Triple Click
Hosted by Jason Schreier and Kirk Hamilton
Original podcast
Woke up this morning, got yourself some deli meat.
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Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
Hello, everyone. Kirk Hamilton here, your TripleClick co-host. We are taking the week off this week, taking a little summer break, mostly for my sake, since I am all hands on deck, getting ready for a big live show for my music podcast, Strong Songs, in my hometown of Portland this Saturday. I'm super excited. It is gonna be great, but I'm also very, very busy, and I'm happy to have a week off. As always, when TripleClick takes a week off, we grab one of the recent episodes from our members-only bonus feed to share with you all in the main feed, just to say thanks for listening, and also maybe to entice you to become a Maximum Fun member to get even more bonus episodes like this one. This time around, we are sharing our episode about The Sopranos, or The Sopranos, though I always called it The Sopranos.
I watched this show back when it came out and really liked it. Maddie has actually never seen it, and Jason has watched it so many times that it is now embedded in his DNA. And this episode is about the entire first season of the show. We've recorded this episode kind of as an experiment, and we had so much fun watching and then talking about the show's first season that we decided to watch the entire rest of The Sopranos and to do bonus episodes every so often about the new seasons as we watch them. We've actually already run a supersized combined episodes about seasons two and three, so if you're a Sopranos fan and you like this conversation, consider becoming a Maximum Fun member. There's a link in the show notes, and you could be listening to that episode. It's super long, and it covers a ton of ground.
You can listen to that right after this one, and you would know that there are even more coming down the road. And if you're not a Sopranos fan, don't worry. We have been doing lots of other bonus episodes as well. Recent ones include an episode about esports, spoiler casts on 007 First Light and Resident Evil Requiem, and discussion of video game documentaries like The King of Kong and indie game The Movie. All right, sales pitch over. I hope you are all having a good week. We will be back with a new episode next week. Until then, we hope you enjoy this spoiler-filled discussion of season one of The Sopranos.
I'm Kirk Hamilton.
I'm Maddy Myers.
And I'm Jason Schreier. Hello.
Hello.
It's us.
Welcome back to another bonus episode. Thank you out there for subscribing to our little all podcast and making the show possible.
Yeah.
Yeah, thanks so much.
Big thanks.
We watched something special this time. Pretty excited.
We did. We did. Very excited. I've wanted to do this bonus, bonus Beans Cast for years now, and I'm very excited that we get to do it. And I hope that it is the first of a six-part Beans Cast.
I mean, I think it will be because I did finish season one, obviously, for this show. And then I was like, I don't want to start season two yet because I want to, I just want to keep season one in my head before we talk. But I have spent the past three days wanting to watch season two of this show.
I wonder what happens next.
Well, I mean, how could I not? How could I not? Well, yeah, go ahead.
So for this bonus episode, we are talking about a TV show about a pretty standard guy. He's upper middle class. He owns a house. He has a couple of cars, two kids. He's got problems with his wife. He has to take care of his aging and kind of losing it dementia-addled mother. His father is gone. He's got family problems. He has to deal with stresses on the holidays.
He's just like us, right? He's just like your average, your average, your standard yuppie guy. Except also he's the Don of New Jersey. Tony Soprano is quite a character. And we have all watched season one of The Sopranos and we are very excited to talk about it. We will, of course, be spoiling season one of The Sopranos. We will not be talking about future stuff. So if you out there have only watched season one of The Sopranos, you are safe because Maddie has not watched future stuff.
And we're not going to spoil me.
All spoilers. Yes. We will be doing our best to avoid spoiling anything for Maddie.
It didn't even occur to me that that would be hard for you guys. Like, it may come a time when I'm saying something that you two will have to not react to. And I'm acknowledging the difficulty of that in advance.
There's one, one thing in particular that I won't even say, but there's one thing in particular that, once you keep watching, we can talk about more.
Yeah, but there's like. At least one thing that I hope I don't get spoiled on.
It's actually a helpful reminder, Jason. The kind of thing I would have just talked about and then now I won't.
Yeah, yeah, Kirk, that's, yes, Kirk and I were talking about this earlier because he was like, oh, this and this happens. And I'm like, wait a minute, actually.
Lots of major stuff that happens.
Don't say that.
Yeah, no, well, because there's one major thing that like you kind of, I won't even get into specifics, but it's not revealed in season one. And so, and Kirk thought it was.
We'll do that next, uh, next Thanksgiving.
Yeah, exactly, exactly. Anyway, The Sopranos, created by David Chase, it aired on HBO in, uh, starting in 1999 and through the early 2000s. Season one aired from January through April of 1999. The pilot of this episode was actually filmed a year before the rest of it in 1998. And the pilot was created as kind of a self-contained movie script almost that was then adapted into a television show. It was one of the reasons the pilot feels so much different from the rest of the show. We'll get into that a little bit. We're going to talk about this kind of episode by episode. But first, I really want to hear some overall thoughts before we even start getting into the specifics. Maddie, you are a guest of honor. You are watching this for the first time ever. Did it live up to the hype for you? How did you feel about The Sopranos, season one?
I, I just hope the listeners can be patient with the fact that I am coming into this with no, very little foreknowledge, way less foreknowledge than I thought I had. I had some preconceived notions about The Sopranos that were disproven, which I think are maybe entertaining. So I, the main one is that I did go in assuming that it would be more of a mob show than a psychological drama. And I would say the reason why I like the show is because it's a psychological drama. So that is a huge just benefit to me in terms of the kind of show that I like to watch, a character study, a character's drama. I, I also think the therapist character is just kind of the linchpin of the show to me.
I think she's incredible and her rapport with Tony Soprano as a character, just the, the Dr. Melfi, Tony Soprano relationship underpins the entire show, is extremely valuable to season one, at the very least. I guess I can't say the entire show and really kept me. Going and I I did start it not telling you guys I was watching it because I was worried I wouldn't like it. I think I got to like episode four and I was like, I actually do like this show. But season, episode one is kind of odd and it's kind of meandering and it
was definitely where I started to be like, I don't actually think I know what this television show is at all. Like, I don't even know what's going on here. Like, Tony is kind of going on these monologues about ducks and what meaning they have in his life because there's ducks that have kind of started taking up residence in his pool. And that is a theme throughout the show is like, what are these ducks symbolize?
Yeah, we'll, we'll get into all of that. But overall, it feels like you liked it a lot.
I don't know. So I ended up liking it. I ended up liking it. But, but I really did not expect the show to be what it is at all, in a good way. It's not to say I thought I would hate a mob show, but it just really ended up being something very different from what I thought it would be.
Kirk, you were rewatching it for the first time in a while. Was this your second watch of the whole show or had you rewatched it before?
I think that's right. I think I've rewatched at least season one, one time before this.
Did you enjoy it? What did you think of this rewatch?
Oh, I loved it. So I started watching this sort of unbidden because I just wanted something to watch. And started it and just began texting you, Jason, I think when I was a couple of episodes in because I just knew that you would respond to me immediately if I texted you that I was watching The Sopranos and that you would then be a fun text buddy for rewatching The Sopranos. This is before we decided to do a Beans Cast or before we knew that Matty had also been watching. So.
Complete coincidence.
Yeah, because I think you two mentioned that this was happening. It wasn't, it wasn't a coincidence because you said, you said in our group chat that this was happening and I was like, okay, maybe I quietly try watching this and then I get back to the guys.
Okay, so Kirk started and then you started. Okay, got it, got it.
Exactly, exactly. That's, it's important to get the timeline down.
So basically, Jason, you're welcome.
Yeah, that's true. The social pressure finally worked.
Well, listeners, you're welcome.
True.
I really, I really liked this rewatch. I was struck, yeah, by just what an interesting show this is, by how influential it is and.
By how much is there? Just it's so unusual. It's so much more experimental than I remember it being, even though I've watched the whole show and I remember that there are experimental sequences in the show. Even season one is really doing a lot of, you know, dream logic and a lot of just strange edits. There are a lot of sequences that just like little moments in the show that are more unusual and feel a little, not dated, but just a little out of time. They're, they just are, are older. And I guess there are, there are things that didn't become influential that other shows didn't start doing. Just little editing tricks and, and, and things like that. But um, yeah, I was really just struck by how, how well-written and how interesting it is and how open to interpretation it is.
I think it's a show that can be read a lot of different ways. And I certainly read it differently now, watching it as a middle-aged, you know, married guy compared to when I first watched it when I was a 20-something.
Yeah, I think Matty, just like you, a lot of people come into the show thinking it's gonna be a classic mob-style, like Goodfellas. Kind of thriller-style. Whacking people. Yeah. And instead, it is just one of the strangest TV shows you'll ever watch with just a script that is so like chock-full of these weird malapropisms and like quirky turns of phrase and sentence structures and quotable lines. Um, there's so much good stuff in there that we'll start getting into as we go episode by episode. But um, yeah, I mean, I've re-watched it all 20 times. I could probably quote, quote it episode by
episode as we're going. Um, so re-watching it, of course, was not a problem for me. And yeah, I love it to death. I love it because it's hilarious because these characters are just so funny and unintentionally funny. And watching them is just extremely entertaining. Um, Christopher and his, uh, his posi- his technique of positive visualization and Tony and his constant hypocrisy. And there's so much you pick up on even on rewatches. And Matty, I think you'll notice that if you, if you ever revisit the show, like, um, how Character will pick up on something from another character. Often Tony will pick up on something from like Melfi and then just completely like mispronounce it and skew
it and repeat it back to someone else in a strange way. Like there's, I think it's the second or third episode where he's trying to convince his mother to go to the nursing home and Captain Teves. And then the best part of that is that Melfi says to him, I know elderly people who are inspired and inspiring. And then he turns around and says that to his mother. And he's like, I know people, old people who are inspired and inspiring. And his mom is just like, what?
To just take apart anything anyone says to her. She is an incredible villain.
Oh, yeah. She's so good. Nancy Marchand, the actress who plays Olivia Soprano is masterful.
It's that, but the writing for her lines, you just, you're like, your teeth are chattering. You're like, how is she turning this around?
Oh, yeah. Well, David Chase made this show about his own mother.
Really?
And so David Chase, a little bit of Very sorry for him. backstory here is just David Chase grew up in New Jersey. He wasn't like in the mob or anything, but he knew, like friends of friends, he said, like he knew people in the mob, like or knew of people in the mob. And, and his mother was like this, like he wrote the show basically about his mother and then happened to like attach a mob story to it. So it's kind of, you can see baseline, this is a show about a family and their dysfunctional relationships. And then the mob stuff is just kind of like married with that. And what's really fun about the show as it goes on is the way that those two aspects like kind of mirror each other. Like even the arc of season one is very much Tony and his relationship
with his mother. And she's clearly this awful narcissist, like just kind of black hole of a personality and how that has fucked up his life and turned him into a depressed like black hole also. But then that's mirrored with the mob plot because unlike it's, it's almost it's heightened from your average person's relationship with their mother because unlike most mothers, Tony's mother like sanctioned. To hit.
It's like she's fully ensconced in the mob world because she and Uncle Junior have such a strong relationship still, uh, cause she married his brother and that man is now dead. And so, so there's sort of like a classic familial structure that I think a lot of people will be familiar with where like then the mother will kind of befriend your uncle. But also because they're in the mob, it's like even more fraught. But Jason, it's interesting that you say like, oh, it's obvious that she's a narcissist, which I think that is how you would watch it. But for me, I feel like it's actually that it is revealed to you over the course of season one, that she's unfixable and unhelpable. But I didn't have that going in and instead was if anything, like falling into her bullshit,
for lack of a better way of putting it and being like, you know, maybe if Tony just does X or Y, like then something will change here. And like, you just watch him doing all these different things for her and her just always finding a reason to be like, no.
Yeah. When I say it's obvious, I mean, over the course of the season.
Of course. Yeah. By the time you get to the, especially by the time you get to the finale, you're like, oh my God.
This is never going to be repaired.
You know, I think that's interesting, partly because my view of Livia this time around was so shaped by my experience with my mom who has dementia.
I bet, yeah.
And, um, having gone through that and now watching a depiction of that, I just have a completely different read on it than I did when I watched this in my twenties. Cause I'd never experienced anything like that the first time I, I watched this. And my take now was that I think they really, I'm not sure whether they changed how they approached writing the character or whether this was all conscious, because there are a few different ways that you can read her progression over the course of the season. In the first couple of episodes before she moves to the elder care facility, she is like really not okay. Like she seems like deeply in, you know, she is pretty far along in whatever type of dementia she has. Like she's really like, she doesn't know who Tony is at times.
She's leaving stuff burning on the stove. It's all a lot of classic symptoms. It's, it's like very familiar to watch all of that. And then. When she moves to the senior facility, she really becomes much more stable and you don't see her forgetting nearly as much. She seems way more in control. That's when she begins manipulating junior, when she begins to kind of seem like she's working machinations. And for starters, that's like a believable plotline, like or a believable thing to have happened because that does happen.
Like stresses are taken away.
When they're unsafe.
And then.
Well, yeah, when you're in a.
Like hierarchy of needs rise. They can suddenly have the ability to like do more mentally because some of those stresses have been removed of living alone, you mean?
Yes. When you're living alone and you're unsupported, it's very stressful. And then when you move and you're taken care of, you can improve or like you can start to seem better. And that is believable. And then what makes it so interesting in this show's case is that, you know, Livia is this terrible person fundamentally. Like it was, it was actually really hard with my mom because my mom is like a really, really nice and gentle lady. But dementia made her very paranoid and unpleasant and she was very, very difficult to deal with in those last couple of years when she was still living with my dad. And I think she was really hard on him. And that was hard to watch partly because I'm like, this isn't my mom. Like this isn't what she's actually like. She was just so confused and scared that all these negative emotions would come out.
And that now she's in a, you know, memory care facility. She is just chilled out. Some of that is medication, like we, you know, whatever. There are other factors at play, but I've definitely kind of watched that happen. Now, she has not become sharp again, like she hasn't regained much facility. But I could believe it happening and I know that it does happen. So anyways, I don't know whether that was written consciously or not with Livia. Because then toward the end of the season, she begins to exhibit dementia signs again. And then really toward the end, as things spiral after she's taken out the failed hit and you, or at least like convinced junior to do it. And like she, you can almost see her like. You know, manifesting her dementia or Alzheimer's, whatever it is,
in a reaction to kind of hide from Tony. And Tony sees it that way, right? He's like, oh, don't think you're getting out of this just because you had a stroke or whatever. When she's on the gurney. It's just so hard to tell.
And she smiles and she gives that smile.
That scene is so harrowing. That is like one of the most harrowing scenes of the whole season. Anyhow, I just thought that was so fascinating, the way it wound up playing out. And I'm, I'm really not sure whether it was all conscious and whether it was done with a mind toward reproducing this arc of someone with dementia, but then heightening into the mafia thing. Anyways, it was like a whole new perspective that I had and I thought that it was really, really interesting.
So let's, let's break this down. Let's go episode by episode and we can spend less time on some episodes than others, but I do want to kind of talk it through in a structured way. And then we can talk about the entire arc of the season or the multiple story arcs of the season. So, um, episode one, the pilot, like I mentioned earlier, this was filmed way in advance. This is, feels very different. There are a lot of things about the story that are different. In the pilot, Tony is the boss. And then in episode two, we're introduced to Jackie, who's the actual boss. And it turns out Tony is just a capo. In the pilot, Silvio is just kind of a random friend. And not Tony's concili, conciliary, who he becomes starting in episode two. So there are a few things that are different.
Though in the pilot, he does get the line sadness accrues, which does establish the, establishes the template of Silvio getting all the best lines.
It's true. That is true. And he says, uh, like, oh, I, I, I had to be the, I'm sorry, I had to be the messenger or something like that about, uh, about our.
Sadness accrues is maybe like two words that encapsulates the entirety of this.
That is true. I mean, the pilot, what's really interesting about the pilot is that despite those kind of weird changes and stylistic, like, um, you have Tony narrating, which never happens again. You have these kind of weird music cues that really never happen again. You have Tony chasing a guy in broad daylight, which certainly never happens again because he's a high profile mob boss. He would never do that. A lot of strangeness, a lot of kind of like Goodfellas inspiration. Some of the actors are different. Uh, the actor who believes the priest is different, changes later on. But all that said, the pilot also has like sum ups and themes of every single story that would occur throughout the entire first. Season and also throughout the entire rest of the series. So like in that pilot,
if you watch it again, Matty, which you should, just because it'll be really fascinating for you. There is everything from like the priest eating popcorn and watching a movie with Carmella to Christopher talking about like how he has a cousin in Hollywood and he's like thinking about his screenwriting aspirations, which of course is brought in later.
I mean, I remember even that in the pilot because I was like, what an interesting way to introduce Christopher as a character and how insecure he is and also how performative his relationship is to the mob.
It's got at the end of the pilot, you have Junior and Livia talking about how something might have to be done about Tony. You have Tony talking about how he has to be the strong silent type, which is like, and John Cooper, which is like, just like a theme throughout the entire.
Well, to clarify that, Tony says, whatever happened to the strong silent type? And he says he has to be the sad clown, which is another really, I think, a really important thematic line. Laughing on the outside, crying on the inside.
Exactly. And so, and then some of the themes are there. So like, the basic, the, the structure of the show is that Tony Soprano winds up getting sent to the psychiatrist to try to explain his panic attacks and try to do something about them. And that's what the premise of the first episode is. And that's when we start to learn about him and his relationships and his kind of like, all the things that he has to deal with on a day to day basis, his mother, his kids, his wife, his uncle.
The biggest thing that happens in this first episode is that, at least on the mob side of things, is that his, his uncle Junior wants to whack little pussy Malanga, not to be confused with big pussy Bump and Cero.
Totally, no, guys.
In, in his childhood friend Artie's restaurant, Vesuvio. And after failing to get Artie out of town on a cruise ship with tickets provided by the dental association through Tony's work with the dental union, with the unions and the dental plan.
Not even a good lie. No wonder they clock it immediately, or at least his wife does.
That scene is so great. And Chris is just eating a meatball in the kitchen, a single meatball on a plate. So good.
Tony eventually sends Sill to burn down Artie's restaurant. So that Junior cannot carry out the hit there because Tony somehow figures that he will save Artie's business by destroying it, which again is a theme, a theme throughout.
It kind of works in a weird way.
Sort of. Artie has trouble getting the insurance money, but yes.
Yeah, but then after that, I mean, that's, that's Artie's arc, which is also interesting. But yeah, keep going.
Is accepting that, accepting the reality.
Destroying things is all, all Tony does is destroy things. And then of course, the biggest, the denouement of this episode and the climax of this episode is AJ saying, what, no fucking Zini now, which I think is the classic, the classic Sopranos line. And yeah, there's a lot to take away in this pilot episode, just a lot of really interesting themes, including which the thing that I think is the kind of sadness accrues is a good one, but the other kind of through line of the Sopranos is when Tony talks about how it's good to come into something at the beginning and he knows that, but lately he started to feel like he's come in at the end. And Melfi says, a lot of Americans feel
that way, which I think, I think those two lines are really what this show is about.
Yeah, that line especially resonates with the time period that this show came out. So this came out in 1999, known now widely, I think, as the end of history period of America. Like this is pre nine 11, post, you know, Clinton era 90s. And like, we're in this time period. I mean, 1999, this is the year of American beauty. This is the year of the matrix. This is the year of Fight Club. This is the year of so much media dealing with that feeling in one way or another. And it's that, it is that feeling, that feeling of, well, here we are at the end. I'm finally in my power, you know, I'm in my prime, I'm in charge, or I'm at least in the pilot, he's in charge. And like, is this it? Is
this all there is? And that's just, that feeling was like everywhere in America at this time.
Yeah. Alienation. I mean, I, I, this show is so 1999 that I'm actually, this is part of why I really. Really want to keep watching this because I'm like, what does this show look like after nine 11? I, I mean, I, I will get to find out, but this is so quintessential 1999. That moment and also just the idea of also the mob being on the wane structurally. It is like speaking to a really specific time and a specific like kind of set of anxieties. And also just the way that the characters talk about mob movies becoming a cultural fixture. That changes the way other people.
I love how they call, did they call the Godfather number two?
Yeah. And number two, because they just reference it so often.
This is a perfect segue to episode two, which has this cold open, the only time in the show that they ever do a cold open. As this cold open, the guys are sitting in the back of the Bing and in their little office area. The Bing, of course, is the strip club in which they all hang out. And they're watching this guy give a talking head interview about the mob. And he's talking about how the mob is on the decline. And they're all just like yelling at the TV, they're shooting the shit about clones or whatever. And then they get sill to quote the Godfather and sill does some Patino impression. There's a lot of interesting things to take away there. I think that a couple of thoughts that I have about this is that one.
The reason that they all talk about like the Godfather and just are constantly referencing mob movies is because their life is so much not like that. And you watch something like Goodfellas. And Goodfellas is very much about the peak of the mob, the days when you could walk through the Copacabana and you'd be taken on this like wild, like luxurious ride. And given whatever table you want and so on and so forth. That's not what it's like for these guys anymore. These guys spend all day in their tracksuits, like in the back of a strip club. That's what they, it's like this, this glamour idea of the mob doesn't exist for these guys. So they watch movies to see it.
It's cool too, because it fits in with what Goodfellas is also really about, like taken as a whole. You know, we, we did an episode of Goodfellas for anyone listening to this who hasn't heard it. There's a Beans cast that you can go listen to where we talked about Goodfellas and Casino. And, um, and the Wolf of Wall Street, is that right? We did three Scorsese movies. So the thing about Goodfellas is it is about that, but only at the beginning. And that's like, it, it shows what the mob was like in this almost dreamlike. Sequence of, of, you know, these like really, oh, it was so, it was so cool. We made our own rules. I want, I knew I wanted to be a gangster because they were so aspirational. By the end, it's all devolved into shit. They're dealing cocaine. Everyone's testifying against everyone else. And he's standing up there, turning on all his friends and he turns and talks to the camera and is like, and here's how it ended.
It all went to shit. And like, so really we're kind of now, what happens after the credits to Goodfellas? The Sopranos happens after the credits.
Yeah. And even this episode, which is called 46 Long, um, in this episode, there's one big plot point involving truck hijacking, which is kind of the cool mobster part of it. We'll talk about that in a sec. But what happens to our kind of experienced gangsters, uh, Big Pussy and Polly Walnuts is, uh, that they are sent to go find out who hijacked Tony's son's teacher's car. And they have to like go on this, this hunt for this random like low level like.
Just two gay guys. Two random gay guys.
And they wind up at this Starbucks.
During this, you get one of my favorite Polly scenes, which is Polly standing in what is essentially a Starbucks. Again, to date this, to put this at a place in time, this is when that was a topic of conversation. You know, the artisanal, uh, barista run coffee place. And he's looking at the wall of coffee gear, which, you know, the little cubbies.
Yeah, like the moka pots.
Sort of the pour over and the French press. And he's looking at them all and he's just like, these motherfuckers, they, they took our culture and they turned it into this. It's such a great, like, they definitely like dialed in Polly between the first episode and the second episode. And it's such a great way to establish his character. Like there's always this resentment at the core of Polly. Like a kind of befuddled resentment where he's always looking at things like, why is it this way? It just, it doesn't seem like it should be. And he's just, Polly's staring at the, at the wall of coffee bric-a-brac and just like venting under his breath is one of my favorite scenes.
Yeah. He takes one of the moka pots with him, I believe. It was sort of like his, his Italian reparations almost. And he's like, this is mine actually. And I, I deserve this.
It, it all plays into that same theme, right? It's like, they're looking at this and they're like, we, like, they had Ugats before we gave them the gift of. Italian cuisine and like Italy, we came up with this and look what they've done with it. They've taken it all. And it's kind of like, you see that throughout this season with like, um, corporate America and Tony and crew asking, saying like, well, they're, they're just as much criminals and gangsters and they're in the boardroom stealing. But it's kind of like, the mob is just, it just feels like this relic. It feels like it's like antiquated. Um, and they're looking around and they're like, we're kind of out of place here.
It's an interesting part of the narrative of this show. If you compare this to older gangster cinema, like The Godfather in particular, we're now at a point in time where Italians have largely assimilated into America here in the 90s. And it's kind of, this is all about like, some of the anxieties of assimilation. Like what Paulie is really expressing there is this feeling like, oh, man, we used to be our own culture and now, American culture has just sucked us into the big American amoeba like it does everything. And Italian stuff is just kind of everywhere. And like, hey, wait a minute, like, what did we get for that? You know, was that actually worth it? Where if you look back at, you know, how Italians were treated in the 50s and the 60s, there was so much prejudice against Italians. They were seen as another. They were kind of kept out of mainstream culture. And so,
it's, it's another kind of end of history angle to this show is like, looking at like the post assimilation Italian identity in America and kind of just realizing, oh, now I'm just kind of a fucking middle aged guy. Like I'm, I'm not, like, I don't even have, like, what do I even have to offer?
And it's particularly important because that's how they justify what they are doing to themselves is they justify, and this is kind of, this is hammered a little bit later in the show. It's not specifically brought up in this season, but they justify what they're doing in large part because of how Italians were treated in the country and how they needed to create the, the casa nostra to kind of like, create opportunities for Italians in the, in the 20s and 30s and 40s and so on. And so, uh, the, it's very important for them to be seen as kind of like discriminated against. There's an episode much later on, a controversial episode, uh, that specifically deals with this idea of anti-Italian discrimination, which is very, very interesting to look at.
Yeah. And I guess that's true. That does come up. Later, especially when you look at Melfi's family, who are also Italian but are much more assimilated. And then the conversations they have around the dinner table around these kind of larger-than-life Italian cliché, or, you know, these stereotypes, and also just the continuing existence of the mob. And then like what that means for them.
Yeah, and Tony notes when he meets her, I think, that that's why he chose her as a psychotherapist is because.
I think a little later.
Yeah, I can't quite remember when, is because she's Italian and then her identity comes up at the dinner table. But I did also think it was interesting that it comes up yet again with the FBI agents who are Italian as well. And like, they kind of use that as a cudgel at the end and are like, this is how much society has changed, really, is like, you need to get with the program. But I can tell that's gonna be a running theme and I appreciate like how much it's already been foreshadowed. Like this idea of like, okay, we created these structures that are criminal because of marginalization we experienced. But does that mean that criminal life is inherent to our culture? And like, that question, just tying through the show, makes a lot of sense.
And the mere fact that there are Italian FBI agents is further evidence of the extent of Italian assimilation into American culture. You know, 50 years ago, it would have been a bunch of WASP agents interrogating the Italians. You know, now it's like, Italians are just everywhere in America.
Another theme that this show tackles throughout, throughout the season and throughout the entire show, is one that you can see through the other subplot of this episode, the other major plot of this episode, which is Chris Moltisanti and Brendan Falone hijacking Junior's trucks.
This is my favorite line, why can't you be nicer to Brendan?
Because Brendan is the worst.
Perfectly delivered.
I know he dies, but like, Jesus, Brendan is unlikable.
Yeah, if anyone on this show deserved to get whacked, it was Brendan.
This is kind of a two-episode story. It also goes into the next episode, denial, anger, acceptance. And yeah, Brendan, Brendan is just a total fuck-up and Chris is kind of a semi-fuck-up as well. Brendan is this meth head, just kind of like impulsive, bad influence. Yeah, just a total, total sleaze. Sleaze ball. And I think it's, it plays into another theme that the show tackles, which is that the younger generations just are total fuckups. And there's just nobody who is, who is coming up today that isn't just like an entitled, just like lazy, wants to take shortcuts scumbag. And it's interesting seeing the contrast between the older folks who are also entitled
and lazy, but are at least a little bit more competent. And the people who just probably, just because of the way in which they were grown up and the fact that they were grown up kind of coddled and a little bit more privileged than Tony and his generation, I think they were destined to fail from the beginning. We see this more, most explicitly in A.J. Soprano, but Chris and Brendan are good examples of that as well. In this next episode, Denial and our Acceptance, we see Brendan continue to hijack trucks. Junior eventually kills him. Great line from our boy, Mikey Palmese, who says hijack, bijack.
Just kind of one of the worst characters, Mike. I mean, the best worst characters.
It's one of those lines that again, makes the entire thing just feel kind of dreamy. There are a lot of lines in general that make it all feel dreamy. Also, a great line in this episode is, is when Junior is eating dinner with Mikey and he's like, like, hold it, cool it, we're not making a Western here. Which I think is, is kind of another one of those lines that you can extrapolate and be like, oh yeah, this entire show, people think it's going to be just like characters getting whacked constantly, but no, we're not making a Western here. Anyway, this episode also, we see the chasidim, the chasidim, chasidim, but I don't believe him. And Tony and his pals deal with, deal with those guys. It's a fun little subplot.
And Meadow gets speed and sings in the choir and Brendan gets murdered. And Chris gets the pants scared off of him to, to the point where rumors circulate that he shat his pants during, on the, on the pier.
Yeah, the, the storyline with the chasidim is interesting in part because that is another culture that has. Assimilated far less into American culture. It's, I'm not totally sure if there's like, what the big statement is or anything like that. But it's just like, I think it's just one more kind of point in the story that they're telling about different cultures and assimilation. And it's kind of an interesting conflict between those two groups.
Well, the Chassidim, I mean, they, Chassidim are kind of like this insane sect of like, very religious Jews who aren't just very religious. They also have their own kind of rules in society and culture. And it's, it's kind of Kosan Austria asking. In fact, this is, this is referenced in like a single line. So it's kind of a throwaway line by Sill. But he mentions how the DA got, they used to have these rabbi goon squads and then the DA got them, which is a true thing, these Chassidic communities, because it was so difficult to like you, because of their crazy, insane draconian rules, you have to have, like, the husband has to agree to a divorce. And so if a woman is being abused, she can't get out of the marriage unless the husband agrees. And so they would have these rabbi goon squads who would like beat up the husband until he agreed to a divorce.
And it's kind of, again, this insane world. There's a lot of interesting literature. There's this one great book, I think it's called, Those Who Go Shall Not Return, something like that, about a guy who kind of escapes his Chassidic community and how cultish it is. And he writes all about it and how difficult it was to get out of there. It's really interesting. Very, very wild community. But yeah, I mean, I think that's just, I'm not sure what that subplot is trying to say necessarily. I think it's just a fun, a fun little adventure for Tony and the gang.
Yeah. It is an interesting contrast, though, that, you know, one group's organized crime became, captured the imagination of America, became a linchpin of Hollywood, became something that everyone knows to the point where it like was ubiquitous. The other group's organized crime remains this very small thing. And then having those two come into contact with one another in this episode, it's just interesting. Like, I always think of this episode when I think of season one, because it's just so different and, and so memorable.
Well, so there was a Jewish, like, organized crime group called Murder, Inc., way back in the day, which is totally different than the Chassids. That was like more normal Jews who were just criminals, who like teamed up with the Kosan Austria a lot. There's a lot of- Interesting kind of interesting history there and like Bugsy Bugsy Meyer, is that the guy's name? Some of this is tackled on Boardwalk Empire, actually, of like the murder ink and Costa Nuestra turn up. But that that was like ages ago. That doesn't really exist anymore. And then, yeah, the let's move on to the next episode, which I think is also interesting. And we're kind of seeing some of these stories play out over the course of a few episodes. Denial anger acceptance in episode three is referring to Jackie's chemo.
We haven't really talked about Jackie, but he is kind of an important figure in those first few episodes. Doesn't last very long, dies in episode four and leaves this power vacuum. And I think Jackie kind of, as a character, he's kind of, he just exists to die essentially. And leave leave an absence that will affect the series in several ways. Most notably now with leaving this position open that everybody thinks Tony is going to take. But Junior might want to take and is that going to cause a war? That's kind of the big question of episode four.
Yeah, I do think Jackie's death is symbolic, though, with what we've been discussing about like kind of the death of a former version of the mob. And like Jackie as a leader is extremely romanticized. We don't ever get to really see him in action. So we can just accept those legends as part of the fabric of the world of The Sopranos. And that can be fine is like, oh, he was so great at this. And that can be something that every other character holds both Junior and Tony to in an impossible way, which is perfect. It's a great setup by having him die. That kind of like just ties a bow in all of that. I do.
It's like, Livia, your father was a saint. It's the same idea.
Exactly, exactly. Although I think it's much more clear that his father was not a saint. Whereas with Jackie, we only ever see him be like a sweetie, really, and then he dies.
Just the same kind of idea, having an idealized past person thrown in your face.
Which is funny for a mob boss to just seem like such a nice, such a sweet guy that everybody loves. But yeah, I feel like even from the very beginning, obviously with the pilot, they don't really get into the Jackie of it all. Because it has like a different plot where Tony's in charge already, but. Pretty soon after that, it's clear that Junior wants to be in charge and that that's stressful, at least to me as a viewer, because I'm like, dude, you're really old. Like, you're not gonna be around that much longer. And like, the refusal, the refusal to pass the baton to the younger generation is really fascinating. Like, we were talking before about like, how Christopher just seems so irresponsible and entitled. I think that's
echoed in how Junior views Tony, even though we can easily root for Tony and not see him that way, and see how this is killing him physically to be working so hard to try to keep everyone together. But Junior perceives Tony as like, this young upstart who will never understand the life. And like, that's just echoed again and again. And like, that generational conflict is, is another really interesting part of the show, and the relationships.
I think there's a lot of shame built into that generational conflict, too. And it's something that's more subtle on the show, but it's definitely there because, on some level, I think these people are aware that it is their fault that the next generation is not living up to the standards that they set. And that they idealize the generation that came before them, and look at the people that they were supposed to raise and teach to be, you know, good leaders, to take over for them. And they're so disappointed that they can't even let go. And on some level, they just know, well, this is kind of on me. Like, it was my job. And then they pass the buck, and they squirm, and they equivocate, and they say, well, it's for this reason and that reason. But on some level, they seem to know. And then that causes so much of a sort of deep depression and despair that
sort of runs through all of these characters. It's a feeling of, not only have I come in at the end, but I've also fucked up what's gonna come after me.
Yeah, that's a good tie in to the AJ and Meadow storylines as well, where like, Tony's kind of aware of how kind of negligent he's been with them, and how Meadow's perception of right and wrong, she's like, well, it doesn't really matter, because I, it's fine, the family I'm in, who cares?
And Tony, we'll talk to Melphi about this. Did I fuck up my kids?
Yeah, exactly.
We get to see a little more of his thinking.
The, the kind of the fundamental flaw that all of their parents made is allowing them to continue. In this family business, in this life of crime. And one of the ongoing themes in the entire show is this idea that like Tony's issues, his depression, his panic attacks, a lot of, this is approached a lot in season one is like, a lot of that comes from him just refusing to examine what he does for a living and think about it critically. And Melfi tries to get at that. She doesn't, she, whether she's good at her job is an ongoing question, but she, she always brushes, like she tries to get him to address it and he almost seems like, he always seems like he's going to, and then he just changes the subject or like brings up something else entirely.
Or he reacts ferociously. I mean, two of the scariest reactions he has tend to be when she really pushes him to examine those very things.
Examine, yeah, what he's actually doing themselves. And I think, and he, he knows, I think a lot of, part of him knows that what he does for a living is wrong. And he says that he doesn't want AJ to continue this life of crime. Like he doesn't want that for AJ. But at the same time, like he's allowing Christopher to be his, essentially his like, his, his proxy son and can carry it on. And I think he is like, even, even by that alone, allowing these people to be part of this family, this capital F family, that is a moral failing that is always just gonna fuck them up.
Yeah, you can really see, there is a monster inside of Tony. It almost, they almost explicitly seem to have thought of it this way, that there is this monster inside of him that is the crime, that is the violence that he does, that is this life that he's chosen. I think shame is actually part of it too. It's like you've committed to this, you can't change, you have to just own what you've done. You're already in so deep, you can't get out. And when, you can see when it comes to the surface, when it's threatened, when he suddenly is thinking like, maybe I do want to be normal. And it always wins. And that's, you know, one of the kind of things about this show that I find so interesting, but also it's, you know, dark and sad is that the show really does seem to believe that that monster will win. Like it, it wins so often and it's so powerful.
You know, he'll be in this intellectual space of talking to Melfi about something, but then the minute she pokes something that the monster reacts to, it's over and he is like terrifying. And he becomes this like, this pure, you know, a force of evil almost.
Um, so a couple of other things happened in episode four, Meadowlands. Tony hires a cricket cop, Ben McCasian, uh, AKA the dad from Home Alone. An incredible, incredible performance.
He's schlubbiest character, like he is just a walking wrinkle.
It's great though.
He irons his suits and puts them on and then they're just immediately wrinkled.
Yeah. Um, he sucks Dr. Melfi, a great line there. Why are you eating hamburger when you got prime rib at home?
AJ fights a classmate or gets into a fight with one of his classmates. His classmate backs out, leading AJ to eventually learn who his dad is. Great line at the funeral or a great moment at the funeral at the end of it where he's like, uh, where Tony gives him a wink and he's kind of like, mm, okay, interesting.
That and the like 1999 era website that his sister shows.
So good, so good.
It's iconic.
So sleeping with the fishes.
At one point, a lot of printing out websites.
A lot of the computer stuff is so good.
The computer stuff is great.
Um, uh, uh, and, uh, the kind of the big resolution, uh, is Tony learning subconscious, like learning from Melfi, picking up on something Melfi says about allowing elderly people to feel like they have some control. Tony decides to allow Junior to become boss while he is really pulling the strings, which is beneficial in so many ways. It prevents a war. It puts him at the top to get the attention of the FBI. And on top of everything else, he's like, plus give me Blooming Field and the Pavers Union. So he gets a bunch of money out of it too. Uh, just a brilliant move by Tony Soprano.
You know, I have one more thought about this, this episode before we move on, and it's related to Jackie's death. There was one other thing I think that's interesting about Jackie's death, and that is that he dies of, he dies from cancer. I think that that's actually really important too, because he is not killed by, in a dry fire, like he's not whacked by a rival. Like this is not like mafia drama. He just gets cancer and dies, which is just something that happens. And I think that both metaphorically and in the actual story, like it stands in for this kind of decay and for this feeling of sort of powerlessness. Like Tony kind of rails at this. He's like, what the fuck? Like this guy is, he used to be this king, this titan, and now he's just reduced. To nothing, he's sitting in this, you know, hospital gown and it's pathetic.
And like he, it feels kind of emasculating almost to die in this way, to just this disease that is unstoppable. And I think that is just symbolically like very true to the themes of The Sopranos.
No, yeah, this is a big themes show. That's what's kind of fun about it.
Big theme show. It's like everything. It's fun is that it's, it's big themes, but the moment to moment is just so funny and entertaining that it's just, uh, episode five, college. This is kind of, this is the episode that really hooks people, I think. And I'm curious to hear if that happened to you, Mandy, because a lot of people watch the show and they're like, I'm not sure what's going on. You're already hooked, okay.
I think episode four was really the one that got me, which we just discussed. And I think part of that was just seeing just the, the generational aspects that I mentioned before, and that being really core to my experience of what I liked about the show and like seeing AJ and Meadow being kind of fuckups, but in really interesting ways. And like AJ learning his dad's identity, all of that is great. Five is like, five's a great Carmella episode. I mean, this is when we really get to know her deep insecurities and how terrible her marriage is and like, she's having this extended emotional affair with this priest, which we already kind of knew, but this episode.
We'll get into that. We'll get into that. But I think the reason, the main reason this episode hooks people and this episode is considered one of the greatest of the show is that it's, it so seamlessly merges Tony's two lives. He is out doing this like mundane, normal thing that every parent does, which is take, or a lot of parents do, which is take their kid to visit colleges. And except because he's Tony Soprano, when he's doing that, he sees someone who happens to be a, uh,
An informant.
Former, former, yeah, former mobster, turned states witness, um, who has fled and is now dealing drugs in, um, I believe it's like, are they in Maine or Massachusetts?
They're in Maine.
They're in Maine. I think they're looking at Boden.
They're in Maine and Tony, Tony has to be on two dates at one time, as it were.
Yes, exactly. It's the classic, classic.
In this almost romantic comedy style, has to tell his daughter like, oh, you didn't, you didn't see me doing anything. I definitely wasn't. Murdering this guy who turned and formed him and betrayed all my, my brothers, my brothers in arms.
Classic sitcom. And then also the fact that you actually see him strangling this guy, Feby, who's the rat, which was not something that you ever saw a main character on TV do.
This is, this is a thing I was familiar with for what it's worth. Like this was spoiled for me. This was one of the plot points I knew going into the show, which might be part of why I didn't feel like that moment was, it's not to say it's not impactful, but like this was so impactful that I remember people talking about this episode at the time and how deeply disturbing it was.
Got it. Yeah. In 1999, this wasn't something that a main character of a TV show would do. And in fact, it became a controversial thing within HBO. And there was a big question about whether HBO was going to allow him to do it. Ultimately, they did. There's some interesting backstory there. I'm going to recommend my editor, Felix Gillette, who has a book called It's Not TV, about the history of HBO. And that book really gets into some interesting history there because the guy who was like, one of the guys who was running HBO at the time, Chris Albrecht, who allowed this to go on, was later found to, or was later accused of like physically strangling a woman. And so there's some really interesting
That's creepy.
nonfiction backstory there too. But anyway, back on the show, I mean, I think that, that whole sequence is phenomenally well done. There's a lot of drama, a lot of tension the entire time. Meadow is like herself going and getting too fucked up and getting, getting wasted.
Yeah. But also picking up on what is really happening to Tony's dismay. Like at every turn, she's like, what, isn't that dust on your shoes? Like she is also kind of iconic as a character in her ability to just cut to the bone.
Yeah. And eventually she's like, are you in the mafia? And he's like, taken aback. He doesn't know what to say. Like, how do you deal with something like that? You've been trying so long to hide it? How do you, how do you handle that? Eventually he's like, I might run some numbers. I might do a little bit, a little bit of loan tracking. How do you feel about that? And she's like, well, I'm glad, glad you're being honest.
Yeah. Cause she already knows the answer. And then they kind of have a mutual like kid parent secret where she got Get a college bar without him there. And so he's like, well, then I won't tell your mother that you got drunk and you won't tell her you know I'm in the mafia. Not exactly equal terms here, but Tony always has the upper hand in every interaction. So it fits.
I think something else that's striking about this episode is, or something further that's striking about this episode is that it also threads together a whole separate storyline with Carmella, which you referenced earlier, Matty.
Which I love and hate because it's just, ugh, my heart.
Yeah, well, it's kind of the first big acting showcase for Edie Falco, who is such a powerhouse and she and Tony are so strong together. But this is her apart from Tony. Like she and Gandolfini, of course, are strong together, but this is her doing her own thing. And so you've got these two story, like you talked about how it's this two dates, going on two dates at one storyline where Tony is kind of sneaking out, but also maintaining this thing with Meadow. So we've got these two threads working together with Tony and Meadow and those two storylines. But then also we're being intercut with another very tense storyline where Carmella has the priest over and it's increasingly seeming like, okay, there's definitely sexual tension between them. Is this, you know, is she going
to cheat on Tony? Like, is that what their relationship is like? And because the show is, we're so early in the show, like, we don't have that strong of a sense of their marriage. Like, we know that Tony isn't faithful, but we don't really know what Carmella's deal is. And as it turns out, it's so interesting. Like, she's having this very intense emotional affair, but it's also all tied up with guilt and confession and religion and movies. And it's just this, this whole, like, you know, this whole separate, very tense, this storyline that builds to a climax is where he takes confession from her and the, and the lightning and thunder is outside. And so you're kind of getting everything weaved together so masterfully. And like, I think that when critics saw this episode, if you
are thinking just as a TV critic and you're watching this, you're thinking like, holy shit, these people are changing television. Like, this is something you would only see in a like, really great film. Like, you just, this kind of thing, or maybe the occasional episode of the West Wing like got close to this, like there were a couple of shows that were being written on this level where they were really going for it. But even then, like the, the, the way that it's put together, the complexity of it, I think just really sets this episode apart. And then just one other thought is, you mentioned the strangling. I think the viscerality of that killing is still shocking. Like the way that it actually feels as though you are watching how hard it would be to strangle someone to death and how, the way it cuts his hand.
These are things, it's not even just that you didn't see it on TV. You almost never saw it anywhere. It's like a snuff film. I mean, it's like watching someone be murdered and like the, the sheer, like the strength. I mean, Gandolfini, this is a great sort of nose breathing, sweating exertion performance in general from him. He always, you can just see how hard it is for him to move his body around and like the strain of strangling this guy, that scene is so unforgettable and horrifying. And it actually stands in contrast to a lot of the other violence in the rest of the season. I, I had forgotten actually how often when someone is shot, they go to these like slow moods, they go to like 12 frames per second thing where like you can't even really see what's happening. They don't actually show the shot.
They show like blood splattering really artfully, like even strangely artfully in a way that no one would do today. That is actually a big contrast with someone like Scorsese who just loves to just show like bam, guy gets shot, blood goes everywhere. It's like exactly what it looks like, but doesn't really linger on it in the way that strangling does. So anyways, I think that that sequence is like, really stands out. I mean, it's like one of the most memorable parts of the season just because it's so realistic and horrifying.
And it's one of those things, it's one of those funny things where I think even like a normal person, a normal morally sound human being who is watching this and is like, and fundamentally like these people are all awful. Like you can't, even though you're rooting for Tony because he's so charismatic and fun to watch, you can't really root for him when he kills someone, you're kind of like, oh. The fact that they make it be about a rat who is just like fundamentally someone that even if you have your own moral like qualms with the, with the mob and stuff, you're still kind of like, well, he's a rat. He betrayed his friends.
That's true.
That's even worse than the, the actual. And so you are rooting for him to like get one over on this guy.
Yeah, it's more sympathetic than I would have expected. Like, I didn't know what kind of guy he was gonna kill. I just knew the nature of the scene. And then as soon as the episode kind of set up who it was, I was like, okay, this is gonna be the guy Tony kills in this app. But yeah, they do make Tony pretty sympathetic there, I think. And then that is contrasted by what Kirk is describing, which is how just horrifying and unsettling the kill actually is.
Like, imagine being able to do that. Like, the only, no one, like, no normal person could do that, like, could, like, maintain the strength and power and commitment to ending a person's life in this incredibly difficult and violent way. I mean, it is like, you, you do, it is like, you, you understand why Tony's doing it, but also it's the, it's one of many moments where you see him for what he really is. Like, he is a monster. Like, he is not a character that is redeemable. Like, you cannot do that. And like, be redeemable, even in TV rules where people kill people all the time. They don't kill people like that. And then, of course, that is a very good point, Jason, that the person he's killing is like, seen as compromised. The show does a good job, I think. And then over the course of it, without getting into spoilers, they do a good job of like, leading you down the garden path.
And then there come, there comes a point where you start to see more and more who is being harmed by these heroes, these, whatever, these protagonists. And then soon, like, there's some really horrible, you know, you're seeing, like, innocent people be horribly killed. Like, you're really like, oh, my God, right, right. Apparently, I need to keep being reminded that these people are all, like, irredeemably awful.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, season two in particular is good at showing the, showing the, the effect that Tony and his gang have on normal people.
And really, one of the things about this show that's kind of, it's not controversial, but it's like, a, a way that I really like that Chase and his writers kind of play with their audience, you know? Because they know we're used to rooting for the mob guys. Like, even in Goodfellas, even in Scorsese movies, which are more critical and a little more meta, we're still kind of rooting for the guys, you know, in, in some way. And they know that, and they love to just poke at that and make you realize who it is you're rooting for and really rub your face in it.
Yeah, that, it ties in really well with the ongoing pre-storyline that we're gonna get into and. In the next few episodes where the priest is like so out of touch in a way that is also kind of comical where he is, he just is in every conversation and confession with anyone. He will be like, and that's when you're going to convince them to leave the mafia. Right. And it's like, none of these characters are going to leave mafia. None of them are ever going to leave. And like, it's so clear when Tony's doing that murder that he's, he sees that as the ultimate betrayal to leave and to like, have a safe way out. And like, in the, the next few apps, he's kind of offered that by the FBI agents. Like you could turn on all these guys and Carmelli clearly wants that at times. She has her moments of being like, well, we could have a normal life.
But like, Tony's never going to be that person because it's tied into his identity and his sense of self to be the monster, as Kirk says, but to just also be part of the mafia. Like that is his most important self-defining feature, I think, is that.
Hey, man, he has a semester and a half at Seton Hall. So come on. He understands Freud as a concept.
The priest is Intantola. I always forget his last name, Phil Intantola.
Yes.
A great character.
The actor was on 24 season, the first few seasons and had a great moment in season three of 24 where he plays this character, Ryan Chappelle. He's like this, this annoying director who's like, oh, he's contradicting Jack and stuff. And then Jack ultimately has to execute him in cold blood to like
That's right. I remember this.
Prevent the virus from spreading further. Anyway, um, uh, episode six is called Pax Sopranos. This is, uh, the episode where Tony is starting to fall in love with Melfi, or at least thinks he is, tries to kiss her. Yeah, tries to kiss her. It's always kind of a cliche to be like, I'm falling in love with the person who's paid to listen to me and not judge.
Which I appreciate that she points that out.
I mean, that is
Melfi has got, man, she is made of pretty stern stuff. Her ability to like roll with these developments in their sessions and turn them back into conversation and like, keep, uh, it's such a great performance.
She is phenomenal. And by the way, it is consistently hilarious that Goodfellas exists in the world of The Sopranos, but nobody notices that this character, sometimes they even talk about like her son is always bringing up mafia movies and brings up Goodfellas at one point, but nobody talks about the fact that one of the leads is sitting at dinner with them. Anyway.
And she looks so much like the actress.
And what an uncanny, this episode, Pec Soprano, this episode also has Junior in his first kind of big test as boss is is being, doing an awful job as expected. He eats alone and won't even pass the salt as the capos.
Is there a man who's less suited to being a mob boss than Junior?
Truly, truly terrible at the job. Tony using his, again, his, his strategies, his wits and his machinations, like is able to convincing, like convince Junior in a very conniving way to share the tax money he gets from Hesh with the other capos, which pleases them all. And of course, Tony gives his money back to Hesh and is like, oh, I wouldn't have thought of, I kept it to my, keeping to myself there.
Is this episode where we start just getting a little bit of, a little bit more Hesh? We flesh, flesh out Hesh, some Hesh fleshing happening?
He's always been, no, he, he's from the beginning. He's the guy who, who Mahafi owes money to in the pilot. He's always around. He's always kind of on the, on the borders.
I guess that's true, but this is like, I guess where there's sort of a conflict with Hesh.
He has a conflict. Yes. He is, he has to do a sit down. They bring in Johnny Sack. I believe this is the first time that Johnny Sack is introduced to the series. Matty, he's a very small role in this season, but he will play a much bigger role in the, in, in future seasons. Johnny Sack of, of New York, an important figure in the New York mob. And yeah, this is an interesting episode. I think just kind of for setting things up. There's a lot of setup in this one and it's just entertaining to watch Junior, Junior fail at his job. He also, this is also the episode where he sends his Palmease, Mikey Palmease and, and the other thugs to go after a drug dealer because the drug dealer sold drugs to the grandson of
his tailor, which again, just kind of shows you how Junior operates very much like all about his own, his own relationships and people who like bother, offend him in some way and the people he knows rather than being concerned about running a fair operation, a just operation, kind of familiar echoes of maybe our current political climate.
Yeah, I just to say a little bit more about Hesh. I think Jerry Adler is just fantastic as one of the-
He died just a couple of weeks ago.
Wise Guys, yeah, just recently died, rest in peace. And I'm sure you know this, Jason, that Jerry Stiller was up for the role. And he was almost, Hesh was almost played by Jerry Stiller.
I did not know that. No, that's interesting.
Can you imagine?
I cannot. It's weird.
He probably would be pretty good, but I think Adler just has a really particular energy and because Hesh is, he's kind of a, he's kind of a motherfucker. Like really, over the course of the season, he really, he's not a great guy. And yet, there's something, the warmth of him, he has this kind of menshi quality that you just are like, yeah, he's a good guy. Even though he's this like incredibly hard-nosed motherfucker half the time. Anyways, I love Hesh in this episode.
Yeah, I mean, he's still a gangster, right? He's like, he seems, I think what's interesting about Hesh is that he's clearly the smartest guy in the group. Like he, he, when it comes to, I mean, Tony is pretty smart, but like Hesh has a, has a brain and has street smarts. He has a good mix. But at the same time, he's still a criminal, just like the rest of them. And he's like a guy who made his millions by like taking advantage of, of people in the record industry, which is something we'll get to in a few episodes. And yeah, he's a, he's a fascinating dude. He has horses and Livia, Livia is lying about like, whoever heard of a Jew who has horses? And Junior's like, oh, I should tax Hesh. It's such a strange, strange sequence of events. Episode seven is called Down Neck.
This is the episode about Tony and his, his flashback. This is the first flashback episode where we see Tony as a child. We see the fantastic actors who play his parents in, in the seventies when he's growing up. We see young Janice, his sister, and we see him start to realize who his dad is and see his dad committing crimes, his dad getting arrested. And his mother always was, was always-
Always involved as it happened. I, this, this woman's kind of impression of the elder Livia is very good, by the way, whatever actress they cast as the young Livia is just giving- Full Livia in every moment, but also there's that scene where it's clear that she had a lot of power even then over what decisions Tony's father made, which I think is-
Leila Robbins is the actor who plays-
She was great in these, in these few scenes that we get her, which I think is helpful because without that, you wouldn't necessarily know, especially because of her suffering from dementia in like the present day version of reality, you, you don't really have a sense of like, oh, is she only now getting involved in all of this because she, you know, just is, is feeling like paranoid and that's like being expressed through, through her interactions with Junior and so on. But it's like, no, she was actually also really paranoid back then and was like obsessed with personal slights and taking, taking things out on other people through her husband's powers and, and kind of being a puppet master herself, which is fascinating.
Yeah. And the reason we're seeing all this is because AJ, Tony's son is, is gets into some trouble. He steals some wine from the, from the school sacrament. And the teachers start to think he might have ADD. They test him out and there's a lot in this episode about Tony and Carmela dealing, trying to deal with the fact that their son might have some sort of attention deficit disorder. And also trying to deal with the fact that like he might be subconsciously-
Acting out.
-learning from his father's behavior and becoming-
Maybe that's what's going on is that he's acting out.
And of course, Livia, Livia doesn't hesitate to mention that Tony was quite a, quite a hellcat growing up too.
Yeah. I think this episode goes the hardest into this question of, of generational, you know, teaching and, and you know, learning from your ancestors and then passing that on to your kids, learning from your parents and passing it to your kids. Because obviously like we, like what we've just described, you get Tony's parents, you see Tony as a kid, you're seeing AJ manifest as Tony. And it really, I mean, it explicitly gets into the question of, are we set in who we are or are we able to change? And that's like, to me at least, one of the biggest and most central themes of The Sopranos. There's this conversation between Tony and Melfi, I wrote it down. Jason, I think I texted it to you when I was watching. And it's when the two of them are talking and Melfi is kind of pushing him on this idea. He keeps mentioning like destiny and you know, this is just who we are.
And you know, it's, and he says, it's in the blood, it's hereditary. And Melfi says, genetic predispositions are only that predispositions. It's not a destiny written in stone. People have choices. And Tony says, finally, she offers an opinion. Cause he's always trying to get her to offer opinions. And Melfi says, well, they do. You think everything that happens is preordained? You don't think that human beings possess free will? And Tony says, then how come I'm not making fucking pots in Peru? You're born with this shit. You are what you are. And Melfi says, within that, there's a range of choices. This is America. And Tony says, right, America. And it's like The Sopranos in one conversation. Like, can you change? Is a genetic predisposition just a predisposition? Do you have freedom at all?
Do the systems around you, your family, the, your job? Do those force you to be who you are? Like, it's so, it's such a rich text, like that, just that debate. Listening to it, I was like, wow, they really just, sometimes they just say the thing on this show. And I actually really value that about this show. Because it's so, sometimes it's so symbolic, it's so abstract. It's really nice that occasionally you just get a conversation between Tony and his therapist, where they straight up debate the thing that they are making the show about.
It's classic. I think there's some people out there who like skip the, the Melfi scenes, which I think is so crazy.
It's wild.
Well, that was always a thing. So I watched this, I started with season five. I was looking at the timeline. My sister and I watched this together in real time. And so was, I was somewhat aware of the ongoing discussion. And it was always kind of a point of tension with fans of this show, that there were people who just wanted a regular mafia show and were not interested in basically what The Sopranos is. Like, they just wanted it to be different. So they watched 20% of it, so they could just watch mob shit and then got a probably very weird show that didn't really hold together.
One other thing I want to shout out in this episode is, I think this is a good point to mention how good the, the execution of the show is in terms of set design and production and cinematography and in this case, music. Jefferson Airplane is such a good kind of musical cue. And I think this, the show, other than that first episode, the show doesn't really do a lot with like non-diegetic music. Outside of the end credits, which always play some sort of song that is just kind of like interesting in some way. Usually there's no score in the show. And in fact, Tony will mention to Melfi at one point, I was thinking about Jefferson Airplane. So even in that case, it's diegetic and it's like you're meant to be in Tony's head as he's kind of like thinking the song to himself, which I think is a cool little moment.
But even the way they they shot the seventies, it looks so real and they really nailed like all of the the way that the the kids are running on the street and the cars and the looks of the characters, the casting is just fantastic. It's just such a well executed show in so many ways. Next episode is very fun. The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti. We get to see Christopher's script writing prowess and he writes his extra, his fantastic lines like, I must be loyal, L O Y L E to my capo and I manu, he manu to get the drip on him. This is the episode about Chris struggling to find his arc. And of course, you know who had
an arc, Noah. This is the episode where Chris shoots the guy in the foot in the bakery. Couple of fun facts about that scene. One is that it's a callback to Chris Moltisanti's or Michael Imperioli, who plays Chris Moltisanti is in Goodfellas and gets shot in the foot. So he gets to shoot someone in the foot in this episode. And also the guy, the customer who comes in will later change, like play a different role on The Sopranos and become a key character later in the show.
That was funny for me watching it. I was like, I know, wait a minute, I know that guy. So then I thought something was gonna happen in that scene. I was like, does something happen?
No.
He's just a civilian who they liked and brought back.
Exactly. It's extremely funny. Sometimes the show, over the course of the show, they will randomly switch actors for even sometimes key cast members or not key, but like, like peripheral cast member or characters. Memorable background characters. Switch cast members. No, no, I'm saying, I'm saying that, yeah, like peripheral characters who aren't background, but like have lines. Have lines. They will just randomly switch actors. We'll get to that down the road. But anyway, This is also the episode, in addition to Chris kind of worrying about his, his own arc and his fate and his place in the world, just kind of struggling with his own sort of depression. This is also the episode where the crew hears that indictments are coming and there's this incredible scene at the wedding where like some of them are immediately fleeing and taking back their gifts because they might need cash.
And then they're, they run and burn documents and even there, we get a great moment of like Junior just being incompetent and Tony pulling the strings and Junior is like, oh, you guys see indictments when you like under your pillows at night. And Tony's like, well, my uncle is saying that maybe we should do some spring cleaning here. Um, just fantastic stuff.
Yeah, this is also where Livia tells Junior that Tony is seeing a psychiatrist. This is a crucial future plot point.
Yeah, because Livia is always is the leak for anything that causes huge problems for Tony and she knows it and it's so maddening.
We also get a lot more Andrea de Matteo in this as, as Adriana, Christopher's girlfriend, who is a great character. I really, I mean, I came to love her over the course of the show. I remember watching it the first time, not really thinking much of her. And now when I watch it, I mean, from the beginning, she's just so great. He does not deserve her in any, in any way.
She's very sympathetic and, but also poignant in her cluelessness in, in her episodes that she gets.
She's such a good character.
She's a badass.
Especially knowing she has a lot to do in future seasons.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was gonna say, I think that this season.
Which I of course will not get into.
Yeah, she's, she's more of a, yeah, more, more on the side in this season and then later she comes.
It's nice though. They realize what they had, I think, with that actress and they, they gave her a lot to work with.
Yeah, she's phenomenal.
So a scene that actually really sticks out to me about this episode is the scene with Ton, between Tony and Christopher in the car after Tony confronts Christopher about the shooting. And Tony first off offers, I think, a lot of insight about how Christopher is feeling. He's like, I've seen guys do this before. You're acting like you want to get caught. You're acting like you want to, you want credit because you want to get caught. Cause that's kind of the sublimated feeling that Christopher is expressing in this, in shooting the guy in the foot and like sort of big dicking around town is that he's. Trying to be like-
Being upset he's not in the papers and when other people are in the papers, he gets obsessed with that.
Yes, he's trying to say he wasn't in the papers and he wanted to be noticed. And so Tony is like, I think, being very insightful there and empathetic even. He's looking at Christopher's action and understanding how he feels. And so then Tony is like in a very rare form here. Like, he's kind of empathizing with Christopher, not something Tony is typically very good at. And he's reaching out to him. And then they begin this conversation, that's this tantalizing conversation about their mental health, where Tony is like, "Do you ever think that, baby, you're depressed?" And he's talking about himself, but he's also talking about Christopher. And Christopher doesn't know what to do with it. What he's like, "Take Prozac, not this guinea-guinea."
Yeah, he's like, "I ain't no mental midget," he says.
"I ain't no mental midget." He's laughing it off. And you can see Tony then being hurt. A lot of great acting, especially from Gandolfini in this scene. You see in his eyes, thinking like, "Right, I can't talk to these guys about this, even as this has really helped me and I'm starting to understand that like, mental health is a real thing that you can deal with, like a real issue that you can solve, that can improve your life. And actually, all these guys around me seem really depressed and like, maybe we could all be taking SSRIs and going to therapy and it might help." And like, they're just not able to get there. And then you see there's this feeling, this like sinking feeling over the course of the conversation, as it just becomes clearer and clearer that they're totally not going to make any progress on this front, that Tony is not actually capable of having this conversation,
because he can't even really be honest with himself about his own, you know, mental health struggles, let alone to the point that he would need to be like, the self-confidence he would need to then go to someone else and say, "Hey, you know, I really benefited from this, you could too." But you see the very beginnings of it, and then you just really see how stunted these two men are.
This is always a show, throughout, it is a show about people not saying to each other what they're thinking, which is another thing that you didn't see a lot of on television back then. On television, in pre-Sopranos, was a lot of just characters just always saying what they're thinking, not leaving anything to the imagination. This is a show very much about reading between the lines.
It's so layered, right? Because it's characters who are lying to themselves, then- Lying to one another and you can see both lies happening simultaneously, partly because of the writing and partly because of the acting.
Yep, yeah, yeah. Um, next episode is called Boca. This is the episode where we find out that Junior Soprano is a bushman of the Kalahari. He is, he's whistling through the wheat field.
So many euphemisms.
Maybe this, this is such a sad episode.
Extremely sad episode.
This episode makes me so sad.
This is an episode about toxic masculinity.
Yeah, I was gonna say, like, if you didn't understand the Sopranos about toxic masculinity, this is the episode.
Yeah, it's so strange, too. The, the concept of it is so bizarre. Uh, again, just like following that's just kind of strangeness surrounding this entire show. So this is an episode where we find out that cunnilingus is frowned upon in mob circles. And if you, uh, the quote is, if you suck pussy, you'll suck anything, which doesn't really make a lot of sense.
I think it makes perfect sense.
I actually do, too.
It makes perfect sense to me.
Because you're subordinate. You're in a subordinate role.
Yes, no, I'm saying to a, a normal person, it doesn't really make a lot of sense.
A well-adjusted person, perhaps.
According to the logic of these kind of like grandstanding, like toxic men who believe in this code, that also allows them to be criminals, but does not allow them to pleasure women. It, it makes perfect sense. And of course, Junior is extremely good at cunnilingus. Unlike being a boss, he's very good at going down on a woman, uh, as his-
And enjoys it, which I feel like is equally important.
And enjoys it, yeah, and gets a lot out of it, which his girlfriend-
And has this wonderful relationship. Like, he's with this, they're age appropriate for one another. She's not like some young guma and it's all kind of weird.
And she loves him.
And she seems to really genuinely love him and he seems to really genuinely love her. Like, they're so happy. Truly, this is like one of the most beautiful things that this show is willing to shatter on the floor in front of you.
This relationship.
Yes. Um, and of course, because she won't stop talking about her sex life where he gets around and suddenly Carmella is just giggling at dinner and eventually tells Tony.
Yeah, because the girls all talk about their sex lives with each other, which is like a completely socially normal thing that is then, of course, also treated as like just the worst thing that could happen. By all the men in the group.
Yeah, I mean, it is a little out of turn, but the way that he deals with it, rather than having a conversation with her, he goes and sticks a pie in her face. At least, I think it would have been a little, a little much if he like actually beat her up. I think that would have been a little too hard to watch. So I think the pie is kind of a good, a good way to end that. Because it feels so sad and tragic, but at the same time, you don't have to watch Junior Soprano beating up a woman, which not have been like.
So the pie scene for me is like one of the most heartbreaking scenes of the whole season. And it's because of the mix of violence and holding back. Like it's because his unwillingness to beat her up is because he loves her like he is. And so that makes it even sadder that what he's doing is throwing away something really wonderful. And he's doing it in this like humiliating way. That scene, I remember seeing that the first time and like, I don't think it hit me as hard. And it's a little, you know, it's this, it's a comical image, right? The pie in the face is something that you think of a comedy.
A clown, yeah.
The sad clown. Actually doing it to someone and the way he does it, it's so slow and he holds it on her face and it is violent. Like it is, it did probably hurt, you know? And she's of course crying because she's heartbroken and it would also hurt and it's humiliating. And he humiliates her in this like really particular way. That scene, I don't know, you know, who wrote that scene or what they were thinking when they wrote it, but it is so affecting and heartbreaking. And it's because of all of those specifics.
And it's because Tony was razzing him on the golf course. That's fundamentally what it came down to is that just like he was emasculated by his, his nephew, his frenemy nephew. And so he took it out on her.
I think he picks the fight first though, right? Like he says something rude to Tony and then Tony is like, well, I have this on you. I mean, it doesn't matter who started it, but yeah, it's like, this is another relationship that is like constant machismo, dick measuring that can never end. It's, that's the tragedy for both of them, really.
At the same time, and by the way, the, what I was talking about earlier, this kind of strange language of the Sopranos, the worst, the use of the term Bushman of the Kalahari or whistling through the wheat field.
Yeah, there's a lot of funny.
So many very specific lines in The Sopranos. Also in this episode, we got Meadow's soccer coach, who first is beloved by everybody to the point, to the point where when he's considering leaving for a college job, the mob comes and intimidates him and steals his dog and gives him a television and is trying to threaten him. Then they all find out that he's actually sleeping with one of the students at the school. And then things turn around and they're just like, oh my God, like, what the fuck are we gonna do? They're about to assassinate him, they're about to whack him. And then Tony has a change of heart spurred by Artie Buco, who is like, hey, like, we can't do this. Like, we gotta let the, let the, the proper authorities happen. We can't have this blood on their hands.
And Tony eventually decides not to whack Meadow's soccer coach. And is very proud of himself, comes home drunkenly, drunkenly yelling about how he didn't do something bad.
God, that's right. The ending is the one-two punch with a pie in the face and then drunk Tony viewed from above. The whole scene is shot from Meadow's point of view, looking down as he stumbles through. And like, when you're a little kid, there are only a couple of times this ever happened. Once it was like a camp and a counselor came into our cabin and he had been out drinking and he was really drunk. And it, he, I think he wound up getting fired. It was like, he didn't hurt anyone or anything, but it was just like that sense of like unsafeness and upset as a kid, seeing a really drunk adult, like is perfectly captured by that scene. And like, that it ends in such, he's like laughing, like it's a good thing, but it's so clearly not. Like, yeah, that, that scene is chilling, I think.
Well, but at the same time, he's like allowing himself to feel something. I mean, we've been talking about how this, this show is so much about his depression and his panic attacks coming from that place of like him being a violent person and someone who's doing awful things all the time. And here is him making the right decision. And so a lot of that laughter is coming from him being like, having this kind of weight lifted off of him, being like, this is what it feels like to like actually, actually make the morally correct decision.
I don't read it that way. To me, it's much more twisted up. No, I don't see him as like feeling good for having made the right decision. It's, it seems like it's just. Much more an expression of his inner turmoil and like, he's just really, really drunk and out of control.
Yeah, like to drink in response to that feeling, I think also says a thing. Like, I, I think you could be right, Jason, at the impetus of it, but then to immediately be like, well, I'm gonna get extremely drunk then, to the point where I can't actually feel those feelings in a, in a sort of grounded way and, and instead in a more manic way.
The line he says is Carmella, I didn't hurt nobody. Like, that to me is 100%. That's like him just being like, for once, he didn't solve something with violence.
But like, the, what that line, like, think, like, I, I think about what that means, though, right? It's like, he, he's just like, he's hurt so many people. Like, for him to say that, it's like a lie. Like, he,
No, it's not. It's him. I think he got drunk to kind of deal with the fact that he's like letting this pedophile like out of his sights. But at the same time, I think this is him actually showing for once, like having this giddiness for once. He always talks about, uh, being the sad clown. And at one point, I think this is later, so sorry for the spoiler, Matty. But, um, at one point, someone has liked him, I think Melfi has liked to him. You say that, but like, you're, you're not the sad, I never see you being a clown at all. Like, you're sad all the time and for like, inside and outside. And, uh, this is like the, for the first time, we're seeing a giddiness and almost childlike expression from him. And I think that's because he's legitimately happy that he didn't hurt anybody. For the first time, he decided not to respond to something with violence.
And that like, like finally, he feels the kind of the, the lightness of like being in a world where he doesn't feel that sinking depression uh, and guilt for all the thing, all the awful things he does all the time.
Yes, I think the way that this, this scene is portrayed and shot and the way that Meadow takes it in, like, kind of illustrates how scary it is that this is how your father feels, if that makes sense. Like, I, does it not like totally get in his head? Like, I think that, yeah, sure, that's kind of part of where that's coming from. And he's also just kind of all fucked up about violence in general and like not sure who he is or what he does. But to then frame it from the way that they, they do, I think that's like a, a good part of the scene to look at, that it's not like, Viewed as like a chaotic and joyful thing. It's viewed as a scary and alienating thing. And to watch your father stagger in so drunk that he falls down on the floor and then says,
"I didn't hurt nobody." There's something really tragic to me about that. Like, it implies so much, you know? Normally, you do hurt people. Like, who are you? You know, what, what is this? Like, what am I even seeing here? And that is like, it seems like it's a very dark and heartbreaking note to end on. And that's kind of why, why it makes me feel that way.
Yeah, I mean, at the same time, we're also talking about a situation where Meadow has just told Tony what happened. And so she now knows that she doesn't have to deal with the guilt of like, her soccer coach dying because of something she told her dad. So I think part of what she's feeling is also the relief of like, him not having her, her coach as a result of all this. But yeah, I mean, it's a, a lot of this stuff is open to interpretation. That's part of the, the greatness of this show. Let's move on. Episode 10, A Hit Is A Hit. This is the episode about Massive Genius, the rapper, uh, who, uh, Chris meets with and, uh, is kind of like looking around at his house and is like, why don't I have this? Uh, he negotiates a sit-down between him and Hesh to fight over, uh, over money, over
the rights to some like songs from ages ago that, uh, Hesh controlled the rights to and kind of stole a bunch of money from the, the young black rappers who, and singers who are, not rappers, singers who are actually coming up with the songs. And at the same time, Chris uses that as an excuse to get Massive Genius to kind of like, uh, uh, help Adriana launch her own music business career.
Her faded music career.
And they bring in Defiler, the phenomenal band. And this episode has the best line read in the entire series. Maybe one of the best rides on tele, line readers on television, where the lead singer of Defiler says, "I've recorded in Denmark." Which is truly phenomenal. Again, this, this feels like, uh, the series feels like it's from an alien planet sometimes.
I might have to include the lyrics from Defiler when they sing, "Get out of the way and don't be so gay."
That song.
"For someone to defile, defile you."
Sorry you've ever heard in your life.
If you need to immediately communicate to the audience that this is the worst band ever, that's how you do it is perfect.
So all the music in this was written for the show, including that one towards the end that Hesh is listening to that sounds like a 50s like.
I wondered about that. The one that he walks in and he's like, that's a hit.
Cause it kind of sounds like a ChatGPT song a little bit.
A little bit. It's a little bit of like one of those classic do off songs and he's like, a hit is a hit. This is a hit. And so that's a fun subplot. At the same time, Tony is interacting with the wasps of the world, the Italian wasps type or wasp types, the Italian yuppies. He's invited to play golf with a bunch of dorks who treat him.
Keep asking him how accurate the Godfather is.
Yeah, they treat him like this. This whole subplot is a little silly because I think in real life, they would be scared shitless to be doing this to him. But it's, it's kind of, it's fun to watch. It's fun to watch him interacting with these people who are kind of criminals in their own rights, just kind of white collar criminals, stock market criminals, but are fascinated by this because they've watched a lot of mob movies. And so they think Tony is just kind of like this zoo creature. Tony tells this great story to Melfi about, about the, the kid who had a cleft palate in, when they were growing up and who everybody made fun of. And now he starts to feel that way. And he comes so close to empathizing with that kid until, until he, until he just starts cracking up and, and making fun of
him to Melfi. Just, just good stuff all around in this episode.
Yeah, I think this scene, the scene where he is talking about the kid he knew with a cleft palate is a great example of.
Jimmy Smash.
Yeah, Jimmy Smash. It's a great example of Lorraine Bracco's like subtle performance as Melfi and something that I think Melfi does really well is take on board the moments when Tony is in the zone and then is just being horrible. For example, he's like, he keeps doing this impression of this kid and doing the voice. And then there's a time where there, he's like singing and imitating and he's laughing and reminiscence. And you can see like Melfi is like kind of horrified. On some level because And like wishes she could say get to the point. But she's so good at, um, she'll just sort of, she'll smile in a way that is not an endorsement of what he's saying, but is like just allowing him space to continue because he's her patient.
And it's, it's definitely like a conscious choice. She does it a few different times. Um, when he like later, he's like, oh, there's this kooz next door. You should see her. And he's like describing her body and Melphie is like, hmm, in a way that very clearly implies like, that's very nice for you that you feel that way. Anyways, I, I really do think that Lorraine Bracco's performance is, is so textured and nuanced in scenes like that. And she gets to do so much of it. Um, and that, that was a scene that stuck out to me.
Yeah. Um, yeah. The, the whole, I actually, I like that plot a lot more than the music industry plot, which just kind of feels a little bit meandering, a little bit of a waste of time. It's also, it's notable that I think the only time The Sopranos brings in people of color is like as kind of stereotypes, like the, the gangster rapper type. Um, it is fun. It's, it is of little fun that they subvert things at the end by being like, then I will be seeing you in court. I'll be keeping your people working by seeing you in court. Um, kind of subverting expectations a little bit, but it is, uh, always a little bit too bad when it's like the one main black character is this rap stereotype. Um, but the same, at the same time, fantastic actor. That guy is also in Fargo, um, does a really good performance.
Oh yeah. Bokeem Woodbine is his name.
Yes. That's a massive genius. Great performance.
What's his name on, on, I'm looking up, what's his name on Fargo? His character has a great name. Oh, Mike Milligan.
Yes. And he appears in two different seasons. One of the few recurring characters.
Yeah. A rare recurring character. Yeah. He's great. And I think, um, yeah, like this is the kind of storyline that would be pursued on a show, like a show like Empire or something that's like about a black power music mogul family, like especially going back to, you know, white, uh, producers sort of taking advantage of black artists, which was totally a thing. Um, and then, you know, stealing all their money and like that form of reparations in the music industry. Like that's a really rich topic to talk about. That's a really interesting thing. And it fits in with The Sopranos themes, especially those themes of assimilation, like the Scenes where Christopher and Adriana are walking around Massive Genius' mansion and kind of being like, huh? And you can see that, like, even in conversations then that various Sopranos characters have, like,
they're struggling to reconcile the idea of how they think of black people as like, well, they're beneath us. Like, they should be, they're doing terribly with like, what black success actually can look like, which is way more successful and kind of fabulous than anything that they have, even though they're also successful and wealthy and like, trying to figure out how they fit and like, how to fit this into their worldview, which is super interesting. And then, yeah, like you said, Jason, isn't really revisited, at least often enough to kind of have a more, like, a kind of naughtier and more complex rendition of it.
Yeah, I mean, I think one, one other takeaway, just kind of series-wide and long, long-term takeaway from this is that Adriana and Chris are just horrible at like, recognizing talent and having any sort of like, actual...
Even though, it's so funny, because like, that guy is a wonderful singer. Like, clearly those musicians are really good musicians. That scene in the recording studio is incredibly funny, like,
It is.
With the engineer sitting there just being like, paid in his life, which I think any recording engineer can relate to that, that experience, where the producer's behind you and they don't know what the hell they're doing, and the band is like, totally sucks, and you're just like, I hate this and I don't want to do it anymore.
Like, where your chorus is.
I mean, he was not wrong, though.
No, he's not, even though, when, like, that song they're doing is such a snore, but he's a beautiful singer, like, he has this amazing voice. And like, I'm sure they got a guy who like, probably has a really good band in real life, and then just, you know, clearly sucks at writing songs.
Oh, yeah, and is singing better songs, one hopes, than also the Defiler clip that I'm sure we played, which is just unbearable. I mean, I, I do, I, I feel like, yeah, this, this whole storyline is largely comedic, and I certainly enjoyed it for that reason, but I agree, it's like, there is kind of a missed opportunity for some of the deeper themes that The Sopranos has ordinarily brought out in favor of the funnier...
Adriana's like, I think this is better than Goo Goo Dogs.
It's better than Matchbox 20, maybe that's...
Yeah, the lead singer, the lead singer's like, "The Beatles, the Beatles, everyone keeps bringing up the Beatles." It's just so...
Yeah, you know, I think, I think... Maybe overall, and I'm thinking about it because you mentioned the other storyline too with the golf. This is actually kind of just like a bit of a clumsy episode, like taken in the context of this season. Like it's exploring, you know, both, both of these storylines are still exploring some of those ideas of culture assimilation. What, you know, fascination with mob movies versus really being in the mob. But like they're, they're just both a little clumsier. And then they were also both just set aside and not really returned to meaningfully in the future.
Yeah, well, it's a little bit of a standalone kind of filler episode. And then now we're, as we get into the last three episodes, we're getting into the meat of the, the, the kind of the climax of the season and the finale. So the next episode is called, Nobody Knows Anything. The big storyline here is that Vin Mccasian tells Tony that Big Pussy is a rat. Vin Mccasian shortly afterwards kills himself, as turns out into he's
Which I totally forgotten if that happened.
Heavy debt with Big Pussy. He's like a, a big gambler and so on, so on. He's part of, he like goes to this brothel that got raided, so he was about to lose his, his badge.
And he's just sad, right? He's just another depressed man who can't cope with life.
Well, also he was about to lose his career as a result of being in this prostitute, in this bordello. And then everybody, after a whole big plot involving taking pussy to a sauna and him refusing to take off his clothes and Polly getting suspicious. And Tony being like, where the fuck is he? Like getting really tense. Turns out they figure out that it is Jimmy who is the rat because Jimmy is extremely clumsy and obvious when he comes back from like being arrested and is just like, so Tony, tell me about your mob business.
And I think even in that moment, Tony's like, boy, it didn't take you long to get back at all.
You sure heard home fast.
We get the seeds very quickly.
Yeah. And then at the end of this episode, a very important plot point in that Junior and Livia decide to whack Tony. Which of course is, is a big moment in Soprano family history is when his uncle and his mom conspiracy kill him, I would say.
Those elliptical conversations, the way, like every conversation between Livia and, and Junior is so elliptical because they never, she never really says what she means, but she makes it clear. And he never really says what he's going to do, but he makes it clear, which is this, you know, very Like a real way of communicating about crime because you don't ever want to say exactly what you're doing. I think those are masterfully written, the way that they communicate so much and you know what's happening, but you do have to be paying attention because they don't actually just say it.
Well, they communicate enough that the FBI figures it out when they have it on tape and then they play it for Tony who immediately knows what they're doing there. Let's keep going. So episode 12, we can talk about this kind of this next chunk all together. And episode 12 is Isabella. This is the episode where Tony hallucinates a hot foreign neighbor who is kind of a stand-in for his mother. At the same time in this episode, two guys try to kill Tony, fail. He is able to thwart them. And he finds out that Isabella is hallucination. Overall, Melfi tells him to discontinue the lithium. And in the kind of the next episode, he is revealed to have like, have this new drive. In Isabella, he's really depressed.
He's sleeping all the time. And then after almost being assassinated, he suddenly he has a jolt of life. He comes back to life as a result of that. In the next episode, I Dream of Jeannie Cusimano, he has Jimmy and Mikey and other junior associates killed. Jimmy is not a junior associate, but Jimmy was a rat, of course, and so he's killed pretty early on in that episode. The FBI arrests Junior before Tony can actually get to him. Lucky for him, Tony tries to smother his mother with a pillow. And we end the season with a rainstorm and them all eating at Artie's new restaurant, Vesuvio 2. And Tony tells his kids to remember the little things that were good, the little moments that were good in life.
Yeah. And at some point in there, Artie confronts him and that's
Yeah, that's the whole thing is that Livia tells him that he broke down the restaurant and
Which is like tying it back to the pilot and Tony lies to his face multiple times.
He says he swears on his mother, which is a very fun, fun thing to swear on at that point in time.
Yep.
This is also where we get the sort of denouement of Carmella and Father Intantola, where she kind of calls him out.
Yeah, which is also great.
Which the real tragedy, for all the deaths in this The real tragedy is that Carmella throws out a perfectly good ziti. That like, there's no reason she had to throw that out.
It looks so tasty, too. It really looks delicious.
Why could she not just bring that home and like, freeze it and serve it for dinner sometime? Yeah, for real.
It's symbolic. It's her throwing away just everything she felt about the priest initially.
It's great. I mean, I feel like that was also just a very satisfying conclusion to that arc for me. Cause I had been judging him anyway for feeling like he was taking advantage of her. And that just confirms like, everything I had assumed about him as a person. But have him also be kind of stringing along all the wives of.
All the wives.
What's the line where she's like, you know, I'm not a fan of Renee Zellweger.
It's a great line. This episode has a couple of great lines. I mean, this has, we got bigger things to talk about than Jean Cusmano's ass.
And we've also got Cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this. Maybe one of the most iconic Sopranos lines ever uttered.
Cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this. That's the surprise.
Which, you know, I suppose that's one of the.
He's in one of the sopranos in a nutshell. Maddie, were you, I assume you were surprised by some of these events that unfolded here?
I was. I did not expect the hot neighbor to be a hallucination. That was, I think, around where I messaged the group chat and was like, it's absurd how the dream sequences in this show are so on the nose compared to ordinary people's dream sequences. I feel like my own journey with therapy and psychiatry would have been a lot easier if, like Tony Soprano, I just had dreams that perfectly told me exactly what my hangups were.
Your mother was a nurturing, beautiful Italian woman.
And then she like, literally like, tells me the plot as we're having lunch together. And then I get to go back to my psychiatrist and be like, all right, listen up. Here's exactly what's wrong with me. It is very satisfying as a viewer, though, even though I, and it's also kind of, it's, it's a beautiful scene, the lunch scene, where she starts speaking Italian to him. And he has the vision of her with a baby version of him. I mean, it's all on the nose, but it's. It was very satisfying. It was very narratively satisfying to have that revealed. And I appreciated it all. And I appreciated that that wasn't spoiled for me. And I think I'm hoping that there won't be too many more things that I already know. But I'll tell you guys as we go along, if there's anything else. That one I definitely
Yeah, I mean, there's some fun. There's some fun loose ends that really leave you wanting more. I think season one, overall, it's it's tied together quite nicely. There's a lot of arcs that just kind of like, like the priest arc, the junior and Livy and Tony arc. A lot of that stuff is just kind of, it starts in one place, and then it is tied up neatly by the end of it. But there are a couple of loose ends. Big Pussy is nowhere to be found.
Yeah, yeah, we don't know where he is.
We don't know where he is. We don't know what's gonna happen to Junior. Junior is seen being interrogated by the FBI, and he refuses to admit that Tony was really pulling the strings, which is a fun, another kind of like example of his ego, just kind of getting in the way of what's best for him.
His ego, perhaps, or maybe his honor, because all of them still ultimately are see turning on each other is the worst crime. So I think there's kind of multiple ways you could take that.
The way he says it is specifically like, my nephew, like, no way.
I know, it's true, he manages to get a dig in.
Not him, not that moron. We don't know what's gonna happen with Tony's mother, of course. She is like, seeing the last we see of her, she's smiling on the gurney after having just had a stroke. What's gonna happen to her? And of course, what is going to happen to Artie's restaurant? And is Paulie ever gonna recover from his poison ivy rash?
I had really forgotten, just Artie's arc in this season, and what a kind of interesting arc it is. And especially Artie and Charmaine, his wife. I think like, they do such a great job of writing them. And Charmaine, though, it's kind of a thankless role. I think the actress who plays her does a good job of of conveying those lines, the lines that imply so much backstory. I mean, is it in the very first episode where they cater the party and Carmella does the famous hand motion?
That's in the second or third. And that's the one that ends early on. Ends with her throwing at Carmella like, oh, yeah, Tony and I had a thing back in the day, but I decided it wasn't for me.
Where she gets her revenge. So like, that there's this kind of complicated backstory, and then that Artie and Charmaine are Not in the game. And as a result, as we as viewers know, they are safe. Like, we're like, look, this thing, this mafia, this crime, this destroys everyone who touches it. These people are all poisoned irrevocably. Like, they're all just going to melt into sludge. Their souls are garbage. You could be OK. You could just have a restaurant. And if the worst thing that happens to you is that, like, your restaurant gets burned down, which is pretty bad, but like, at least your soul is intact, you know? Like, at least that, that, your life is OK. And you get to watch Artie be tempted. And I think that it's actually something we didn't really talk about with that soccer coach storyline.
But a big part of what's driving that storyline is Artie and his rage about his daughter playing on the team and his desire to take the law into his own hands, to take justice into his own hands, and to get his friend Tony to kill this guy and to feel like he's, he can do something because he doesn't believe that the justice, you know, the actual justice system will give him satisfaction. And then his, you know, it's actually Charmaine who like says to him, like, you can't do this. Like, she's always there saying, no, like, we don't want to be a part of that life. And it's, and he's the reason that Tony decides not to kill him.
She's the realest, the realest character on the show.
She is. She really sees things for what they are. Charmaine, justice for Charmaine. She doesn't get enough credit. And so anyways, like, having it come full circle in Artie's restaurant, I think is just an interesting choice and underlines how important Artie is to this season's story. I think he's just a really interesting character. And I can't remember exactly, like, what he does going forward. But this storyline, like, his storyline in this season, I think, was just, was really well done and was an important part of, like, the overall season arc.
There's a lot of good Artie stuff coming forward. Rest assured.
The actor is great. I mean, he's, he's a lot of fun.
A lot of good Artie stuff to come. Yeah, it's, I thought it was, when I, when I watched this for the first time, the thing that surprised me most was that this kind of, this war that had been building from episode one between Tony and Junior ends not with one of them dying, but with Junior being arrested before it can even go any further. And it's really interesting to, to see that. And it's, it's really interesting to see. What happens in the future with that story and and the two men and their relationship and how it changes in the coming seasons. But um, but I I thought that was a fun subversion and it's the first of, I think, many examples of The Sopranos. Kind of leading you down one path to believe that something is going to happen only for it to fizzle entirely or like go in a different direction.
Yeah, exactly. It's it's anticlimax.
The Sopranos is very good at anticlimax, at subverting expectations in an anticlimactic way.
Yeah, it's anticlimax as much as it is subversion. Like it's the subversion, the anticlimax is the subversion, I guess, but like so many mob stories end with a big explosion with a series of shootouts, with a bunch of assassinations, the ending of The Godfather, of course. And we start that at the beginning of this episode and then, right, they immediately go for the anticlimax, which of course is now, looking back on the whole show, like that is a classically Sopranesean move. Like Chase loves an anticlimax. He loves to to not give you what you quote unquote want and to just totally take it in like completely unexpected and usually like way less like exciting, like less violent direction.
That's like my favorite kind of story, so.
But we do get some fun, some fun whacks. We do get Mikey Palmese getting whacked. We do get um, that.
An overdue whacking.
That other, just kind of the other random junior associate and Tony pulls a gun out of a fish to to shoot him.
That is pretty sick, actually.
It is very funny. And of course, we see Jimmy Altieri get whacked, a captain in the family who it's it's never made clear whether he was a rat or not.
I know.
It seems like he is just because he isn't like, what are you talking about?
But they don't show the wire in that scene.
Well, because they deliberately like got him in there like before he had a chance to get in a wire. Otherwise, they would have been caught murdering him with a wire. That would have been bad. No, it's it's seems it's like implied that he is the rat, but but like we don't know for sure. Just his kind of reaction is a tell. And also his obvious behavior before that is kind of a tell too. So it seems like he is. And yeah, man, that's that's The Sopranos, season one. Any final thoughts from you guys?
I don't know what happens next.
Yeah, we gotta do, maybe we'll talk about this off the air if we wanted to do more episodes, because it's a very fun show to talk about. Maybe we can do like a couple more where we cram some seasons together. I don't know, we'll talk about it more. But um, yeah, always a fun show to talk about The Sopranos, best show ever made, incredible stuff. Love it. I'm glad you guys are watching it with me.
It is a good show. This is really fun. I, the idea of doing two seasons, I mean, one season took us almost two hours.
Two hours, I don't know.
I wouldn't do it differently, but like, there's so much to talk about that it would be hard. I think we can just come back to this show every six months or every year or so.
Yeah, we'll just, we'll figure it out. We don't need to debate that on the air.
We'll talk about this off air.
Regardless, I'm really enjoying watching it. I'm definitely hooked. I want to know what happens to Junior. He's arrested. Is that really the end of his story? Like, what's up with Livia? She's not dead yet? Like, these are all things that I was like, ah, I want to watch the next season. So, I, that and also just in general, I really enjoy watching a kind of so-called canonical piece of media and seeing how it inspired other things around it. And just that and the time capsule of 1999 has been really cool. Um, and also, just to shout something out, I, it made me think a lot about John Gans's book, which was my one more thing a while back, because he has a chapter, so John Gans's book, When the Clock Broke, is about kind of the rise of the right wing, but it's really specifically
about the 90s. And the final chapter of the book is about John Gotti. And it's a great chapter, and he analyzes The Godfather, Goodfellas, and just kind of the social differences between those two movies and how, like, Goodfellas is like the fall of the honor that's depicted in The Godfather movies and just kind of the way that the public perceived John Gotti. And like, the fact that I read that book kind of near the time that I was watching this show was really meaningful. So if you're a listener and you, you were still kind of considering reading that book, I, I think that that is a great counterpoint to some of the themes that come up in this show. And it goes into some of the actual history of how the mob was perceived in this specific time. So that was cool, too.
Nice, I gotta read that.
Matty, you have so much good stuff ahead of you.
I would say that's the thing.
So many more good characters.
The thing that I'm excited about is, and that Matty, you can be excited about is that, for starters, this is a show that does not really misstep and end strong.
And doesn't fall off, that's such a comfort to hear.
You're not gonna have like a loss situation where you just have to kinda get through the middle or whatever. Like, it's not one of those shows where there are bad seasons. It's really just good throughout. It just gets better, honestly, as it goes.
That's great.
And I'm excited partly because the experience of watching this season for me was one of, it was one of remembering and being reminded, I suppose. Maybe those are two different things. It was one of being reminded as much as it was one of remembering. And I find that, you know, the longer my life has gone on, the more memories I have, the more I value being reminded of things. I have friends from school who have really strong memories and also remember a lot of things that I don't, just because they landed differently for them, or whatever. You know, we all remember different things. And when they will tell a story that I was there for, I'll remember it after I'm reminded. But it's not the kind of story that I could have pulled out of thin air myself. And this, watching this show has kind of felt that way, too. Where, of course, there are things that I remember, but there are a lot of things that
I couldn't just tell you, oh yeah, I totally remember what happens to this guy or that guy, or when this happened. And there are various things all I thought happened in season one that don't happen until season two or later. And so watching the show is this one, this wonderful feeling of being reminded, oh yeah, even sometimes in the moment as the scene is happening, right, this happens. And like, oh, and that means this next thing is gonna happen, you know? And like, and watching it kind of piece back together in my memory, which was really a thrill. It was so much fun. And it does make me wanna watch, watch the rest of it.
Yeah, well, you guys will have to keep me updated as you keep watching it. So, uh, season two has my favorite episode of the show, which, see if you guys can guess it as we watch it. And also, uh, there's some characters who are just kind of like, like, some of the most important characters in The Sopranos, who you have not met yet.
Including Tony's sister, Janice, who you meet as a child in season one, but she come, she doesn't come back as an adult until season two, and then becomes one of the most important characters in the show. So, uh, it's lots of fun stuff ahead of you. Uh, I can't wait to see what you think.
That's exciting.
All right, thank you once again to everybody who supports our show and makes this possible, makes it so we can just watch Sopranos and talk about it for hours. Um, this was an extra long, extra beefy, uh, episode. Hope you enjoyed it, and we will see you next time.
Yeah, see you next time.
Bye.
Triple Click is produced by Jason Schreier, Maddy Myers, and me, Kirk Hamilton. I edit and mix the show and also wrote our theme music. Our show art is by Tom DJ. Some of the games and products we talked about on this episode may have been sent to us for free for review consideration. You can find a link to our ethics policy in the show notes. Triple Click is a proud member of the Maximum Fun Podcast Network, and if you're listening to this bonus episode, it means you're already a member, so thank you. We really appreciate your support. Email us at [email protected] and find links to our merch store and our Discord server in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time.
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