The Sopranos - Family Values

Review By Dr. Scott

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Season Five, Episode Four (Episode 56 - ALL HAPPY FAMILIES...)

Review By Dr. Scott

Okay, I’m starting to get restless. Things are going well enough, I suppose, but with last night’s episode and last week’s episode, I feel like the narrative is dragging its feet a bit. What’s going on with Ade and the whole FBI thing? What of the Dr. Melfi vs. Tony’s raging hard on? What about the Paulie Walnuts/Christpoher meltdown we all know is on the way?

Simply put, this season started off strong and has been stalling ever since. In the last two weeks, I feel like one episode worth of material were stretched over two nights. I know this will likely draw the ire of the die-hard SOPRANOS enthusiasts, and to you I say: Dude, SOPRANOS enthusiasts don’t get any more die-hard than I. All last year, I had to stand up for the show while people bitched and moaned about "not enough happening". Imagine my chagrin, now, as I’m in a position to tell you about the show each week, only to find that last year’s complaint has become this year’s reality.

This is going to be a brief review, mostly because...well, not much is going on with the show. Tony and Carmela are still at odds, and AJ moved in with Tony following a particularly nasty fight between him and Carmela over a wild night spent in New York City. We see that this will be an adjustment for AJ, and not as easy as he may have thought.

The female capo who narrowly escaped a whacking with the aid of a phone book last week took one in the back of the head this week. Seems that Johnny Sack is sending people off to do things he’s not too happy about. The Sack/Soprano power struggle continues, I guess. I say "I guess" because we didn’t really see much in the way of development on this plotline.

A large portion of the episode dealt with the friction between Tony and Feech. In the last several weeks, Feech went from being welcomed back by Tony and Associates to pissing off Paulie, which led to him pissing off Tony directly, which led him back into prison at the end of this week’s episode. I’ve got mixed feelings about this abrupt send off for the Feech character. On the one hand, I think that Loggia had a great presence on the show (and this isn’t to say that we’ve seen the last of him). On the other hand, I didn’t dig his character. Much like the way Tony looked upon him, I couldn’t help but see him as anything more than a loudmouth relic of the old school mafia who was bound to cause nothing but bad things for the Soprano crew. I say: Loggia, it was nice while it lasted, but...don’t let the door hit ya.

The other major addition to the cast, Steve Buscemi, had only a brief appearance or two this week– once at a card game, and another time at Tony’s house (err, or is that Carmela’s house?), where we saw him looking in a sort-of awe and respect at the house Soprano built. I’m still waiting to see what they’re gonna do with this character.

Now, let’s look at some of the little flourishes from this week’s episode. For one thing, what in the blue fuck was David Lee Roth doing at the poker game? At first, my friend and I weren’t entirely sure that we were seeing the actual Diamond Dave onscreen with Herr Soprano, but...there he was, not so sad and lonely. What gives? No reference was made to whether or not he was playing a character or himself, and I shudder at either of those choices. Maybe someone was taking a page from the book of another TV show creator, Aaron Sorkin, and eating mushrooms and smoking crack on the day this scene was shot ("Man, this is good shit...hey, Dave, wanna be on the show? Yeah? Sit over there...and pass those shrooms back over here").

Secondly, what are we to make of the teacher/college advisor attempting to woo Carmela? I loved that the two had dinner at Macaroni Grill– just the type of place that teacher would have picked in an attempt to win over this Italian MILF– and I loved the way Edie Falco ended her scene with him laughing in self-conscious nervousness.

Overall, I wasn’t impressed with last night’s episode. The "Scenes From Next Week’s SOPRANOS"– which lasts all of about 30 seconds– was more interesting than just about anything in this, the fourth episode in the fifth season; Furthermore, the scenes they showed during that "trailer" has me frothing at the mouth to see what’s gonna happen– and who it is down there on their knees with a gun to their head, Tony at the other end– next week. One other thing I’d like to note is that in the current issue of GQ, there’s an interview with Annabella Sciorra, who admits that she plays some part in this season’s story arc. Will these be flashback scenes, dream sequences, or is Gloria Trillo going to make some sort of pathetically desperate-slash-triumphant return?

Only time will tell, SOPRANOS fans. Here’s hoping that the pace picks up from here on out. As always, I remain:

Dr. Scott

If you have comments about this review send them directly to Dr. Scott at until_dark@yahoo.com

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