Favorite Episode of Season 5

[Detective Hunt]

We are just over halfway through picking our favorite episodes from each season. If you have not yet voted in the seasons 1 through 4 polls, make sure to stop by and have you say. Links can be found below:

Season One (http://thechaselounge.net/showthread.php?t=1174)

Season Two (http://thechaselounge.net/showthread.php?t=1251)

Season Three (http://thechaselounge.net/showthread.php?t=1323)

Season Four (http://thechaselounge.net/showthread.php?t=1444)

As we have in the previous threads, vote for your favorite episode and then tell us why. Within a few weeks, I'll post the one for season 6a and we should be all caught up when the series finale airs.

So Chase Lounge - what's you favorite for season five?

[Detective Hunt]

*bump*

Just in case this thread got lost due to this week's episode and the slight restructuring of the forum main page.

[Universal Polymath]

I went with "Long Term Parking", though it was really hard to decide between that on and "The Test Dream".

I watched the entire series up to season five in just under a month, often watching two or three episodes a night. Since then, I've seen the entire series many, many times to catch everything I missed, but ultimately, the first viewing of most episodes is kind of a blur to me.

Having said that, I will never forget the first time I watched "Long Term Parking". I will never forget having to look away from the screen as Chris began to stangle Ade, I will never forget the genuine shock I got when Tony called Ade to tell her that Chris attempted suicide (gullible me), and I will never forget the intense anxiety and dread I felt during Ade's car ride with Silvio. And I will never forget the feeling of exhaustion and emotional depletion I felt as I sat in my silent, darkened living room for about five minutes after the credits had rolled.

Ade's death seemed like the obvious, inevitable end to her story, but somehow the writers found a way to do it in the most powerful, shocking fashion. No television show has the effect on my emotions like "The Sopranos" does. I view these characters as real people off in an alternate reality that I have the opportunity to look in to, way before I view them as the ficticious results of a writer's imagination. "Long Term Parking" is the perfect example of the undeniable potency of the series.


Edit: Anyone else? Awe, come on, don't leave Detective Hunt hanging!

[FlyOnMelfisWall]

I went with Test Dream because of the extraordinarily brilliant way Chase fashioned a dream that was both relentlessly realistic and prescient in further illuminating aspects of Tony's repressed feelings that would prove increasingly important as the series progressed. I was still noticing significant bits for the first time on my 25th viewing. I'd probably catch a new insight if I watched it again today. One of the densest episodes of the series.

Long Term Parking was also terrific but very hard for me to watch. It's still the one episode that makes me most hate, and want to give up on, Tony. So it's not healthy for my continued emotional investment in the character and the series to watch it too often.

[WhistlingInTheWheatfield]

I really loved Season 5. Other than Season 1 it may be my favorite season, which is saying a lot. "Where's Johnny?", "Unidentified Black Males", "Irregular Around The Margins" and "All Due Respect" all rank as some of my favorite episodes of Season 5, but this comes down to a two horse race for me.

"The Test Dream" was a great, deep, confusing episode that I can watch over and over again. (Which I have!) But if I had to pick one episode it would have to be "Long Term Parking"

What a powerful episode. Great acting by Michael Imperioli and Drea de Mateo. After practically being tied together for the entire series up until this point, these two went out with a bang. I still find the scene where Adriana confesses to Christopher about her FBI involvement, as the most anticipated, powerful scene in the history of the show. I just remember being nervous and excited at the same time, what Christopher would do when she tells him that she has something to tell him. The look on his face is priceless as he is in total shock, which turns to anger then fear. The scene where Christopher is crying and screaming with Adriana sitting by his side, while he says "what are we gonna do?!" still gives me goosebumbs. I thought this episode was very well written as well. Kudos to whowever's idea it was to not show Christopher going to Tony about Adriana's betrayal. This puts you even more on the edge of your seat in the scene where she is riding in the car with Sil. At first viewing it is entirely possible Christopher could have been in such a state of depression that he had a drug overdose suicide attempt. Then when Sil pulls the car into the woods you know for sure, just as Adriana does that it is all over for her. A heartbreaking scene that is hard to watch, but the build up to this was so well done. As was the follow up with a stoned, somber Christopher and Tony at the Bing afterward. A fine job by all. And worthy of being included in my Top 3 best episodes ever.

[madribub]

I really loved Season 5. Other than Season 1 it may be my favorite season, which is saying a lot. "Where's Johnny?", "Unidentified Black Males", "Irregular Around The Margins" and "All Due Respect" all rank as some of my favorite episodes of Season 5, but this comes down to a two horse race for me.

"The Test Dream" was a great, deep, confusing episode that I can watch over and over again. (Which I have!) But if I had to pick one episode it would have to be "Long Term Parking"

What a powerful episode. Great acting by Michael Imperioli and Drea de Mateo. After practically being tied together for the entire series up until this point, these two went out with a bang. I still find the scene where Adriana confesses to Christopher about her FBI involvement, as the most anticipated, powerful scene in the history of the show. I just remember being nervous and excited at the same time, what Christopher would do when she tells him that she has something to tell him. The look on his face is priceless as he is in total shock, which turns to anger then fear. The scene where Christopher is crying and screaming with Adriana sitting by his side, while he says "what are we gonna do?!" still gives me goosebumbs. I thought this episode was very well written as well. Kudos to whowever's idea it was to not show Christopher going to Tony about Adriana's betrayal. This puts you even more on the edge of your seat in the scene where she is riding in the car with Sil. At first viewing it is entirely possible Christopher could have been in such a state of depression that he had a drug overdose suicide attempt. Then when Sil pulls the car into the woods you know for sure, just as Adriana does that it is all over for her. A heartbreaking scene that is hard to watch, but the build up to this was so well done. As was the follow up with a stoned, somber Christopher and Tony at the Bing afterward. A fine job by all. And worthy of being included in my Top 3 best episodes ever.

Would have to agree with you that Season 5 is my fave aside from Season 1. So rather than listing my favorite, I'll list my favorites: Two Tonys, Rat Pack (clever ending), Where's Johnny, Irregular Around the Margins, Cold Cuts, Test Dream, Long Term Parking, All Due Respect. That would be most of the episodes. :)

[AJColossal]

Season 5 was a really strong season. It was a fan favorite with something for every type of Sopranos fan with plenty of mob action, family stuff, and dream sequences.

However, we'd seen a lot of this before: bad guys are released from jail to butt heads with Tony, along with characters that are suddenly introduced as important but never mentioned before.The fifth season was a slight retread of themes that had been introduced before, but a very energized retread that resulted in the most cohesive overall narrative since the first season.

Overall, the fifth season of The Sopranos played like your favorite band putting out a greatest hits album: a little on the safe side, but still very, very satisfying.

With that said, there really are some masterpieces to choose from: Two Tonys, Where's Johnny?, Irregular Around the Margins, Unidentified Black Males, The Test Dream, and Long Term Parking all rank with anything the show ever produced.

I chose Long Term Parking. Adriana got the most heartbreaking exit a character ever received on the show. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a better acted dramatic scene than her final confession to Christopher, and what ensued from there.

[rover96]

I had to go with "Long Term Parking". To me, it's the pinnacle - the first time I saw it, I had an intense feeling throughout the episode that the world was crashing down on these characters, and it's the only episode that has stretches I find hard to watch (Ade's confession to Chris).

Also, it has my all-time favorite series moment, which comes at the end, when Carmela and Tony are at the spec house lot. The look that Tony gives as he stares off into the woods chills me every time I see it.

[arab_joe]

[QUOTE=rover96;21113]I had to go with "Long Term Parking". To me, it's the pinnacle...QUOTE]

I agree, for me it is the best episode of them all.

I think I was in shock after watching it the first time: firstly I didn't see the Chris/Ade/Tony scenario coming and, secondly, it was the first time I felt truly gutted (in the sense that we had got to know her so well, and, let's be honest, she is sexy as hell) to see an outsider killed.

The way that the episode "falls into place" is, in my view, on a par with the likes Crash and other great films.

[ragazza]

Long Term Parking - cos it was by far the most shocking murder in the whole show (at least for me). I was so shocked I felt I couldn't move. Hoped (irrationally though) she might get away from the mob without being killed. Btw, excellent acting by S. Van Zandt, Silvio was so cold-blooded and sleazy, it felt like the temperature in the room was droppping to icy degrees.
Adriana might not have been the brightest bulb in chandelier, but I liked her character and thought her death was just heartbreaking.

[BobbyBacala]

I'm with the majority here in choosing Long term Parking. Ade's death scene is probably my favorite in the series. Everything about the way it was filmed and everything in the episode leading up to it was just perfect in my opinion. I almost feel for her when watching it when she first realizes what's going on. It's actually almost scary to watch. As much as you know it's coming at some point, the way it was done was just great.