Sopranos
© N/A

Mania Grade: B+
Episode: Soprano Home Movies
Stars: James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Lorraine Bracco
Created By: David Chase

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"The Sopranos"

Finally after what seems like an eternity The Sopranos are back on HBO for their final nine episodes.  I expected this block of episodes to be called season seven but it’s still being called season six.  This first episode is being called the mid-season premiere.  It’s taken a ridiculously long time for The Sopranos to get through these six seasons.  Hell, the series started back when the X-Files was still on television.  I had to go watch the three minute recap of the season so far and the last episode that aired On Demand just to remind myself of what had happened so far. 

The episode starts off with a flashback to 2004 of Tony running from Johnny Sack’s house when the FBI showed up for a raid.  As he ran, Tony tossed away his handgun and a kid sees him do it.  The kid hides and plays with it for a few years leading to the present day where he is caught with it and he admits that he indeed saw Tony toss the gun away.  So, Tony is arrested on weapons charges.  Eventually Tony makes bail and the series switches gears to the meat of this week’s story, and as the title implies, it’s all about family. 

Tony and Carmela are driving to the mountains to spend the weekend with Tony’s sister Janice and Bobby for Tony’s birthday.  Everything starts out innocently enough, Bobby gives Tony a machine gun for his birthday, Janice gives him a DVD with all of their childhood super 8 movies on it and Carm gives Tony a new set of golf clubs.  Earlier that day out on a boat, Tony gives Bobby a new lucrative project to run and tells him after that project they’ll further discuss Bobby’s future.  This conversation was definitely spurred by Janice going to Tony in previous episodes and asking why Bobby hadn’t been made a Captain.  In that same conversation, Tony asks Bobby if he’d ever killed anybody to which he said no.  This was some obvious and heavy foreshadowing to what would happen later. 

So, back at the cabin everyone eats and gets drunk, way too drunk, leading to Tony saying something out of the way about his sister and Bobby defending her honor by sucker punching Tony.  A house destroying fight follows with Tony taking the worst of it.  This fight really gets at the core of what make The Sopranos such a great series.  Of course the mob stuff is entertaining, but what’s most intriguing about the series is the characters and mostly Tony’s family.  Tony and his sister grew up in a dysfunctional family and they remain dysfunctional.  Janice either knowingly or unknowingly is always trying to undermine Tony’s authority in the family and Tony doesn’t respect Janice for her bizarre behavior.  After the fight Tony feels beaten, and it had to happen on his birthday when he’s already feeling his age.  The old Tony would have taken Bobby out and beaten him to death or shot him, but since being in a coma last year Tony has mellowed a bit and he tries to appreciate each day a little.  When Tony and Bobby meet with Canadian gangsters to buy drugs, the opportunity arises for a big price cut and Tony can help one of the gangsters by committing a murder.  Tony enjoys asking Bobby to take care of that matter, maybe a little out of revenge for the fight, and also to test him before a promotion can happen. 

This episode, like so many others in this series recently, feels a bit off in its assembly.  It just feels edited strangely with off-putting transitions and odd decisions about when to cut.  At the same time, the episode featured a solid balance of character development and gangster action.  There’s some set up in this episode for an ongoing FBI investigation into Tony as well.  There’s one very strange thing that more people will notice when they watch the entire season six all at once on DVD, and that’s Meadow’s appearance in this episode.  In the previous episode, Meadow went to California with Finn so that he could finish Dental school, but in this episode she’s suddenly back living at home and in medical school herself.  Now, I know some time has passed between the two episodes, but some explanation of her situation was definitely, and still is, in order.  Carmela’s spec house is also still in the picture.  I’ve watched Flip That House I know how quick these things have to be turned over to make money so she must be in some real trouble.  These two plot problems need to get fixed in future episodes.  At any rate, it was great to finally see these characters again and I can’t wait to see over the next eight weeks how this series finally wraps up.