Past Episodes
Season 1
Guy Walks Into a Psychiatrist's Office
Do Not Resuscitate
Toodle Fucking-Doo
In an episode where Tony Soprano takes a trip to Italy, the best parts of the episode remain in Jersey. The Italy parts feel slow, somewhat useless, and repetitive. The Jersey parts are vintage Sopranos with many of the season-long arcs being pushed forward in addition to extremely compelling television. It's a bit jarring when they switch back-and-forth since the quality is lopsided. I don't think the Italy parts are even that bad in a vacuum, but they definitely pale in comparison to the Jersey scenes.
There's a lot of good things in this episode, but ultimately it feels slow even for The Sopranos. Tony takes a trip to Italy to sell cars and then negotiates for Furio to come to America with him. Angie Bonpenserio wants to leave Big Pussy, who's obviously affected by being a rat so much that he essentially ignores his wife. And... that's pretty much it.
There's a lot of good things in this episode, but ultimately it feels slow even for The Sopranos. Tony takes a trip to Italy to sell cars and then negotiates for Furio to come to America with him. Angie Bonpenserio wants to leave Big Pussy, who's obviously affected by being a rat so much that he essentially ignores his wife. And... that's pretty much it.
The most interesting character in this episode is Carmela, who goes from awful person to sympathetic and trapped. She gossips about Angie after she said she thought about killing herself at a restaurant. It's a different culture, clearly, but if someone shared that with me, I would keep that to myself. Then, she encourages Angie to stay with Big Pussy being a generally unhelpful friend because she doesn't want Angie to escape while she stays with Tony. Maybe she wants Angie to actually stay because the Church doesn't think highly of divorce, but I think she just wants to make herself feel better about her own situation. (This is possibly influenced by later seasons where she is clearly jealous of Angie making it on her own.)
However, in that dinner conversation, Angie spoke about how when Big Pussy got home after disappearing, she wanted to vomit. In that last scene in the episode, Tony comes home from Italy and Edie Falco lets the audience know that exact thing is happening to her. It's a pretty sad and depressing scene.
Watching this episode now, Angie's story is now inspirational because of where she ends up compared to where she is in this episode. Holy cow, those are two completely different people. She is trapped in a life she doesn't want to be in or can escape. Even the women make fun of her for it and encourage her to not get divorced. That's a terrible position to be in. And she escapes about as well as you can on this show.
However, in that dinner conversation, Angie spoke about how when Big Pussy got home after disappearing, she wanted to vomit. In that last scene in the episode, Tony comes home from Italy and Edie Falco lets the audience know that exact thing is happening to her. It's a pretty sad and depressing scene.
Watching this episode now, Angie's story is now inspirational because of where she ends up compared to where she is in this episode. Holy cow, those are two completely different people. She is trapped in a life she doesn't want to be in or can escape. Even the women make fun of her for it and encourage her to not get divorced. That's a terrible position to be in. And she escapes about as well as you can on this show.
Big Pussy on the other hand shows just how far he's wiling to go to not get killed. He gets spotted by an Elvis impersonator at a Party City outside of Jersey. He freaks out over this even though it'll probably lead to nothing. But he wants to be sure it won't lead to anything so he goes to his house and beats him to death. In case ratting on his friends wasn't enough information for us, Big Pussy has no will to either die or go to prison and will do just about anything to make sure that doesn't happen.
The episode opens with Tony and company trying to watch The Godfather II on an apparently broken DVD player that they illegally obtained. That's an appropriate selection for a couple reasons. One it helps set-up that this glorified life that they live is not as good as it seems. These guys will never attain life as it was portrayed in The Godfather. Also, Paulie mentions that his favorite scene is "I knew it was you Fredo" which parallels Big Pussy's season-long arc in a way.
While the Italy portion was lacking, Paulie never failed to be hilarious. He is not respected even a little by the Italians. He is seen as a pig and with little class (rightfully so to be perfectly fair). Paulie sees an idealized mob that he likes to think he is apart of and that idealized mob looks down on him. Then Chris talks about having to go visit certain places and then he just stays in his room and gets high the whole time. These guys are pretty pathetic. And yet when they get back, they act like they had a great time!
When I say this episode is repetitive, it's mostly because the show has gone to this well many times. The guys go to a place where they are out-of-place and they stick out like a sore thumb. Most of these are Chris and Hollywood stories, but this is almost the same. I've never particularly liked these stories that much, because they are much less interesting than the rest of the show.
When I say this episode is repetitive, it's mostly because the show has gone to this well many times. The guys go to a place where they are out-of-place and they stick out like a sore thumb. Most of these are Chris and Hollywood stories, but this is almost the same. I've never particularly liked these stories that much, because they are much less interesting than the rest of the show.
Meanwhile, Tony has to deal with a woman boss, something he's not comfortable with. He's not willing to have sex with a business associate, much as he wants to. However, she proves savvy and is able to get the better end of a business deal, possibly because she's a woman (in fact it's probable). Tony may not think a woman boss is a good idea, and yet inadvertently he helps prove that a woman boss could actually use the fact that she's a woman to her advantage.
Strangely (in my opinion at least), this episode was written by David Chase. It makes a certain amount of sense in that Chase really enjoyed showing how pathetic these guys are and the Italy scenes definitely achieve that. Not to mention, the Jersey scenes, like I said, are fantastic. I just wouldn't expect a below average Sopranos episode to be written by the creator.
It was directed by Tim Van Patten, a Sopranos regular. He directed 20 episodes in this show's run. When you see these two guys team up, you really would expect a better episode. However, it makes sense because this is only Van Patten's second episode in the series and it's not clear he had quite became the favorite for big episodes.
This was kind of an unconventional Sopranos episode and it was basically the tale of two cities. Perhaps the Italy scenes would look a lot better if it wasn't for how good the Jersey scenes were. I'll never know and can only grade accordingly.
Grade - B+
DeathsIt was directed by Tim Van Patten, a Sopranos regular. He directed 20 episodes in this show's run. When you see these two guys team up, you really would expect a better episode. However, it makes sense because this is only Van Patten's second episode in the series and it's not clear he had quite became the favorite for big episodes.
This was kind of an unconventional Sopranos episode and it was basically the tale of two cities. Perhaps the Italy scenes would look a lot better if it wasn't for how good the Jersey scenes were. I'll never know and can only grade accordingly.
Grade - B+
The Elvis impersonater
Quotes
"Fucking nosy! Eat your manicotti!" -
"Ton, you give this guy a golf club, he'll probably try to fuck it." - Paulie
"And you thought the Germans were classless pieces of shit." - Random Italian guy
"Well I'll be dipped in shit." - Tony
"You know what the Church says about divorce." - Carmela to Angie
"There ya go. Who said you're not a great conversationalist. Fuckin twat (mutters under breath)" Ah Paulie
Playlist (First three are from this episode)
1. "Con Te Partiro" - Andrea Bocelli
2. "Blood is Thicker than Water" - Wyclef Jean ft. G&B
3. "Certamente" - Madreblu
4. "The Chain" - Amanda Alexander (I discovered this like an hour ago)
5. "Mind of a Beast" - The Glitch Mob
4. "The Chain" - Amanda Alexander (I discovered this like an hour ago)
5. "Mind of a Beast" - The Glitch Mob
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