Past Episodes
Season 1
Guy Walks Into a Psychiatrist's Office
Do Not Resuscitate
Tony Soprano gets a major headache in his life when Richie Aprile is paroled from prison. He's former boss Jackie's brother, which makes it a little complicated when he gets out since Tony is now boss. It's even more complicated because Richie does not give a single fuck that Tony is the boss. He will do what he pleases, when he pleases, and with little regard for anybody but himself.
Richie is played by David Pravol. Apparently he was considered for the role of Tony Soprano, but he was considered "too perfect." I am glad they didn't go in that direction. While's perfectly fine in this role, I cannot even imagine him being able to play Tony half as well as James Gandolfini.
He begins wrecking havoc by going to his old partner in crime, Beansie Gaeta. He seems to be mostly out of crime and is a pretty good money maker for Tony with his pizzeria business. Richie is pissed because Beansie never gave him respect and visited him in prison. He wants his share of the business, which Richie seems to never have been a part of. So he beats the shit out of Beansie.
Richie hasn't been in the game for 10 years so he feels disrespected that he has to talk with Tony's right-hand man, Silvio, and later in the mall. Richie basically gets out of prison and wants everything he had before he was in prison NOW. He also wants his old girlfriend back, Janice. He seemingly stalks her by doing yoga and later meeting Livia at a very opportune time. Janice is a fucking idiot so she falls for it.
There is an interesting parallel that's not exactly subtle, but still very evident. (To be fair, if it was subtle I doubt I'd be able to spot it. That's not my expertise.) The show compares the behavior of Meadow and Tony's ability to control what she does to Richie Aprile. Tony is basically powerless against both because he's restrained in his ability to enact punishments.
Meadow throws a party at her grandmother's house, gets caught, and then plays her parents like a fool. I didn't like the extra, unnecessary scene of Meadow explaining that she was scamming her parents essentially. That smile that spread across her face after she manipulates them into taking away her credit card for three weeks was really the only thing necessary. (Then she gets money whenever she wants as she asks for a CD, which I think was for school maybe, but still she could be lying about that.)
Meanwhile, despite Tony's insistence on backing off, Richie runs over Beansie with a car. He does this because he once again feels disrespected Beansie didn't come to his welcome home party thrown by Tony. That was a pretty stupid thing to do. If that's the custom, might as well go, contribute your money, and hope being around friends will save you. Instead, he avoided the party and almost asked for Richie's beating. (Surely he's aware Richie's a bit of a loose cannon. Tony can only do so much.)
Janice at first supports Meadow as just a little teen rebellion as we get the sense that she's done her fair share of that. But then she finds out she destroyed her little pet project. We also find out she's getting money from disability checks I think meant for Livia. After finding out that Meadow's actions affected her, she got righteous and questioned the parenting style of Tony and Carmela. The scene where Tony flips his bowl and gets in her face is a masterclass in acting by Gandolfini.
It's pretty clear that Janice is deluding herself into believing she's better than the other Sopranos, because she got out. When she tells Richie that she's a different person, she sounds like she's trying to convince herself more than she actually believes it. Richie most certainly knows he's full of shit at least. A constant theme in The Sopranos is that people never change and the conversation the two have at the hospital cafeteria is one of the best examples. Two people saying they are different, but they are the exact same as before.
Then there's a little necessary plot for Melfi trying to show why she'll come back to Tony. It's a bit forced, but there's certainly worse directions than having Melfi feel guilty Tony will kill himself. She first meets Tony in the same restaurant and then frets about saying toodle doo to him as a goodbye. She makes waaaay too big of a deal of it and it drags the episode down.
Then she dreams Tony crashed his car to "Optimistic Voices" from The Wizard of Oz. I'm sure there's a symbolic reasoning for that decision, but I don't know what it is. So if anybody knows that meaning, I encourage you to tell me.
This episode was written Sopranos veteran Frank Renzulli. Interestingly enough, he was nominated for an Emmy in Outstanding Writing for two episodes on The Sopranos, but neither was in this second season. The episode was directed by Lee Tamahori. He had one visually cool shot that I noticed which was when the camera panned across the room when Janice and Richie did yoga. Tamahori's career as a director went to shit after he directed this episode. Before he directed three basically respectable films and afterwards he directed Along Came a Spider, Die Another Day, and xXx: State of Union, all of which were critically panned. He was an interesting guest director at the time though.
Deaths
Nobody I believe
Quotes
"Let's not overplay our hand here, because if she finds out we're powerless, we're fucked." - Tony on parenting
Guy Walks Into a Psychiatrist's Office
Do Not Resuscitate
Tony Soprano gets a major headache in his life when Richie Aprile is paroled from prison. He's former boss Jackie's brother, which makes it a little complicated when he gets out since Tony is now boss. It's even more complicated because Richie does not give a single fuck that Tony is the boss. He will do what he pleases, when he pleases, and with little regard for anybody but himself.
Richie is played by David Pravol. Apparently he was considered for the role of Tony Soprano, but he was considered "too perfect." I am glad they didn't go in that direction. While's perfectly fine in this role, I cannot even imagine him being able to play Tony half as well as James Gandolfini.
He begins wrecking havoc by going to his old partner in crime, Beansie Gaeta. He seems to be mostly out of crime and is a pretty good money maker for Tony with his pizzeria business. Richie is pissed because Beansie never gave him respect and visited him in prison. He wants his share of the business, which Richie seems to never have been a part of. So he beats the shit out of Beansie.
Richie hasn't been in the game for 10 years so he feels disrespected that he has to talk with Tony's right-hand man, Silvio, and later in the mall. Richie basically gets out of prison and wants everything he had before he was in prison NOW. He also wants his old girlfriend back, Janice. He seemingly stalks her by doing yoga and later meeting Livia at a very opportune time. Janice is a fucking idiot so she falls for it.
There is an interesting parallel that's not exactly subtle, but still very evident. (To be fair, if it was subtle I doubt I'd be able to spot it. That's not my expertise.) The show compares the behavior of Meadow and Tony's ability to control what she does to Richie Aprile. Tony is basically powerless against both because he's restrained in his ability to enact punishments.
Meadow throws a party at her grandmother's house, gets caught, and then plays her parents like a fool. I didn't like the extra, unnecessary scene of Meadow explaining that she was scamming her parents essentially. That smile that spread across her face after she manipulates them into taking away her credit card for three weeks was really the only thing necessary. (Then she gets money whenever she wants as she asks for a CD, which I think was for school maybe, but still she could be lying about that.)
Meanwhile, despite Tony's insistence on backing off, Richie runs over Beansie with a car. He does this because he once again feels disrespected Beansie didn't come to his welcome home party thrown by Tony. That was a pretty stupid thing to do. If that's the custom, might as well go, contribute your money, and hope being around friends will save you. Instead, he avoided the party and almost asked for Richie's beating. (Surely he's aware Richie's a bit of a loose cannon. Tony can only do so much.)
Janice at first supports Meadow as just a little teen rebellion as we get the sense that she's done her fair share of that. But then she finds out she destroyed her little pet project. We also find out she's getting money from disability checks I think meant for Livia. After finding out that Meadow's actions affected her, she got righteous and questioned the parenting style of Tony and Carmela. The scene where Tony flips his bowl and gets in her face is a masterclass in acting by Gandolfini.
It's pretty clear that Janice is deluding herself into believing she's better than the other Sopranos, because she got out. When she tells Richie that she's a different person, she sounds like she's trying to convince herself more than she actually believes it. Richie most certainly knows he's full of shit at least. A constant theme in The Sopranos is that people never change and the conversation the two have at the hospital cafeteria is one of the best examples. Two people saying they are different, but they are the exact same as before.
Then there's a little necessary plot for Melfi trying to show why she'll come back to Tony. It's a bit forced, but there's certainly worse directions than having Melfi feel guilty Tony will kill himself. She first meets Tony in the same restaurant and then frets about saying toodle doo to him as a goodbye. She makes waaaay too big of a deal of it and it drags the episode down.
Then she dreams Tony crashed his car to "Optimistic Voices" from The Wizard of Oz. I'm sure there's a symbolic reasoning for that decision, but I don't know what it is. So if anybody knows that meaning, I encourage you to tell me.
This episode was written Sopranos veteran Frank Renzulli. Interestingly enough, he was nominated for an Emmy in Outstanding Writing for two episodes on The Sopranos, but neither was in this second season. The episode was directed by Lee Tamahori. He had one visually cool shot that I noticed which was when the camera panned across the room when Janice and Richie did yoga. Tamahori's career as a director went to shit after he directed this episode. Before he directed three basically respectable films and afterwards he directed Along Came a Spider, Die Another Day, and xXx: State of Union, all of which were critically panned. He was an interesting guest director at the time though.
Deaths
Nobody I believe
Quotes
"Let's not overplay our hand here, because if she finds out we're powerless, we're fucked." - Tony on parenting
"You want to raise your hand, you give her your last name." - Interesting philosophy from Richie Aprile on hitting women
"You come into town acting like the concerned daughter. Who the fuck are you kidding? You're just here to pick the friggin' bones." - slightly paraphrased, but you get the gist - Tony telling Janice off basically
"There's a lot that I could say right now that I am not gonna say." - This is practically Janice's catchphrase
"Oh, I wish the Lord would take me." - Livia's catchphrase
"Here's a rule you might remember: I'm the motherfucking fucking one who calls the shots." - Tony's threat to Richie
Playlist (First three are from this episode)
1. "No Scrubs" - TLC
2. "Optimistic Voices" - The Wizard of Oz
3. "Viking" - Los Lobos
4. "Leader" - Del Funky the Homosapien
5. "Cavalier" - James Vincent Morrow
It's "Toodle oo" as in the saying, "toodle-oo" as goodbye. not toodle doo
ReplyDeletei think the wizard of oz song is about the lyrics, kupferberg notices "out of the woods", as in in the dream, Tony died, she's out and free.