The Sopranos - Family Values

Review By Dr. Scott

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Season Five, Episode Eight (Episode 60 - MARCO POLO)

Review By Dr. Scott

Hey, folks. Sorry about the delay. Got me a case of the Strep Throat, and it’s had me on my ass for about, oh, four days now. Today, the antibiotics finally took hold and my fever broke. So, sorry about the wait. I got many emails from many of you, most of them involving the phrase "Where the fuck is your review at, Doc?" And that’s okay. I understand your need for SOPRANOS reviews.

Before I get started, I’d like to take a moment to address the email situation. Every week, I get about 30-some odd emails between Sundays from a lot of you who read my reviews. The vast majority of you want to bounce ideas off of me, ask questions, and other such things. One dude wrote to ask what song that was at the end of this week’s episode, and I have to admit that I don’t know what it was. Whoever that guy was, he said he thought it was Rod Stewart. Having gone back and watched the episode again, I can tell you that, yes, it was Rod Stewart. Unfortunately, my Doctorate is not in the field of "Ass-like Music", so I have no answers for you. We’ll figure it out, though, sooner or later. Anyone know when this season’s soundtrack drops?

Anyway, I welcome these sorts of emails. But, as one unlucky reader found out this past week, it’s not wise to send the Doctor a letter that basically states: "Why aren’t you catering to the things that I like in the show?" The answer, for all of you who may have been thinking about writing such an email, is: Because I write these reviews from my point of view, not yours. If you send me a bitchy little email along these lines, don’t expect me to be courteous and "professional" in my response. That is all.

So, how did I like this week’s ep? To some of your surprise, I would think, I thought it was an awesome episode. This season has had it’s high-high points for me, as well as its low-oh-god-that-sucks-low points. This could have been one of the latter, but this episode just did it for me.

The majority of episode 60 revolved around the 75th birthday of Carmela’s dad. There was some discussion early on about whether or not Tony would be attending, but in the end– and after much hemming and hawing– he showed up.

It was a great party. The kind of party you see in film or on TV and think, "Man, I wish I coulda’ been there", even though you know it’s not real and maybe you shouldn’t have eaten all those mushrooms during SIX FEET UNDER. The party gave the show an excuse to get all the characters together, and to give some of the characters who haven’t been around much (i.e.– Meadow) a chance to, holy shit!, talk to other characters!

I dunno. Did anyone else get a feeling like Blundetto was kind of giving Meadow the "evil eye"? Not like "Ooh, I’m gonna kill you," buy maybe more like, "Ooh, I wanna hit that?" I could be way off, but I thought I caught that a few times.

And, speaking of Blundetto– this dude’s gone right back to square one, hasn’t he? He’s become something of a low-level enforcer for Tony, as when we saw him turning in the week’s earnings from some sort of deal/scam/whatever involving airbags. He requested some, shall we say, more intricate work, and Tony just told him to relax and let it come naturally. In last week’s "Next Week on The Sopranos", we saw Blundetto getting offered some extra cash to "take care of someone" by someone other than Tony’s crew (that’s Frankie Avalon, isn’t it? Or is that Frankie Valli? I keep getting ‘em mixed up; I’m sure a few of you will straighten me out). Well, after spending some time at Chez Soprano over the course of the birthday party, and after discovering that his twin sons had stolen some shit out of AJ’s closet (they told him they loved the Soprano house, so much so that they didn’t want to come back to their own, halfway dumpy place), Blundetto gave in and decided to take the hit. He’s obviously a little jealous of the life Tony was able to put together for himself while he, Blundetto, was behind bars. He wants to provide for his family on a more-than-normal-wages scale, which is understandable in context.

At the end of the episode, he’d killed some dude and a woman who was friends with Little Carmine (Right?), managing to get both his feet run over in the process. Great scene.

But not the most important scene. Did anyone else leap out of their wheelchairs of sex slave swings with joy when Tony and Carmela hooked back up? She didn’t seem convinced at first, but there she was, sucking face with Tony and letting him pull off her clothes. It made me feel good seeing this; I don’t want these two to separate, even with all their problems. I like both of them, though they can both be pains in the ass, so here’s hoping they’ll work their shit out.

One other subplot got some attention this week: The car crash last week that Tony caused while chasing Phil. Johnny Sack asked Tony to pay for the damages ("He didn’t have insurance?....fuckin’ idiot"), so Tony had the work done at Pussy’s widow’s auto shop. If you didn’t remember, Tony let her take over once Pussy went to take an extended nap underwater, and he figured that the costs could be kept down if he went through her. But Phil was complaining about the seat, a dent in the rear fender...just giving her a hard time. That whole thing hasn’t been completely resolved, but I have a feeling it will be very soon. Tony, by the way, seemed to take some pleasure in causing the widow Pussy some stress. I know that Pussy was in informant, that they killed him, but I was under the impression that Tony felt guilty about that– whether or not it saved his ass– so I’m not totally clear on why he’d be digging Pussy’s wife’s dilemma. Maybe I wasn’t totally coherent when I watched it. Well, actually, I know I wasn’t, what with that 103 degree fever, but I digress).

Overall, I liked a lot of this episode. I loved every minute we spent with all the characters at the birthday party; I like Uncle Junior being his asshole-self, revealing the "surprise" to Carmela’s dad beforehand; I loved the moment where Tony and AJ threw Carmela into the pool; I loved Meadow in a bikini; And I loved seeing Blundetto get back into the game. This episode, as one of my readers picked up on, too, was that last week’s ep, with Tony seeing the effects of his father’s mistress, seemed to be the setup for the payoff here, where Tony realized how all his fooling around had caused so much grief. Hmmm– a maturing, thoughtful Tony? Who knows.

In the "ON NEXT WEEK’S" thing, we saw that Tony seems to have found out about Blundetto’s hit– and isn’t happy about it; That Tony and Carmela look like they’ve already dropped their "truce" ("You’re entitled to shit"); And that, once again, we won’t be getting an all-girl "porn episode" with Adrianna and Meadow. Foiled again, huh?

Anyway, guys, thanks for all the suggestions and comments in your emails. You keep reading, I’ll keep writing.

Word,

Dr. Scott

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

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