THE SOPRANOS RETROSPECTIVE

You woke up this morning
The world turned upside down,
Thing’s ain’t been the same
Since the Blues walked into town.

But you’re one in a million
Cause You’ve got that shotgun shine. (shame about it)
Born under a bad sign,
With a blue moon in your eyes.

Woke up this morning, Got yourself a gun

Well it only took me close to 13 years after the final episode aired but I finally watched The Sopranos and my God what an awesome ride that was. Easily in the Top 5 for the greatest TV shows of all time. I had heard the hype of how great the show was so my expectations were high but they significantly exceeded them. The characters, the stories, the soundtrack, the cinematography, everything about the show was top quality and it never dipped for even 1 episode. Thankfully I was somehow able to go into the 1^st episode with basically no spoilers. The only thing I knew for sure about what happened on the show was that the final scene just faded to black before showing what happened and that a lot of fans were not happy about it. But knowing that did not ruin my viewing experience at all. I was on the edge of my seat and then rocked back in my chair by all the twists and turns and surprises. One thing I didn’t expect was how funny the show would be, tons of lines in the show had me laughing pretty hard.

With how great the show is and how much I enjoyed it, I had to write something about it. I’m going to say a little something about most of the characters but before I get into that I want to talk about the show in general. Similar to Breaking Bad, The Sopranos has you rooting for characters that are doing very bad things and rooting against people trying to fight for good. I found it funny that the cops on the show were really pissing me off yet were only trying to bring murderers and extortionists to justice. But I wanted to see the story play out through these mafia characters so I didn’t want them in jail or worse. The worst was probably when the FBI was all over Adrianna to give up information on Tony and wear a wire like just fck off already lol but that’s the thing about a great TV show, they make you feel things you wouldn’t normally feel if it was real life.

There were a few storylines that I thought for sure would be expanded yet they never were. The rape of Jennifer Melfi was one of the most awful, uncomfortable scenes I have ever seen on TV and I desperately wanted Dr Melfi to tell Tony what happened so that scumbag would pay dearly for his abhorrent crime. But she never did. And while that did frustrate me, she couldn’t have done that and kept the morals of her character in-tact. This show really existed in a real world as opposed to a TV world. In a TV world, Dr Melfi tells Tony about what happened and the scumbag that did it is brutally murdered. But in a real world, rape victims stay silent all the time and rapists far too often get away with their crime. In a real world, Dr Melfi doesn’t want to be responsible for a murder despite what happened to her. By not going the route of Tony exacting revenge, they kept the show rooted in a real life world which is one of the reasons the show is so highly regarded. But man did I want her to tell Tony and was really surprised when the show ended and it never happened.

Another story I thought for sure would play out was the Russian guy that Paulie and Chris were gonna whack coming back for revenge. But again it never happened. This one really surprised me as we know the guy got away since Paulie’s car was gone. That episode was full of unintentional comedy with how the guy got away,  Paulie/Chris arguing and eating ketchup packets lol but I was shocked that we never heard anything about that guy again. However this is another case of The Sopranos existing in a real world more than a TV world. In a TV world, the Russian guy comes back and makes life hell for Paulie/Chris and probably Tony. But in a real world, the Russian guy knows he is dealing with a dangerous mafia crew so he does the smart thing and stays away from them keeping an extremely low profile. Gutsy call to start a potential story like that and not follow through but it ends up as part of what makes the show great and realistic.

We see Jimmy Altieri get whacked for being a rat but we never find out if he actually was. The FBI contact says a heavy-set guy is the rat and Tony thinks it’s Big Pussy until Jimmy starts acting weird making everyone think it’s him instead. The way Jimmy was acting definitely makes him seem like a rat asking Tony about things they already discussed but it could be a coincidence. FBI Agent Skip Lipari tells Big Pussy that Jimmy took a bullet for him seeming to imply that Jimmy was innocent. If I had to take a position, I’d say Jimmy was also a rat given how suspicious his actions were but I would really like to know for sure. It def bummed me out to know that Big Pussy was a rat.

It really surprised me that Furio just left and never returned after he realized he was about to cross the line of no return with Carmela. But once again, that is what would happen in a real world setting. In a TV world, Furio tries to sneak around with Carmela or get her to leave Tony. But that would have gotten him killed for sure. In a real world, Furio gets the fuck outta there before Tony can kill him which Tony was ready to do and Furio didn’t even do anything with Carmela. I felt so bad for Carmela playing the role of loyal wife while Tony fucked every hot chick he could and really wanted her to hook up with Furio. I have to believe when Furio learns of Tony’s death he is on the first plane back to New Jersey to “support” Carmela.

That brings me to one of the biggest questions of the series, did Tony get whacked in the final scene. To me it’s a no brainer that he did get whacked and I think it was brilliant the way they did it. It wasn’t just spoon fed to you, they really made the viewer have to think and put the pieces together on our own. They really played up Bobby’s quote about getting whacked, “I bet you don’t even hear it when it happens.” Then the scene doesn’t just fade to black like normal episodes, it cuts hard to black. Without Tony, there really is no show so it makes sense that the show would end immediately as he gets shot and killed. The fact that Phil Leotardo was killed in front of his wife and grandkids probably didn’t sit well with most mafia guys. Considering all that I have no doubt that Tony was killed by either the two guys that walked in right before or by the guy that went to the bathroom. A fitting end for one of the greatest mob bosses in TV/Movie history. With all the feathers Tony ruffled over the years but especially recently, it wouldn’t have been realistic for him to survive into old age. Def a rough road ahead for AJ, Carmella and Meadow considering it would have happened right in front of them.

I realized as I was watching that I was really rooting for the story as opposed to rooting for specific characters as every single one had serious flaws that made it hard to cheer for them. I loved all the boobs n asses we saw but the way they all treated and regarded women was pretty disgusting. The drugs were another thing esp with Chris. Most of the men were cheaters and had no qualms about hitting a woman neither of which sit well with me. And not only did the women have to endure abuse but these guys never even went down on them! I laughed my ass of when they compared cunnilingus to sucking dick lol unbelievable standard for mob guys, a real man knows how to pleasure a woman with his tongue. Tony making fun of Junior for going down on his girlfriend was ridiculous. What’s next giving a woman an orgasm is considered gay? Lol moving on. The amount of children that were left fatherless and in some cases orphans was really sad. But on a show like this the sex and violence is gonna have a heavy presence so you have to take it in stride. My fav characters were Tony obviously, loved Silvio, Chris but def had a love/hate energy for him same as Paulie, Bobby was awesome and Big Pussy despite his rat status. Really enjoyed pretty much all of the female characters, they cast some great actresses.

Before I start talking about each character I want to talk about some of the bigger surprises during the run of the show. I was really surprised that Tony never took revenge on Uncle Junior for his botched assassination attempt, thought for sure Junior’s days were numbered but Tony seemed to focus most of his rage towards his mother. I was so shocked when Chris’s guys, Matthew Bevilaqua and Sean Gismonte tried to kill him, thought it might have been a dream with how out of left field it was. Couldn’t believe Chris might be off the show that early but thankfully he survived. Richie dying was not unexpected but Janice being the one to do it certainly was. Couldn’t believe he punched and talked to her like that so it was satisfying when she dropped him and inadvertently made things much easier for Tony. Sucked to learn the Big Pussy really was an informant and even though you knew he would get whacked eventually I was shocked when it actually went down. Jackie Jr being killed was so fn sad, man. Obviously it was set up but I was really thinking that Tony would be able to save him. Amazing performance by Sharon Angela who played Rosalie Aprile at Jackie Jr’s funeral, fn tough scene. Another sad one was Tracee’s death so I loved Tony hammering on Ralphie. I was thinking that something would happen to Tony/Ralphie’s horse but I did not expect it to lead to Tony killing Ralphie, def a shocking moment. For a women we barely knew, Bobby’s wife Karen’s death was a fcking tough one. Knowing those sweet kids would lose their mother and that Bobby was frustrated with her while stuck in traffic due to her fatal accident. Damn man, brilliant writing but that one hit me good.

After almost 5 seasons I thought we might never see Carmela leave Tony so it was pretty jarring when she finally had enough and threw him out. Tony Blundetto ruining his legit Massage Therapy career and going back to the mafia was a huge shock to me as everything seemed to be going right. And then I couldn’t believe how fast things deteriorated for Tony B leading to Tony Soprano having to kill his cousin. One thing I never expected to see on this show was a gay storyline and then BAM! Vito is going down on a security guard lol thought Finn was a dead man after that. Adrianna was on thin ice from the moment she started co-operating with the FBI but I was thinking that if she got whacked it would be together with Chris so when Sil brought her to the woods to do it I was pretty shocked. Sad end for such a sweet woman. Tony all of a sudden booking it out of there during his conversation with Johnny Saks as the Feds were swarming in was a great, chaotic end to the season. Junior shooting Tony was def shocking but how close Tony came to dying really had me questioning if I had the right information about the finale lol I knew Vito was gonna die considering his lifestyle but it was still sad and surprising the way it went down. Johnny Saks being ravaged by cancer was def not the way I expected his end to go. I was sure Chris would be whacked by Phil as revenge for his brother so Tony killing him after the car accident was really shocking and a fn sad end to such a troubled soul. AJ’s suicide attempt was such a brutal scene, the graphicness and realness to it was hard to take. I thought he was actually gonna die but thankfully was able to save himself until Tony could pull him out.

The last storyline I expected but never came was Dr Melfi and Tony having sex, thought for sure it would happen but it never did. In a TV world it would have happened but in a real world she never would have gone there and this show is set in a real world so I’m ok with it not happening. But I’m still surprised they never went there. Last thing I want to mention before I move on to talking about each individual character is the product placements. Coca Cola must have paid a small fortune bc they drank it with almost every meal lol both kinds of Coke were all over the show. Carmella even suggested Tony drink Coke when he was sick. It was smart though bc when people see Tony Soprano driving a certain type of vehicle or eating/drinking a certain thing they are going to want the same thing for themselves. Minute Maid and Nissan had a big presence too. Not sure why I noticed but it all really stuck out to me.

So now I want to say something about each individual character and their journey. Of course I have to start with the big man, the Boss, Tony Soprano and it will def be the longest but the story/show did revolve around him.

Tony Soprano – He was a tough man to love sometimes but I def had love for him. One of the greatest main characters in the history of TV, James Gandolfini crushed this role as much as anyone can crush a role. Tony, Silvio, Paulie and Chris are a fn legendary crew, great chemistry between the actors. Tony and Chris definitely had that Father/Son type relationship as they were close but Tony would get really frustrated with Chris’s shenanigans. Would have loved to see more of the relationship between Tony and Jackie Aprile Sr but the cancer took Jackie quickly. I was surprised when Tony let Junior become Boss but it turned out to be a genius move. Tony is definitely interested in Dr Melfi right off the bat but having her followed was crossing the line esp considering what happened to her date. Let you know early how important having control was to Tony. I felt bad for Carmela so it was hard to enjoy the scenes of Tony cheating on her but damn did he have some fine women on the side. His Russian girlfriend Irina was smoking hot but I knew she would eventually cause him big trouble. Looked like a war with Uncle Junior was coming after all the bullshit with Chris and Brendan and Uncle Junior told Tony to come to their next meeting with a gun or not at all. Didn’t expect Tony to relent and support Uncle Jun for Boss but it was def the smart play. Tony recognizing and tracking down the former mafia member turned rat must have been intense for people watching the series in 1999 bc he had Tony dead to rights. Crazy scene when Tony strangles him with that wire. A boss that isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty although he wasn’t the boss then.

I enjoyed watching Tony in his Dad role with AJ and Meadow. I really thought Meadow’s soccer coach was just a regular guy so the revelation that he was a pedophile and had sex with Meadow’s friend was shocking. Loved the scenes where Tony is cheering on AJ playing football. I can’t lie, I shared Tony’s frustration with his Mother lol I enjoyed their scenes together but she was miserable woman and absolutely a catalyst for a lot of Tony’s problems. I couldn’t believe it when she basically told Junior to whack him. You knew Tony would survive the attempt but it was still a fn intense scene esp as Tony is dragging that 1 guy down the street. I thought Junior was done for after that but Tony let him off the hook, def did not expect that. I think it might have been different had Junior not been indicted but he was out of the picture for pretty much the rest of the show after that so it worked out I guess. Despite his protests in later seasons, it was pretty clear Tony was going to kill his mother with the pillow before learning she had a stroke. Great acting from James Gandolfini when Tony finds out Big Pussy might be a rat, you can see the conflict on his face as he doesn’t want to believe his friend is a rat knowing he would have to kill him. The hallucination of Isabella was pretty funny when he starts to ask people about her and realizes she wasn’t real. Jimmy’s behaviour is very suspicious and def saved Big Pussy from being whacked in S1. I thought Artie was dead after confronting Tony about burning down his restaurant, Artie is lucky they go way back and Tony considers him a good friend.

S2 sees the arrival of Janice and while it’s def not as hostile, having a sister of my own I can somewhat relate to Tony’s relationship with her lol Tony’s plan to let Junior become Boss so Junior would take the heat if it came paid off perfectly since Junior took all the heat and Tony is Boss now. Richie Aprile is released from prison and right away I knew he was gonna cause problems for Tony and he did. Poor Beansie that was a tough scene to watch, really made me want to see Richie get his. Loved Tony and the crews trip to Italy, was interesting to see them interact in a place where they weren’t in total control. Cool to learn that Tony’s father also had panic attacks, some of my favourite scenes in the show were the flashbacks to Tony’s father Johnny. The storyline with Tony’s old friend Davey racking up gambling debts was so frustrating like how stupid can somebody be. Davey already owes Richie 8k and then joins Tony’s poker game racking up another 45k in debt. 45k! I was so floored by that but that is what gambling does to someone, they always think they can win it back. Davey eventually learned the really hard way why you don’t want to be in debt to the mafia. I almost felt sorry for Davey when Tony and the guys really start taking over his business but the dude brought it on himself when everyone was telling him he was getting in over his head. Def felt for his kid when Davey gives his car to Tony to settle some of the debt but I can’t believe Tony thought it was a good idea to give it to Meadow lol of course she wasn’t gonna take it. We’re first introduced to Bobby in S2 and while I kind of felt bad for him, Tony cracking on his weight was pretty damn funny, “Tony: I think it’s time for you to start to seriously consider salads. Bobby Baccilieri: What do you mean? Tony: What do I mean? I mean get off my car before you flip it over, you fat fuck.” Lol another good one, “Bobby: To the victor, belongs the spoils. Tony Soprano: Why don’t you get the fuck outta here before I shove your quotations book up your fat fuckin’ ass?” lol poor guy couldn’t get a break from Tony.

As I said earlier, my jaw hit the floor when Bevilaqua and Gismonte shot Chris. I just couldn’t believe he would be leaving the show that early. In the hospital after, you saw Tony’s true feelings for his nephew as he was devastated. I wonder what 3 O’Clock means, I’ve heard it does have a specific meaning that they won’t reveal. Whatever it is it def messed up Tony and Paulie, more-so Paulie lol we get the last good moment between Tony and Big Pussy when they kill Bevilaqua as retaliation for Chris. Kinda fucked up that a bonding moment on a show like this is killing someone lol tough to see Tony lash out at AJ but he always quickly goes back to the love he has for his son and those are his true feelings. As if Tony doesn’t have enough problems, he now has to deal with potential fed heat thanks to drug dealing on garbage routes. Drugs are always the downfall of the mafia so you def understand why Tony was so pissed at Junior and Richie for dealing coke. Tony’s food poisoning was some great unintentional comedy and the closest we would get to him hooking up with Dr Melfi. So funny when the fish started talking to him as Big Pussy lol Sad turn of events when Tony finds Big Pussy’s wire and you know a hit is coming. Thought there might have been a small chance Tony let him off the hook since Pussy only gave the cops disinformation but not to be. Fn sucked to see Big Pussy sink into the ocean never to be seen again. Tough moment since they were all long time friends.

Heading into S3 I was pretty nervous about the FBI planting the listening device in Tony’s basement and what consequences would come of it. Kind of thought they would get busted but they were able to successfully get it planted with no way for Tony to learn about it. I was so pumped when Meadow took the lamp with her to college, take that you fucks! Lol Didn’t think Patsy Parisi would last the season after pissing in Tony’s pool but Tony never found out. So I guess that means it’s highly possible someone in their family swam in the pee water lol nasty. Would have been interesting to see where the storyline of Tony’s Mother and the stolen airline tickets would have went but unfortunately the actress Nancy Marchand passed away during filming so they had to abandon it. Makes the scene of Tony tearing up watching the Public Enemy scene kinda special. Took long enough but I was happy to see Tony finally have Chris become a made man. Interesting dynamic between Tony and the police officer that gives him a ticket he later see’s working at a lawn ornament store, you can tell Tony has respect for the guy and feels bad for seeing him humbled like that. Really felt sympathy for Tracee and one of the worst scenes is when Ralphie kills her, was very happy to see Tony beat the shit out of Ralphie and he deserved every bit of it. Scenes like this show that despites Tony’s flaws, he can still be a Good man when the situation calls for it. He isn’t totally gone to the worst version of himself like some of the others.

Not hard to see that Tony hooking up with Gloria was going to end in disaster. I thought Gloria looked a lot like Zelina Vega from WWE, they could almost be twins. Tension between Tony and Ralphie was palpable, I love Joe Pantoliano but couldn’t stand Ralphie so I was waiting for Tony to whack him. Ralphie is lucky GiGi dies of a heart attack basically becoming Capo by default and defusing the situation. Sometimes I wished Tony was single and not with Carmela so he could have explored his relationships with other women, it was hard to enjoy them bc I felt bad for Carmela. Tony and Gloria had a pretty strong connection, their Zoo trip was a fun scene. She would have been a force to be reckoned with as a ‘First Lady.’ The conflict about who would be the new Santa is one of the reasons I love this show, you wouldn’t think it would be an issue mafia guys deal with but their contributions to the community are always very important for their image and actions being tolerated. Big Pussy def would have been a top choice to do it, Bobby is a great choice to replace him but I was hoping Tony would do it, he would have been perfect. Tony’s issues with the Big Mouth Billy Bass toy was hilarious and people just kept exposing him to it over and over lol

I was surprised Tony kept his cool when Gloria threw the steak at him, didn’t take long for that relationship to unravel. Dr Melfi nails it saying Tony keeps choosing women that are like his mother, “depressive, unstable and impossible to please.” So funny when Tony see’s Bobby all dressed up in his hunting gear and laughs his ass off but Bobby was the only smart one that prepared properly to be out there. Gloria figuring out who Carmela was and giving her a ride home was not a line she should have crossed and Tony reacted about how you would expect. Tough scene when he breaks up with Gloria and is being so rough with her but I knew it was coming with Tony’s temper. Having Patsy threaten Gloria’s life was what probably pushed her over the edge. AJ’s attitude and actions were exactly what Tony didn’t need in his life, would be so much easier for him if AJ just towed the line. Culminates with AJ being expelled and almost being sent to military school before he has a panic attack, just like Tony and his father. Tony talking about AJ carrying his ‘putrid genes’ was sad to hear. Just like Jackie Sr, Tony didn’t want the mafia life for his son but neither kid was able to find something else that ignited their passion. Really thought AJ was heading down the road to being in the family business after this.

Man it was tough to watch the downfall of Jackie Jr. Although it was kind of funny to hear his excuse when Tony catches him getting a lap dance at a strip club, “It’s not what you think!” Well it looks like a lap dance from a stripper so what the fck else could it be lol he had potential but wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. I knew it was going to go bad when he tried to pull the same move his father and Tony had done to move up in the business. Went about as bad as it could go. Tony really did try everything he could to keep Jackie Jr on a good path and help him point his life in the right direction. But I really thought Tony would get Jackie another chance so it was beyond shocking and sad when Jackie Jr was killed. So much potential and life ahead of him gone in an instant. Thought Jackie Jr could have been a big asset to the family if they had accepted this life was what he was meant for. His funeral and wake were just brutal. Loved the scene with Junior singing at the wake and Tony embracing his family.

Tony is smart to create a buffer between himself and others making decisions through Chris. I wondered at the time if Tony was lying about that cop killing Chris’s father to get on his good side but I think it was true. Retiring on shows like this is a death wish lol given Tony’s problems getting AJ on a good path, it must have been a nightmare to see Meadow regress after Jackie Jr’s death but she was able to pull out of it. Thought it was funny that Tony and Carmela sent Meadow to a psychiatrist that told Meadow the exact opposite of what Tony/Carmela wanted. I knew as soon as we were introduced to Ralphie’s horse that it would become Tony’s horse and it didn’t take long for Ralphie to realize it too. When Ralphie made Tony pay for the vet when the horse got sick, that was the moment it became Tony’s horse. Fn sad to learn that Gloria committed suicide, she needed to find a puzzle piece that matched hers but she never could. Felt a lot of sympathy for her and it def rocked Tony’s world when he found out.

Tony can’t seem to please anyone as he helps Artie with the loan with the French guy, saves Artie’s life realizing he is trying to kill himself after it goes bad and Artie still accuses him of being shady. Tony def has his major flaws but I think he was sincere in this case trying to help his friend make some money. He also knows a money opportunity when he see’s one, thought it was a smart move to turn that casual story about flipping houses with inflated appraisals into an actual business venture he sees big money from as sad as it is for the vulnerable people those houses/funds are supposed to help. I thought Paulie was very close with Tony so it always surprised me that he didn’t visit or talk to Paulie in prison. He did pay a visit to Zellman and whipped him good after finding out he was dating Irina, Tony’s old girlfriend from the first couple seasons. I knew that Tony wouldn’t just be cool with that, if Carmela wasn’t in the picture I’m sure Tony would have been with Irina. Felt bad for Irina as she seemed like a great girl that would have been a wife any man would have wanted to have. Irina loved Tony so it was hard for her to move on but when she finally does, Tony ruins it making it seem like Tony still wants her. But that beating Tony gave Zellman would end up having much bigger consequences than Tony thought later in S4. Shocking to learn that Pie-O-My died in a fire but it was easy to see that Ralphie was responsible. You knew Ralphie was gonna be killed eventually but I didn’t think it would happen as soon as it did. When the Ralphie/Tony fight started I figured it would end with mutual respect but it kept escalating until only one was gonna walk away. Brutal end for Ralphie dying and then being chopped up. Tony bonds with someone again over killing someone, this time with Chris lol I actually started to feel sorry for Ralphie after his son was seriously injured and it looked like he might turn over a new leaf. But that injury caused him to kill the horse to help pay the hospital bills. Def a setback for Tony as Ralphie was a big money earner.

Couldn’t believe Tony wanted that portrait of him with Pie-O-My destroyed, it was incredible. If it actually exists it must be one of the most valuable Sopranos props. I was surprised when Tony had sex with Svetlana, I prob shouldn’t have been given Tony’s promiscuity but I thought they had a platonic relationship. Another decision that had much bigger consequences than he realized it would. Given Tony’s love for animals, hearing about Chris killing Adrianna’s dog really set him off but that prob saved Chris’s life bc that fact made Tony adamant that Chris attend rehab and not leave until he was completely clean. Wasn’t sure what was gonna happen as Tony’s relationship with New York really started to deteriorate, Johnny Sak seemed intent on getting rid of Tony and turning Paulie against Tony. But after the dispute costs both sides money, Johnny Saks actually suggests to Tony that they should kill Carmine. Couldn’t tell why was gonna happen with all that. Really intense moment as Furio’s love for Carmela almost caused him to push Tony into the propeller blades, did not expect that. Also didn’t expect that was the last time we would see Furio but it was thought it might have a bigger impact bc Furio was a valuable soldier for Tony. The tension with Johnny Saks gets worse as Tony cancels the hit when Carmine agrees to a fair deal but Johnny Saks feels insulted and betrayed. Thought we might have a war coming. Turns out there was a war coming but a different kind as the consequences from Tony whipping Zellman and sleeping with Svetlana came to a head. Irina actually calls Carmela and tells her about the affair with Tony and about Svetlana. This is the last straw for Carmela who tries to end things with Tony. Despite Tony’s cheating making not hard, i really enjoyed the family dynamic the Sopranos had so seeing it crumble was fn tough. Wasn’t sure Carmella would actually put the wheels in motion to separate/divorce but damn did she ever. Crazy scene when she tells Tony about her love for Furio and Tony smashes the wall. Fn tough to watch their relationship crumble, I almost felt like one of their kids watching it. I hated that Tony cheated on Carmela so much and felt she deserved some of her own connections but at the same time didn’t want their relationship to end. Great acting from all. The neighbor that sold Tony the Whitecaps property is lucky Tony used speakers to get out of the deal, don’t think buddy really knew who he was fucking with and what Tony was capable of. A lot of uncertainty heading into S5.

Tony is lucky he never sold his mother’s house considering he has to live there after he and Carmela split. Carmine dying of a stroke was pretty shocking and seemingly took care of a problem but Johnny Saks is still pissed about the canceled hit. Always nervous when the FBI had a rat try and get information out of Tony, Jack Massarone got pretty close to getting some real information but thanks to complimenting Tony for losing weight when he hadn’t, Tony figured it out and took care of the potential problem. That Rat Pack painting was pretty sweet though. Loved that Steve Buscemi showed up on the show as Tony’s cousin. Felt sorry for that gardener Sal Vitro after being attacked and having his territory cut. As a reward he gets some of it back but then has to do 2 huge lawns, Tony and Johnny Saks, for free. “You never had the makings of a varsity athlete” lol was a hilarious scene until you see how mad Tony is getting and he finally erupts on Janice. Thought it was cool to see Tony & Artie living together as bachelors. Another funny although kind of sad moment when Tony tests the crew telling a shitty joke to see if they laugh and the guys are going way over the top laughing. Carmela was mostly right about Tony just having yes-men but no actual friends. Was looking like Feech was going to cause big problems for Tony and the crew but a brilliant plan by Tony to trick Feech into storing stolen TV’s gets Feech put back in prison. When AJ wanted to move in with Tony I was thinking that might be the start of AJ getting into the business but didn’t exactly go that way.

Man what a disaster it would have been if Tony and Adrianna had hooked up, lucky somebody knocked on the door. But despite nothing happening things exploded as if they did. Obviously the story that Adrianna was blowing Tony is more fun to tell than the reality so it doesn’t really matter to everyone what really happened. I’m glad it was made clear to Chris that nothing happened but damn is he lucky to be alive after shooting Tony’s car. AJ living with Tony didn’t last long. The storyline of Tony meeting his father’s goomah Fran Feldstein was really interesting, thought she might have been scamming Tony but turns out she was legit. Tough for Tony to realize his Father was with Fran during many times when their family needed him. Loved that Carmela’s father was such a big fan of Tony and insisted Tony be at his “surprise” 75^th birthday party, esp when it gave Tony and Carmella a chance to reconnect. What a dick that friend of Carmela’s Dad was devaluing Tony’s gift. Could have been trouble when Tony lies to cover for Tony B’s whereabouts on the night Joey Peeps was killed but we learn they have a lot of history. Tony was supposed to be there the night Tony B was arrested and sent to prison but had a panic attack after arguing with his Mother. Tony has felt the guilt since then so prob feels like he owes Tony B. Tony and Carmela reconnecting at the birthday party did little to soothe things between them as Carmela files for divorce and Tony is furious. But Tony isn’t going down without a fight so he creates connections with all the divorce lawyers near them meaning they can’t work for Carmela. Fn smart play for sure.

Never sat well with me how Tony treated Georgie the bartender at the Bing, so many unjustified beatings. Don’t know why you would run a good, loyal employee out of your business but the beating after commenting “you have to live for today” was the last straw and I don’t blame Georgie for quitting and never wanting to see Tony again. Also felt for Chris in this episode the way the 2 Tony’s treated him, I’ve known many people that alone are great but put them with other people and they suddenly turn into huge assholes. That was the case for the Tony’s, apart they got along great with Chris but together used Chris as a punching bag for their jokes. Chris deserves some blame as he took the jokes way too personally, also known guys that can’t take jokes too, but the Tony’s were def being dicks. Esp when Tony gets mad at Chris for not drinking like give your head a shake Tony. One of the moments where I really didn’t like Tony was when he kept provoking Janice until she snapped after Janice went to anger management and learned to control her anger. Tony was clearly jealous Janice could do what he couldn’t and hit her where he knew she would react. Such an asshole move. The episode ‘Cold Cuts’ was not one that showed Tony in a good light. Def did not expect Tony’s girlfriend Valentina to catch on fire like she did fuck that was a crazy scene. Tony’s dream sequence was one of the crazier episodes. If I had to pick a worst episode of the show it would probably be that one, “The Test Dream,” but even that was still good which shows you why the show is so great. When Tony finds out Angelo, Tony B’s buddy was killed he knows he has to find Tony B before he does something they can’t take back. Too late.

Little Carmine stepping back from leadership allowing Johnny Saks to be the new Boss was something I thought would be bad news for Tony, add to that Tony B killing Phil Leotardo’s brother and it looked like a storm was coming for Tony that he could not control. Johnny and Phil wanted Tony B tortured and murdered brutally which meant Tony would not give up his cousin. Don’t blame him really. Was a relief to see Tony and Carmela reunite, I liked the show better when they were together. Kinda fucked up that Tony breaks up with Valentina when she is still recovering from her burns but he didn’t really have a choice. Tony not having any sympathy for Chris after Adrianna was whacked def pissed me off like figure it out Chris just gave up the love of his life to save Tony and the family. Think the guy deserves a little compassion. Tony freaking out about Paulie having the Pie-O-My painting was awkward putting more tension on their relationship. But Tony was def feeling the stress as he knew he had to kill Tony B before Johnny and Phil found him. Tough end for Tony B but Tony did what needed to be done to prevent more bloodshed. Johnny Saks didn’t have much time to enjoy being Boss as right when he settled things with Tony, the cops showed up to bust him. Tony gets away by the skin of his teeth but Johnny Saks is not so lucky. Wasn’t sure what to expect when Tony reacted like he did but seeing cops swarming the property would def elicit that reaction.

Man what a start to S6 as Tony gets shot by Junior who is now seriously suffering from dementia. Junior thinks Tony is Little Pussy Malanga the guy Junior wanted to assassinate in Artie’s restaurant in S1. Tony could have avoided this if he had agreed to put Junior in an assisted living home but he refused. Tony ends up in a coma where he has to assume the identity of Kevin Finnerty and has some weird coma induced dreams. I think that the coma was leading Tony to accept his death but Tony refuses which leads to him waking up. I thought it was funny that Paulie talking to him seemed to be the catalyst that woke him up lol although it was almost the end since Tony went into cardiac arrest. Crazy series of events. Tony’s wound is fn nasty but it could have been worse. Tony clearly remembered the prison story Feech told him about punching the biggest guy he could find to establish dominance and respect as he does a similar thing after he gets out of the hospital. He picks a fight with the big, young driver he has and kicks his ass for no reason other than to obviously establish to the crew that the gunshot did not make him weak and he is still a force to be reckoned with. Vomits up blood twice after the fight so we can see he isn’t totally 100%. I wonder of Tony would be thinking Vito deserves a second chance if it happened before he was shot as his outlook on life was much different after the shooting.

The AJ nightmare continues for Tony after AJ is caught bringing a knife to see Junior where AJ was going to try to kill him. Must have been tough for Tony, one one hand he must have been proud that AJ wanted to avenge him but at the same time he doesn’t want to see AJ go down that road. Really disappointed that Tony sold the building that his friend ran his poultry store out of, some things are worth more than money. Really calls into question the honour and loyalty of the mafia when they will sell it out for money. I was happy that Tony hadn’t cheated on Carmela after they reunited but that almost went out the window with Julianna the real estate agent but I was relieved to see him stop before things went too far with her. Then he takes his frustrations out on Carmela which was not cool but at least he wasn’t physical and didn’t cheat on her. Tony and Chris stealing the wine from those bikers was a fun storyline and led to one of the last good moments between Chris and Tony. Very kind gesture of Tony to have Johnny Saks sell his house to Janice and Bobby, sucked for Johnny Saks but in his situation he couldn’t afford to keep that house. Fn tough to hear Tony tell Dr Melfi he hates his son but I know those weren’t his real feelings. He is just frustrated that AJ can’t find a path that is in line with what Tony wants.

Smart move by Tony to visit Phil after he has a heart attack to calm the waters as things were starting to get very heated. Kinda funny that Tony initially wanted Carmela to be done with the spec house bc it made her neglect her duties in the house until Carmela started wanting to investigate Adrianna’s disappearance so he leaned on the building inspector and got her back working. The gun Tony threw away when he was running from the cops at Johnny Saks briefly comes back to haunt him as a kid went and retrieved it after he saw Tony throw it away. The kid had the gun when he was arrested for drugs and told the cops he saw Tony throw it away. But Tony’s lawyer got him off, whatever Tony paid to his lawyer it wasn’t enough as that guy was fcking good. Tony and Carmella head to Bobby and Janice’s cabin where we get the critical line from Bobby, “You probably don’t even hear it when it happens, right?” That is the line that I believe explains what happened in the final scene. The fight between Bobby and Tony came out of nowhere, I was so surprised Bobby got so bent out of shape but I guess I understand. I have a sister so I know what it’s like to give her shit but Janice was Bobby’s wife so he understandably doesn’t want her talked about in that manner. But punching and fighting the Boss is def not something you want to be doing. Alcohol obviously played a big role but Bobby still should have kept his cool. As an Alpha male, I understand Tony being upset that he lost the fight and trying to come up with reasons to justify it. Prob a good idea Tony and Carmela left early.

Seems that the way Chris wrote the Boss in his movie Cleaver really hurt Tony and permanently damaged their relationship, you can tell by the looks they have when they hug at Chris’s daughters baptism. Tough to see Tony betting so heavily and losing almost every time, gambling will take down even the best of men when they let it get out of control. Had to shake my head as Tony yelled at Carmela for not betting the 600k she made on his “sure thing.” Even though it won there are never any “sure things” in gambling. Awful to see Tony gamble and lose the 200k he was going to give to Vito’s widow to help their family relocate. Brutal scene when Vito Jr is taken away from his home. So fucked up that the asbestos waste Tony has that Phil won’t let him unload without a big cut gets dumped in a lake. Gotta wonder how much stuff like that happens in real life. Chris takes his eyes off the road driving with Tony and has to swerve causing them to crash and roll down a hill. Tony has been very lucky to be in so many accidents and still walk away. Chris is not as lucky as he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and seems to be bleeding internally. I think Tony made the decision to kill Chris when Chris admits he has been on drugs again and wouldn’t pass a drug test when the paramedics come for him. Using drugs only affected Chris’s life before but this time his drug use almost killed Tony. Despite knowing Tony was gonna be furious it was still fcking awful to see him end Chris’s life by pinching his nose shut causing Chris to choke on his own blood. Will be hard to rewatch the show and see their scenes knowing Tony ultimately is the one that kills him. Makes it worse that Chris had a baby daughter he would never see grow up. We find out just how much Tony and Chris’s relationship had deteriorated when Tony tells Dr Melfi that he is relieved Chris is dead and will have to pretend to show remorse at his funeral. We did see Chris float the option of ratting on Tony and the family but I don’t think he ever would have gone through with it considering he allowed Adrianna to be murdered rather than co-operate with the FBI.

Tony goes to Vegas and has a fling with a mistress Chris had there, really disappointing to see him go back to his ways of cheating on Carmela. It was fun however to see them smoke weed and take peyote lol Tony got back on the right track with his gambling winning big at the casino while tripping out and he seemed to think it was bc Chris is dead. You could tell the end was coming as Phil completely rejected Tony’s asbestos waste offer without a counter and then Phil’s guy Coco makes disgusting remarks to Meadow. That leads to Tony beating the shit out of Coco and curb stomping him, I knew big time payback was coming but damn lol can’t say the guy didn’t deserve it. Phil is obviously scared now and won’t even meet with Tony after that. Tony coming home to save AJ just in time from killing himself is something I bet Tony never thought he would have to do. As an Alpha male you know he wants to see strength from AJ but with the business always pulling Tony away he couldn’t be that guiding light AJ needed. You can tell Tony just hoped that by providing a good home and nice things and having a good Mother, AJ would turn out the way Tony wanted him to but people need more than that sometimes. Tony wasn’t totally a neglectful Father but he wasn’t around as much as he should have been, it was more fun to be at the Bing or hanging at Satriale’s.

I was pretty surprised that Dr Melfi ended the therapy sessions with Tony, I wonder how she would have felt about learning of Tony’s death in the finale. I always liked the dynamic between Tony and the FBI like Agent Harris esp towards the end of the series when they were on relatively good terms. Agent Harris even warns Tony twice about potential hits on him and his family. He even tells Tony about where Phil is probably hiding and then reacting with a “we’re gonna win” when he hears Phil has been killed. Fuck that was nasty when Phil is ran over by the car. After Bobby is killed and Silvio is in a coma, Tony and his family have to live in safe house. Chilling to see Tony go to sleep with that AR-10 assault rifle Bobby bought him. The walls are coming down around Tony as Carlo is going to flip which will lead to Tony being indicted. Tony goes to see Junior whose mind is completely gone to the point he doesn’t even recognize Tony, tough moment for him. Tony visits Sil at the hospital who is still in a coma but is not expected to ever come out of it. There is actually some good news for AJ as he is given the opportunity to work on a film set gaining experience and making connections. If Tony had survived I could see him setting up AJ to run a club and most likely eventually getting into the family business. Meadow is dating Patrick Parisi, Patsy’s son but he seems to be good for Meadow so Tony is accepting.

That leads us to the final scene where Tony, AJ and Carmella are sitting down at a diner waiting for Meadow. A suspicious man keeps looking at Tony and passes him to go to the bathroom. 2 guys enter that match the descriptions of guys that have been used for hits before. Tony chooses “Don’t Stop Believin” to play on the juke box and the bell on the door rings to signal Meadow entering the diner as the scene then cuts hard to black. Obviously nothing concrete was shown to let the viewer know if Tony lived or died, it is left up in the air but I believe the outcome is very clear. Bobby’s quote “You probably don’t even hear it when it happens, right?” was played up big time and the scene cut hard to black different than it normally does. I am sure Tony was killed either by the guy going to the bathroom or the 2 guys that entered right before Meadow. If I am right, that is a brutal end for the Soprano family. It’s hard to see AJ ever recovering after watching his Father murdered right in front of him. Same with Carmella, seeing that might have been too much to get over. Meadow was always strong and resilient but def had a special relationship with her Dad and had great admiration for him despite them butting heads from time to time. Not sure what would happen to Paulie after, if he would be picked up by another crew or whacked in the days after Tony was killed. Janice would def be in a rough spot losing Bobby and Tony in such a short time. But that is the life they all chose, as Tony said the end usually comes going to jail or dying.

Like I said at the start, Tony Soprano is one of the greatest main characters in the history of TV and James Gandolfini deserved all the awards and respect he received for this role. Tony was sometimes a hard guy to love but was always fun to watch, he brought out pretty much every emotion out of the viewer. Can’t imagine there is much you would change about Tony’s story, it was real and it was entertaining. Salud!

Carmela Soprano – Edie Falco turned in an absolutely fantastic performance that was one of the most important on the show. Tony Soprano was such a believable character bc he had such a believable wife and family at home. Tony would not have had the freedom as a character to do all the things he did if his home life was a disaster or disorganized. I think that is why all the mafia guys had a wife despite not really caring to have a real relationship with them and having multiple girlfriends on the side. Very hypocritical in that the men can have multiple sexual connections but if the woman does she has committed a massive betrayal and hell breaks loose. But the men needed to have a normalcy to come home to bc of all the chaos they lived in their mafia life. Carmela definitely provided that for Tony but I’m sure Tony wished Carmela would just be happy with that and not want more. Carmela wanted an actual relationship with her husband not just to be a cook, maid and mother to the children. We see Tony do just enough for Carmela to keep her content in her life by buying her gifts, providing a luxurious lifestyle and giving her a bare minimum of companionship. Carmela is def close to a perfect wife as she is loyal, loving, always has food ready for any meal, a great mother to the children and lover in the bedroom. But Tony does take her for granted, I really felt bad for Carmela watching Tony cheat on her with pretty much any woman he was attracted to.

We see Carmela’s kind nature from the start as she pushes Tony to make things right for AJ’s science teacher when his prized car is stolen. We do see one of Carmela’s flaws early on as well as she treats Charmaine like one of her maids as opposed to like a friend helping out at the dinner party. Sometimes when people live in privilege for so long they forget themselves and how to treat people but I don’t think she was doing it consciously. Carmela’s friendship with Father Phil makes it clear which part of her life is unfulfilled. She has an actual adult relationship with Father Phil as opposed to just providing things for him like she does with Tony. Given Tony’s promiscuity you def can understand why Carmela is concerned when she learns Dr. Melfi is female. Since Tony was with other women, I was kind of hoping things would get romantic with Father Phil but I also knew what kind of consequences that would mean if Tony found out. Comes close but nothing happens between Carmela and Father Phil despite how it looks to Tony.

Carmela is so used to helping Tony in the other areas of his life that it bothers her he needs to talk to a therapist instead of her. Prob wouldn’t be an issue if they had a real adult relationship. She starts getting into the stock market as a means of providing for herself and the kids if anything ever happens to Tony, smart move. Carmela see’s Father Phil getting close with Rosalie Aprile in the same way he is with her and realizes he uses women like her to live out fantasies he can’t act on and breaks it off. Sucks that she had to do the right thing and break off something that could have been good for her when we see Tony always choose the wrong thing. Carmela is def nice in nature but when it comes to her family she is fierce and we see that when she tries to subtly intimidate her neighbour and her sister to get a letter of recommendation so Meadow will be accepted to Georgetown. She isn’t a big fan of the mafia lifestyle Tony engages in but she knows how to use the weapons at her disposal. Thought that was a really interesting twist to her story and character.

Chris’s assassination attempt really hit Carmela hard considering he is her nephew, great scene when she prays for him as he is barely clinging to life. I was happy to see Carmela kiss Victor the brother of Davey’s wife and was hoping it would lead to a little fling but once again the shadow of Tony loomed and Victor bailed. He knew what would happen to him if Tony found out. Carmela did not have it easy with Tony’s mother Livia and not even Livia’s death could calm those waters as we see at the funeral. I think the back to back disappointments with Father Phil and Victor prob helped fuel that but from what we hear Livia was pretty nasty to Carmela and her parents. If Carmela is going to look the other way on Tony’s infidelity then she cannot compromise any other aspects of their life so i think that is why she is so insistent on Tony donating 50k to Columbia. Tony’s cheating also brings out one of Carmela’s funniest lines, “Maybe the fact that you stick your dick into anything with a pulse…you ever thought of exploring that as a root cause?” lol  As long as her children are taken care of she can deal with the rest. It was tough to see her relationship with AJ deteriorate but that is a typical rebellious teenager. They take it out their frustrations on the ppl they know will always be there for them and that is Carmela to AJ. Def tough for Carmela to be denied therapy bc her husband is in the mafia and the therapist doesn’t want to take blood money. Deep down I think Carmela feels similar to the therapist about mafia life so being confronted with it knowing how deep in she is really affects her.

Carmela’s urge for a real adult relationship comes up again when Furio starts driving Tony and is around the house a lot more. They share a dance at Furio’s housewarming and she is starting to come up with more excuses to go over there. Since the first 2 attempts didn’t go well I thought things were gonna happen with Furio. Money worries are starting to put a strain on her relationship with Tony, she even loses out on a potential good payout from a stock that Tony wouldn’t invest in. At least Tony eventually signs the living trust for Carmella although not exactly the one she wanted. Carmela finding a nail that belonged to Valentina in Tony’s clothes really pissed her off so she took money from the duck feeder she knew Tony was hiding money in and invested it to protect herself if she split with Tony. Seemed like things were getting set up for her to break from Tony. Just when things are really heating up with Furio, he leaves and goes back to Italy. Another disappointment for an already frustrated woman. She was clearly ready to break and the phone call from Irina was what did it. Carmela couldn’t make a connection outside of Tony happen and now Tony’s outside connections were being rubbed in her face. I didn’t think we would ever see Tony and Carmela separate but that is what happened at the end of S4. Despite all the problems, they did have a lot of love for each other and I enjoyed watching when things were going good so it was tough to watch it really come apart. Although it did lead to some hilarious exchanges like this one, “Tony: What’d that fag want? Carmela: Jesus Christ, Tony, everybody’s a fag to you. You know, maybe you’re a fag, you ever think about that? Tony: Can I help it if I know one when I see one? Carmela: Oh really? What are the signs? Education…culture? Tony: Suckin’ a guy’s cock usually tips me off. Carmela: How do you know who sucks whose cock? What, you got a little secret?” LOL fighting or loving, they were great together and had a lot of chemistry.

With Tony out of the house, Carmela has even less control over AJ who is constantly disrespecting and defying her. Despite their separation, things would have gotten really ugly if Tony had actually had a sexual relationship with Adrianna bc that is something I could see setting off a raging fire in Carmela. But finally Carmela was able to have a successful sexual connection with someone other than Tony when she sleeps with AJ’s guidance counselor. I didn’t see the relationship being long term but I was happy that she got to have something for herself work out for a change. Since both Carmela and Tony had been through sexual connections with other people, I was hoping they would get back together after connecting at her father’s birthday party and start fresh. But that was not to be as Carmela tries to file for divorce and Tony acts very defiant and confrontational. She can’t find a divorce lawyer that can work with her after Tony contacts all of them and is basically trapped in the marriage. Carmela fights back in any way she can and drains the water from the pool that Tony still loved to use lol we eventually see the bitterness end and they actually get back together towards the end of S5. I was happy about that and hoped that Tony would stay faithful to Carmela this time around after all the trouble he had gone through with his goomahs.

Carmela finds something productive that can satisfy her creatively and financially in building spec house with her father. Edie Falco really shined in her acting after Tony got shot by Junior, you could feel her pain and love for Tony. She was an integral part of Tony’s recovery and one of the reasons he came out of it so good. But she lets the stress of the situation boil over when she finds out AJ was talking to the press and says some nasty things about him adding guilt to the pain she is feeling. I liked Carmela’s trip to Paris with Rosalie, she def deserved that time to just be herself. It takes Carmela starting to want to investigate Adrianna’s disappearance for Tony to make things happen with her spec house. But Tony comes through and Carmela focuses solely on her spec house duties. Despite how it ended, it was nice to see Tony and Carmela have fun as a couple with Bobby and Janice. Tony makes most of the money and gives an “allowance” to Carmela so when she finally made money on her own I knew she wasn’t going to be sharing it despite what Tony expected.

Carmela was able to keep it together after Chris’s death and AJ’s suicide attempt although both affected her deeply but with Tony’s apparent death in the finale, I wonder how she would have held together going forward. Finally being free from Tony was something she talked about but it happening in that fashion would have prob sent her on a downward spiral. But we will never know as her journey ends in that diner with the family. What an amazing run it was for Edie Falco on this show, she gave James Gandolfini the support he needed for his character in this story. I don’t think it would have worked as well as it did without her. In other shows like Breaking Bad, the female opposite to the main character is hated but I don’t think that was the case with Carmela. Viewers were able to feel her emotions through the performance and the way her character was written, fans completely understand why she did and said the things she did. Not that the other actresses in other shows weren’t as good, the stars just aligned on this show to have Carmela seen in a positive light. When people talk about Tony Soprano and James Gandolfini, they should absolutely mention Carmela and Edie Falco.

Meadow Soprano – It’s hard to say whether Meadow was more like Tony or Carmela but Jamie-Lyn Sigler did a great job with a realistic performance throughout her run portraying Meadow. Despite her being in high school/college, she always had a maturity that was beyond her age. I think the stability in Meadow’s life path was a big relief for Tony/Carmela as they struggled with AJ. Early on she was getting into the typical teenage troubles with partying and drugs but always seemed to have a firm control of her reigns not letting things go too far. We see Meadow and her friend Hunter use speed to study and reach out to Chris to get it. This didn’t turn into a significant problem but could have been fatal for Chris. Meadow is well aware of what her father does to provide them the life they have and starts to bring AJ up to speed on it. I enjoyed the trip Tony and Meadow took to look at colleges as it established a strong bond between them that would last the show. I was worried that guy Tony was following would take a shot at Meadow but thankfully he didn’t.

Meadow was involved in choir and soccer but the soccer storyline took a turn I didn’t expect. When the coach leaves for another school I thought it was bc he wanted to be away from Tony and his influences but then Meadow drops the bombshell that the coach was sleeping with Hunter. Def did not expect that but I’m glad he was arrested. Meadow did not look like she was going down a good path when she used her Grandmother’s house to throw a party and then manipulated her parents into a punishment that wasn’t really a punishment at all. Can’t lie she was not my favourite character at this moment but she turned things around esp at the end when Tony see’s her cleaning up the mess the party made taking responsibility for her actions. I couldn’t believe that Tony thought giving Meadow her friend Eric’s car would be a good idea lol felt bad for Meadow as she was in a tough spot. She finally had a sweet car but keeping it would crush her friend and that’s exactly what happened. She doesn’t keep it but Eric doesn’t care, he knows that Tony took it and that’s enough for him to be done with Meadow. But she did get the solo choir performance she wanted so I guess it worked out for her. Glad Tony was able to get released after being arrested and be there for Meadow’s graduation.

Once Meadow is at college we are introduced to her roommate Caitlin who is struggling to say the least lol I felt for her and wished I could help, without a friend like Meadow she might have done something really serious. Shows Meadow’s true character that she doesn’t abandon Caitlin or end the friendship despite Caitlin’s issues making it hard. Meadow has started seeing Noah who is half Jewish and half African-American which brings out the racism in her Father. Def feel Meadow’s frustration and embarrassment at a great relationship potentially being ruined by Tony’s gross attitude. Noah says he should have punched Tony and while Tony def deserves a shot, prob a good thing that Noah never did lol Caitlin is also putting a strain on Meadow and Noah’s relationship to the point that Noah gets a C on his paper and a short time later ends the relationship. Honestly that was probably the best thing for Meadow, Noah seemed very negatively judgmental to anyone that didn’t meet his specific standards for things. Meadow prob wouldn’t have had much of a relationship with her family if she continued with Noah, just don’t think they were right for each other.

Meadow starts to get closer to Jackie Jr and I had mixed feelings about that one. On one hand he seemed to be in love with the mafia lifestyle and that wouldn’t have been good for Meadow. On the other he was very sweet with her at first and also patient considering she wrecked his car and he was very calm about it and more concerned with Meadow than the car. But then we see how the pull of the mafia life is corrupting Jackie Jr when Tony catches him with a stripper. Then Meadow suspects Jackie is cheating on her so she follows him and is proven right, like a current in a river the mafia life was pulling Jackie off the good path. Jackie tries to make things right with Christmas presents for Meadow and the family. Jackie Jr’s death crushes Meadow despite the problems they were having and causes Meadow to act out by getting drunk and throwing bread at Junior while he is singing at the wake. Jamie-Lyn did a great job showing her emotion in these scenes.

Meadow seems like she is going to go off the rails after Jackie’s death as she talks about taking a year off of university and going to Europe with her friend. That is the last thing Tony and Carmela want, they even try to get her to see a therapist but the therapist encourages her to go through with her plans. Thankfully Meadow decides on her own to return to her studies at Columbia. She decides not to be a pediatrician and instead volunteers at a pro-bono law firm to prepare to study law. Tony isn’t happy with that but I thought it was a great career choice. Meadow lashes out at Carmela when she hears her parents are separating asking why Carmela took shit from Tony for years only to end it now. She gets into a new relationship with Finn and he seems like a much better connection for her than Jackie Jr or Noah. But I thought Finn would be dead by the end of the episode after he saw Vito going down on that security guard yet nothing really came of it until Vito had much bigger problems than Finn. Looked like they were on the verge of breaking up and then the next moment Finn is proposing marriage lol reminds me of Jimmy and Kim from the Better Call Saul S5 episode.

Meadow really stepped up and Jamie-Lyn Sigler shined in the scenes after Tony was shot and clinging to life. She had to help AJ get things together and figure out his thoughts about the family and Tony. When Tony suffers cardiac arrest, we hear Meadow’s voice in his coma calling out for Tony not to go keeping his consciousness in his body and probably saving his life. After Tony recovers, Meadow starts volunteering at a law firm dealing with white collar crimes, inspired by the over the top negative treatment Johnny Saks received at his daughters wedding. This even leads to an argument with Finn over the lenient treatment of some versus the harsh treatment of others. Meadow def has her Mother’s good nature. She eventually decides she wants to move to California to be with Finn but I didn’t think that would work as it would take her too far from her family. She does move to California but it doesn’t last and Meadow breaks up with Finn coming back to New Jersey.

Meadow starts dating Patrick Parisi and this finally seems like a good, long term match for her. But she has a traumatic experience at a restaurant being harassed by Coco, one of the NY mob guys. I was infuriated at this scene I wanted to jump into the screen and beat the shit out of Coco. Thankfully Meadow tells Tony and he gives Coco a beating he will never forget. Meadow and Patrick later announce they are engaged and Meadow might be getting a job at a law firm defending people being oppressed by the government, a perfect career for her. As the final scene of the show approaches, Meadow enters the diner later and might have been the last thing Tony ever see’s as he looks up at the door when she enters and the screen cuts hard to black. Meadow is strong so I think she would eventually be ok but seeing her father killed in front of her would have been absolutely brutal. Meadow was one of my fav characters on the show and I really enjoyed seeing her journey play out, Jamie-Lyn Singer did a phenomenal job portraying her.

AJ Soprano – For a character I liked, AJ could drive me nuts lol Robert Iler did a fantastic job portraying AJ from a rebellious teenager to troubled adult. If you read fan discussions, you can see he brought real emotions out of people and that is the sign of a good actor. The realism of his performance was right on the money, teenagers rarely do what you want them to do and his adult behaviour was in line with the emotions he showed as a teen. I wanted him to be the ‘good son’ that did things in line with what Tony and Carmela wanted but that isn’t realistic. AJ struggling to find his own way was very realistic given the circumstances of his upbringing. AJ has trouble at school with another kid but when they are going to have a big fight, the kid backs down bc of who AJ’s father is giving AJ his first realization that his family is much different from other kids. AJ then gets caught drinking the sacramental wine and being drunk at school so they try to diagnose him with ADD but Tony and Carmella are resistant to the idea saying he is just a kid acting out. I’m glad they did this storyline bc too often in our real world are kids diagnosed with ADD bc that’s the easy solution. Giving a kid pills is easier than spending time and energy trying to correct their behaviour. AJ was just being a rebellious teenager like so many other kids.

AJ makes a big mistake unbeknownst to him as he tells his Grandmother his Dad has been in therapy leading to Livia telling Junior almost costing Tony his life. He does it again when he accidentally lets Livia know Tony and Janice are considering a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ order for her causing even more problems between her and Tony. Not AJ’s fault though. Next he steals his Mom’s car and damages it taking his rebellious attitude even further. Starts saying life is a joke and there is no God, typical of a teenager that is kind of lost. Going to his Grandmother for advice is the worst thing he could have done as she is a jaded, spiteful woman that reinforces his current thoughts and feelings. Tony has let out his frustrations about AJ to his face but feels a lot of remorse and they are able to get in some Father/Son bonding time which is big for keeping AJ from going completely off the rails. If Tony had just left it they might have had more problems than they did. As I said at the beginning of this piece, I loved seeing Tony cheering for AJ when he was playing football. The football field is where we first see that AJ has panic attacks like his father and grandfather.

AJ is def more of a follower than a leader and we see that when his friends start to vandalize the school pool. I was never a kid like that so I couldn’t relate to AJ but I know a lot of people that did bad things to follow the crowd so I understood. Avoiding punishment so that he could continue playing football was not good for him and def contributed to his later issues. Seeing that privilege could get you out of trouble sent the wrong message, receiving consequences for his actions at that time may have straightened his path. Too bad Jackie Jr had to die as he could have been a positive influence on AJ’s life, we saw a bit of that in Jackie helping him with his football skills. After not being punished for the vandalism, him and his friends get caught stealing a test and that gets AJ expelled from school. Tony and Carmela are furious and tell AJ they are sending him to military school. It’s hard to say if that would have straightened him out or filled him with anger and resentment but it never happens after AJ has a panic attack in front of his parents. I was really hoping to see AJ figure it out and have a solid direction in his life to do something great.

AJ feels intimidated when his new girlfriend has a bigger house and more wealth than he does. He had nothing to be ashamed about as his living and family situation was more than comfortable. The worst AJ scenes were when he was messing with Bobby’s kids with the Ouija board, that was so fucked up. Bad enough that AJ locked Bobby Jr in the shed but the kids just lost their Mother and he decides to fuck with them about it. Really pissed me off and had me thinking bad things were ahead on his path as he was growing up to be a fn dick. But we see that deep down he is still a kid when the black bear comes into their yard and AJ is terrified yelling “Mommy” when he sees the bear. AJ never had to develop any grit or backbone in his life as he was sheltered from consequences numerous times and from really struggling thanks to the privileged lifestyle he lived. Was hoping the incident with the bear might snap AJ out of his funk but it def did not. He is still not performing well in school and being very disrespectful to Carmela yet is not punished but rewarded with a new car. It could have been a good motivational tool but in AJ’s state he needed some tough love and the chance to struggle and grind for himself. He lies and uses Meadow as an alibi so he can go to a concert in NY City and get wasted with his friends. Hilarious that he got his eyebrows shaved off lol he gets busted but lies again to get out of it and instead of facing consequences at home with Carmela, he is able to avoid them and go live with Tony.

But it’s not long before Tony is getting sick of AJ’s attitude and is getting ready to dish out the tough love when AJ once again avoids it and moves back in with his mother. Not hard to see why he had the problems he did later in life. It would have been hard to dish out consequences and punishment to AJ but he would have been much better off for it in the end. AJ did have it rough in some ways being the son of Tony Soprano as he was judged more harshly by teachers and given worse grades bc of it. Even with all AJ’s issues it seemed like he finally had direction when him and his buddies threw a party where they charged for entry and made some good cash. Was thinking this would be the start of AJ entering the family business as a club owner, not so much an event planner like Carmela wanted lol any progress AJ had made was stopped and potentially ruined when Tony was shot by Junior. Seeing his Dad who had always been such a strong, invulnerable presence lying in a hospital bed in a coma hooked up to machines rocked his world. AJ couldn’t even talk about Tony potentially dying from this. Meadow was able to help AJ work through his feelings about the situation. This led to AJ tearfully vowing to kill Junior and avenge his father but I think we all knew AJ didn’t have that kind of violence in him. Great performance from Robert Iler here. Unfortunately we learn AJ flunked out of college but I thought that would lead him further down the path to the family business.

Chris and Bobby have to talk AJ out of buying a gun to kill Junior as that is the last thing Tony would want. AJ really pisses Carmela off when he talks to the press bringing embarrassment on the family and she says some seriously harsh things to him. Def not good for his psyche that is already not in a good place. AJ starts hitting up the nightclubs in NY using funds he gets from selling things like his drumset that he did not buy himself, another example of privilege keeping him from grinding on his own. He expresses interest to Tony and Carmela about owning a club, something I was def on board with. Tony has the right plan wanting AJ to start at the bottom and grind his way up. Unfortunately AJ is still consumed with revenge on Junior and when Tony shoots down any revenge on Junior, AJ takes it into his own hands bringing a knife into Junior’s nursing home. But he drops it and is busted, almost flushing his life down the toilet. Tony is furious but eventually has sympathy for his son and embraces him. AJ has another panic attack when one of his buddies wants to get him to use Tony to help with a money dispute.

AJ is spiraling out of control until Tony puts his foot down and makes AJ take a construction job to give him some of his own income and direction in life. The construction job leads him to entering a relationship with Bianca and I thought this would be a great thing for him. It was easy for me to see AJ and Bianca opening a club and building their own little empire. Did not expect the confrontation with the guys listening to loud music to go as smooth as it did but AJ came through. Unfortunately the relationship isn’t long term as Bianca pushes it to end in the second half of S6 despite saying yes to AJ’s marriage proposal. This absolutely crushes any spirit AJ had left, def can understand what he is going through. AJ is seriously depressed, talking suicide and has no motivation to do anything but lie around. Seeing a happy couple sets him off at work and he quits the pizzeria. It gets worse when he goes out with friends that are a serious bad influence. As punishment for not paying back a debt, AJ helps these friends hold down the guy and pour sulphuric acid on his toes. Brutal scene. His parents successfully get AJ into therapy and it sees the sessions and depression drugs are working but it all comes crashing down when these same friends use racial slurs and beat up a Somali guy in a racist incident. There is still good in AJ as he wonders why we all can’t just get along.

This leads to one of the toughest scenes to watch in the show for me when AJ tries to commit suicide. The way he did it with the bag over his head, tying the rope to a cinder block and his leg so he would sink to the bottom of the pool was so graphic I had trouble watching it. I thought it was the end for him but thankfully he was able to fight out of it until Tony could save him. Awful scene, felt so bad for AJ. It did lead to a sweet moment with Tony comforting AJ saying “it’s ok baby.” Never would have thought the kid we met in S1 would have ended up here. AJ ends up in a psychiatric ward taking valium and while he isn’t totally sunshine and rainbows, it seems to get him starting back on the right track. He meets an old friend in the ward who is also having problems but they have a connection and continue seeing each other when they get out. AJ is still somewhat despondent but when the threat to Tony’s life comes down he has no time for being sweet and drags AJ out of bed sternly telling him to get packed and ready to leave.

Kind of scary given his mental state to see AJ act happy watching his car burn, that scene def escalated quickly lol AJ makes it known to Tony and Carmella that he wants to join the Army but with the war going on they both do not want that despite their attempt to send him to military college earlier in his life. Tony gets him an opportunity with Little Carmine’s film production company to start making connections. AJ is sitting right across from Tony in the final scene and if Tony did get killed in that last shot, I do not have high hopes for AJ’s future. Seeing that happen in front of his eyes would prob completely destroy AJ to the point he would never recover. Tony would not be there to save him this time. There were times when I just wanted to strangle AJ but I did like him as a character and I enjoyed his journey. Just wish it would have ended up in a different place. I’d like to believe that even if Tony was killed, AJ would find the strength to live on and become a club owner picking up the business where his father left off. They got rid of Tony Soprano but Tony Soprano Jr still lives. Sequel? Lol prob not but hats off to Robert Iler for a great performance as AJ throughout the show.

Christopher Moltisanti & Adrianna La Cerva – Decided to do Chris and Adrianna together considering so much of their story was intertwined. Immediately became a fan of Chris and them as a couple but damn Chris could piss me off. Absolutely smoking hot girlfriend that supported him 100% yet was always in a bad mood and treated her like shit. Legendary performances from Michael Imperioli and Drea De Matteo. Chris starts things off with a literal bang as he makes his first kill offing the Czech guy causing the Czechs to withdraw a bid for a contract that Tony wanted. Chris and his buddy Brendan are bad influences on each other as they hijack a truck that Uncle Junior controls. After making that right, they plan to hijack another truck but Chris is smart enough to not go through with it. Brendan is not smart enough, dos it anyway but the driver is accidentally killed during the hijack. Tony makes them return the truck but Uncle Junior is not going to let that blatant disrespect go unpunished. Chris has even more stress when Meadow asks him for speed. He doesn’t want to do it but Adrianna warns Meadow will get it anyway and it might be a bad batch that could kill her while Chris could guarantee her safe stuff. Well, as safe as hard drugs can be I guess. Chris does it but is terrified of Tony. Uncle Junior arranges a mock execution to scare Chris for hijacking the trucks but Chris thinks Tony found out about giving Meadow the speed. Uncle Junior orders a real execution for Brendan who is killed in his bathtub. You knew that was coming.

Chris confronts Meadow thinking she ratted him out but he finds out it was bc of the trucks that Uncle Junior staged Chris’s execution and had Mikey kill Brendan. Chris wants revenge but Tony makes Chris stand down bc Mikey is a made man and can’t be touched. As someone that writes stories of my own, loved seeing that Chris was writing his own screenplay and made me an even bigger fan. Chris is desperate for respect and allows his emotions to get out of control shooting a guy in the foot for making him wait. Then he is upset when his name doesn’t appear in the paper with the other mafia guys under investigation but is thrilled when he eventually see’s his name listed. Chris and Adrianna start getting into the entertainment business talking to a successful rapper named Massive Genius. Massive has an ulterior motive as he wants a sit down with Hesh to recoup royalties for an artist that worked for Hesh back in the day was screwed out of. Chris arranges the sit-down but Adrianna uses the connection with Massive to try and get into a career as a music producer. Adrianna’s ex boyfriend is in a band that she thinks could make her money and they all agree to fund an album. Chris figures out that Massive just wants to have sex with Adrianna but she is blinded by her ambition and doesn’t see it. The audience can see that Chris is right. The band is not very good and clashes with the real producers and Chris until Chris loses it on her ex-boyfriend and smashes his guitar over his back. I knew it wouldn’t end well but was hoping it would for Adrianna’s sake. Was hoping it would work out for Adrianna, seemed like she would have been great at it.

Chris might have saved Tony’s life after preventing the initial hit on Tony bc he was following thinking Tony was acting weird. Chris barely avoids Tony finding out he was following him when he gives Tony information on who tried to kill him. Chris helps Silvio whack Jimmy after they believe he has become a rat. Chris seems pretty disillusioned and pissed off when he finds out Tony is seeing a therapist, I guess bc he has really romanticized the mafia lifestyle and code which strictly forbids anything like talking to a therapist. Thought it was pretty smart for Chris to get into the stock market game, good way for the family to make money through mostly legal means. Beating up fellow stock brokers and forcing the sale of favoured stocks may not exactly be legal though lol really disappointed in Chris when he goes to Italy with Tony and Paulie but is high on heroin the entire time, what a fn waste. Chris’s passion in life in screenwriting so of course Adrianna enrolls him in a course for his birthday to help him get better, she really is the kind of girlfriend every guy should want. Chris crushed it in his first scenes in the course but then freaked out doing a scene that reminded him of his father and beat the shit out of the guy, just come outta nowhere and ruined his future in the class. Clearly he had a lot of potential in that world but the mafia world and everything that came with it just overwhelmed him.

Cool turn to the story when Chris gets to go on set with Jon Favreau thanks to his cousin Greg and her fiancé Amy. Adrianna kept a copy of his script when Chris freaked out and trashed everything so he has a chance to show it to real Hollywood people. Chris never would have made it as far as he did in life without Adrianna, she had real love for him and you could see/feel it. Infuriating to see Chris cheat on Adrianna with Amy. You girlfriend is one of the hottest women in the world, loves and supports you 100% and you still cheat on her. Fn unreal man, shit like this made it hard to root for Chris but I still did. Chris telling Jon mob stories almost bit him in the ass as Favreau steals the story for one of his new movies but if anyone that knew the story see’s that movie, Chris would be done for. Nothing ever comes of it though. Adrianna tells Tony about Chris’s love for screenwriting and Tony makes Chris choose one or the other bc he needs Chris to be 100% committed to the family. Chris chose the mafia life. Chris’s shitty attitude towards Ade almost costs him the relationship as she is fed up and wants to leave him but he proposes with a big rock and she stays. I loved them as a couple but just wanted Chris to treat her the way she deserved to be treated. But just as soon as he has decided to rededicate himself to the business and Adrianna, he is almost stopped dead in his tracks when his buddies Matt and Sean try to kill him to move up in the business. Chris is shot 3 times but is able to kill Sean and survive long enough to get to the hospital.

Man when Chris flatlined in the hospital and was clinically dead for 3 minutes I thought we were seeing the end. Talk about a holy shit moment. Incredible acting from Drea De Matteo made it a tough task to keep myself together, you felt her pain and heartbreak. By the grace of God and some prayers from Carmela, Chris survives but he has had some interesting visions/dreams. He gives Tony and Paulie a message from Brendan Filone and Mikey Palmice, “3 o’clock.” We never get a concrete explanation about what that means but there is a lot of fun speculation from fans and the writers/creators say that it does have a specific meaning. Tony brushes it off but it fucks Paulie up. Chris is recovered and gets right back into it helping Furio dispose of Richie’s body. I would have loved to eat at Satriale’s but not so much after seeing Chris and Furio chop up Richie’s body with the equipment there lol after Chris almost dies in the shooting, it’s time to make him a made man officially, something he has been wanting for a long, long time. Was def looking forward to that happening. Before that happens Chris makes a fool of himself at Livia’s funeral, “Mrs Soprano may have died but who’s to say there isn’t another Mrs Soprano out there somewhere” LOL man that speech was funny but that’s what drugs will do to you.

Chris finally gets his moment becoming a made man but gets freaked out when he see’s a Raven on the windowsill and thinks it’s a bad omen. I would think it would be more of a Good omen than a bad one but Chris takes it as bad. After Paulie gives Chris control of the sportsbook, Chris makes some bad calls which results in being short money to pay to Paulie so there may have been something to the bad omen. This causes friction between Chris and Paulie as there is no sympathy for low or missing payments. I’m sure Chris thought becoming made we lead to less stress not more. Chris is told by Tony not to involve Jackie Jr in any criminal activity but Chris needs to pay Paulie and Jackie has a lead on a potential score so Chris has to involve him. They rob a charity concert at Rutgers giving Chris enough to pay Paulie but draws Tony’s ire when he finds out Jackie was involved. Chris is def pushing his luck in his first few weeks as a made man. Now that Chris is made he doesn’t need Adrianna to work as a hostess anymore so Ade quits Vesuvio. Artie seems cool with it but really crosses the line when he starts giving Chris a hard time to the point it almost becomes violent. Artie tells Tony he is in love with Adrianna and Tony starts laughing lol great scene but Artie is lucky Chris never finds out.

The tension with Paulie gets worse when Paulie tries to fuck with Chris by doing a strip search something that newly made men are subject to. But even when Paulie is being an asshole he is still funny, “I guess you could call that a dick.” Lol then Chris catches Paulie sniffing Adrianna’s panties, so fcked up. Man I was getting worried things were gonna really blow up between them after Chris goes to Tony about it and Paulie threatens Chris. Hard not to side with Chris on this one. After the music producer gig didn’t work out, I was excited for Adrianna when she got the opportunity to run the Crazy Horse bar. Perfect opportunity to have more worth than just supporting Chris. Tony asks Chris and Paulie to make a collection from a Russian guy named Valery and we get one of the best, funniest episodes. The collection goes bad when Paulie and Valery get confrontational with each other and a fight ensues. Chris and Paulie think they kill him but when they get to Pine Barrens to dispose of the body the guy is still alive. Valery escapes despite being shot by Paulie and after unsuccessfully trying to track him down, leave him for dead but get lost trying to find the car. So funny watching them get more and more frustrated with each other as conditions deteriorate. Some of my favourite lines from the episode: “I’ll leave you here, you one shoe cocksucker… You know how fast I can run, I’ll leave you in the fucking dust.” “Paulie: how bout that Cuban missile crisis, cocksuckers flew four nuclear warheads into Cuba, pointed them right at us. Chris: That was real? I saw that movie I thought it was bullshit” “Paulie: Fuck it. Let’s just go. Squirrels will eat him anyway” “Paulie: “You’re not going believe this, guy killed 16 Czechoslovakians, guy was an interior decorator. Chris: His house looked like shit” “Paulie: What are you going to do? Eat ketchup packs? Chris: We shoulda stopped at Roy Rogers. Paulie: And I shoulda fucked Dale Evans but I didn’t” lol hilarious episode. Eventually they get rescued by Tony and Bobby but there is never any repercussions from any of the Russians and we never find out exactly what happened to Valery. I thought it was building to a big storyline war with the Russians but despite it not going anywhere I still love it. Chris is arrested at Jackie Jr’s funeral but quickly makes bail. Close call.

The FBI takes advantage of Adrianna’s loneliness and good character by sending an undercover FBI agent named “Danielle” to befriend her and gain information. This storyline really made me mad bc I knew that once the family found out she was gonna be done and deserved so much better than to be whacked. Watching them take advantage of a sweet, innocent person was hard to watch but you can’t really blame them. From the FBI perspective they were saving her from a dangerous life and helping put away bad people. “Danielle” hits the jackpot when Adrianna invites her into Tony’s home, a place we know they have tried hard to get into. Chris is getting annoyed that “Danielle” is always in their house but doesn’t suspect she is an FBI agent. He is using heroin a lot more, things with Tony are not great as Chris thinks Tony is treating him worse bc he questioned the action against Jackie Jr. To try and create a stronger bond with Chris since he will be using him to relay instructions more often to keep the heat off himself, Tony gives Chris information about the man that killed his father. The guy is a just retired policeman and Chris goes to his house to kill him. The guy pleads and says whoever told him that he killed his Father is lying but Chris doesn’t believe him and eventually kills him. For some reason I thought Tony might have fabricated this to try and become closer and gain more trust with Chris. It could very well be true but I don’t know I just had a feeling.

Tony makes Chris acting Capo of Paulie’s crew while he is in jail and this pisses off Patsy who has been made longer than Chris. But once again Chris’s bump up doesn’t go smoothly as he authorizes the crew to steal fiber-optic cables at the construction site which pisses off Tony for bringing unnecessary heat on the crew. Patsy and Silvio defy Tony’s orders and steal floor tiles from the site which results in a violent confrontation between Chris and Patsy. At the club with Adrianna and “Danielle”, Chris thinks he is gonna get really lucky and be with them both but Adrianna see’s him rubbing “Danielle’s” thigh as they are making out and loses it. Adrianna thinks “Danielle” initiated the contact and tells her they are no longer friends. Since they have lost their contact, the FBI decides to reveal “Danielle’s” true identity as an FBI agent and explain to Adrianna she either gives them information or goes to jail for drug possession. They also say that if Tony knows Ade brought an FBI agent into his house there will be nothing she can do to avoid the fatal consequences from Tony. Felt so bad for Adrianna here and just wanted the FBI to fuck off. Chris helps Tony dispose of Ralphie’s body in a seriously fucked up sequence. They chop Ralphie’s head and hands off and then chill on the couch eating peanut butter and snacks lol smh

Adrianna starts to realize the Crazy Horse club is not really hers as Tony and the family freely use the offices forcing her out. The FBI is hammering her for information and this causes her to turn to heroin to ease the stress. Chris is getting worse with his heroin use at the same time Tony is giving him more trust and responsibility. Tony says Chris is going to take the family into the 21^st century. If Chris was able to rise up like this while using heroin just imagine what he could have done sober. Adrianna gets excited that her problems with the FBI could be over when she hears on TV that wives cannot be forced to testify against their husbands so she pushes Chris to marry her. She reveals that she might not be able to have children and Chris says some seriously nasty shit to her about not being able to have kids and leaves. Man he could be a real piece of shit sometimes. Tony and Sil convince Chris that he has a good woman and should marry her regardless. Chris goes back to Ade and says he will marry her. A talk with a lawyer gives Adrianna a reality check that a wife can be forced to testify against her husband bringing the stress right back. We see how this is affecting her when she has no joy at her bridal shower unwrapping the gifts.

Chris sitting on Adrianna’s dog and killing her was one of the saddest scenes on the show, that poor little dog. He keeps sinking lower and lower bc of his heroin addiction and even gets beaten up and robbed when he tries to score more heroin. Just when you think it can’t get worse, Chris beats up Adrianna when she gives him the rehab pamphlets and tries to get him to consider going. Fuck I wanted to kick his ass for that. Despite the serious shit that we had just seen, I couldn’t help but laugh at the intervention. The stories from the guys and the way Silvio read like a kid directly off the paper he wrote was fn hilarious. And Paulie when he hears that Chris killed the dog, “What, was it barkin?” LOL like that makes any difference. But it quickly turned serious. Some foreshadowing in a quote from Tony, “You killed little Cosette? I ought to suffocate you, you little prick.” Chris then freaks out on the people there even insulting his mother and that is the last straw before the guys beat the shit out of him. Chris has to go to the emergency room with a skull fracture and an ultimatum from Tony; either go to rehab and get clean or die. To hammer home his point, Tony says Patsy will be watching Chris to make sure he gets clean for real. Chris is just lucky he is Tony’s nephew, “Tony: Listen to me, the only reason I did this is because you’re my nephew, and I love you. If it were anybody else, they would’ve gotten that intervention through the back of their fucking head.” Lol Powerful scenes with great acting from Drea and Michael Imperioli.

With Chris clean and out of rehab, he is contracted by Tony to kill Carmine. Chris pre-pays 2 heroin dealers but when the hit is called off after Carmine cuts a fair deal with Tony, Chris has Benny and Petey kill the dealers to get the money back. Crazy turn of events, you think Carmine is gonna die and the money paid to the dealers was gone and just like that they get it back and Carmine keeps his life. More problems arise between Chris and Paulie over the custom of the lower rank paying for the tab. Chris is sick of it and makes Paulie pay one evening. Paulie is pissed and tells Chris he wants the money back. In retaliation, Paulie purposely has the crew rack up a huge tab for Chris to pay. Bc the bill is so high Chris leaves a small tip and is confronted by the waiter. After an argument Chris throws a brick at the guy sending him into a seizure, Paulie panics and shoots the guy dead. Messed up how easily they can just end a guys life, it was esp hard knowing this guys had kids. They apologize to each other the next day and get back on good terms. Only on this show does murdering an innocent man cause 2 guys to bond lol

Poor Adrianna is being ripped apart having to keep giving information to the FBI. She almost breaks down and spills the truth at a movie night with all the mafia women but holds it in at the last second and leaves in her car. When Ade see’s a friend of hers getting very flirty with Chris, she gives the FBI information about her friend to get her out of the picture. Like Carmela, she may not enjoy parts of her life but she knows how to use the weapons at her disposal. Chris helps Tony get rid of Feech by tricking him into storing a truck full of stolen TV’s in his garage. Kind of makes you feel sorry for Feech when you see him on the bus going back to prison as he waited all that time it get out and is right back in. But then you think about what Feech did to Sal Vitro and I lose most of my sympathy. The situation that came up when Chris went out of town for a job that left Tony and Adrianna hanging out together, I really thought that was going to lead to the death of Chris. Tony and Adrianna together would have been so awkward that I’m glad it never went there but damn it got close. Tony wrecks the car as he was driving Adrianna to pick up some coke and that sparks rumours that rock Chris’s world. When Chris hears about the accident, the only explanation he can accept is that Ade was giving Tony head and he crashed. Chris confronts Tony who swears on his kids nothing happened but that isn’t good enough.

Chris confronts Adrianna who eventually admits they were going to score drugs and that nothing sexual happened but Chris either doesn’t care or doesn’t believe her. Chris slaps her repeatedly and physically throws her out of their apartment, then relapses. Sucked to see that when he had been doing so good being clean and sober. A drunk Chris goes to the Bing and empties his clip into Tony’s car before going into the club to fight Tony. I thought this was the end. Tony and the crew take Chris to the meadowlands to execute him if he doesn’t accept Tony’s version of the story. Tony B has the great idea to go talk to the ER doctor who can and does confirm that Adrianna had injuries consistent with wearing a seatbelt so she couldn’t have been giving Tony head. Chris finally accepts it but is still totally humiliated as he knows nobody will care about the true story and just continue to tell the funnier story. Couldn’t help but laugh at how the guys were gossiping about it, “Silvio: Adriana got caught givin’ the big guy a blowjob. Bobby: And when the paramedics found them, she had his cock still in her mouth. Hesh: Now, statistics show that most single-car fatalities are the result of guys poppin’ their load behind the wheel. Uncle Junior: Apparently, he came all over the sun visor.” Lol like a bunch of old ladies in the salon.

The FBI wants Adrianna to push the relationship forward with Tony to get information and also put listening devices in the club but Adrianna resists both suggestions. The FBI wants to use Chris’s reaction to turn Ade against Chris but Adrianna tells her FBI contact she would have killed Chris if she heard he was alone in the car with another woman like that. I was always worried Ade would crack so I loved seeing her stand strong against the FBI. The situation ends when Tony, Carmela, Chris, Adrianna, Tony B and Quintina go out for dinner together at Vesuvio. That was a relief as I thought Chris was a dead man when he shot up Tony’s car. Really enjoyed the episode where Chris and Tony B go up to their Uncle’s cabin to remove 3 bodies that are buried there after the property is about to be sold. It’s going good until Tony shows up and teams up with Tony B to give Chris a hard time. Felt for Chris as I’ve def known guys that on their own are great but get them together with someone else and they totally change into an asshole. Wanted to punch Tony when he starts giving Chris shit for not drinking, poor guy is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.

That leads us to one of the most heartbreaking sequences on the show as Adrianna is observed on video by the FBI disposing of evidence from a murder that happened at the Crazy Horse. The FBI tells her this is it and if she doesn’t wear a wire she will go to jail for helping cover up a murder. But Adrianna pleads that Chris is ready to turn on Tony and if they can guarantee them a new life, they will testify. Adrianna finally tells Chris that she has been talking to the FBI and Chris looks like he has been hit by a truck. Great acting from Michael Imperioli as you feel all his emotions. But the scene turns brutal when Chris violently attacks Adrianna almost choking her to death. I wanted to jump into the TV. After calming down, Chris agrees to flee with Adrianna and start a new life. But at a gas station, something about a family he see’s doing a similar thing packing up their possessions and going somewhere changes his mind. We next see Adrianna get a call from Tony saying Chris has tried to commit suicide and Sil is coming to bring her to the hospital. As they were driving, I realized they weren’t going to the hospital. When Sil goes into a wooded area, Adrianna figures out what is about to happen and starts crying, trying to get away but Sil shoots and kills her. Man that was hard to watch, loved Adrianna as a character and wanted a far better fate than that for her. We see Chris in an almost a zombie like state collecting her belongings to take to a landfill and put her car in long term parking at the airport. Tony see’s Chris at the Bing relapsed on heroin saying the pain is too much but gets no sympathy from Tony. Fn asshole.

I always thought if Chris and Adrianna died it would be together, didn’t expect Chris to go on without her. Sad to see Adrianna leave the show but Drea De Matteo left an incredible legacy with this character. Surprised that Chris was able to pull himself out of the funk and get over Ade’s death, assuring Tony he was in a good place and that Adrianna didn’t give the FBI any information that could lead to their arrests. When Phil Leotardo suggested they kill Chris to make up for his brothers death I didn’t think Chris would survive that one. Chris ends up with Jonny Saks Maserati after Johnny is indicted, finally something positive for Chris. Despite what happened with Adrianna, Chris re-ignites his passion for making movies and starts to get his new slasher film rolling. He has Little Carmine on board and the writer he was in recovery with JT Dolan helping and is far enough along to present the film to potential investors like Silvio, Vito and Larry Boy Barese. Thought this was a cool storyline that I really didn’t expect coming into the last season. The scenes with Chris going to Los Angeles to try and recruit Ben Kingsley for his movie were so awkward I couldn’t help but laugh. Chris is so abrasive and has no clue that Ben Kingsley wants nothing to do with them or his movie. Chris is enamored with the free gifts stars like Kingsley gets and tries to swing some for himself but that isn’t happening so he robs actress Lauren Bacall coming out of an awards ceremony for her free gifts. Couldn’t believe he just punched her in the face, that was fucked up. Tony was never happy about Chris’s interest in the movies but is even more disillusioned now after Benny and Artie get into a feud with each other while Chris is gone and Tony blames Chris for not being there.

Chris has a new girlfriend Kelly who tells Chris she is pregnant and we see real joy from Chris who purposes marriage and buys a house with her. Tough to see him with someone other than Adrianna but I was happy the guy was having a family. Great to see Chris and Tony bond over something other than death when they steal the wine from the Bikers and have good times drinking some of the wine. Chris is high on heroin at the annual feast and ends up spending time with a mangy dog that comes over to him. I think the dog reminded him of Cosette and Adrianna so it was kind of a sweet moment despite him being high on heroin. Chris is cheating on his wife with Julianna, the real estate agent Tony took an interest in. They def had chemistry but were not good for each other as they both were addicts that started to use heroin again regularly once they hooked up. Sad to see but I figured after Adrianna’s death that Chris would not be able to stay clean and sober. Despite being back on the heroin, Chris successfully films his movie and premieres it for the entire family. Great full circle moment for Chris, just wish Adrianna could have been there for it.

Chris finds himself in hot water when Tony realizes thanks to Carmela that the portrayal of the Boss in the film was probably based on him. Chris tries to deny it but Tony is now convinced. At the baptism of Chris’s daughter, Chris and Tony embrace but we see there is no love in their eyes. Chris has more problems with Paulie when they are selling stolen power tools through Chris’s father in law but Paulie has his guys go to steal them from Chris’s father in law. Chris is pissed and confronts Paulie but is brushed off by him and Tony. I would have felt the same way as Chris as that was some bullshit. When Little Paulie steals again after this, Chris throws him out of a 3 storey window and can’t say I blame him. Paulie retaliates by destroying Chris’s lawn with his car while his wife and baby are home. Didn’t see this ending without 1 of em dying but they squash the beef and get drunk with the crew at the Bing. But Paulie makes a disgusting joke about Chris’s daughter growing up to work at the Bing and I wish Chris would have knocked his fuckin teeth out bc that was pathetic. Like Chris I would have questioned my allegiances after that considering they all had a good laugh at it. It’s a sweet little baby for fuck’s sake. Chris goes to see J.T for someone to talk to but J.T. wants no part of it so Chris shoots him in the head. Did not see that coming but considering Chris’s state of mind I prob should have.

This leads us to the end for Chris as he gets in a car accident while driving Tony back to Jersey. Chris was either high or jonesing bc Tony notices something isn’t right before they crash. Both are conscious after the crash but Chris tells Tony he won’t pass a drug test and that was clearly the last straw for Tony. Chris’s drug use only affected himself before but this time it almost killed Tony and with Tony’s anger there is no way he would let that go. Tony also see’s a tree branch broke through the car and destroyed the car seat in the back realizing if Chris had his baby with him she would be dead. Brutal end to their relationship as Tony gets out of the car, goes over to the driver’s side and plugs Chris’s nose causing Chris to choke to death on his own blood. Kind of knew it was coming but still very shocking to watch it actually go down. Chris had serious faults that would have had me nowhere near his corner in real life but on this show for some reason I was rooting for him. In the mafia life like Tony said, it’s either death or jail but I always figured Chris would be whacked by someone else not killed by Tony. But it was a great ride watching the story of Chris Moltisanti and Michael Imperioli established himself as one of the best actors on the show with his performance. Couple more funny lines from Chris to finish, “No way. T-Rex in the Garden of Eden? Adam and Eve would be running all the time, scared shitless, but the Bible says it was paradise.” and “Jon Favreau? He can suck my dick, that swings too.” Fcking LOL up there with Paulie as 1 of the funniest characters.

 

Silvio Dante – One of my fav characters and members of Tony’s crew, Steven Van Zandt crushed this role. He seemed like a character that could only exist in this world yet was also as real as it gets. We see how valuable and loyal Sil is after he blows up Artie’s restaurant to prevent Uncle Junior from setting up a murder there ensuring Artie can keep the business going with insurance money. He also helps Paulie beat up the Jewish hotel guy that won’t budge until they get Tony’s help and threaten castration lol after the suspicion of Pussy being a rat comes up, Sil finds out the guy accusing Pussy owes him 30k so he may be lying to bet rid of the guy he owes the money too. They figure the informant got it wrong and Jimmy Altieri is the real rat. With his recent suspicious behaviour it makes sense to the crew so Silvio and Chris kill Jimmy in a hotel mocking him about calling for help in his wire. Sil is cool with the news that Tony is seeing a therapist unlike Chris but Sil is older so he understands the grind mafia life can have on someone. Funny exchange between Sil and Paulie, “Paulie: The Skip seeing a psychiatrist, how does that sit with your ass? Silvio: I usually do sit with my ass. Why don’t you sit with yours?” lol Paulie was prob the funnier of the two but Sil still had some great lines throughout the show.  Nice to see Sil get a bump up for his contributions when Furio comes over and Pussy is knocked down. Sil shows his softer side when he delivers the 75k of break up money to Irina for Tony and tries to get her to see that it ain’t the end of the world and new opportunities are waiting for her. Sil also proves his worth as consigliere and second in command when he advises Tony that there is no benefit to keeping Richie around with his defiant attitude and he has to go.

Tough moment for the Sil and the crew when they have to whack Big Pussy for being a rat. We know they despise rats but this is their long time friend that they had a lot of love for, couldn’t have been easy. Thought it was funny that Sil was more upset about missing the first Jets game than the funeral for Livia lol we see the darker side of Silvio when he gets pissed Tracee is calling in sick and goes to Ralphie’s to drag her back to work. As with other characters, Sil’s treatment and attitude towards the women is my biggest problem with him. But he had his hilarious moments too like his exchange with Tony about Ralphie, “Tony: “lemme ask you a question…you think Ralph’s a little uh…weird about women? Sil: Well I don’t know Tone, I mean..he beat one to death, just for….I forget. What was it again?” Obviously not funny what happened to Tracee but this show can make you laugh even in the darker moments. Sil is arrested with Chris at Jackie Jr’s funeral but makes bail pretty quick. I did not agree at all with Silvio about his feelings on Christopher Columbus, Columbus Day and the Native Americans protesting it. Italian or not, Christopher Columbus was a piece of fucking shit that committed genocide against the Native Americans and did not deserve his own holiday. The Native Americans had every right to protest it. Not my fav episode as it made me think negatively of a bunch of guys I liked. Sil claimed that bc Italian-Americans were also persecuted but rose up out of it, the Native Americans deserved no sympathy but the situations couldn’t have been more different.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, I thought Sil was hilarious at Chris’s intervention both in how he read his story and the story itself. “Sil: When I came to open up one morning, there you were with your head half in the toilet. Your hair was in the toilet water. Disgusting. Chris: I told you, I had the flu. Sil: I’ve said my piece, Chrissy.” Lol so funny. Things are heating up in the feud with NY and Tony confides in Sil that he wants to use Little Carmine to convince his father to back off of Tony’s business. Tony believes Paulie is feeding info to Johnny Sak’s so he and Sil agree not to tell Paulie about the meeting with Little Carmine. Sil finally has a tense confrontation with Paulie telling him his earnings are low and that Tony is beginning to have doubts about where Paulie’s loyalties lie. Thought Tony, Sil, Paulie and Chris made a great team so it was tough to see the issues develop between them. Interesting conversation between Sil and Tony when unrest is rising due to Tony shielding Tony B for Phil, Sil says everyone is guilty of the 7 deadly sins and Tony’s sin is pride. I think you could make a case that Tony is guilty of all 7 lol but Tony does not accept this kindly.

Wasn’t sure what was gonna happen when Silvio went down with a bad asthma attack, looked like it might be long term but he recovered pretty quick. Sil showed why Tony had him as his #2 doing a great job running the family while Tony recovered. Obviously Sil did not agree with Vito’s lifestyle choice but that didn’t mean he was gonna allow rival crews to mock and shame him. Kind of surprised that Sil and Carlo got angry enough with Fat Dom to kill him over making fun of Vito but that shows how much loyalty and respect meant to Sil. Vito was a big earner and long time member of the family, if they let that disrespect go, who knows who people will start disrespecting next. Sil proves his loyalty one last time when he garrotes Soprano soldier Burt Gervasi for negotiating with NY against the family. With the danger mounting, Tony instructs Sil to tell everyone to go to the safe houses but before he can Sil is shot multiple times. Sil survives but is in a coma and doctors say it is unlikely that he will ever come out of it. Sucked to see Sil get shot but for a guy like him, this was how he was going to go out. Still a chance he could come out of the coma down the road but even if not, Silvio had a great ride and will go down as 1 of my favourite mafia characters in TV or movies. Tip of the cap to Steven Van Zandt for creating a legend.

Paulie ‘Walnuts’ Gualtieri – Loved Paulie but he could also piss me off good at times, Tony Sirico did a fantastic job bringing him to life and making him seem real. Paulie was always good for a laugh in serious situations like beating down the Jewish hotel guy and delivering the stolen TV to the soccer coach. He proves his worth helping Chris and Pussy rob and kill the Columbian drug dealer for a massive score. When the suspicion of Pussy being a rat arises, Paulie tries to get Pussy to take off his shirt bringing him to a steam room. Pussy refuses bc he says his doctor says the steam room could be bad for his heart but Paulie is now sure Pussy is a rat and was prob wearing a wire. Paulie doesn’t care when Tony reveals he is seeing a therapist but like Sil, he understands the toll this life can take on someone esp at the higher end of it. Intense but funny scene when Chris and Tony track down Mikey Palmice to kill him after Tony is shot and Paulie starts freaking out about the Posion Ivy, “Fucking poison ivy all over… I can feel it itching me already.” Lol Paulie had some of the funniest lines in the show. One of my favourites was an exchange with Sil, “Paulie: Hey Sil, do you remember your first BJ? Sil: Yeah I do Paulie: Yeah, how long did it take for the guy to cum?” LOL fn great. Kinda funny to watch Paulie try to acclimate himself to the culture in Italy when he goes with Chris and Tony but be met with total indifference from the locals lol Paulie def deserved the bump he got when Furio came over and Pussy was knocked down.

Paulie’s world is shaken after Chris wakes up from his near-death experience and delivers a message to Tony and Paulie from Brendan Filone and Mikey Palmice, “3 o’clock.” This messes Paulie up pretty good, he thinks it might be a warning from beyond the grave. Paulie having nightmares about it leads to one of my fav scenes. After Paulie wakes up from a nightmare while sleeping with his goomah, he children wake up scared but Paulie assures them everything is ok and puts them back to bed. Shows that underneath his tough guy person, there is a good guy in there. He is so shaken by this message that he goes to see a psychic who fucks him up even more by mentioning the name of the first guy Paulie killed. Hilarious scene when Paulie freaks out and throws the chair at the “spirits” lol it really bothers him that donating a lot of money to the church might not get him off the hook for his sins. I think beliefs like that are a big reason why guys can live like they do and do the things that they do. Another great line from Paulie as he lets Tony know “A flag-saluting motherfucker” is a potential witness to the Bevilaqua murder. Not an easy moment when Paulie has to help Tony and Sil whack Big Pussy considering they were all very good friends. Would have loved to see more seasons of the 4 of them as a crew when everything was going good.

Despite Paulie coming off as a nice guy at times, we see he is all business when he gives Chris the sportsbook after he is made and won’t accept anything less than the full payment he is owed when Chris comes up short. Paulie knows the game and that if you give an inch people will take a mile no matter how good of friends they are. This leads to Paulie fcking with Chris by conducting a strip search something newly made men have to deal with. Nasty moment when Chris see’s Paulie sniffing Adrianna’s panties, thought that was gonna lead to a big blow up after Paulie gets pissed Chris went to Tony and confronts him, “I’m here to tell you one thing. You ever go whining to the big man again about shit between you and me, we’ll have a problem, my friend.” Def not with Paulie on this one. S3 gives us one of the funniest exchanges on the show, “Paulie: Amazing thing about snakes is that they reproduce spontaneously. Tony: What do you mean? Paulie: They have both male and female sex organs. That’s why somebody you don’t trust you call a snake. How can you trust a guy who can literally go fuck themselves? Tony: Don’t you think that expression would’ve come from the Adam and Eve story? When the snake tempted Eve to bite the apple? Paulie: Hey, snakes were fucking themselves long before Adam and Eve showed up, T.” fcking LOL no doubt Paulie is one of the funniest characters.

We get another great line from Paulie when Bobby doesn’t want to be the new Santa, “The boss of this family told you you’re gonna be Santa Clause. You’re Santa Clause. So shut the fuck up about it.” Lol S3 might have been Paulie’s funniest season as he had great lines all over it but the episode Pine Barrens was the high point. Paulie and Chris try to make a collection for Tony but Paulie was in a bad mood and starts shits with the Russian guy Valery until they start fighting and have to kill him. But the guy is still alive and when they try to kill him again he escapes again. Great acting from Tony Sirico in the episode. I really enjoyed watching him and Chris try to survive the elements and get home after they become lost. When they eventually get out, Paulie’s car is gone meaning Valery must have taken it. Really thought that would be a significant storyline going forward but we never hear anything again from Valery or the other Russians. I already posted my fav lines from the episode when talking about Chris but I’ll post em again here bc they are relevant to Paulie too. “The package hit Chrissy in the head with an implement then ran off “ “Chris: I’ll leave you here, you one shoe cocksucker… You know how fast I can run, I’ll leave you in the fucking dust.” “Paulie: how bout that Cuban missile crisis, cocksuckers flew four nuclear warheads into Cuba, pointed them right at us. Chris: That was real? I saw that movie I thought it was bullshit” “Paulie: Fuck it. Let’s just go. Squirrels will eat him anyway” “Paulie: “You’re not going believe this, guy killed 16 Czechoslovakians, guy was an interior decorator. Chris: His house looked like shit” “Paulie: What are you going to do? Eat ketchup packs? Chris: We shoulda stopped at Roy Rogers. Paulie: And I shoulda fucked Dale Evans but I didn’t” lol so great. After a dispute with Ralphie over proceeds from a robbery, Paulie asks Tony for 50k but Tony only awards him 12k which Paulie see’s as a betrayal. Really surprised me when Paulie goes to Johnny Saks to complain about Tony and offer his services to the NY Boss Carmine Lupertazzi.

Paulie starts S4 in jail and is pissed that Tony doesn’t seem to care and this causes him to get closer to Johnny Saks who is talking to Paulie regularly. Little Paulie tells Paulie about a joke Ralphie made about Johnny Saks wife Ginny but Paulie doesn’t find it funny considering his closer connection with Johnny Saks as of late and his dislike of Ralphie. Paulie is finally released from prison and is welcomed home by Tony with an envelope of cash. But Paulie is still holding a grudge for Tony not contacting him while he was locked up and feeds Johnny Saks information about Tony’s business. Johnny tells Paulie that Carmine thinks the world of him, thought it was leading to Paulie turning on Tony and really couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Paulie moves his mother Nucci into a nursing home but trouble arises when the women Nucci thought were her friends start ignoring and not including her in things. So sad, reminded me of Better Call Saul when Jimmy causes Irene’s friends to do the same thing to get the Sandpiper money. Paulie is pissed and tries to get 1 of his mother’s friends Cookie to start treating her better going to her son to help but he won’t until Paulie gets Benny and Little Paulie to rough him up. Big problems arise when Ralphie figures out Paulie told Johnny Saks about the joke he made about Ginny and pranks Nucci to get even. Hilarious scene but not so much for Paulie. Nucci has some health problems related to being upset about he prank call and Paulie wants Ralphie dead. Mafia code forbids involving family members but Tony responds, “you lay a hand on him, and you’ll be answering to me. If you can quote the rules, you’ll fucking obey them.” Tense scene but Tony calms the waters by agreeing to go visit Nucci.

Paulie rescues the Tony and Pie-O-My painting and hangs it up in his house after altering the pic to make Tony a Napolean like figure. Kind of weird but I guess he really did have a lot of respect and love for Tony. But things the walls are starting to close in on Paulie after he gets angry with Sil being told his earnings are low and that Tony is beginning to doubt his loyalty. Paulie see’s Carmine out eating dinner and approaches him like they know each other but it’s clear Carmine has no idea who he is and that Johnny Saks has been lying to him. He is getting desperate now and after he overhears that his mother’s friend Minnie keeps her savings under her mattress, Paulie goes to her house to rob her. But she is home and catches him in the act. To keep Minnie from calling the cops, Paulie suffocates her with a pillow. Such a fucked up scene man and not at all where I thought Paulie’s story would go. Shows what a desperate man will do. But after he gets the money, Paulie gets back on Tony’s good side handing him a fat envelope of cash to make up for his low earnings. Paulie starts fcking with Chris making him pay for all the restaurant tabs and even purposely racks up a huge bill after Chris makes him pay for a bill. Chris leaves a small tip and after the waiter comes out to confront him, Chris throws a brick at the waiter sending him into a seizure. Paulie panics and kills the guy but is back on good terms the next day with Chris when the apologize to each other. Still blows me away how they can take somebodies life without a care in the world.

Paulie tries to stick up for Sal Vitro, the gardener that was attacked and forced off his routes by Feech but has to resort to violence to send the message as he beats the shit out of Feech’s guy Gary. Even knocks the guy out of the tree lol damn. Instead of being completely shut out, Paulie works it out so Sal gets half of his routes back but it is still a hit in business for him. Paulie also tells Sal that he has to do a couple lawns for free, but they are Tony and Johnny Saks lawns which are massive. Not exactly a great deal for Sal but it def could have been worse if Paulie didn’t step in. We get another great line from Paulie, “Why do pissin, shittin’, and fuckin’ all happen within’ a two-inch radius?” lol fn guy. Another good one from Paulie, “Silvio: His brains are splattered all over the seat. Paulie Walnuts: Joey Peeps? Couldn’t have been too much to clean up.” Lol could always count on Paulie to deliver the laughs. After Tony is shot, Paulie leads the way for a big score against Columbian drug dealers but gets a hard shot to the balls for this troubles that led to some funny reactions from Paulie. He doesn’t want to immediately give Carmela the 200k cut Tony is owed from the score in case Tony doesn’t recover but when Tony starts to wake up he makes the payment. Kind of fucked up but Paulie was always looking out for #1. Thought it was funny that Paulie bitching about his life and getting on Tony’s nerves was what woke him up from the coma lol

In a shocking twist we learn that Paulie’s mother Nucci is not actually his mother, his aunt Dottie is Paulie’s real mother. Couldn’t believe it, that would mess anyone up and it certainly did to Paulie having him question his place in the world. So sad when he confronts Nucci berating her for keeping the truth from him and says he never wants to see her again. Tony tries to put things in perspective for Paulie that Nucci always loved him and bailed him out of numerous tough situations in his life but Paulie is still angry. That would be a ridiculously tough situation for anyone to deal with, really felt for Paulie here. Times are a changing and Paulie isn’t quite ready for it and we see that when the annual feast comes up. Paulie is used to donating 10k to the church to help with the feast but the new priest wants 50k, a number Paulie is not willing to meet. This means the church won’t let them use the golden hat on the saint which is a big deal to the locals. This wasn’t the only part of the feast that saw Paulie being cheap. After a ride breaks and injures people, Bobby learns that Paulie refused to pay for a repair crew, or for newer, safer rides causing a lot of tension. Paulie is stubborn but Tony tells him to make things right. If that isn’t enough, Paulie see’s Nucci at the feast and she admonishes him for being cheap saying it is sinful. Paulie swears at her and leaves. So sad but I was really happy to see Paulie have a change of heart and go to see Nucci to make things right, even sitting on her couch watching TV with her after the feast.

Sucked to hear that Paulie was dealing with early stage prostate cancer, after Jackie Sr died I was always thought the worst when characters had to deal with cancer. Paulie feeding information to Johnny Saks like the joke Ralphie told about his wife caused a lot of problems for Tony and now Tony was pretty sure Paulie was the one supplying Johnny the info. Really tense scenes when they go to Florida and Tony talks to Beansie about Paulie talking too much lately and becoming a liability. Tony invites Paulie on his new fishing boat but Paulie remembers how Pussy was killed and is very nervous, even I wasn’t sure what Tony would do. Tony questions Paulie about the joke leak one more time but Paulie denies it again. Despite some teases, nothing happens and they are on good terms from there. Paulie even buys the Sopranos a new $2,000 espresso machine when he goes over there and learns their machine is broken. Carmela questions it but Tony tells her people like Paulie are a big part of the reason they have the life they do. Nice to see Tony stand up for his friend and was cool to learn that Paulie was one of Tony’s role models when they were younger.

Things started to get really serious between Paulie and Chris when they start selling stolen power tools through Chris’s father in law. The cut from that is not enough so Paulie has Little Paulie and Jason Molinaro go to the store and steal some of the power tools. Chris is understandably pissed and wants compensation but Paulie and Tony brush him off. When Little Paulie does it again, Chris throws him out of a 3 storey window. Paulie retaliates by destroying Chris’s lawn at his new house with his car scaring the shit out of Chris’s wife and daughter. Before things escalate further, Paulie and Chris make peace and get drunk together at the Bing. But Paulie makes a disgusting joke about Chris’s baby daughter growing up to be a prostitute and we’re back to square one. Paulie crossed the line on that one and I was surprised Tony and everyone else were laughing. Despite the hard feelings they had for each other at times, Chris’s death hit Paulie pretty hard making him regret all the problems they had and how he treated Chris at times. That was nice to see considering I liked both characters. Nucci passes away the same time as Chris so Paulie doesn’t get to go to Chris’s funeral and gets a bit upset about the turnout at Nucci’s funeral bc most are at Chris’s. But really, considering that Chris was made and Nucci was a civilian he couldn’t really expect people not to go to Chris’s. But I am happy that Paulie made things right with Nucci before she died.

If Tony was killed in the final scene, then Paulie was one of the only members of the family to escape the wrath of the NY families unscathed. Paulie is a survivor so I know he doesn’t get killed. With all of his friends gone, I like to think Paulie got as much money together as he could and retired down in Florida. I had a love/hate relationship with Paulie at times but his journey was awesome to watch and he provided so many big laughs. Tip of the cap to Tony Sirico for a legendary performance.

‘Uncle Junior’ Corrado Soprano – Dominic Chianese was awesome, brought out real emotions making me both love and hate him. Uncle Junior is causing problems for Tony right off the bat as he plans to whack Little Pussy Malanga in Artie’s restaurant. But Tony and the family frequent the restaurant and Artie is Tony’s close friend so doing this would bring heat and probably ruin the business. After being disrespected by Chris and Brendan hijacking his trucks, it’s actually Tony’s mother that suggests he punish Chris and get rid of Brendan and that is exactly what happens. Def established Uncle Junior as a force to be reckoned with. Didn’t expect Uncle Jun to last much longer after he told Tony to come heavy to their next meeting or not at all indicating he was ready for a war. Tony relents and supports Junior as Boss to give him the illusion of control and make him the target for any FBI investigation. Junior’s desire to be Boss clouds his judgment and he can’t see why becoming Boss at that time would be a bad thing. You can see the pride on Uncle Junior’s face when he becomes Boss but it would be very short lived.

Junior starts throwing his weight around immediately ruffling feathers having card games interrupted with a beating, having a top earner in another crew killed bc he sold drugs that killed his tailor’s grandson and making Hesh pay taxes for the first time. In the show’s world I can respect killing the drug dealer, the kid was only 14. Junior is getting greedy too not passing money down to his Capo’s until Tony enlightens him on why it’s smart to keep his guys fed and happy. At the celebration for Junior’s promotion, we see that the FBI is undercover collecting information and that Junior is in big trouble. This is exactly why Tony decided to let Junior be Boss. Junior goes to Florida with his mistress Bobbi and ends up humiliating her by shoving a pie in her face bc she told people he goes down on her. That scene really bothered me I felt so bad for her. Equating going down on a woman to being gay is still one of the most ridiculous beliefs held by these mafia guys. Going down on a woman is an art that is perfected by real men, it’s fun and gets women ready to give you the best sex of your life so to say it makes a man gay is fcking ludicrous lol if anything not wanting to go down on a woman should raise some questions. Really fn annoyed me.

After Livia tells Junior that Tony is seeing a therapist, he panics fearing Tony could be giving up information and agrees to Livia’s advice to have Tony killed. Both attempts are botched putting Junior in grave danger of retaliation. Junior’s guys Chucky and Mikey are killed but Junior and the rest of his crew are arrested before anything else happens. The FBI gives Junior a way out if he will turn on Tony but he refuses showing his still has love in his heart for his nephew. Gained some respect for Junior after that despite trying to kill Tony. Junior is able to get back on Tony’s good side being allowed to earn and keep the title of Boss while he deals with his legal troubles. Eventually Junior gets to serve his time under house arrest with an ankle bracelet he detests. Junior tries to get Tony to make peace with Livia but Tony refuses. Shows how damaged Tony’s relationship with his mother is when he will make peace with Junior for the attempted hit but not Livia. Richie Aprile gets out of jail and lets Junior know he will do whatever Junior asks him to do hinting at killing Tony. Thought that might be the direction the story goes but Junior clearly learned his lesson.

Interesting revelation when Junior tells Tony he has an Uncle that is long dead but was mentally slow, prob a bit of a blow to Tony’s ego who is an alpha make and grew up thinking the men in his family were all tough, macho guys. Loved the scene after Jackie Jr’s death when Junior starts singing, added a great layer to his character. Sad to learn that Uncle Junior has stomach cancer, after losing Jackie Sr so quick I thought this would be Junior’s exit from the show. Interesting that Junior loved JFK so much considering that JFK was going hard after organized crime. His faith in his doctor of the same name is not rewarded as Junior is still in danger after the first surgery. Junior seeks a 2^nd opinion which offends his doc and won’t see Junior or take his calls anymore. Tony and Furio have to intimidate the doc into seeing Junior again and it was almost childlike they way Junior reacts to seeing the doc again. Gotta think the arrest and sickness broke down his tough exterior. Junior was serious a lot of the time but he def had his funny moments, “when you say sign I sign, you ask me to take a crap on the deck of the queen Mary? An hour later they’re hosin it down with disinfectant” lol Being on house arrest and not able to properly earn money is taking it’s toll on Junior’s finances. He needs to make more but Tony is stressing about his own problems and isn’t very sympathetic. Uncle Junior promotes Bobby to help him increase his earning power. Tony finds out one of Junior’s properties is going to rise in value you so he buys it acting like he is doing Junior a favour knowing he is going to make much more than the price he paid. Junior is def not in the position to do anything about it or say no even if he knew what was going on. Junior has been having fun flirting with a nurse at his doctor’s office but feels humiliated when he is told there is an undercover FBI agent at the office and it must be the nurse.

Junior’s trial has started and is taking it’s toll on him until he seemingly catches a lucky break. One of the reporters boom mics hits him on the head leaving the court house and he falls down the steps. Tony see’s this as an opportunity for Junior to act like he has dementia from the fall. Great plan on paper but acting like he had dementia may have helped bring on the all too real symptoms we would see later. The judge isn’t buying it and throws out the mistrial but Bobby assures Junior they have a plan to get to a juror. The intimidation of the juror works and Junior is freed on a mistrial. But by S5 Junior’s mind is rapidly deteriorating. In a scene that was funny yet sad at the same time, Junior keeps repeating “you never had the makings of a varsity athlete” to Tony over and over and this hurts Tony’s feelings, he def does not tolerate being made fun of. But that is something Junior used to say when Tony was younger indicating that his mind is not in the present day. Tony doesn’t realize this yet though. Later Junior actually goes out in his house coat and slippers looking for his brother Johnny who was long dead at this point. Really hammered home how serious Junior’s condition was. Junior’s neurologist eventually explains the situation to Tony and this leads to the heartbreaking scene where Tony wonders why Junior always repeats mean things and not nice things. Tony then asks Junior, “Don’t you love me.” Incredible acting from James Gandolfini but esp Dominic Chianese who really sold the condition and made it seem real.

After some new medication, Junior’s mind improves but he is still under house arrest and going stir crazy. Funerals were one of the only reasons he could get permission to leave the house so was kind of funny to see him use any little connection he could to attend them. But he breaks down in tears at one of them and admits to his doctor the lack of purpose in his life due to not having children and always feeling trapped is really getting to him. At first I was not a fan of Uncle Jun but by this time I was getting in his corner feeling real sympathy for him. We see Junior is once again losing the battle with dementia when Tony tries to ask him for advice about what to do with Tony B but Junior is just lost. Heading into S6 Junior is really getting bad, he has Tony help him look for money he buried in the backyard 30 years ago. Who knows if it’s even there. With Janice and Bobby busy, Tony has to look after Uncle Junior one night and it almost proves fatal as Junior shoots Tony thinking he was Little Pussy Malanga, the guy that Junior wanted to kill in Artie’s restaurant in S1. Junior is confused when he is in custody, adamant that he didn’t shoot Tony but everyone know she did and they cut Junior off from the family making Tony the official Boss.

This time the authorities believe that junior has dementia and allow him to live in a psychiatric facility as opposed to jail. The meds Junior gets in the care facility seem to be working as Junior is up to old habits hosting poker games and receiving candy and soda treats. Someone rats on Junior and his poker games are stopped. Junior assaults the rat and is given heavier medication that make him basically just a bump on a log not able to think or do anything. He befriends a younger patient there that helps him get around taking these heavier meds but eventually the staff finds out and gives him the ultimatum to either take the meds or be placed in a much worse state-run facility. Junior’s will has been broken and he accepts his fate and starts taking the meds. The younger patient that Junior had befriended liked their arrangement along with the power they had and doesn’t like that Junior gave up so he assaults Junior. Sad scene when we see a beaten down Junior in a wheelchair stroking a cat clearly not all there. Janice tries to inform Junior of Bobby’s death but Junior has no clue who anyone is. Tony finally visits Junior for the first time since the shooting but Junior doesn’t even recognize him, his mind is totally gone. Tony is clearly hurt by seeing Junior like this and walks away for the last time. Sad end to the story for Uncle Jun but I honestly didn’t think he would survive past season 2 so he really did have a great run on the show. So much respect to Dominic Chianese for his amazing performance as Uncle Junior bringing out real emotions both good and bad while perfectly acting out the dementia.

Dr. Jennifer Melfi – What a great performance from Lorraine Bracco as Jennifer Melfi. Interesting to know that they were originally going to give her the role of Carmela but felt playing Dr. Melfi would give her more of a challenge. Thought she played the role of therapist so well always staying calm and allowing Tony to work through his outbursts. She was always delivering the advice or explanation that Tony knew was true but didn’t want to hear. She forced Tony to confront his feelings of anger/hatred towards Livia. Dr Melfi nailed the fact that Tony’s mother had a personality disorder and most likely ordered the hit on him. There was definite chemistry between Dr Melfi and Tony but she did a great job at keeping a professional demeanor at all times. I expected them to hook up sexually but for her to be a real character there is no way that could have happened. It would have put her on the same level as all of Tony’s other female conquests when she needed to be held in higher esteem to be able to give him advice and proper therapy. Felt a lot of sympathy for her date that Tony had his cop friend follow, he did nothing but got brutalized and must have felt very helpless considering it was a cop that did it.

The reality of who she was treating revealed itself when Tony had her go somewhere to hide to keep her from Junior’s wrath. I think that was the moment where any chance of them getting together went out the window. Didn’t help that all of her friends, family and her own psychiatrist had negative feelings about treating Tony and pushed her to end the sessions. Everyone deserves to have access to treatment and she was actually able to help Tony so I can’t say I agree with them. What a powerful performance she gave being raped and in the aftermath of it. One of the most uncomfortable scenes I’ve ever seen but it showed the brutal reality of rape and what too many women have to go through. I so badly wanted her to tell Tony about it so we could see the scumbag get the punishment he deserved but it was the right call not to. For Dr Melfi to keep her character and morals, there is no way she could have a hand in someone’s murder whether they were a rapist or not. This led to one of the most powerful, “No“ statements in TV history after Tony asks if she wants to tell him something.

I think Tony presents a challenge to Dr Melfi and this is why we never see her end the sessions with Tony until the end of the show. The study she is confronted with about therapy actually making sociopaths better at what they do def worries her but giving up on Tony would be like giving up on herself as a therapist as long as she feels there is room for her to help him, she will. No matter how many times he calls her a cunt and leaves a session early, she knows that is almost a defence mechanism for him to keep people from getting close to him or learning the truth about his emotions. As long as he doesn’t physically harm her, she can continue to treat him. Tony almost crosses that line when he flips her coffee table over, gets in he face and threatens her with violence but manages to hold back. That was def an intense scene. The viewer can see improvement in Tony and his actions even though there isn’t a total reversal of character so Dr Melfi continuing to treat Tony is justified. But her resolve is finally broken down by her friends/Family/therapist towards the end of the show. I was surprised that she finally ended their sessions for good, thought he would be seeing her through the end of the show. I wonder how she will react to hearing about his death if Tony does die in the finale. Nothing she could have done but I think she may feel she could have done something to keep him from being in that position. Dr Melfi was a great character and the sessions with Tony were a big part of the show and I really enjoyed the relationship they established.

Janice Soprano – For someone I thought would be a short-term character, Janice became an integral part of the show thanks to a great performance from Aida Turturro. Having a sister of my own, I could def relate to Tony’s frustrations with her. Janice shows up to take care of Livia when she gets sick but we soon realize she has ulterior motives, namely her gaining possession of her mothers house. She hooks up with Richie Aprile and I thought nothing good would come of that but they were actually a good couple until the fight at the end. The fight would prove fatal for Richie. Shocking to see him punch Janice in the face but he must have forgot she is a Soprano. I knew she wasn’t gonna take that lightly but def didn’t expect her to kill him. Thought that would be the end of the character but she came back after Livia died. Janice showed how vindictive she could be by stealing Svetlana’s leg bc she wouldn’t return the records Livia gave her. Seemed like Janice just wanted them back as some kind of power play more than a quick score as I can’t imagine they were worth much. Didn’t like to see her get roughed up but she stole a woman’s leg so what did she really expect would happen.

“Have you heard the good news” lol her narcoleptic boyfriend was def an interesting character but made me laugh. That doesn’t last long and she moves on to Ralphie. Richie to Ralphie is like going from the frying pan into the fire, knew that wouldn’t last long. But it actually looked like it was working out ok until Bobby became available after his wife died. Wasn’t hard to see that Bobby was a much safer partner than Ralphie so Janice creates a conflict out of nothing and ends things with Ralphie. Mikey Palmice’s widow is also interested in Bobby but it didn’t take long for Janice to win that battle. Janice showed how far she was willing to go by sending Bobby’s kids messages to get them upset so she could swoop in and play the hero. Def fucked up but she ended up being a good thing for the kids and Bobby. Bobby and Janice eventually get married and have a child of their own but it takes her some time to get used to being a full time mother. Her anger issues boil over when she gets in a fight with another mom at Sophia’s soccer game. Janice goes to anger management and that was actually a pretty funny scene, “Dr. Seepman: Janice, you’re angry. What are your actual physical feelings right now? Janice Soprano: I’d like to punch you in the face?” lol but it works and Janice gets control of her anger. Really pissed me off when Tony is clearly jealous of this and provokes Janice about her son that she hasn’t seen in a long time until she snaps. Can’t blame her as she did everything to keep cool but Tony just wouldn’t stop.

Janice was a positive influence on Bobby pushing him to get more involved in the business so more opportunities would come his way. She even stands up to Tony for Bobby over the way Tony treats Bobby. Janice is pretty broken up when she see’s Tony’s condition after being shot. After recovering, Tony eventually softens towards Janice and Bobby giving Bobby more responsibilities and allowing Bobby to earn more money. Tony also convinces Johnny Saks to sell Janice and Bobby his house for a greatly reduced price. Thought that was a pretty nice gesture from Tony. Was really enjoying the episode when Tony and Carmela go up to the cabin to hang out with Janice and Bobby, that is until all hell breaks loose. On one hand I understand Tony giving his sister shit and saying stuff to her nobody else can. But on the other that is Bobby’s wife and as a man Bobby wants her to be treated with respect. It was def sweet to see Janice and her daughter Domenica.

Unfortunately Bobby is murdered and Janice becomes a widow. Tony assures her she will be taken care of but sets up things so that Bobby’s kids will be taken care of but not Janice. Despite the tension between them, I know Janice would be devastated over Tony’s murder if that is what happened in the finale. I really enjoyed the journey of Janice and for someone I thought would be a short term character, she became a character I looked forward to seeing in the episodes.

Livia Soprano – Holy shit did she drive me fn crazy lol fantastic performance by Nancy Marchand, she brought out real anger from me. Initially I had no idea she was such a nasty person, just seemed like a sweet lady that was struggling with getting older. But as soon as Tony tried to put her in a “retirement community” lol we saw her nasty side come out. Livia always focused on the negative or the thing that would make people feel sorry for her. “I wish the Lord would take me now.” Her attitude was always poor me and everyone is at fault but me. We even see in a flashback that Tony’s dad had a chance to get out of the mafia life and go to Arizona but Livia said she would smother the kids before she let that happen. Just an unbelievable woman. Def could feel Tony’s pain. She didn’t want anyone to help her so she accused the lady they hired to help of stealing from her. When she was put in the community, she would always find something wrong with everyone and everything. She was so angry about Tony putting her in the community that when she found out he was seeing a Therapist, she told Junior knowing that Junior would react very negatively. She even suggests that Junior take care of Tony and we know what that means. Just unbelievable for a mother to do that to her son, esp one that loved her and was trying his best to take care of her.

After surviving the attempt, Tony has had enough and plans to return the favor and smother her with a pillow but is stopped by her having a mini-stroke. Tony thinks she is faking and even see’s a smirk on her face as he is being dragged away from her. Janice coming back made it easier for Tony to hold onto his anger for his mother as he could act like she was dead to him while Janice took care of her. But when Janice has to leave after killing Richie, Tony is forced to deal with his mother. Tony gives her 2 of the stolen airline tickets he got from Davey so she can leave with her sister but the FBI is on to it and arrests Livia at the airport. I read that the plan was to do a storyline where Livia testifies against Tony but unfortunately Nancy passed away before they could film it. So they did the storyline where she died in her sleep. I thought her death was pretty abrupt when I was watching but knowing what happened it makes sense. Livia Soprano was only around for 2 seasons but she made quite an impact on me while I was watching. Great legacy Nancy Marchand left in her final role.

Bobby Baccalieri – One of my fav characters on the show, Steve Schirrpa did an awesome job creating a unique mafia character. Bobby was the rare mafia guy that treated all women with respect but esp his wife Karen, he didn’t even have a goomah. He seemed like a legitimately nice guy and was always even-tempered. Thought it was cool that Bobby’s father was Burt Young who played Paulie from the Rocky movies. Bobby’s father is only in one episode but goes out like a boss killing mustang sally as revenge for the beating of Vito’s brother. We meet Bobby helping Junior in a role he would have most of the show. Felt bad for him as Tony was always giving him shit for his weight but there wasn’t really much Bobby could do or say back to a guy as high up as Tony. Man what a heartbreaking surprise to the story when Bobby’s wife Karen dies in a car accident. Bobby gets a phone call from his son asking him to pick up something from the store, Bobby is frustrated about being stuck in traffic and wonders why she can’t do it. But in a cruel twist, Bobby is stuck in traffic due to his wife Karen’s fatal accident but doesn’t realize it. Great acting from Steve Schirrpa in the aftermath of Karen’s death, you feel his heartbreak and feel real emotions. It really bothered me to know his sweet kids would grow up without a mother and Bobby lost the love of his life. Not all women would be good to a guy like Bobby but he had one and now she was gone. Fn rough.

I was really uncomfortable watching Janice immediately move in on him and try to get him to forget his wife. I can totally understand Bobby not wanting to eat the last Ziti that his wife made, her cooking was a big part of their lives and it’s a connection to her that will be gone forever when he eats it. On their anniversary, Bobby buys a cake and buries it at Karen’s grave. So sad but that is prob getting into bad territory so it’s good that Janice was there to stop him from doing things like that. For a character we barely knew, I really felt a lot of emotion watching Bobby grieve over Karen’s death. He was eventually able to put Karen’s death behind him even marrying Janice and having a child with her. Obviously being married to Janice helped his relationship with Tony but also put pressure on Bobby to step up his earnings. While Tony was recovering Bobby see’s an opportunity to make money and offers to help an aspiring rapper legitimize his career by shooting him in the fleshy part of the thigh lol Bobby is no dummy and makes 7k for easy work putting him in a better position with Tony.

Bobby has a conflict with Paulie when the ride his family is on at the feast breaks. Bobby initially threatens the ride operator but when he finds out Paulie cheaped out on repairs and new rides, he confronts him and it almost gets physical. Bobby is a nice guy but he ain’t no pushover. During one of his collections, Bobby is beaten and robbed by a street gang, they are threatening to kill him. They fire a shot that hits the ground near his face an deflects into his eye almost blinding him. Man I was nervous they were gonna kill him. Tony feels sympathy and arranges it so Johnny Saks house is sold to Bobby and Janice at a great price. Tony and Carmela coming up to the cabin Bobby and Janice have to celebrate Tony’s birthday is a pretty eventful episode. We get the line from Bobby talking about getting whacked, “I bet you don’t even hear it when it happens.” Ends up being very important in explaining the events of the final scene. Tony and Bobby end up in a fight that Bobby wins after Tony won’t stop making fun of Janice. Couldn’t believe Bobby attacked Tony and thought that might be the end but Tony understood despite it really bothering him that he lost the fight. We see Bobby kill someone to help solidify a new partnership that could be lucrative for the family and learn that is Bobby’s first kill. Was really surprised to learn that.

Bobby had gained a lot of trust and respect from Tony being asked advice on tough situations and being in the room for high profile conversations. Bobby was quickly establishing himself as the man to take the family into the 2st century as Tony started losing faith in Chris and Paulie. But unfortunately that would never come to pass as the escalating war with NY cost Bobby his life. When Tony learns there are hits coming down on his family, they try to warn Bobby but he left his cell phone in the car to go into the train store. Fn awful to see Bobby get gunned down, he deserved a better fate than that. Really felt for Janice but esp his kids who had already lost their mother and now their Dad. But it’s nice to know Tony set it up so they were taken care of. Shitty way for a great character to go out but I loved watching Bobby’s journey on the show and really appreciate his unique mafia character that was brought to life.

Big Pussy Sal Bonpensiero – I was already a fan of Vincent Pastore so I was really looking forward to seeing the journey of Big Pussy. He helps Chris dispose the body of the Czech guy Chris killed so we know he is a valued member of the crew. Pussy is then tasked by Tony to retrieve AJ’s teachers stolen car and he successfully gets that done. I figured Pussy would be one of the big players on Tony’s crew for multiple seasons but then he gets arrested at Jimmy Altieri’s. I had faith Pussy would find a way to beat any charges he got stuck with so you can imagine my crushing disappointment when we find out he is a rat lol really didn’t want it to be true. But we eventually see him meeting with FBI agent Skip Lipari and there is no doubt. But even seeing that, Pussy really was giving them nothing but bullshit or disinformation so I was hoping Tony would give him a break when he inevitably found out esp after Pussy helped Tony kill Matthew Bevilaqua. But Furio’s arrival caused Pussy to be knocked down and then Pussy started to give the FBI real information like Tony’s stolen airline ticket scam. I knew he was done for and then Tony finds Pussy’s wire leaving no doubt for what comes next. Tony, Paulie and Sil take Pussy out on Tony’s boat and all 3 shoot Pussy dead. Sad scene man, Paulie even says “You were like a brother to me” before they kill Pussy. Really disappointed me to know that 2 seasons were all we would get, I wanted to see the crew of them working together having good times. But despite the short time, Vincent Pastore brought a great character to life that had a big impact on a lot of fans. Says a lot considering he was only around for 2 seasons.

Artie & Charmaine Bucco – I really enjoyed watching John Ventimiglia and Catherine Narducci bring these characters to life but honestly I thought for sure Artie would be whacked before the end of the show. Sucked to see them blow up his restaurant, he was able to recover from the explosion but I don’t know if he would have been able to recover from a murder taking place in the restaurant. So as pissed as Artie was, Tony really did him a favour. It drove Artie crazy that he couldn’t get help from Tony but Charmaine was making the right call bc she knows it would have ceased to be their restaurant very quickly. Charmaine was such a beautiful woman, Artie gives hope to all us bald guys out there lol felt for Charmaine when she helps Carmela cater a party but instead of treating Charmaine like a friend, she treats her like random hired help even snapping her fingers at Charmaine. Def doesn’t help change Charmaine’s opinion about the mafia life. Charmaine gets a little revenge when she tells Carmela that she slept with Ton before he was with Carmela. Could have been bad for Charmaine but Carmela doesn’t make it an issue. Tensions rise when Artie visits Livia after her mini-stroke and she lets slip that Tony was behind the explosion at his restaurant. Artie confronts Tony with a rifle about the explosion and I thought that was it for Artie. But the friendship between Tony and Artie was stronger than I thought as Tony calms Artie down and forgives him.

I shared Tony’s reaction when he learns that Artie is in love with Adrianna who has been working as a hostess at Nuovo Vesuvio. Artie even goes over the line giving Chris shit, he is really lucky Chris never found out about his affection for Adrianna. So awkward when Artie lovingly puts his hand on Ade’s and she pulls it away. Couldn’t have been easy for Artie being surrounded by power players and always serving them instead of being one of them. But Artie see’s a chance to be one when his new hostess presents an opportunity for an investment with a French guy that could be very lucrative. Artie asks Ralphie but he says no bc he couldn’t retaliate due to Artie’s relationship with Tony if Artie didn’t pay. Tony finds out and is hurt Artie didn’t come to him first. Tony agrees to lend Artie the money and gives him a sweet deal on interest. But Artie is being scammed the whole time and can’t get a hold of the French guy when it’s time to get his money back. Artie goes to collect the money but is not that kind of guy and ends up being the one that gets a beating. Humiliated Artie tries to kill himself but luckily phones Tony to say goodbye but Tony figures out what is happening and calls 911 saving Artie’s life. Tony is pissed that Artie would do this but offers to take on his debt and collect it himself if Artie cancels his 6k tab at Vesuvio. Artie agrees but accuses Tony of knowing the whole time that Artie was getting scammed seeing this as an opportunity to collect the money he loaned and clear his tab. Talk about a gut punch, I really believe Tony wanted to help Artie. Tony is pissed and they are in bad terms for awhile.

Artie and Charmaine’s relationship becomes too strained and they separate. This is the time Tony is separated from Carmela and when he finds out Artie is living at Motel 6, Tony invites him Artie to live with him at his mother sold house. Artie finally agrees and they are back on good terms. Artie and Charmaine eventually get back together but things are going downhill at Nuovo Vesuvio. Artie is spending less time in the kitchen having non-Italian people cook and the food quality is suffering. He is also spending too much time talking with all the guests and they are getting sick of him. Even the mafia customers like Tony and Carmela are not enjoying their experience there anymore saying the atmosphere is depressing and the menu is stale. Any advice given to Artie is met with hostility who in his declining mental state can’t accept any criticism of him or the restaurant. Doesn’t help Artie’s confidence or mental health when he learns that Tony and others are dining at a rival Italian restaurant. The bad times come to a head when the new hostess Artie is lusting over allows Benny to steal the customers credit card information causing American Express to disqualify Nuovo Vesuvio from charging their cards. This is devastating to Artie’s business. Artie holds a really awkward staff meeting where he loses his shit and accuses the staff of stealing from him. The coat check girl tips Artie off that Martina the new hostess is all of a sudden wearing very expensive shoes. Artie confronts her and she admits to giving Benny the information but emasculates Artie by talking about fucking Benny and saying Artie started treating her badly when she shut down his flirting. This enrages Artie who goes to confront Benny at his house. But this time Artie comes out on top and beats the shit out of Benny putting him in the hospital.

Tony knows Benny was in the wrong so to try and squash things between them, orders Benny to have his parents anniversary party at Nuovo Vesuvio. Artie comes over to their table and shakes hands with Benny and it should be over after that. Now you would think that if either of Artie and Benny was going to cause more problems it would be Benny since he was the one beat up and didn’t get to retaliate. But no it’s fn Artie that decides to throw gas on the fire making a joke that while hilarious, was so stupid given the situation. Artie says to Benny, “You want a Martina? It’s like a Martini but from Albania. I hear it goes down easy, right Benny.” LOL fcking funny but bad decision by Artie. Benny isn’t gonna take that and follows Artie into the kitchen and puts Artie’s hand in the scalding pot of tomato sauce. OUCH. But it’s Artie’s own fault, the beef could have been over but he just had to make another comment. Artie’s hand is severely burned making cooking a lot harder. Tony has it out with Artie again echoing what Charmaine has been saying, the customers don’t like Artie’s talking and he should spend more time in the kitchen. Seems Artie learns his lesson as he doesn’t have any more issues with Tony or anyone in that family and even co-exists with Benny at Chris’s bachelor party which was catered by Artie. That brings us to the end. The son of a bitch did it, he survived the entire show lol I really enjoyed Artie as a character and he had a great dynamic with Charmaine, I could have seen them as a half hour comedy show. That food looked delicious so it’s easy to understand why Tony and the crew always ate there, would have loved to try some of it.

Johnny Sacrimoni – Overrall I liked Johnny Saks, Vincent Curatola did a great job making him seem like a real mafia guy. We first met him when he helped Tony back off of taxing Hesh. Johnny helps Tony and Ralphie settle their issues but would soon have his own issues with Ralphie. We start to see Paulie become more friendly with Johnny and seems willing to switch allegiances from Tony to Johnny. Def surprised me. When Paulie starts talking with Johnny Saks regularly which would end up having a big impact. Ralphie makes joke about Johnny’s wife Ginny’s weight and Paulie tells Johnny about it during one of their phone calls. Johnny is furious and starts holding a serious grudge against Ralphie to the point he won’t talk to him or be in the same room with him. I understand defending your wife’s honour but Johnny took it a bit too far almost having Ralphie killed over a joke and putting his own life in danger due to the problems this was causing the business. There are simultaneous hits put out on Ralphie and Johnny Saks but when Johnny catches Ginny eating candy she has hidden away, he softens his stance and calls off the hit on Ralphie. The hit on Johnny is also cancelled. All that over a joke. As I said, I liked Johnny defending his wife but he def took it too far.

More tension arises between Johnny, Carmine and Tony over the HUD scam with both sides making move to cost the other money. But in a surprise twist, Johnny starts to side with Tony saying Carmine’s moves are costing him money and suggests they kill Carmine. Looks like it’s going to happen when Carmine suddenly agrees to a fair compromise with Tony so the hit is called off but Johnny is very offended and angry that Tony didn’t support him and backed out. After Carmine dies of a stroke, a small war starts for control of the family between Little Carmine and Johnny Saks. Def thought Johnny Saks was gonna win that and he did when Little Carmine finally surrendered control of the family to Johnny. But almost as soon as Johnny got control of the family, he was arrested by the FBI in a shocking moment. Def didn’t expect that. Johnny tried to keep control of the family from prison naming Phil Leotardo acting Boss but the stress and restrictions of prison was getting to him. Johnny gets permission to go to his daughter Allegra’s wedding but is humiliated when the US Marshalls stop Allegra and her husband from leaving to bring Johnny away in the prison van in front of all the guests. Johnny breaks down into tears as he is being taken away and loses respect of a lot of the guys in his family as crying is seen as weakness. Def felt sympathy for Johnny here, a beautiful wedding was ruined and he obviously had a lot of love for his daughter.

Johnny accepts a deal for 15 years if he gives an allocution admitting to his role in organized crime, another move that loses the respect and support of his mob family. Tough to see pretty much all his possessions be confiscated or transferred into the hands of other people. In a cruel twist, we learn Johnny has developed lung cancer and will not live to serve his 15 years and be free again. He finally accepts the deal that will get him out of prison one day and then learns he is dying, that is rough. Sad to see his condition deteriorate until his death. Didn’t end or go the way I thought it would but I really enjoyed the journey of Johnny Saks.

Vito Spatafore – When I started watching the Sopranos I did not expect to see a gay character or storyline but Joseph Gannascoli stepped big time up to bring Vito to life. We first see him demanding justice when his brother is viciously beaten by mustang sally which leads to Bobby’s father executing a hit on mustang sally. Vito is the guy tasked with carrying out the hit on Jackie Jr with a shot to the back of the head. He is then promoted to Capo after Ralphie is murdered by Tony and ends up being a top earner for Tony. The one of the most shocking moments of the series when we see Vito’s head pop up from the lap of a security guard lol one of the last things I expected to see in that scene. Thought for sure Vito would kill Finn after that but he never does, actually seemed more concerned with flirting with him than killing him. So awesome to see his significant weight loss both for the character and the actor, really impressive. He leaves Johnny Saks daughters wedding early to go to a gay bar, I guess weddings make him yearn for the love he really wants. But this proves to be the biggest mistake of his life as he is seen in full costume by 2 members of the NY crew while making a collection there. Vito knows he is dead when the others find out so he takes off to hide in New Hampshire.

While in New Hampshire hiding out, he actually meets another gay man named Jim and they fall in love. Not at first as Vito is still used to hiding his homosexuality but eventually he relaxes and gets together with “Johnny Cakes” lol thought the scene where we hear Vito’s thoughts about not looking at his watch and trying to figure out what time it was while working construction was so fcking great and straight out of real life as pretty much anyone that has worked a job like that has done the exact same thing. All too real. But the grind of normal life made him miss his luxurious and fast paced mafia lifestyle so he took the risk to go home thinking he could convince Tony to let him earn while living in Atlantic City. On the way he is driving drunk and rear ends a guy in the woods, no pun intended lol but the guy insists on getting police involved so Vito kills him. Never gets easier to see these guys take an innocent persons life like it’s nothing. Vito tells Tony the medication he was taking made him gay and he was cured. He offers Tony 200k to let him back into the family and start earning again. Tony was leaning towards accepting but Phil Leotardo was Vito’s wife’s cousin and was insistent that Vito brought shame to them all and demanded he be killed.

Vito was able to briefly re-unite with his wife, son and daughter but it was shirt lived as that night Phil and 2 of his soldiers Gerry and Fat Dom ambushed Vito in his hotel and beat him to death. So sad to see what Vito’s death did to his son, felt so bad for the kids as they were reading the nasty things in the paper about their Dad. Hard to see Vito’s wife struggle with keeping the family together after his death. But the worst was when they dragged Vito’s son off to that boot camo for boys as he was pleading to stay. So uncomfortable and heart wrenching to watch. Hated to see Tony piss the 200k he was going to use to help Vito’s family on gambling. Vito’s story shows the negative consequences that come with mafia life but I thought his was a really interesting journey and one I did not expect to see on a show like this.

Ralphie Cifaretto – I’m a big fan of Joe Pantoliano so I was excited to see him come on the show. Ralphie shows up after Richie Aprile disappears to try and take over his crew. But Tony is def not Ralphie’s biggest fan as he see’s him as disrespectful and obnoxious so he passes Ralphie over and makes GiGi the promotion despite being less qualified than Ralphie. Hard to deny Ralphie considering he was the highest earner on Tony’s crew but that goes to show how bad his attitude was. As much of dick as he was, he could be pretty funny like when Vito’s brother was beaten and had brain damage, “look at the bright side: he wasn’t that smart to begin with.” Lol fn guy. Another good one when they choose Bobby’s Dad to carry out the hit on mustang sally, “You send in an old man!? What’s he gonna do? Gum the guy to death?” Hilarious to watch Ralphie quote Gladiator over and over, reminds of of how the guys have Sil do Godfather lines all the time. Ralphie takes it too far when he is swinging a chain at Georgie the bar tender at the Bing and hits him in the eye/face. Felt bad for Georgie as he took so much abuse and never did anything to deserve it. But Ralphie gets a pass for his actions and words bc of the earning power he has, when he comes back from Miami he has a positive impact on the Aprile crew whipping them into shape.

As much as I liked Joe Pantoliano, I mostly couldn’t stand Ralphie with one of the worst moments coming when he killed Tracee. I didn’t like to see her with him and thought that would end up bad for her. After an argument, Ralphie follows Tracee outside and says some nasty things about her unborn baby that Ralphie is the father of. Tracee slaps and spits at Ralphie who responds with extreme violence, punching her and slamming her head into the steel barrier which kills her. So sad to see a sweet girl die so young. Tony is enraged that not only Ralphie murdered an innocent girl but also potentially put the Bing in danger so he loses it and beats the shit out of Ralphie. But Ralphie is a made man and in the mafia you don’t strike a made man so this causes big time problems between Tony and Ralphie. Ralphie starts intentionally disrespecting Tony but eventually realizes that is a battle he can’t win and tries to make things right but Tony is resistant. Gigi dies of heart attack giving Tony no choice but to make Ralphie a capo which settles things between them for now.

Ralphie starts dating Rosalie Aprile and inadvertently gives Jackie Jr the idea that leads to his death. He tells Jackie the story about Jackie’s Dad and Tony robbing a mafia card game that earned them respect and moved them up the ladder. It does not go the same way for Jackie Jr as we know and Ralphie has no choice but to ok the hit on Jackie Jr as hard as it is on him. Ralphie breaks up with Rosalie to start a relationship with Janice, another one I didn’t think would be good for either person. We see that Ralphie has some interesting sexual preferences in the bedroom to say the least lol that relationship doesn’t last long after Janice becomes interested in Bobby when his wife dies. Ralphie’s joking ways almost catch up with him when he makes a joke about Johnny Saks wife Ginny. Johnny is furious and wants Ralphie dead, a hit is put out on Ralphie but called off at the last second. I wasn’t Ralphie’s biggest fan but didn’t think he should be killed over a joke. But Ralphie is pissed that someone told Johnny Saks the joke and figures out it was Paulie. Then we get one of the funniest scenes on the show when Ralphie prank calls Nucci as ‘Lt Mike Hunt from Beaver Falls PD’ saying all kinds of nasty shit LOL so fn funny.

Ralphie buys the horse Pie-O-My that Tony takes a big interest in after the horse wins 2 races in a row. At first Ralphie compensates Tony out of respect but soon realizes Tony see’s the horse as his too. Tony also takes a liking to Ralphie’s girlfriend and eventually gets with her too, Ralphie can’t catch a break with Tony. When Pie-O-My gets sick, Ralphie balks at paying for the vet so Tony does and at that moment the horse pretty much became Tony’s. The awful injury to Ralphie’s son that left him close to brain dead seemed to legitimately change Ralphie, felt some real sympathy for him after that. There is a suspicious fire at the stables that kills Pie-O-My but brings in significant insurance money. Tony is sure Ralphie did it to collect as he had mounting hospital bills for his son’s care. Tony goes to his house to confront him, Ralph denies it so we never find out for sure but I think it’s pretty clear he did it. A big fight breaks out and Tony ends up strangling Ralphie to death. I knew Ralphie was gonna die at some point but I def did not expect it at that moment. Fantastic performance from Joe Pantoliano as he made me hate Ralph at first and then later actually soften my stance towards him. Ralphie will go down as 1 of the more iconic characters on the show.

Tony Blundetto – Love Steve Buscemi so I was pumped to know he had a role on the show. Def did not expect Massage Therapy to have a place on this show so as a Massage Therapist myself I was instantly a fan of Tony B. After 17 years in prison, Tony B gets out but the prison experience causes him not want to go back to a life of crime. He is close to being ready to take the final exam to become a certified Massage Therapist. Tony is disappointed but has a lot of love for his cousin so he understand and hooks him up with a laundry job. We also learn Tony has a lot of guilt towards Tony B as Tony was supposed to be with him the night Tony B was arrested but had a panic attack and split his head open. When the owner of the laundry place Kim finds out Tony B is a Massage Therapist, he proposes they open a clinic together which is a dream come true for Tony B. In a stroke of good luck, Tony B is on the street when he sees a drug dealer throw a bag out the window of a car thinking he was being chased by police. Tony B picks up the bag and finds 12k inside. Initially he uses the money to get the Massage clinic going but eventually loses focus and starts gambling and buying expensive clothes going through the money pretty quick. Between partying and fixing the clinic, he has been burning the candle at both ends and lets his frustrations boil over attacking Kim for no reason. Tony B beats Kim up pretty good effectively ending their partnership and his resolve to stay out of the mafia life. I was so disappointed as he had a great thing going that could have set him up for life.

Tony B meets with Tony and accepts the stolen airbag job Tony wanted to give him when he first got out of prison. Along with the airbag job, Tony also has Tony B performing various menial tasks like filming Carmela’s Dad’s 75^th birthday party which start to get on Tony B’s nerves, he is desperate for more respect and better jobs. He gets that opportunity when Little Carmine reaches out to help with the dispute with Johnny Saks crew. Little Carmine contracts the murder of Joey Peeps to Tony B who successfully carries out the hit but during it the car runs over Tony B’s. This causes problems as a witness saw someone limping away from the scene and Tony notices his cousin limping. In retaliation, Phil Leotardo and his brother Billy kill Angelo Garepe but Angelo was in prison with Tony B and a good friend so Tony B is enraged. In an unauthorized hit, Tony B kills Billy and wounds Phil almost starting a war as Phil is devastated over his brothers death and has a blood lust for Tony B. Phil doesn’t just want to kill Tony B, he wants to torture him and make him suffer. Bc of this, Tony cannot hand over his cousin to that kind of death. There is no way to save him, so Tony kills Tony B himself as hard as it must have been for him to do. I was disappointed we only got 1 season of Steve Buscemi but it was a fun journey and he gave a us a great character that had a big impact on the show.

Furio Giunta – 1 of the best secondary characters on the show, Federico Castelluccio gave us a legendary performance as Furio. We first meet him when Tony goes over to Italy and cuts a deal to bring him back to help with the family in Jersey. I honestly thought Furio wouldn’t be able to adjust to American life and would either be killed or put in jail fairly quickly. But I was wrong, not only did Furio adjust but he became one of Tony’s best men and feared enforcers. Artie helps Furio get his visa by working at Nuovo Vesuvio. We first see Furio in action collecting payment from a delinquent massage parlour owner and he doesn’t fuck around beating up the dude’s wife and then shooting the owner in the kneecaps. This sequence really endeared Furio to Tony, considering the work they do Tony needs a guy who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty to bring money in. Tony uses Furio to help intimidate Uncle Juniors doctor and we get 2 funny lines from Furio, “stupida fucking game” and “there’s a bee on-a yo at.” Lol Furio sees an opportunity to use his higher rank to an advantage and extorts an extra 1k for himself from Matthew Bevilaqua and Sean Gismonte when collecting Tony’s cut of a score. Funny to see him make fun of them in Italian while they are oblivious. Furio is shot in the leg during Jackie Jr’s attempt to rob the poker game he is at. Furio is pissed at the injury but he’s lucky as it def could have been fatal.

When Artie fails to collect from the French guy that scammed him, Tony assumes the debt and we see Furio show up at the French guys door so we know Tony got his money lol but issues arise when Furio starts to have feelings for Carmela and the sexual tension between them escalates every time they see each other which is a lot since Furio is Tony’s driver. Carmela feels the same way for Furio which could get dangerous. Furio is settling into America nicely and even buys a house. At the house warming party, Tony doesn’t want to dance so he tells Carmela to dance with Furio not knowing their growing attraction to each other. Since Tony had so many extra- marital affairs I was rooting for Furio and Carmela to have a fling. We learn how serious Furio’s feelings are when he goes to Italy for his Father’s funeral and confides in his uncle that he is in love with Carmela, the Boss’s wife. His uncle tells him to forget about his feelings bc the only way it happens is if the Boss is dead. I knew Tony was dying yet so I was seriously concerned for Furio’s well being.

At a casino the mafia guys are all at, Furio looks disgusted staring at Tony who is flirting with random girls. Really intense moment when Tony is standing close to the whirling helicopter blades and Furio comes close to pushing him into them. But it wouldn’t escalate any further. Furio can’t deal with being close to Carmela while not being with her and he can’t bring himself to kill Tony so he suddenly goes back to Italy. The last we hear of Furio is that Tony puts a hit on him when Carmela tells Tony that she had feelings for Furio. I thought we would see Furio again but we never did. Too bad as he was fun to watch in his role with Tony’s crew and as I said, I was hoping he would at least have one night with Carmela. For a secondary character that I thought would be very short term, Furio had a great journey and left a strong legacy as he is a fav character amongst fans.

Patsy Parisi – Another good secondary character, Dan Grimaldi put in a great performance as Patsy. We didn’t get much of a back story or many specific stories involving Patsy but he was in mist scenes with the crew and an important part of establishing the realism of the family. He was understandably devastated when his twin brother was killed after Tony’s dispute with Junior and I didn’t think he would last after going over to Tony’s with a gun and pissing in his pool lol but nobody ever found out. After he got over his brother’s death, Patsy was a trusted soldier for Tony being trusted to watch Chris and make sure he actually went and stayed in rehab. Patsy’s son ends up being engaged to Meadow as the series came to a close which was prob the best guy Meadow was with on the show but we don’t see much of his son to get a really good idea. Patsy is with Sil when the NY guys try to kill them but Patsy gets away unharmed. If Tony was killed in the final scene, Patsy would def be in danger so it’s hard to say what happens to him after the show ends. As I said, we didn’t see a lot of specific stories for Patsy but he was an important part of establishing the realism of the crew.

Phil Leotardo – Phil was part of the “Class of 04” being released from prison with Tony B and others. Right off the bat Phil was a money dispute with Tony and isn’t paying what he owes. This causes Tony to chase Phil down leading to Phil crashing his car. Tony ends up having to compensate Phil for the damages and has the car fixed at Big Pussy’s Widow Angie Bonpensiero’s shop. Really started to dislike Phil after this as he is being a dick to Angie making her fix stuff that had nothing to do with the accident. Could only shake my head when he says the “seat is off.” Phil was loyal to Johnny Saks and helps him win the war with Little Carmine. Crazy scene when Phil puts a thick phonebook on her chest and shoots the gun but the book stops the bullet before it hits her. She isn’t as lucky next time Phil and his crew visits, killing her and her boyfriend for not directing her payments to Johnny Saks. Phil and his brother Billy murder Angelo Garepe in retaliation for Tony B killing Joey Peeps but Angelo is a good friend of Tony B and he wants revenge. Tony B kills Billy but only wounds Phil and the aftermath of this causes big problems. Phil is devastated over his brothers death and wants to torture and kill Tony B. When Tony B is in hiding, Phil threatens to kill someone else close to Tony like Chris. Tony Soprano won’t hand his cousin over to that kind of death so he kills Tony B himself but Phil is not satisfied.

After Johnny Saks is arrested, he makes Phil the acting leader of the family. Despite being married to his niece, Phil has no sympathy for Vito and has him killed for being a homesexual. Phil shows what a piece of shit he is by also refusing to help Vito’s family with money. After Phil’s guy Fat Dom is murdered, Phil starts planning action against Tony and the family but has a heart attack and those plans are put on hold. Phil actually has a nice moment with Tony when Tony visits him In the hospital and it seems the hatchet is buried. When Phil gets out of the hospital, he wants to step back for sake of his health but the guy he wanted to replace him, Gerry Torciano, is killed by Doc Santoro. Santoro openly disrespects Phil during his short time as Boss, so Phil decides to get back in the game and has Santoro whacked. After that, Phil is elevated permanently as Boss. The problems with Tony come to a head after Tony viciously beats Coco one of Phil’s guys for harassing Meadow. The war between NY and New Jersey is on as Phil cancels a meeting with Tony and orders hits on Tony, Bobby and Silvio. The hits are carried out and Bobby is killed, Silvio is in a coma and Tony goes into hiding. Tony puts a hit out on Phil as well who is also in hiding.

Phil is tracked down in the finale and killed in front of his wife and granddaughters. Then in a fn nasty moment the truck rolls over Phil crushing his face. I wanted him gone but the way it went down was def fucked up. Frank Vincent did a great job with a realistic portrayal establishing Phil as 1 of the more formidable villains on the show.

Richie Aprile – Hated Richie right from the start lol David Proval did an awesome job with this character. We are introduced to Richie as he tries to collect money from Beansie’s legitimate business but Beansie refuses. Richie waits for Beansie to come back to his car and runs him down crushing his legs between the vehicles and then running him over while on the ground. Beansie was paralyzed after this and seemed like a nice guy so I really wanted to see something come back on Richie for it. Tensions develop between Richie and Chris since Adrianna is Richie’s niece and Chris got physical with her. Richie threatens Chris if he ever hits Adrianna again. When Matthew Bevilaqua and Sean Gismonte hear about Richie’s disdain for Chris, they think killing Chris will get them on Richie’s good side so they make the attempt. After it goes bad, Bevilaqua goes to Richie for help but Richie knows Tony will kill him if he finds out he had anything to do with it and immediately tells Bevilaqua to get away from him. Richie rekindles a romance with Janice who he dated before he went to prison and I was def worried for Janice. But I have to admit Richie treated her well until their fight at the end. So fucked up that Richie likes to have sex with a gun pointed at Janice’s head. Richie goes to Junior to try and get his support to whack Tony and become the Boss which Junior initially supports but when Richie can’t get anyone else on board, Junior decides he is better off with Tony and tells Tony what Richie is planning. Tony puts a hit on Richie but the job is done for him when Richie and Janice get in a fight. Janice is joking about Richie’s sons possible homosexuality when Richie punches her in the face and tells her to bring his food to him. Janice instead brings a gun and shoots Richie dead. I was shocked that he punched her and even more shocked when she killed him. I was not a fan of the character but I enjoyed rooting against him. Richie’s presence was a highlite of Season 2 and he became one of the better villains on the show.

Eugene Pontecorvo – Eugene was def a secondary character but was involved in some memorable moments like becoming a made man is S4 alongside Chris. He also is the one that intimidates the juror to cause a mistrial for Junior. Even though it was only 1 episode, I really enjoyed his story at the beginning of S6 despite the brutal ending. Eugene inherits 2 million dollars and sees that as his ticket out of the business and into retirement in Florida. I knew it wouldn’t be that easy since the mafia code is once you’re in, you’re in for life. Eugene gives Tony a split of the inheritance to try and almost bribe Tony into letting him move to Florida. His wife is putting a lot of pressure on him to get this done and she really has her hopes up about the move. We learn that Eugene’s son has a bad drug problem and has most likely relapsed adding to his stress. Chris needs Eugene to kill a guy that is refusing to pay Chris money, Eugene is hesitant but gets it done so Chris will put in a good word for him to Tony about the move to Florida. But Tony eventually has Sil tell Eugene that he won’t approve the move. Then we see that Eugene is working as an informant with the FBI and has been pushing them to move him to Florida in the witness protection program almost as a back up plan. But the FBI also denies Eugene’s request to move to Florida. With both paths to Florida blocked and the stress at home mounting, Eugene can’t take it anymore and knows his family won’t go without him so he hangs himself in his garage. Unbelievable scene I couldn’t believe it. I think he would have eventually got to Florida working a few more years for Tony but with the FBI stuff, he was in big trouble and prob felt he was out of options when the FBI refused his move. Not the way I thought it would go but even though it was only 1 episode, I thought his arc was one of the most interesting stories they did on the show.

Giacomo Michael “Jackie” Aprile Jr – Such a sad end to his story but the kid had big time potential, Jason Cerbone was perfect for the role. His father Jackie Sr didn’t want him anywhere near mafia life but after Jackie Sr died, the pull was too much. Was hoping that dating Meadow would get him on the right track but Jackie Jr was too far gone. I really think he did love Meadow but growing up with his father in the business and ending up Boss, it would be hard not to want to follow in his Dad’s footsteps. But he wasn’t cut out for it as we see during the robbery of the charity concert at Rutgers he helps Chris with when he pisses himself after hearing gunshots. He didn’t bail though which says something. Getting with multiple women was what he always saw the men in his life do so even though he had an amazing woman in Meadow, he couldn’t stay away from cheating and it cost him their relationship. The beginning of the for Jackie came when Ralphie told him the story about his father and Tony robbing Feech’s card game that earned them respect and helped move them up the ladder. Jackie Jr thought he could do the same for himself but I knew things were gonna go bad and they did. The dealer is killed and Furio is shot in the leg but Jackie escapes and has to hide out in the projects. I had hope that Tony would somehow get the heat off of Jackie and give him a second chance but it was not to be as Vito shoots him in the back of the head while is out walking around. Shocking, sad end to a character I figured would be around longer. The scenes of his funeral were really heart breaking esp hearing his mother cries, specifically when she is out at his casket. Hard to keep it together. For a short term character, Jackie Jr had a long term impact on fans.

Hesh Rabkin – Interesting character that isn’t technically a mafia guy but is still heavily connected to them, Jerry Adler made Hesh seem like a real guy with his great performance. Not only does Hesh advise Tony but he also advised Tony’s father Johnny, thought that was pretty cool. Hesh got his start in the 50’s and 60’s getting big in the recording industry. Massive Genius, the rapper that Chris and Adrianna connect with has a beef with Hesh over unpaid royalties on behalf of the family of an artist that worked with Hesh in the 50’s/60’s. Hesh also clues Chris in on the fact that Adrianna’s ex-boyfriends band is not very good. Ralphie bought Pie-O-My, the race horse that ultimately led to his death, from Hesh. We mostly see Hesh just as an advisor but he gets in some trouble in S6. Phil Leotardo’s crew think that Hesh’s son-in-law Eli is collecting on their turf and attack Hesh and Eli in their car. They put a rag in the gas tank and light it on fire to get Hesh and Eli out of the car, that scene def escalated quickly lol Hesh gets punched in the face and Eli is smoked by a car but survives and the problem gets settled without any more blood-shed. In the final season, Hesh gives Tony a loan of 200k to cover his recent gambling losses. Awkward when Tony doesn’t pay on time and Hesh has to start asking him about it. Tony only makes the interest payments and Hesh is worried about his safety since it would be cheaper for Tony to make Hesh go away and not have to pay the loan. But when Hesh’s girlfriend dies, Tony pays the loan back in full. Def a sad scene when Hesh finds her dead, didn’t expect that. That’s the last we see of Hesh but I thought despite not being seen a lot, he made significant contributions to the realism of the show when he was on screen.

And that brings me to the end. If there was one good thing that came of this quarantine, it was having the time to watch The Sopranos. Watching the entire series and then going over it again for this piece makes it clear why it is always talked about in high regard and on the list of best TV shows of all time. There are so many characters and moving parts yet they all weave together flawlessly. David Chase and his crew of writers, producers, etc.. created an absolute masterpiece. It is a journey that is worth taking more than once as you will notice things you didn’t before and see certain scenes in a different light than you did the first time. I will def be taking this journey again. The Sopranos brought out a wide range of real emotions from me and made me feel and care about these characters as if they were real. Just wish James Gandolfini was still with us to enjoy the amazing legacy he created with Tony Soprano and the rest of this amazing cast.

I’ve always loved mafia movies and this show will no doubt sit alongside the greatest of the mafia stories. Would love to chill at Satriales, eat at Nuovo Vesuvio and have a drink at The Bing. Cheers to all the beautiful ladies that graced our screens courtesy of the stage at The Bing lol I love how they ended the series, making the fans have to put together the pieces for ourselves. The Sopranos is def on my list of fav TV shows alongside Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, LOST, Better Call Saul, M*A*S*H* and many others. I just wish I had watched the show sooner so it could have had a longer impact on me but I am thankful I got the opportunity to watch it now. This show made you root for some of the worst kinds of people which is a testament to how great it is. Not many people get a chance to do something great like be a part of a show like The Sopranos so I hope they all appreciate what they have done, I know the fans appreciate being along for the ride. We have a prequel movie coming out featuring James Gandolfini’s son and you can sign me up for that right now as I am on board 100%. I am always looking for more discussion and analysis of the show so I will never fully say goodbye it but it’s time for me to end this piece. Sending love out to everyone involved with the show, thanks for the memories and emotions of one of the greatest TV shows of all time. Salud!