The Sopranos: Season 1

Confession: I'm writing this review having seen the first season of The Sopranos sporadically at best for the past five or so months.  But if I don't write it now, it won't get written and I do want to get my thoughts on this season out there.

Looking back, The Sopranos had a surprisingly clear run of episodes that I find easy to clump together as separate parts of the season.  The first six are universally great, fantastic in execution with some interesting ideas raised in each.  The next six episodes I find uniformly mediocre (with one exception), raised only by the fact that each episode advances the plot in a major way usually.  The finale of the first season rivals some of the best episodes of this series finishing out the season on a high note.

I'm not sure any other season (I'm only through four) has that sort of hit or miss impact that this season has.  Saying the episodes are hit-or-miss isn't exactly correct in the sense that the "mediocre" episodes don't miss so much as disappoint in one way or the other.  But I wonder if that run of mediocre episodes would be a record for The Sopranos - as arbitrary as it would be.

"Down Neck" prominently features Anthony, "The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti" features an awkward and somewhat out-of-place analysis of Italian Americans as portrayed in the media, "Boca" has large sections of its episodes on a soccer coach who we never meet again, "A Hit is a Hit" has some pretty weak representations of African Americans, and "Isabella" features what I consider to be a sorry excuse for an attempted murder.  (To clarify that last point, two professional hit men miss Tony who is literally feet away from them.  I know Tony needed to live, but you could have made it more plausible.)

The one exception in that run of episodes is "Nobody Knows Anything," the episode where Tony is told that Big Pussy is wearing a wire.  This episode is elevated for me in hindsight seeing that Tony is given every indication that Big Pussy is a rat, and yet he refuses to believe it.  Also, Livia Soprano makes her move convincing Junior to murder her son.  Tony's struggle with dealing with possibly having to kill Big Pussy definitely is the highlight of the episode for me.

I find the pilot of The Sopranos to be one of the best it ever did.  I really like its unconventional nature from the rest of the series.  In a way, it reminds me of "Mr. Ruggerio's Neighborhood" (another one of my favorites) in how different the structure of the episode is from the rest of the series.

Then there's "College," commonly regarded as the best episode The Sopranos ever did.  I'm not sure I'd go that far - I mean I have an incomplete list at best right now - but it certainly changed the landscape of television.  A lot of important things happen in this episode.  Edie Falco expresses her acting chops and reveals herself to be more than just your stereotypical mob wife.  Tony brutally murders another man in harsh detail that's rough to watch.  Also, one minute Tony is making progress, connecting with his daughter and the next minute he's forced to lie to her and somewhat sabotage that relationship for the future.

In my personal opinion, The Sopranos first season ages a bit badly.  There's a few story lines here where we are introduced to a character we've never met and then never meet again and it's the A story in the episode!  They severely cut down on that in future seasons (and when it did do that, it was more effective to me - "University" for instance).  The problem isn't so much that we just met the character, but that's its random and there's little reason why they only show up once in the series.  Typically, these people live in the same mob world as Tony so you'd expect they'd cross paths a few times.

My typical complaint that some of the plots on this show are contrived doesn't really fit in this season.  They put the most plot they ever did in this season (through four seasons at least) and it's by far.  They didn't have as much room for contrived standalone episodes.  The one standalone episode in this season is College (which isn't contrived at all!) - I think every other episode is vital to the plot.

The Sopranos were experts at two things in my opinion: just about every main character was as well-written as they come and the acting of the cast.  Rarely if ever did any character do something that made you question the character you've come to know.  Sure, they did bad things, but they were usually perfectly in character.  And of course, James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, and the rest of the cast brought their "A" game every week.  That kind of consistent production makes even bad episodes of The Sopranos enjoyable to watch.  The plot wasn't always up to par with the rest of the show and it didn't really even matter.  (In fact, relying on plot tends to make episodes either great or terrible if the characterization isn't there.)

Overall, The Sopranos doesn't quite live up to its reputation in this season.  It comes really close though.  But still.... this season had in my mind four classic episodes.  That happened in a season that didn't live up to my enormous expectations.  I'm also unfairly watching this season having seen many of the shows it influenced, but my theory is that if the show is to be considered one of the best of all time, it needs to hold up.  This show does hold up to be clear.  I do, however, think age has slightly diminished this season - something I don't think about any other season by the way.

Grade: A-

Playlist
1. This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You) - The Isley Brothers
2. The World I Know - Collective Soul
3. Goodbye - Slaugherhouse
4. Percussion Gun - White Rabbits (If you must only listen to one song, pick this one)
5. Trapped - Tupac 

The Sopranos: I Dream of Jeanie Cusamano

This is a returning weekly feature. I'm reviewing The Sopranos episodes starting from the beginning.  This is the final episode of the first season.  

Past Episodes
Pilot
46 Long
Denial, Acceptance, Anger

Meadowlands
College
Pax Soprano

Down Neck

The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti

Boca

A Hit is a Hit

Nobody Knows Anything

Isabella

This is kind of an important episode in the series, and yet I forgot most of what happened.  I watched it for the first time earlier this year so this is particularly odd.  I honestly think I accidentally skipped over some of the episode, because some of the scenes seem brand new to me.  (Or I was half-asleep and managed to somehow pick up the major things happening)

First, let's talk about Tony and his mother, Livia.  It's a shame that Nancy Merchand's health starting declining after the first season and she basically became a non-entity in the storylines.  The idea of Tony's mother lived on, but the character of Livia itself was barely present after the first season and then of course, she passed away between the second and third seasons.  I would have loved to see what they did with her character.

Tony has his fair share of problems with his mother, but in his mind, she's his mother.  He can complain all he wants, but she gave birth to him, raised him, and molded him as an adult.  He just cannot accept that his mother would try to have him murdered.  He's more infatuated with the image of his mother than Liva herself.  She's basically worthless as a human being, and Tony's continued interactions with her is likely due to an internal sense of obligation.

Dr. Mefli broaches the topic that possibly Livia may have had something to do with his attempted "carjacking."  Mefli wants to be more aggressive with Tony, because if she isn't able to get to the root of the problem, he could just keep denying his mother's insistence on destroying Tony - both figuratively and literally.  And that could lead to his death.  Melfi is sort of a moral guide on this show so she does her best to "save his life" which she sees as convincing Tony that his problems - at least immediate ones - are the fault of his mother.

Tony reacts violently, threatening Melfi and in the scene, you can see James Gandolfini's spit fly into her face.  It's a well-acted scene - I have some problems with this show, but it's never the acting.  Only thanks to an FBI intervention in a misguided attempt to get him to testify does he find out that his mother was responsible.  Undeniable proof.

Also a prominent storyline that ties nicely in with Livia's betrayal of her son is Artie Bucco finding out that Tony burned down Vesuvio's (I think that's how you spell it).  In this case, Livia's "dementia" works against her, because Tony uses it in his argument for why he wouldn't.  Of course, Artie doesn't buy it, but he refuses to call the cops and when he goes to tell his wife, his wife is so pleased with the way the restaurant is shaping up that he can't work up the nerve to ruin her mood and honestly make his life more difficult.

This is the kind of thing The Sopranos did often.  Showed a supposedly moral character have a line that they are willing to cross to make their life easier.  Everyone has a price.  Artie's price is the ability to run a restaurant that he wants to.  Because honestly, I don't think calling the police would help his business a whole lot.  They go to this well often throughout the series, though I think this is the most effective.  It's mostly extremely effective just because of the stakes and it again tied in with the Liva storyline in the most organic and natural way possible - something The Sopranos doesn't do very well in my opinion.  (To clarify, The Sopranos nails down its characters, but its plot is contrived quite a bit.)

Meanwhile, with the news that Junior DID put out a hit on Tony confirmed, it's time to enact revenge.  First, they figure the likely assassin will be someone that Junior can trust - Chucky.  Well, Chucky meets his death early in the episode - in broad daylight by the dock.  Then they nab Mikey as well when he is on his morning jog.  Mikey's sprint towards the woods reminded me of Pine Barrens.  Wonder if that sequence in any way motivated Pine Barrens or if the Sopranos writers are just fascinated with killing in the woods.

Junior is asked if he is not really the mob boss.  That he was just a fall guy and that Tony was really the boss.  This was basically true, but Junior's dignity and pride would not allow him to give Tony credit.  Reminds me of Walter White's pride actually.

In an episode with so much happening, I find it hilarious so much screen time is given to showing how much of an enormous asshole that Father Phil is.  What's funny is that his advice is usually spot-on and nobody follows that advice due to an unwillingness to change.  It was funny when Carmela just had enough of his shit.  There was a good point though in that Father Phil has a price as well.  He gets to smooch off food and wine and watches movies he wants to watch in huge houses and convince himself he's only doing it because he wants to change Tony.  Even though he knows full well Tony's not changing.

This finale is a lot better on re-watch I have to say.  For one, it concludes many of the major and minor storylines.  In an episode where Tony becomes the official mob boss, wipes out the entire section that opposed him (and the rest were arrested), and Tony finally comes clean about seeing a psychiatrist, they managed to do two major character studies in Father Phil and Artie Bucco, two essentially side characters.  They did it in a way that fit into the larger narrative and helped moved the more essential storylines forward too.

Deaths

Jimmy Altieri - The "rat" who was much worse at being a rat than Big Pussy - also less interesting.

Chuckie Signore - To my surprise he was in three episodes, but he gets killed personally Tony (which I can't imagine would happen in a hypothetical real world given Tony's status) on his own boat.  Likely Tony's hitman if Tony didn't strike first.

Mikey Palmice - I was a fan of Mikey and am sorry to see him go.

Quotes

"You smell like Paco Rabonne crawled up your ass and died." - Chris on how Jimmy smells for the Russian girls.  

"Hey my mother never went after my basket" - Basket meaning penis of course

"I'll take care of my uncle and I'll take care of Mikey P, but inside, I'll know" - Tony

"Yes, I'm humbled that you would take my word." - Tony hilariously says.  It's a good point that Melfi fears for her life and yet is willing to take Tony at his word

"Pussy, Booty, I don't know his last name." - Melfi with a collection of words she will likely never repeat in her life

"I didn't burn down your restaurant.  I swear to God on my mother" - Artie doesn't know how little this swearing means.  Might as well swear to the shirt he's wearing.

"I want to fuck Angie Dickinson, see who gets lucky first?" - Junior to the FBI agent

"Someday soon, you'll have families of your own and you'll remember the little moments - like this that were good." - Tony in a touching last scene

Playlist

1.  The Lion's Roar - First Aid Kit

2. Hip Hop is Dead - Nas ft. will.i.am

3. Dreams Old Men Dream - Cold War Kids

4. Hell of a Life - Kanye West

5. Fly - Sugar Ray

The Sopranos: "Isabella"

This is a returning weekly feature. I'm reviewing The Sopranos episodes starting from the beginning.  This is the eleventh episode of the first season.  

Past Episodes
Pilot
46 Long
Denial, Acceptance, Anger

Meadowlands
College
Pax Soprano

Down Neck

The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti

Boca

A Hit is a Hit

Nobody Knows Anything

In "Isabella," Tony is depressed, because he thinks Big Pussy is dead.  He blames himself for it because he no longer thinks Big Pussy is a rat.  So he sleeps in bed all day and creates an imaginary beautiful woman to talk to.  Why the hell can't I do something like that?

Anyway, the first assassination attempt goes badly because Christopher parks in the middle of the street because he's worried about Tony committing suicide.  Ok, this feels off to me.  Chris and Tony sort of, kind of talked about being depressed in a previous episode, and Chris is the type of person to do something stupid like park his car in the middle of the road.

But this doesn't feel natural to me, it feels like the writers needed a way to stall the inevitable.  I don't honestly see Chris following Tony and Chris parks in the middle of the street, because?  So I have a few problems with that scene.

Meanwhile, Junior is struggling mightily with this decision.  He doesn't want to hear about or talk about Tony, he just wants to finish the job so Tony could be dead and he will then be able to move on.  We get that hilarious scene after first botched attempt, Junior wants the hit off so Mikey just shoots Donnie.  It was funny because it was abrupt and kind of shocking.

The second attempt kind of defied probability.  Apparently these guys were good, yet the one guy missed a clear attempt feet away TWICE.  The other guy missed Tony and hit his partner in the face and I think Tony's ear, which I guess is slightly more believable but the accuracy of these two guys is unbelievably bad for being supposedly good hit men.  

The missed attempt did brighten Tony's mood however.  And it gave us a nice moment where Tony was offered a new life and Carmela badly wanted to take it.  We know from "College" that she has regrets about entering this life, but can't resist the good lifestyle for her and her children.  Also, AJ Soprano doesn't buy the car jacking story further pushing along a previous story line that had him finding out Tony was a mobster.

That's the kind of reason The Sopranos is great though.  They don't just dropped story lines, they build on them in some way.  So it's good to see actual evidence of it (To be fair, I didn't really pay attention to this the first time around.)

Tony imagines Isabella because of a need for a mother-son relationship.  This is reflected in the scene where Isabella is breast-feeding a baby "Antonio."  Anyway, I think this show takes these scenes too literally and psychology is not as cut and dry as it makes it out to be.  But I don't really feel terribly strongly about it.

Also, an underrated aspect of why shows like this are successful is the humor.  The humor is so vital, yet it seems that the copycats of shows like this recently have none, such as Low Winter Sun.  (And I mean NO humor).  Any scene with Livia usually gets at least one laugh from me and the AJ's date being in the limo with Paulie and Silvio across from them will never not be funny.

Deaths

Donnie, who says the truth, but suffers because Junior feels guilty.

Quotes

"She's telling the truth or she deserves an Academy fucking Award." - Chris

"I don't know nothing no more." - Tony

"Aha, Tony S's own mother wants him popped." - Donnie, unknowingly leading to his death

"What were you thinking about just then?" --- "This gorgeous piece of cooze." - Nice Tony

"You know if I was that young lady, and you used that kind of talk, I'd slap your face!" - Livia, constant source of comedy at that dinner table scene

"This is the last time.  I'm never coming back to this house." - Livia, with an ounce of truth in her meaning

"I never threatened to cut your dick off." - Carmela

Playlist
1. "Feel Good Hit of the Summer" - Queens of the Stone Age
2. "One Good Thing" - Jared Evans
3. "Go Outside" - The Cults
4. "Hip Hop Saved My Life" - Lupe Fiasco
5. "Tundra/Desert" - Modest Mouse

The Sopranos: "Nobody Knows Anything"

This is a returning weekly feature. I'm reviewing The Sopranos episodes starting from the beginning.  This is the eleventh episode of the first season.  

Past Episodes
Pilot
46 Long
Denial, Acceptance, Anger

Meadowlands
College
Pax Soprano

Down Neck

The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti

Boca

A Hit is a Hit

This is one of the best episodes of the season for me and as a bonus it's a huge foreshadowing for a major plot line in the second season.  There are two major story lines brewing: Is Big Pussy a rat and Junior is misled into thinking Tony Soprano is making a move on him.

Tony's inside source for police intel, Detective Vin Makazian, tells Tony that Big Pussy is wearing a wire.  Tony and Big Pussy have been friends for years so that news comes as a shock.  He comes to the conclusion that he is 90% sure that Big Pussy is a rat, but he needs to be 110% sure.

Turns out Detective Makazian, played by great actor John Heard, owes Big Pussy $30,000 in debt from betting on football games.  We get inside of Makazian a little bit and he takes a more three-dimensional role in this episode before David Chase decides to kill him off.  He's generally an unhappy guy who is pushed over the edge by getting caught in a bordello with a wise guy and he's placed on administrative leave.

Tony is told by nearly every one that they don't think Big Pussy would do something like this but two things lead him to believe that he's wearing a wire: Makazian wasn't worried about his debt as long as Tony's in his corner and Big Pussy refused to take his clothes off when Paulie tried to see if he had a wire.

We find out here that Big Pussy has been wearing a wire since the drug bust months back (before the show started presumably).  He also gets out of jail fairly soon so the fact that he's been in cahoots with the police help us understand why.  And it explains why he refuses to take off his clothes.  I mean it was smart because it bought him time and it causes him to flee.

Jimmy is not as good with a wire as Big Pussy and he pathetically attempts to string out information from Tony.  Tony picks this up immediately and knows Jimmy is wearing a wire.  However, he mistakenly ignores Makazian's info as mixed up and chooses to think only Jimmy was wearing a wire.  This is understandable since he has an obvious long standing friendship with Big Pussy that he doesn't want to end.

As far as the other story line is concerned, Junior proves how stupid he really he is when he lets Livia convince him of a conspiracy plot aimed at getting Junior out and Tony in.  That sets the wheels in motion for Junior to plan and kill Tony.  It's pretty funny that we see Livia try to downplay her influence to Carmela, which Carmela isn't buying at all.  Then the next scene she's in, she's plotting her son's death.

Anyway, this episode is vital to the season, foreshadows next season, and helps us see more of why we root for Tony Soprano.  (He's a pretty smart guy for picking up on Jimmy's wire so quickly and his reluctance to kill his friend)

Surprise Guest Appearances
Nobody.  I might kill this feature, because nobody is a notable guest star anymore.  (And when Steve Buscemi comes, he'll be there for more than a few episodes.)

Deaths
Detective Makazian isn't killed, but commits suicide as the lone death of the episode.

Quotes
"Go see if Mr. Mop and Glow is still here?  Don't worry he's a real doctor." - Followed by an image which explains his name

"I don't give two shits about you, your family, or whether you take it up the ass." - Tony to Makazian

"I'm sorry I'm under a little bit of pressure here, I don't have time to suck your dick." - Tony's quips to Makazian are some of the best quotes in the season

"Well hello there Carmela, so nice to see you." - Carmela sarcastically on what Livia should have greeted her with.

"You got options.  Don't let anybody ever try to tell you don't got options." - Tony telling Big Pussy why he shouldn't wear a wire

"She's more connected to the world." -- "Which one?  This one or Neptune?" - Tony about Livia

"Hey who wouldn't want to sleep with their shrink?" - Said by Debbie to Tony, which is maybe a little too on the nose

"At least with Tony Soprano, you know where you stand." - Makazian

"Yeah but you won't have any teeth left to eat if you don't get up off your ass to see who's at the door." - Tony on why you should listen to what he says

"You answer me like I'm Jesus Christ himself, and if you fucking lie to me, may your mother die of cancer of the eyes." - Tony with a variation on swearing to God

"No, the other forever." - Mikey talking about death, not jail to his wife.

Playlist (Reds walk-up music version - Just went to GABP)
1. "Paint it Black" - Rolling Stones (Votto)
2. "Fly Me to the Moon" - Frank Sinatra (Frazier)
3. "Hypnotize" - Notorious B.I.G. (Izturis)
4. "Intro" - The xx (Leake)
5. "Brass Monkey" - Beastie Boys (Ludwick)

The Sopranos: "A Hit is a Hit"

This is a returning weekly feature. I'm reviewing The Sopranos episodes starting from the beginning.  This is the tenth episode of the first season.  

Past Episodes
Pilot
46 Long
Denial, Acceptance, Anger

Meadowlands
College
Pax Soprano

Down Neck

The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti

Boca

This is not a great episode.  If there's one thing The Sopranos struggles with, it's writing competent characters outside of the world of the Sopranos.  This has two different story lines dealing with characters outside of their world.

The first, Massive Genius and his posse, is just downright painful at times.  This is the stereotypical idea of what an intellectual gangster rapper is.  I'm not going to pretend to know how an extremely rich gangster rapper acts, but I'm pretty positive the portrait of Massive Genius is not it.  Also, the name Massive Genius - really?  

I really just wish they would have just scrapped that whole story to pieces.  It does nothing of value really and I don't think they return to it in the future.  It's supposed to give us an greater idea of who Hesh is, but it barely achieves that even.  We already knew he was rich and a shrewd businessman.

The other one was of the upper class rich white men that Tony is neighbors with.  I have less problems with them as this seems pretty realistic in my mind.  They don't really want to be friends with Tony, but want to be friends with Scarface, Michael Corleone, and the idea of a real mob boss.  

This is just... boring.  I know that I sound like a person who watches The Sopranos for the kills and action, but I'm not.  I don't think this episode does much for character beats either.  It's just kind of a pointless episode in my mind.

Also, we see Adriana try to get her friend's band to get signed and to make money off it.  I think the band is actually the perfect note of not great, yet listenable enough.  They sound just ok enough to imagine someone like Adriana liking the band, perhaps because she knows someone in it.  Also, bad enough to make it not difficult to imagine the band not getting a deal.

The dinner conversation at the dinner party of Dr. Cusamano kind of touched on the fact that the Sopranos aren't that different from the rest of life, however it was undercut a little by how awkward all the scenes were between Tony and the other rich white men.

The ending was nice though.  Giving Dr. Cusamano sand as a gift and telling him to "Hold on to it for a while" is genius.  I imagine if I was in that scenario, I'd be freaking the hell out.

Surprise Guest Appearances

Bokeem Woodbine, whose name really doesn't ring a bell, but his face is unique and instantly recognizable as Massive Genius.  He really tries with this role, but the writing just isn't there for him.

Deaths

At the beginning of the episode, random guy who was killed and the Sopranos found a lot of money there.  Still not sure who he is was or where that money was from, but that wasn't the point.

Quotes (This was one of the weaker episodes for quotes)

"I can't tell if you're old-fashioned, paranoid, or just a fucking asshole." - Carmela about Tony, it's probably the last one

"You know Richie Santini?" "Yeah, you used to fuck him." - Chris, with his wonderful way with words

"My people were the white man's nigger when your people were painting their faces and chasing zebras." - Hesh with the racist comment of the episode

"Sometimes I think the only difference between American business and the mob is fucking wacking somebody." - Dr. Cusamano might not be far off.

"We don't just play, we win." - Wife of rich white guy - Might as well wear a huge neon sign saying "I'm a huge bitch"

"I've recorded... in Denmark" - Douchebag alert from lead singer of band

"How real was The Godfather?" "Did you ever meet John Gotti?" - Rich white men being dumb

Playlist (Just watched 8 mile so that explains two songs)

1. "Lose Yourself" - Eminem

2. "Shook Ones" - Mobb Deep

3. "I Don't Care" - Icona Pop

4. "Name" - Goo Goo Dolls

5. "The Way We Get By" - Spoon

The Sopranos: "Boca"

This is a returning weekly feature. I'm reviewing The Sopranos episodes starting from the beginning.  This is the ninth episode of the first season.  

Past Episodes
Pilot
46 Long
Denial, Acceptance, Anger

Meadowlands
College
Pax Soprano

Down Neck

The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti

This episode starts off kind of slow, but ends up raising some great questions and two moral debates internally for both Artie Bucco and Tony Soprano.  Along the way, we have to suffer through kind of painful soccer game.  Painful, because the soccer game looks like it was played by grade schoolers and instead it's actually being played by a high school winning team.

First off, Tony ends up looking like an asshole, because the coach of Meadow's team is leaving for Rhode Island.  Tony doesn't want him to leave and takes some measures to intimidate the coach into staying.  Then Ally cuts her wrists and the only think Tony can think of is for the soccer team.  These scenes show the sheer evilness and selfishness that is Tony.

Then, Tony has a debate about whether or not to kill the coach.  At first it seems obvious to him.  He's a child molester, he deserves to die.  He has a point about the justice system not punishing him like he deserves.  So when we hear that Tony will kill him, I think some of us agreed with him.

Artie has another episode where the price of friendship with Tony Soprano weighs heavily on him.  He knows Tony is not a good person, but he convinces himself otherwise.  With the help of his wife badgering him, he tells Tony to cut out the mobster intimidation moves he's putting on the coach.  When he finds out that the coach has had sex with Ally, he at first agrees with Tony that he needs to die.  Again, with the protests of his wife, he has a last minute plea with Tony to not do it.

In between, we get an awesome scene where Tony gets a guy to take off his hat at a nice restaurant.  Artie beams at Tony and probably thinks "That's why I'm friends with him."  Then of course Tony ruins it when he tells the waiter he thinks cops are in the table next to him.  Great acting by John Ventimiglia as his faces drops when he hears this news.

At the end, Tony gets stupid drunk and feels kind of good about himself at not killing the coach.  As he tells Carmela, he didn't hurt nobody for once.

The "B' storyline focuses on how much reputations matter to these mob men.  Junior apparently goes down on his lover, Bobbi, quite often and does it well.  But word gets out, and there are some funny scenes of sexual innuendo first by Carmela at the dinner table, and later by Tony at the golf course.  

This pisses Junior off enough to tell Mikey that Tony is seeing a psychiatrist, which makes Mikey think Tony is going to get the whole mob in trouble.  Then he breaks up with Bobbi, which apparently lasted 14 years.  Well, that's the last we see of Bobbi in the series, so I guess that means he needed to get rid of her in order to keep his reputation intact, at least in his mind.

One of the weaknesses of The Sopranos is that it brings in random characters for one episode that the Sopranos seem to know and care about, but we the audience don't.  Ally cuts her wrist and it sucks, but this is the last appearance of her.  Other shows are guilty of this, but I don't think any great show has as many one-appearance characters be part of such major storylines and then drop out.

Surprise Guest Appearances

No surprise, but this is the first appearance of Attorney Hal Melvoin, Junior's lawyer.

Deaths

The only notable thing here is that there were no deaths.  Coach Hauser lives another day... in prison.

Quotes

"Anthony, those dogs will start foaming at the mouth" - Livia at the grave

"Life has been putting Prozac to the test" - Tony 

"Last week, I called you a whore.  I might have been overstating the case." - Tony said hilariously to Dr. Melfi

"They think if you'll suck pussy, you'll suck anything." - Junior on his reasoning

"They don't sell hot dogs here.  They removed the bleachers three years ago." - Tony telling the man to take off his hat

"Let me tell you something, guido.." "My name is Clarence." -

"I don't go down there enough." - "That's not what I heard." - Carmela making fun of Junior

"What?  No reward?  Just kidding, I'm an animal lover." - Chris, playing it deadpan

"Carmela, I didn't hurt nobody." - Tony says after he drunkenly falls to the ground

Playlist

1. "Undercover Martyn" - Two Door Cinema Club

2. "Just My Imagination" - The Temptations

3. "Radioactive" - Imagine Dragons

4. "Lost Ones" - J. Cole

5. "Bitch Please II" - Eminem ft. Nate Dogg, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg

The Sopranos: "The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti"

This is a returning weekly feature. I'm reviewing The Sopranos episodes starting from the beginning.  This is the eighth episode of the first season.  

Past Episodes
Pilot
46 Long
Denial, Acceptance, Anger

Meadowlands
College
Pax Soprano

Down Neck

This episode has its highs and lows, but ultimately is somewhat a lesser Sopranos episode in my mind.  For one, showing scenes of Melfi and her family were not great.  I did like the contrast between Melfi's family talking about the history of Italian Americans and the Sopranos family talking about it.

The Melfi family seemed to focus on the bad reputation of Italian Americans, which sort of seemed like it came from the creator a little more than a genuine family dinner.  I think that scene was redeemed when we saw the Soprano family talk about the great Italian Americans, which seemed much more natural and gave us the contrasting scenes.

I guess it's necessary to show how Melfi's family is resistent to her treating a mob man, a man who is "evil" as her ex-husband says to her.  But the scene where they debate whether or not to sell a plot of land really didn't work in my mind.  It just made them come off as pretentious assholes.

In other news, Tony does one of those unforgivable things by hiding his stash of money and guns in his mother's nursing home without her knowledge.  Well, it'd be unforgivable if Livia was even slightly a good person.  If you felt even a twinge of sorrow for her, she made sure to take it away by telling Junior Tony is seeing a psychiatrist.  She was trying to tell him last episode, but was interrupted.

Speaking of that scene, we get a funny sequence of a down-on-his-luck comedian whose jokes and Bob Dylan playing is getting literally no response at all.  This was a pretty comical episode between Chris trying to write a screenplay full of misspellings, Chris being pissed off that he's not mentioned in the news, Chris... well pretty much every Chris scene was funny in some hilarious or tragic way.

To recap Chris and his lack of an arc, he has guilt over shooting a guy, and unlike a normal, sane person, he thinks it's because the dead guy is trying to say he did something wrong with hiding the body.  He might actually realize that it's because of guilt, but he thinks the response to removing that guilt is to move the body instead of... well trying to reform.  That's why he has a lack of an arc.

Then the scene between Tony and Chris was brilliant.  Tony trying to be sympathetic and trying to relate by asking if he's having similar problems to Tony.  However, being tough guys who don't let anything on the inside, Chris brushes it off.  It makes you cringe a bit when Chris says he's no mental midget.  You can just feel Tony deflate inside.  That's how you make a terrible person sympathetic against all odds.

RIP James Gandolfini (First post since his unfortunate death)

Surprise Guest Appearances

None unfortunately

Deaths

None, but I'd be remiss to not mention that Christopher shot a guy in the foot for basically no reason

Quotes

"I thought I was daed, but I manuged to get the drip on him." - Chris' poor spelling - As a side note, I can't imagine he's a good writer.

"No one would ever have ranked him as associate.  SOLDIER?  Brendan Filone - associate, soldier?  Fuck you." - Chris at the apparent mob expert on the news program.

"You motherfucker, you shot my foot!"  -- "It happens." - Funny exchange between the donut employee and Chris

"You're telling me you're planning a vacation, but you don't know if you'll go?" -- "Right.  Let's put it this way, there's a strong possibility it will happen." - Hilarious exchange as both sides realize he's talking about getting arrested.

"That happens.  The more of them you do, the better you'll sleep." - Big Pussy with perhaps not the best advice to get over the guilt of murdering someone

"Is that him?" -- "It'd be some fucking coincidence if it wasn't." - Chris, digging up his most recent murder over fear of doing something wrong

"You know I wipe my ass with your feelings." - Awww! Tony, Chris loves you too

"Now think about it: Why would someone who eats with sticks invent something you need a fork to eat?" -  Tony on why the Chinese couldn't have invented spaghetti

Playlists

1. Frank Sinatra - Cake (from this episode)

2. Blood on the Leaves - Kanye West
3. Contact - Daft Punk
4. Ride Wit Me - Nelly
5. My Own Worst Enemy - Lit

The Sopranos: "Down Neck"

This is a weekly feature.  I'm reviewing The Sopranos episodes starting from the beginning.  This is the seventh episode of the first season.  

Past Episodes
Pilot
46 Long
Denial, Acceptance, Anger

Meadowlands
College
Pax Soprano

This isn't a great episode - by Sopranos standards - but it's kind of necessary.  The questions raised in this episode are what made this such a great show.  It's also what made it revolutionary and different than any other television show.

Anthony and his devious friends decide to steal wine from the church.  Maybe because it's aged badly, maybe because I didn't really do anything that bad when I was that age, but that threw me off right away.  Even at that age, I don't think those kids are stupid enough to steal alcohol and drink it DURING school.  This could easily just be a problem of me just not relating to that situation at all.

Anyway, this justifiably gets him suspended and he needs to see a school therapist.  This show really rides on that line between saying therapy is useless and therapy is helpful.  I think this episode didn't condemn or praise therapy, which is tough to do.

I guess my problem with this episode is that Anthony stealing wine seems contrived to me - I mean it comes out of nowhere and seems out of character for me.  This gives the show a reason for Tony to reflect on his upbringing.  I wish I didn't think the beginning was contrived, because his son getting in trouble is a great excuse for him to reflect on his childhood.  It's a great utilization of flashbacks that is central to the story and gives us information on why Tony is the way he is.

The flashbacks themselves?  I love everything about them except the actor who plays a young Tony.  Yeah, his acting was... not great.  I just generally don't like child actors a lot.  They aren't very good at acting generally speaking.

Livia finds out that Tony is seeing a therapist, which she will use against him.  She attempts to not so subtly tell Junior about it.  She has a weird tendency to beat around the bush and make the other person want to know what she was planning on telling them the whole time.

Anyway, this show asks how Anthony will respond to Tony if he ever found out the true details of his life.  It never answers the question, because Tony doesn't tell him so they are back where they started.  Anthony basically knowing about Tony's mafia life and Tony acting like he does nothing wrong.

Tony is starting to realize the true influence of his mother.  His mother kind of was able to control his father and impact some of his decisions as the flashback reveals.  We knew she did that now to Junior and sometimes Tony, but this episode shows it's been happening forever.

It's a testament to this show that I consider this a weaker episode when it achieves all it achieves.

Surprise Guest Appearances
I didn't recognize any.

Deaths
No deaths surprisingly

Quotes
"Intimate feelings?  I think I said I was in love." - Tony, getting straight to the point

"His belt was his favorite child development tool." - Tony on his father

"I take a licking, but keep on ticking" - Christopher, after stealing the watches

"She had a stroke.  Now half her brain is gone" - Livia, whose delivery is the only reason this is funny.

"Maybe I'd be selling patio furniture in San Diego or whatever." - Tony's idea of a normal life

"I could stick this fork in your eye." "She wasn't gonna do it!" - Amusing contrast between flashback and therapy session

"I'd rather smother them with a pillow than take them to Nevada" *cue terrible acting face from kid*

"And it's a sickness, to fidget?  What constitutes a fidget?" - Tony raises a damn good point

Playlist
1. No Vaseline - Ice Cube
2. Jasmine (demo) - Jai Paul
3. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
4. Madness - Muse
5. Security - Royce Da 5'9

The Sopranos: "Pax Soprano"

This is a weekly feature.  I'm reviewing The Sopranos episodes starting from the beginning.  This is the sixth episode of the first season.  

Past Episodes
Pilot
46 Long
Denial, Acceptance, Anger

Meadowlands
College

This episode is all about Tony and the women in his life: his wife, his therapist, his harlot, and his mother.  These women play a large role in the whole season, but it's emphasized especially so in this episode.

He is suffering the fall-out of not telling Carmela that his therapist was a women.  Carmela, who had come to terms with Tony cheating on her, is hurt because she feels he is actually cheating on her.  I guess she had accepted that Tony would be cheating on her with women who couldn't match her intellectual ability.  Dr. Melfi is obviously a threat to her on an intellectual level.

Tony fantasizes about Dr. Melfi in this moment and makes a move on her.  I really love the scene where Tony sings "What Time is It," which thankfully is on Youtube so you can see it yourself.  His declaration of love for Dr. Melfi comes as a surprise and hilariously inaccurate.  Dr. Melfi's answer that his love is a result of Tony projecting everything he wants from the women in his life onto her seems dead-on.

This is the first episode where Livia's negative influence on Tony's life starts to reach the surface. She encourages Junior to put a tax on Hesh when he wasn't even thinking about it.  Tony and Junior are both aware of what Livia is capable of, but Tony doesn't realize Livia's the one to blame for his troubles yet.

A minor and small part of the episode is Tony trying to get Irina to dress like Dr. Melfi.  This doesn't go over well to say the least as she throws a candle at him.  Throughout the episode, Tony deals with fears of impotence, but it appears it's simply an inability to get turned on by anybody other than Dr. Melfi.

A Tony and Dr. Melfi romance seems very possible in this episode, but when Dr. Melfi asks to see Tony later that day, he says no.  If he said yes, would this relationship have gone somewhere?  Probably nowhere good, mind you, but I think it would have gone somewhere.  I guess we'll never know.

I liked that when Hesh got taxed, he said "I said it was a reasonable request at an unreasonable amount."  He ends up negotiating his way down to $200,000 if you include the fact that Tony gave him his own share.  He is a shrewd businessman indeed.

Junior also killed a valuable asset to one of the other capos.  He was giving a favor to his tailor, who believes his grandson died due to drugs that he sold him.  A little too conveniently in my opinion, the guy also happens to be an expert salesman.  A rare contrivance from The Sopranos that I've been able to spot.

The Junior conflict for the rest of the capos is momentarily dissolved, but it's pretty obvious it's a problem that won't go away.  Tony giving Junior the boss position didn't help matters like he thought he would.

I guess I should also give a paragraph to expressing how terrible of a person Father Phil is.  He openly encourages Carmela to stay in a marriage that is obviously not good for her.  His idea of divorce as for quitters is kind of outdated (although true in the technical sense).  Carmela's influence of Father Phil pretty much guarantees that she will never leave the marriage even if she's given many reasons to do so. (I haven't seen past the second season, so this could look stupid)

Surprise Guest Appearances
Sadly, no one appeared that I even remotely recognized that was in something other than The Sopranos.

Deaths
Drug dealer was thrown over the bridge into the water by Mikey

Quotes
"It was between two Jewish guys and a paesana like me, so I picked the paesana." - Tony, on why he picked a woman doctor

"Who ever heard of a Jew riding horses?" - Livia talking about Hesh

"If I wanted a fucking conversation around here, I might as well be a fucking dildo." "If you were a dildo, we wouldn't be fighting."

"You don't even know what you're apologizing for.  Its our anniversery.  Ours.  Not mine, yours, and Johnny fucking Sack's."

"Hey, I don't even let anybody wag a finger in my face." - Tony, on possibly getting a prostate exam

"I never said fucked." - Hesh

"But your uncle, Madonna, does he eat alone?  He doesn't even pass the salt." - Larry Boy

"She's a degenerate gambler." - Livia, talking about Milly

"Oh, I wish the Lord would take me." - Livia with her classic case of getting people to feel bad about her. (She's pretty good at it)

"For the first time, I feel like he's really cheating and I'm the one who's thirsty." - Carmela to Father Phil

"I'm in love with you." - Tony to Dr. Melfi

"You're not just in my life, you are my life." - Extremely cheesy although it seems in character for Tony to steal this and for Carmela to swoon over it.

Playlist
1. "Ain't No Thang" - Outkast
2. "Roscoe" - Midlake
3. "Bitter Sweet Symphony" - The Verve
4. "Get Lucky" - Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams
5. "Pretty Apollo" - Cyne

The Sopranos: "College"

This is a weekly feature.  I'm reviewing The Sopranos episodes starting from the beginning.  This is the fifth episode of the first season.  

Past Episodes
Pilot
46 Long
Denial, Acceptance, Anger

Meadowlands

I knew this was a great episode, but I forgot it was THIS GOOD.  This is kind of an atypical Sopranos episode in that it's basically just two story lines stretched out over a full hour.  Not a lot of important things happen in the long-run, but a lot of important things happen with the way the audience views the characters.

This is the first episode where we are exposed to Tony.  It kind of slaps the audience in the face. "Oh, wow, yeah he is a bad guy."  He's not just misunderstood.  He's genuinely not a good person.  I don't know if the strangling scene was accurate time-wise in that that is how long it takes to kill someone, but it felt like forever.  That scene was painful.  It's not particularly pleasant to watch someone die like that on screen, even if it's fake.

The other sad thing about this episode is that Tony kind of seems to derail what appeared to be a strengthening relationship between him and his daughter.  Not like I blame him for not saying "Oh yeah, I had to kill that guy, he was a rat," but it's pretty clear that Meadow has lost faith in confiding in her dad.  She knows he did something bad, but is frustrated he won't tell her.

Also, Tony kind of left Meadow to get drunk in the bar, which is hugely irresponsible.  He had to know she was going to get drunk, right?  That's some material for "How to be a Bad Parent."

The other story, amazingly, was just as impressive.  In fact, I knew the Meadow/Tony story was gold before I watched this episode.  I didn't realize the Carmela/Father Phil story was this good.  I basically copied her confession word-for-word in the quotes, because it's truly remarkable writing.

We get into the reason that Carmela is with Tony and why she more importantly stays with him.  We see how much of an internal struggle she has gone through knowing that Tony is a pretty bad person.  I'm not sure they could have found a more effective way of showing the audience this.  Any other way to convey that message would have seemed forced.  This seemed natural.

It might just be me, but Father Phil seems like kind of a dick.  He is kind of complicit in all of this too.  He is getting the rewards of Tony's evil deeds by watching DVDs and eating great Italian food.  He wants Tony to turn to religion, but I'm also pretty sure he wants to be able to go into that house without worrying about his conscience.

That's pretty much the only characters who made it on the show.  Chris gets to talk on a payphone for the entirety of the episode.  A.J. brings his mom some food and then goes to play Nintendo (HEY IT'S THE 90s moment!).  Also, Dr. Melfi gets bitched at in a short phone conversation with Carmela.

Oh, and some serious foreshadowing in this episode with regards to Tony's relationship with Irina Peltsin.  She mentions how her cousin is in town for two weeks and she already found her "knight in white satin armor," a phrase she repeats in the episode "Knight in white satin armor."  That was a short scene, but it really shows these guys knew what the hell they were doing.

Surprise Guest Appearances
Well, Sarah Thompson is hardly famous, but when she appeared on screen, I recognized her immediately.  Sure enough, she was Eve on "Angel." (Other credits include Boston Public and 7th Heaven)

Emma Thompson is Father Phil's crush.  Who doesn't like Emma Thompson though?

Deaths
Fabian Petrulio, the rat

Quotes
"What do you study in India - how not to get diarrhea?" - Tony, who gets a big kick out of his own joke

"Are you in the mafia?" - Tony

"Maybe being a rebel in my family is selling patio furniture on Route 22?" - Tony's weird obsession with selling patio furniture

"I lost my pencil - up his ass." - Carmela to Dr. Melfi

"It means hopefully someday we will learn to tolerate, accept, and forgive those that are different." - Father Phil, something the Church would be smart to actually follow themselves.

"I have forsaken what is right, for what is easy.  Allowing what is evil in my house, allowing my children - Oh my God, my sweet children, to be a part of it, because I wanted things for them, wanted a better life, good schools, I wanted this house, wanted money in my hands, money to buy anything I ever wanted.  I'm so ashamed." - Carmela in her confession

"My husband - I think he has committed horrible acts... I'm the same, I've said nothing, I've done nothing about it.  I got a bad feeling it's just a matter of time before God compensates me with outrage for my sins." *gun clicks meant for Tony on next scene* - more confession

"Want to know something about us wise guys?  The hustle never ends?" - Tony to Fabian

"No man can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered  as to which may be true" - Hawthorne

"This is too fucked up for me to even think about about." - Tony, about Father Phil staying over

"What did you do for 12 hours - play name that pope?" - Tony

Playlist
"Life's a Bitch" - Nas ft. AZ
"Oxford Comma" - Vampire Weekend
"One Headlight" - The Wallflowers
"Let the Drummer Kick" - Citizen Cope
"Juice" - Ces Cru ft. Tech N9ne - This song is so awesome.  Listen to this if you can.