MovieChat Forums > The Sopranos (1999) Discussion > Why was Season 4 so lousy?

Why was Season 4 so lousy?


Season 4 had a weird made-for-tv quality to it, the pacing sucked, and the writing was like a soap opera. The only scenes I can remember from that season was the fight between Tony and Carmella, and the intervention. Even though these scenes are deservedly praised as some of the best moments on the show, two scenes cannot save a whole season no matter how good they are.

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Tony killed Ralphie during season 4. That was pretty memorable. There were a couple of episodes in season 4 that weren't very good, but overall I enjoyed it quite a bit.

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It was certainly a surprise -- after Ralphie had made such murderous trouble in Season Three(killing his stripper girlfriend) -- when, out of nowhere, he finally got killed in a "middle season" episode in Season Four.

And that intervention scene was priceless (Paulie: "I don't need to write anything down. Yuh're WEAK...")

And the big final end of the line arguments between Tony and Carm were the big climax of the season.

But other than that, it sure did meander.

Showrunner David Chase got the message.

Came Season Five, we had the release of "The Class of '84" after 20 years in the can; a gang war within New York and ultimately against New Jersey, and a juicy new set of gangsters to give Tony angst: Tony B, Phil Leotardo, Loggia, the Rockford Guy....

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I just rewatched the entirety of The Sopranos and found season 4 much better than I remembered it. As I said, there were a couple of episodes that were pretty lifeless, but overall I still enjoyed most of it. I always thought that the 4th season was just very dark, due to the fact that 9/11 had just occurred recently. Chase possibly made the season the way he did for that reason. Who is to k

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from the intervention I prefer, Silvio.

When I came into open up one morning, there you were with your head half in the toilet
Your hair was in the toilet water.
Disgusting!

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Season 4 is more difficult the first time you watch it, because its not clear where its heading, or what the point of the season is going to be. But after you've completed the season, and go back and rewatch it, then it makes more sense and is actually much more enjoyable. That whole year is showing that Tony and Carmela's marriage is crumbling. All of Tony's sins are finally wearing down Carmella to the point where she is either going to start committing some of her own, or will finally throw Tony out. She steals money from him, and absolutely would have had an affair with Furio, had he not fled back to Italy. And even when they try to do things they think will help, like that trust fund Carmela wanted but Tony's lawyers told him not too, its just bandaid on bullet wound.

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It had some of the best episodes of the series (“The Weight,” “Whoever Did This,” “Whitecaps”) but also some of the worst, ie “Christopher.”

The problem was it focused too much on an unbelievable love triangle between Tony, Carmela and Furio that didn’t seem to go anywhere. Even the main plot about Tony and Carmela’s marriage falling apart was pointless in the end since they got back together again anyway like nothing ever happened. Overall it felt like a transitional season that was meant to set up plot lines for season 5.

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Your right I have just started watching again first time in 5 years and at the end of season 4. 5 years ago I thought season 4 was underrated. but now 5 years later having a family of my own. married and losing my father and my mother also on her death bed. and me aging 5 more years I see things differently.

I found a few things. that just came out of left field. the Furio thing just comes 'out of nowhere' that Carmela all of a sudden has a thing for him
Bobby and Janice comes out of nowhere as well.
AJ all of a sudden gets a girlfriend
Chris is now completely high on drugs.
Paulie was in the Can.

A lot of the Soap opera story lines just came from nowhere, even Meadow got a new Boyfriend off screen as well. up until the end of season 3 we actually had continued storylines nothing much happened off screen. we got to season 4 and it was like they skipped 2 years and we all seem lost like we missed a season or 2, funny enough season 5 I remember we had a 2 years wait from 2002 to 2004. it was a brutal long wait between seasons.

a few things I have noticed. Tony's voice from about ep 5 changed and got more raspry. don't know if anyone else noticed this. it really changed from the Pie O my on.

The best part was Ralph who was killed off in episode 9. what really sucks about that episode is we actually see Ralph in a way we never seen before. usually he was joking didn't give a crap about anyone but himself. never took anything serious of cared and was smug. we finally see some real emotion from him that was genuine and not fake with his sons accident and he gets killed off that same episode. I think He needed a couple more episode before that happened. after all he did appear in a dream

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I found a few things. that just came out of left field. the Furio thing just comes 'out of nowhere' that Carmela all of a sudden has a thing for him
Bobby and Janice comes out of nowhere as well.
AJ all of a sudden gets a girlfriend
Chris is now completely high on drugs.
Paulie was in the Can.


Keep in mind there is at least an 8 month gap between the end of season 3 and the start of season 4. At the end of season 3 they are talking about the Ravens/Giants Super Bowl (Jan. '01) and season 4 starts in the weeks after Sept 11th. And the season runs until May 2002.

Furio was Tony's driver, so that means he came to their house everyday. As we saw he would chat with Carmella while waiting for Tony, and she started falling for his charm.

Janice became infatuated with Bobby when she saw how saddened he was by the death of his wife, and she wished she had a man who would miss her like that. By the end of the season he was finally passed the grieving of his wife and started to return affection.

AJ is in high school, and his girlfriend was a classmate of his. Sometimes they start dating seemingly out of no where.

Chris has always had a drug habit (he did coke in the pilot) and he started dropping acid and he lost control of himself.

And Paulie got busted on a trumped up gun charge and was in the can for awhile.

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well the Paulie thing was written because Tony Sirico had some back issues and missed the first 6 episodes (only had a few scenes)

when i put on season 5 after this I see they tried to go back to the humor of the first 3 seasons. Paulie and Chris fighting and the weightier being shot that dark humor was back straight away I feel season 4 missed a lot of that and t had a lot of build up for nothing. apart from the Tony and Camilla final which was awesome

just on Chris he never really took Heroine though, this season is where we first started seeing him injecting it into his foot

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Season 4 was ploddingly paced with some episodes and storylines that didn't seem to move the story much. Episodes such as Too Much Television, with its HUD scheme, and AJ's secondary storyline in Everybody Hurts both come to my mind.
I could never figure out the point of AJ's journey in Everybody Hurts - just some minute realisation that he's rich and privileged, but different to other kids because his father is a gangster? I think that could have been handled more interestingly.

Despite all that, Season 4 contains some of the series greatest moments and episodes: The Weight, the episode where Ralph is wacked and Christopher's intervention episode, and Whitecaps.

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I didn't like that they ended the "friendship" between Adriana and the FBI agent (agent Debra aka Danielle) so quickly; it kind of killed the suspense as to whether or not Adriana was going to confess to her that Christopher being part of the Mafia. They could have drawn out that storyline a little bit longer....

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Lol what? it went for basically two full seasons. Starting in the last episode of season 3 until the long term parking episode. if they had drawn it out any longer it would have gotten boring

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Every season was made for TV. It was never in the theaters

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