how surprised he was about the uproar over the final shot. 'I had no idea it would cause that much — I mean, I forget what was going on in Iraq or someplace; London had been bombed! Nobody was talking about that; they were talking about The Sopranos,' he told THR. 'It was kind of incredible to me. But I had no idea it would be that much of an uproar. And was it annoying? What was annoying was how many people wanted to see Tony killed. That bothered me,' he added. 'They wanted to know that Tony was killed. They wanted to see him go face-down in linguini, you know? And I just thought, 'God, you watched this guy for seven years and I know he's a criminal. But don't tell me you don't love him in some way, don't tell me you're not on his side in some way,' he said. '"And now you want to see him killed? You want justice done? You're a criminal after watching this s**t for seven years.' That bothered me, yeah,' he admitted.
