[SOP] Pax Soprana

TV Programme: The Sopranos
Season: 1
Episode: 6
Date I watched this episode: 21/02/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 8 months, 13 days.

Obviously I'm only just starting with this programme. This was the sixth episode ever produced, and this programme ran to 86 in the end, so it's only really scratching the surface. I've heard some very mixed opinions about this show. My friend Brian (who introduced me to many of my now favourite shows including The West Wing, 24, Smallville and Murder One) told me after watching the first two seasons that he found it a bit boring; he wasn't sure what all the fuss was about. On the other hand, my father has watched most of the episodes and he absolutely loves it. In addition, I do really like Mad Men, which was created by someone who served as an executive producer on The Sopranos (although admittedly not during the first season).

As for me at the moment, I have really quite mixed feelings about it. I find the episodes to be quite complex (not that that's always a bad thing) and generally I don't manage to follow the storylines too closely. This is probably partly due to my ignorance about organised crime in general, and partly just because the way they communicate with each other in a kind of Italian-American hybrid language goes over my head sometimes. I'm determined to persevere with it though at least through the first season. I've been wrong about things before - after watching the first few episodes of Farscape I was willing to give up with it, and now it is my favourite programme of all time. Additionally, I'll be forced to pay more attention now due to having to write these reviews.

Having said that, this episode in particular was actually quite simple. Basically it was about Junior trying to establish his position as the new boss, which he ascended to in the previous episode or two. Tony has come to an arrangement whereby he allows Junior to take control but still retains control to all intents and purposes without Junior's knowledge (I've only recently managed to work this out by watching the episode over and over...) In doing this, Junior has to make sacrifices on some of his well-known character traits such as blatant unfairness, in order to keep the "peace". Things got a bit ugly, and this arrangement that Tony has come to is now looking harder than it first seemed.

What I think first attracted me to this show was the psychology underlying the whole intricate story. The pilot episode blew me away with the whole thing about the birds swimming in Tony's pond. A crime boss with a shrink sounds a ludicrous proposal - but it works really well here. In particular, this episode saw the whole "Tony being in love with Jennifer" storyline come to a head. This was particularly well done, as it gave a reasonable and rational explanation to Tony's behaviour. The device of the psychologist actually allows the writers the luxury of doing some quite blatant character development without looking unrealistic.

I'm often a little confused as to who the main characters are supposed to be in this show. Obviously there are the central characters - Tony, Carmela, Jennifer, Junior, Livia. But there are so many others that it's hard to keep track of who is who and what the relationships are between them. Often I find that when reading about this show on the net, I find out things which I should already know from having watched the episodes, but haven't picked up on. In particular I have noticed Christopher around a lot, but don't really know where he fits in to all of this; I suppose I don't really know his character, but maybe I just need to rewatch the earlier episodes.

The girl Tony Soprano is spending time with during this episode is also a bit of an extraneous character. It's unclear what the situation is there - they clearly aren't just casual partners because she gets pretty upset with him. But on the other hand she doesn't seem to want to really talk about anything. So I don't even think the writers know what she is doing there!! Which makes it difficult to do any character development.

The involvement of the FBI in the final scene should add a new and interesting direction to this show. The FBI seem to be involved in pretty much every show I'm watching at the moment (and certainly in 24, Damages and Prison Break) which is quite surprising. Anyway it will add a new angle I think, and an extra degree of realism when the writers' free reign is put under scrutiny.

I know I haven't talked much about the actual episode in this review, but I'm still really coming to terms with this show. I think the episode worked well though in terms of developing Junior's character, setting the scene for the way things would be in the future, and progressing the Jennifer Melfi storyline. In summary, I am still open-minded about this show.