Now, out here in the middle of almost nowhere, a guy needs some kind of mindless diversion on occassion and with a TV addicted wife, a great solution is DirecTv. I have more channels than I ever had back home. Hell, in the middle of Canada’s largest city, if I couldn’t get it on the rabbit ears, it can’t have been worth watching - Satuday Night at The Movies with Elwy Yost and some local news was all I needed. Now I have about 30 or 40 music channels most of which I would never listen to - 80’s Light Rock comes to mind - and probably 70 or 80 more TV channels with much of what they offer set aside for those very desperately mindless of days.
Though the bits in between can quite often be… dare i say it… worth the time. Which brings me to the best TV dream sequence ever. Now I stress best ‘TV’ dream sequence because this one pales in comparison to much in the film canon. That being said, I must also admit that I did not stumble across this dream sequence while mindlessly flipping thru channels; No I am for, all intents and purposes, a regular watcher of the show that gets my vote for best ever TV dream sequence.
That show? Why it’s The Sopranos of course.
And the episode I just watched was fucking brilliant!! Now I’m getting these episodes more than a few seasons old down here in the tropics, so Soprano fanatics cut me some slack - don’t know the season or the episode, but Tony Soprano has the most fucked up, authentic, just like a ‘real’ dream, dream sequence I’ve ever seen. Fellini would be oh so proud. And so should David Chase.
The sequence goes on for a good long while, so much so that you’re not really sure if it has ended or not and just when you think it has to be done, it gets weird again and you realize Tony is still having the whacked out dream. At one point, Tony’s at dinner with Meadow’s boyfriend’s parents and the mother is Annette Bening, but playing herself and only Tony knows… He even leans over behind Carmela’s back and says, ‘You’re Annette Bening!’ My description does not do it justice, but that was one of many points where I burst out laughing loud enough for the monkies to probably hear.
All these ackward strange pauses and subtle audio changes; people at a table in one shot and when you cut back it is someone else or no one. That has happened in almost every dream I have ever had and almost never do you see it in a scripted dream sequence. They’ve actually captured, for television, the essential feeling and essense of experiencing a dream.
Good on ya boys!!
Posted on Thursday, September 28th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
Filed under Swanny's Blog.
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