The Sopranos. Season Three

Great season opener. The FBI goes on a covert mission to plant a bug in Tony Soprano's basement. Get in, plant the bug, get out. It's that simple. Except for the getting in part. Plus great use of The Police's "I'll Be Watching You", remixed of course.

And other highlights of Season Three:

• The matriarch Livia Soprano dies. (And she was one of my favorite characters.)
• Johnny Sacks moves into Jersey.
• Carmela joins Tony in therapy.
• Ralphie Cifaretto creates bad blood with Tony by accidentally killing one of the Bada Bing dancers. But he is eventually made captain.
• Uncle Junior's cancer operation is a success.
• Meadow leaves the black guy Noah and starts dating Jackie Aprile, Jr.
• Tony Soprano begins his destructive love affair with Gloria Trillo.
• Jackie Jr. takes his first step into mob life.

Livia Soprano's death was actually because of actress Nancy Marchand's real death. Creator David Chase actually rewrote a huge chunk of the third season to adjust to this unfortunate event.

Annabella Sciorra makes an appearance as Gloria Trillo, while Michael Imperioli appears as screenwriter for the second time, writing episode 35 of this third season (his first screenwriting credit was for episode 22 of Season Two). Bert Young (who played Uncle Paulie in Rocky) also appears as Old Man Bacala (episode 31). Steve Buscemi makes his directorial debut with the series (directing episode 37), and of course, the excellent actor Joe Pantoliano debuts on the series as the annoying Ralph Cifaretto.


*some info from IMDb and HBO
pic from HBO


The Sopranos (Season Three). USA. 2001.


Rating: Eight out of ten.

The Sopranos. Season Two

The modern-day mobsters are back for the second season.

Well, we all know the premise of this series: The Sopranos is about a New Jersey crime family, and the life behind the gangster curtain─and all the domestic problems included with it.

Season Two sees the once-mighty Uncle Junior indicted, and he spends most of the season under house arrest─complete with the sensor strapped to his ankle. Because of this, his nephew Tony (played by James Gandolfini) now officially becomes the Don of New Jersey. We also see these mobsters dip their hands in anything that will make money, which include airline ticket scams and sales of bogus phone cards.

We also see some changes in the old characters. Aside from T running the show now, his shrink Dr. Melfi begins drinking vodka before their therapy sessions. AJ Soprano undergoes the normal confusion of puberty as he begins to question life after reading the works of Camus and Nietzsche, while Meadow Soprano graduates high school in the season finale. Chrissy Moltisanti (played by Michael Imperioli, who coincidentally wrote Episode 22 of this series) discovers his artistic side, and begins flirting with acting and the movies (watch out for cameo appearances by Janeane Garofalo and director Jon Favreau). But later on in the season, Chrissy encounters a near-death experience when two of his underlings make an attempt on his life. Silvio and Paulie are bumped up to the position of capo, and Tony finally breaks up with his hot Russian girlfriend Irina. And where is Pussy Bompensiero in all of this? He wasn't promoted, because he was a rat for the feds.

Of course, Season Two also has some new characters, including Richie Aprile, elder brother of former boss Jackie Aprile. Then there's Tony's sister Janice Soprano (who also goes by the name of "Parvati," part of some New Age name-change phase she's been going through). And then there's Furio Giunta, the ponytailed thug the Soprano crew brought home with them from Italy.

Season Two has love─Richie Aprile marries Janice Soprano; murder─Janice Soprano kills Richie Aprile; and an execution─Tony, Sil, and Paulie execute their close friend-turned rat Pussy on a boat in the high seas. This is only the second part of the Soprano saga, and there will definitely be more to come.


Rating: Four stars.

The Sopranos. Season One.

Critics call The Sopranos as the most beloved T.V. series of all time. Well, you can't call a series "beloved" after watching only the first season, but let me tell you that the first season is usually an indicator of how good a series is, and this show already displays signs of immortality.

Created by Italian-American David Chase, The Sopranos started out as a joke: What would happen if a mobster went to see a shrink? But more than this premise, the show actually gives deeper meaning to the word "family"─first, there's the organized crime family, obviously, of which Anthony "Tony" Soprano (portrayed naturally by James Gandolfini) is one of the top capos. Season One tells the story of the power shift, deciding who takes the place of acting boss Giacomo "Jackie" Aprile after he dies of cancer; the two likeliest candidates are either Tony Soprano, or his uncle Corrado "Junior" Soprano. Second, of course, is Tony's biological family. There's his Uncle Junior, of course, his main rival as the Don of New Jersey; there's his wife Carmela, and their non-mob-related kids; then of course there's his mother, slightly demented but still an ominous presence in Tony's life. It's his struggle between these two families that provides the fuel for the entire show.

The first season will make or break a show. It decides if a second season will follow. The Sopranos has everything people look for in gangster films─lies, deceit, murder, and Italian cuisine─and this show will hook gangster fans, and will create new fans as well. HBO shows are always a treat, and this first season will have you anticipating the second.


Rating: Five stars.