TV-Reviewed

Editor’s Note: This review was written during the season’s initial run. Keep this in mind when reading the following review.

Well finally season 2 of The Sopranos feels like it’s going somewhere this season. While nothing major seriously happened here, this episode has introduced a new character who is very likely to cause a major problem within the organization.

Remember Jackie Aprile, the lovable Capo when the show first started? Well introduced in this episode is his brother Richie who’s been locked up in jail for the last 10 years. Right off the bat we can tell Richie isn’t as cool as Jackie Aprile. He definitely has an attitude problem and he’s hot-tempered. Tony is definitely going to continue to have a problem controlling him. There were also signs of Richie and Junior forming some sort of alliance with each other which could mean another attempt on Tony’s life.

This episode focused a lot on Tony and Carmela’s parenting skills. Meadow ends up having a party at Livia’s house that is currently unused and gets drunk and has drugs there. What’s puzzling is that Tony being the boss of a large crime family has no idea how to punish Meadow. Meadow sets her own punishment which doesn’t end up really doing much considering Carmella and Tony give her money still when she needs it.

It’s a bit sad to see that neither one of them can control Meadow, and that even Tony is scared of what social services could do. Janice questions Tony and Carmelas’ parenting when she see’s how bad the house really is. Janice’s attitude change was puzzling, because after seeing the house she becomes pissed, but before hand she was getting on Tony for punishing on Meadow in the first place. Janice is showing that she’s just like her mother in how she can be one person and then change attitudes in another second.

It was great to see Meadow end up having to clean up the house which was the obvious thing to do in the first place. Meadow has become quite the smart ass and watching her manipulate her parents was sad.

Dr. Melfi even graced us with her presence and ends up seeing Tony at a restaurant. She was actually pretty friendly, but after leaving with an embarrassing exit as toodleoo she can’t figure out why she would say that to him. Dr. Melfi is starting to have second thoughts about refusing to treat Tony and is actually having dreams of him dying, because she didn’t give him treatment. Hopefully this leads to her treating Tony again, because her advice and insight is really missing from this show.

So this wasn’t a perfect episode, but it definitely was a good episode to give us some clue into where this season is going. Tony now has a potential enemy which very well might be Richie Aprile. Tony trying to control Richie should be a very interesting thing to see as well as Richie trying to cause trouble. It’s only a matter of time before the shit hits the fan.

Rating: 7.7