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Review By Dr. Scott |
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Season Five, Episode Three (Episode 55 - WHERE'S JOHNNY?)
Review By Dr. Scott
The fifth season is officially off to a great, solid start. This week, we got a taste of the ol’ SOPRANO-land violence, including: Two assaults on two sets of yard workers/landscapers; A very-close-but-not-quite hit on one of Carmine’s female collectors, wherein a phone book met its tragic end; And a nice, thorough throttling of Janice at the hands of Tony, her brother. Oh, yes, things are looking dangerous and tensions are running high.
The subject of last week’s episode, Tony Blundetto (Played by the invaluable Steve Buscemi) had a notably small role this week, taking a back seat to an expanded appearance of Robert Loggia’s Feech. Feech has already gotten "back on his feet", as he noted in last week’s episode, and already he’s starting to step on some toes. A scene early on in tonight’s episode found Feech putting an elaborate, crotch-related smack down on some landscapers working a neighborhood that Feech claims belongs to his nephew. This, of course, causes more problems, since it happens to be Paulie Walnuts’ mom’s neighborhood. This led to a tense, loud scene between the two, grey-haired mobsters in Feech’s office. The point of all this? Feech is a problem already, and will likely grow as a problem rather than make himself less of one.
Carmela and Tony’s problems also took a backseat this week, with tensions between Tony, Janice, and Bobby taking the place of them. Janice and Tony have long since been at odds, and it’s been made clear since the beginning of this season that Tony is none too thrilled with the recent marriage of Janice to Bobby, whose wife died last season; Tony doesn’t dig their kids, doesn’t dig the way that Bobby lets Janice where the pants in the family, and doesn’t dig that Bobby won’t stand up for himself when she does. Again, this is all very likely set-up for some meltdown somewhere down the road.
Another major subplot, that of Adrianna informing on anyone and anything to the Feds, was also notably absent this week. In fact, Christopher only showed up during one sequence, running his mouth when he had no business doing so during a meeting between Tony and Johnny Sack. As I mentioned last week, I think it’s just a matter of time before Chris catches a fast one right between the eyes. Tick-tock, my Italian friend. Tick-tock.
So, what was the main plot of this week’s episode, Doctor? Well, most of the plot dealt with Junior, who seems to be making a for-real-this-time descent into Alzheimer’s. In one scene, he repeated a phrase that upset Tony over and over, eventually causing Tony to storm out of the room. In another, Uncle Junior disappeared from his own house to go looking for Johnny Soprano, Tony’s long-since-dead father. This is an interesting parallel to the show that Junior put on for the courts last season, when he was facing prison time for some mob-related charges. By the end of this season, he will be totally gone, but as Tony mentioned tonight, "He’s already dead to (him)".
The episode ended with Junior and Tony, sitting on a couch watching TV together. Tony gives his version of an apology to Junior for freaking out on him several nights prior, but Junior seems not to notice. Eventually, Tony came right out and asked, "Don’t you love me?" The silence that ensued gave way to the credits, and the point was made.
This was an alright episode, but things aren’t moving as quickly as I’d like them to. That said, I realize that this is a very deliberately paced show, not to be rushed, so I’m willing to be patient for the pay-offs to all these plot threads. I want to see more of Christopher and Ade next week, as well as some sort of follow-up to the whole Tony/Dr. Melfi thing. And, needless to say, this whole divorce subplot needs to be brought back to the center of the narrative; I mean, unless I’m crazy, shouldn’t that be the driving force behind this season’s events? Oh, well: All good things...
One scene deserves special mention: Uncle Junior and whoever’s taking care of him for the day are shown flipping through the channels on TV one afternoon. After a moment or two, Junior stops flipping when the TV lands on an episode of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM (The second best show on HBO now), and Junior seems convinced that Larry David is him, and that his sidekick– Jeff Garlin/Green– is Bobby. I thought this was particularly funny, since I noticed the vague resemblance between the two pairs of characters. Maybe a crossover isn’t too far off? Imagine Larry David in the Bing, having spilled a drink on Tony after a stripper bumps into him. I can just imagine David saying something like, "It wasn’t my fault, I was pushed! I’m sorry, but I won’t buy you a new suit." It would be classic, HBO, let’s get on it!
As always, the acting was top notch. Paulie Walnuts, who was absent for the first portion of last season, is a great character, and I’m glad to see him back in action. James Gandolfini continues to turn in performances that would put those in many Hollywood films to shame, and he was particularly effective in this episode’s final scene. Were those tears in his eyes? And, last but not least, Uncle Junior as played by Dominic Chianese seems to be getting better and better with every episode.
The direction was solid, but I thought the script was lacking a bit. Even then, though, a mediocre episode of THE SOPRANOS is better than 95% of anything else on TV. Like sex, or pizza, even when THE SOPRANOS is bad, it’s good. They need to return us to those major plot threads, pull some of the plotlines from tonight’s episode back into the...er, background, and then we’ll be back on track. Overall, the episode was a 3 out of 5, in my opinion.
See you next week, SOPRANOS fans.
If you have comments about this review send them directly to Dr. Scott at until_dark@yahoo.com
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