The Sopranos
Season 1
Episode 1
The season starts out with Tony giving us a breakdown of everything going on with his shrink, jennifer melfi, he is working with this kid Christopher Moltasanti (the kids looks familiar probably from another mob movie) and his new Lexus
By the way talking to a shrink is forbidden in the mob so he has to keep this a secret from everyone else, Tony is having problems with his mother who is extremly old, I do not see where this angle is going but I hope it gets there fast
Tony Soprano has extreme stress problems and keeps collapsing and getting dizzy spells and all that, just watching it gives me a headache
A point of drama in this episode is Tony's uncle, Uncle Junior wants to put a hit on pussy Malenga but its in Tony's childhood friends house Artie Buco so when Tony can't stop it he has Artie's place blown up

The Czech mob has moved in and is starting to impede on the waste management business of Tony so he has Chris Moltisanti (oh yeah I remember now, he is from Goodfellas, he was spider the bar back who got shot in his second appearance by Joe Pesci) take care of it for him as he blows off the Czech's head while he is inhaling a line

The acting boss of the family has cancer, Jackie
Tony has a wife, plays the new york italian wife perfectly, its so much like my aunts its scary
His daughter Meadow is smokin and the son is a pudgy sixth grader
Paulie Walnuts is introduced as well as the other Pussy, not the one being hit
Uncle Junior is a Capo along with Tony, they are a step below boss and are both made

The series gets off to an extremly slow start, nothing to amazing, I am shocked this got passed as just a pilot, but there is plenty to build on from here

Episode 2
"46 Long"
Giacomo "Jackie" Aprile the head boss is slowly dieing in hospital of cancer, speculation about a new boss is centered around Tony or Uncle Junior and a power struggle could erupt between them
Tony's mom moves to the retirement home, they continue to devote plenty of time to her and Tony's arguments
Tony's son, Anthony Jr. has a teacher that got his car stolen, Paulie Walnuts and Big Pussy are on a mission to get it back, all this is going on with intermissions from the shrink that are annoying the fuck out of me
Chris Moltasanti and his friend Brendan are taking large amounts of drugs and stepping on Uncle Junior's toes stealing his protected trucks
Brenden takes 2 malangan and one of them accidentally kills the truck driver

Episode 3
Denial, Anger, Acceptance

Uncle Junior makes his moves and stops Brendan by shooting him through the eye in his bathtub a la Al Green, he nearly kills Chris but just scares him instead
Tony, Silvio, and Paulie rough up a jew because of an agreement with his father

Meanwhile, Christopher and Brendan's judgment is put to the test again when Meadow and Hunter ask them for some crank to help them study for the SATs. Christopher's rationale is that to protect the girls from strangers, he'll give them some "just this one time."

They really have the part of italian cousins down damn good, and they say malangan about 20 times in one scene

Speaking of Junior, he visits Livia at Green Grove and tells her about his problem with Christopher and Brendan. While Livia goes to bat for Christopher - Tony loves him like a son, and he once put up her storm windows - she tells him "she doesn't know" Brendan. Those few words from Livia result in a mock execution for Christopher and a real one for Brendan.

So the old hag is playing a role, junior is listening to her every word and based a hit on what she said, this angle could be turning into something after all.

Episode 4
Meadowlands

Tony called in Vin Makazian - a police detective with a gambling habit - to get information on Jennifer Melfi, but didn't tell him why. So Makazian, assuming Melfi was one of Tony's goomahs, did Tony a "favor" by beating up a guy she was on a date with.

This cop has a major gambling problem, plays a good role, I have no idea why Tony is so infatuated with this shrink

Meanwhile, Christopher, leaving the emergency room after his beating, was frantic. He thought Tony had him mock-whacked for giving Meadow speed, but he's not sure. And when he went to Brendan's place for answers, he found him in the bathtub with a brand new hole in his head. But Tony didn't order the hit, Junior did. And when Tony found out, he made a beeline for the Sit-Tite Luncheonette, where he stapled a parking ticket to Mikey Palmice and confronted his uncle. Junior may be old, but he's not the kind of guy who kowtows to his own nephew. He tells Tony that the next time he comes to see him, "come heavy, or not at all."

A heated exchange between uncle junior and tony is just what this series needs, its off and running, Christophers character is an instant favorite but you have the feeling he could be whacked at any second

After the Sit-Tite incident, Tony decided to resolve his issues with Junior. Over lobsters at the Bada Bing, he and the other capos decide that, with Jackie Aprile in a coma and not long for this world, Tony should take over as Boss. But they also agree that Junior should be allowed to think he's running things. After all, it makes the old loffa happy and gives the rest of them a lightning rod to take the hits from the FBI.

Tony develops this excellent strategy and the place they eat crabs at is the Bada Bing, a strip club with strippers in the background, you gotta love HBO

While it seems things are finally falling into place in one family, they're falling apart in the other. When Tony tells Carmela he wants to quit therapy, she tells him she'll leave him if he does. Anthony, Jr. is getting into fights at school, and Meadow complicated things by telling him what their dad really does for a living.

The whole aspect of what do the kids think is coming into play and that can go along way

Episode 5
College

This week Tony found that no matter where he goes, his business goes with him. Tony escorted Meadow on a series of visits to colleges in Maine, and the trip went pretty well. Tony and Meadow even talked about Tony's "business." But then Tony spotted an old "friend" at a gas station, and everything changed.The "friend" was Fabian "Febby" Petrulio, made man turned rat, who entered and then dropped out of the Witness Protection Program.

Meadow is looking hotter every episode and this storyline with the rat is the first suspensful exchange of the entire series, and its going excellent

Febby's now known as Fred Peters, travel agent.So Tony spent the better part of his trip to Maine dropping Meadow off at college interviews and then trying to get the drop on Petrulio. When he finally did catch up to him at the travel agency, Tony sent Febby on a one-way trip by means of a wire around his neck.

Now this just is not right, Febby comes out packing heat with a gun and Tony is hidden behind his trailor home with a frickin wire, come on Tony you can not be that stupid, Christopher was in his wind suit in the rain answering pay phones wanting to come up to put the hit on so he can get within a cunts hair of being made, I just do not get it

Meanwhile, back home, it rained like the Great Flood and Carmela was laid up with the flu. Caring for his mother made Anthony, Jr. climb the walls, so Carmela sent him to a friend's to lose himself in Nintendo for a few hours. Soon there was a knock at the door, and it was none other than Father Phil dropping by to give her a status report on the parish clothing drive...and mangia. Carmela was happy to see him--maybe a little too happy.

The rain and lightning outside really set the scene, and this affair with the priest reminds me a little bit of The Last Don

When Tony and Meadow returned, Carmela came clean about Father Phil spending the night. But before Tony could get too worked up about it, she let him know that "Jennifer" Melfi called for him. The cat's out of the bag and Tony's in the doghouse.

There is plenty of drama at the Soprano household, nothing too interesting, but when Carmela gets worked up, damn



-n