Sopranos Season 4 Review and Discussion Thread Shows 1-12 (2 Viewers)

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Reviews and discussions will be posted here soon after each live Sopranos show ends each Sunday night.

My initial reaction to this season opener was decent, yet important setup material. The Soprano family is having money issues in the sluggish economy, and Carmella is striving towards getting all the pass codes, and safe combos to Tony Soprano's fortunes......

The show basically bridged the gap from season three to four, but one can assume that the Sopranos Family is in the mists of a major U-Turn, and war is around the corner with rival factions.....

Christopher is back on his destructive phase, while Ralph seems to be the Richi replacement for Janice. Most importantly, the New York boss is not happy with Tony Soprano, commenting on his dress code.... This is for sure to be the first of many problems coming from the NY Family.


All in all, a good start to what looks to be a fabulous season....I look forward to other members reviews of the first show.


P.S Looked fabulous in 16:9 High Def. DD 5.1 was good, but this show had mostly center channel dialog.

All I got to say is: Danielle is hot! I'm so glad they recasted the role from Fairuza Balk (gag!) with this other actress. Whoa!

On to the show. I'm always amazed at how much ground each episode of the Sopranos covers. And episode 1 was no different:

The FBI has a mole in the person of Danielle. She's friends with Adriana in a big way now by insinuating her into Adriana's daily life. A drawback to Danielle is that she's a new mom (hubby seems to be FBI as well), and that's a weakness for her in the future if Tony gets wind of her mole-ish ways.

AJ is still going to the military school, isn't too interested in having to read the New York Times (his mother found a big stack of them in his room).

Carmella wants to know how to get at the money in case Tony goes away.

Tony got his hopes up when he saw a bush shaking (hoping it was the return of the ducks), but it was just a squirrel.

Tony's stashing money all over his property. Bidness is down. He has a pow wow with his "earners" who ain't earning, and Tony lays the smackdown on them.

Uncle Junior finds out that the doctor's office he and Tony go to to discuss bidness has been bugged all this year. Junior is going to trial in a few weeks, and his legal bills are getting really high, he asks Tony for help in paying the bills. Tony initially isn't too helpful with Junior.

Tony got a tip about where good real would be due to a new convention center being built. He even soaked Uncle Junior for some prime estate (that Junior owned) in the guise of helping Junior with his legal bills.

Bobby gets promoted (because the other old coot is losing his memory and is simply too old to handle the bidness). Tony and Bobby share a steak-to-steak meal over it. Somehow Bobby got Quasimodo and Nostrodamus mixed up (as the guy that predicted 9/11/01 and all of the mideast turmoil), and then it got to the hunchback of Notre Dame (that being Quasimodo) and how Notre Dame is known for football and quarterbacks and running backs. Bobby's definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Pauli's in jail. He and some other guy got pulled over, and before you know it, the cop find a .38 that was the weapon in an unsolved crime. Pauli calls Johnny Sacks to bail him out. We don't know if Johnny can pull those strings (or if he intends on helping Pauli).

Tony's been riding Christopher hard trying to make him become his right hand man, but Christopher is really getting resentful. Christopher is really into drugs nowadays. Tony send him in on a retired cop, tells him the cop killed Christopher's father on a contract killing (but they let him live because he was useful as a cop until now). The audience doesn't know if Tony was just setting Christopher up as a test of loyalty or not. The cop denied knowing anything. Christopher does off the retired cop. Was disgusted that the cop only had $20 in his wallet. They had an old episode of Magnum P.I. which made the audience think that Christopher was surround by the police after offing the cop. But it was just the TV.

Tony and the New York mob boss do a bit of celebrating on the convention center deal coming into being. Then Furio brings in some foreign flight attendants to party with them. I did not need to see that shot of Ralphie's backside...

Ralphie and his wife were invited to Tony's place for dinner because it was the wife's birthday (Carmella's parents are there, as is Janice). The wife (Roe?) is on medication and basically zoned out. During dinner, Adriana and Danielle show up to pick up something, and Danielle finally meets Tony (who shows the obvious interest in lovely woman). Ralphie goes to the bathroom to snort some cocaine and Janice finds a way to get Ralphie to let her in to do a line to two. Before you know it, Ralphie and Janice are doing each other in the bathroom.

Meadow is basically depressed.

Tony almost all but spills the beans to his shrink, but he basically outlines where he's going (in this season) which is to fold back into trusting only family (Christopher being tapped as Tony's right hand man after putting him through some trials to make sure he's "okay" and has the right stuff.)

Christopher goes to his mother's house, looks at his father's Navy photo, a bit satisfied knowing that he's avenged his father's death. His mom comes into the kitchen, they "catch up" and just share some mom-son time. Christopher leaves shortly, and even leaves the $20 bill from the cop's wallet on the fridge door held up by magnets.

A good start, and a welcome return.
A few thoughts..
Janice and Ralphie....where's the barfing smilie??
Baccala: Ya know, Quasimodo predicted all of this hundeds of years ago!
Adriana's new FBI pal...yum!
Tony's look of sadness as the rustling in the bushes turned out to be a squirrel and not his beloved ducks.
Christophers descent.
Next weeks episode I heard is great and it looks it.

quasimodo
How about the very beginning where Carmella checks her self out in the reflection of the dishwasher when the doorbell rings then asks "where's furio?" ? Maybe a little crush?
That shot of the heroin injection made all of us cringe!
What a great episode with plenty of exposition. I can't wait for next week!

I think I need to see it again before I can make up my mind on how it was. I don't think it was bad, particularly, but they're continuing with some plot lines they started on during season 3 that would have best been left unexplored.

I think the biggest annoyance is this FBI infiltrator getting in with Adriana. That really challenges my suspension of disbelief. Adriana's character in the past was portrayed as being sincere while not neccessarily brilliant. But to be enough of an airhead to just embrace a total stranger off the street, bring her into her home and bring her to the Soprano home? No way. The mob is nothing if not very insular.

It also looks like much if not all of the camaraderie between Tony and his crew is gone. Paulie's been magically transformed from a loyal capo into a scheming bumbler.

Christopher's scene with the man who supposedly killed his father was great. Tony's scenes with Junior were great, as usual.

Christopher doing drugs again is evident that he is extremely paranoid, and is concerned about what went down last season with Tony and the Aprile hit. Once Chris gets bumped up, and Tony expressed his love and want for him to be his under-boss, Chris will straighten right out....

Great to see the Soparno's back. I agree about the FBI agent and her newborn. I feel that will come up in the future. I know I'm hooked on this show because I missed the first 10 minutes and now I'm trying to find when they replay it this week to catch those precious minutes

Very nice intro to Season Four! Like Tino, I too was upset to see a squirrel instead of ducks (especially after Tony's hopeful look), but that was my favorite moment of the episode, mainly because it brought the whole show back full circle. And I'm glad they replaced Fairuza Balk with Lola Glaudini; that's not a slam against Balk's acting, it's just that Glaudini seems more suited, both looks- and performance-wise, to the role.
The only scene I didn't like was the whole Christopher/dead father revenge thing. It's hard to explain, but it just seemed too...Hollywood-ish for my tastes. By the way, did they do another actress switcharoo with Chris' mother?
And I like how they kept up the running gag of Bobby the Bada Bing bartender (say that five times fast ) being beaten with an inanimate object. So far it's been a phone, a singing fish toy, a pool cue and a piece of chain w/ lock. Guess we can add a bucket to that list.

I laughed so hard when Tony shouted "CONSERVE!" at Bobby as he lay there on the floor.

"Once Chris gets bumped up, and Tony expressed his love and want for him to be his under-boss, Chris will straighten right out...."

I agree.

Tony watching the bush and hoping to see the ducks again was a nice touch.

A very decent first episode I thought.

The conserving ice scene was hilarious. That bartender sure does play an idiot great! Its great to see that he's always fumbling things up and get the crap beat out of him.

Uncle Junior kissing the nurse was funny. Too bad she works for the feds.

Bobby being promoted will be interesting. Did you see his kids? I thought it was a pretty funny sight.

I'll bet that having an affair with or coming on to Carmella is a sure good way for a recurring character to get wacked - Furio.

There is a big gap between Tony and Christopher's preception of their relationships that could cause some huge problems down the road. What good is your underboss if he is high all the time because he thought you hated him for the last 2 months and you think you have "bonded him to you in an insperable way" or whatever the exact quote is. Not to mention the fact that Adrianna is compromised.

Did anyone catch a credit for the song at the beginning and end? My wife thought it sounded like Johhny Rotten.

Bobby's kid (paraphrasing): "There's no cable (TV)"

I was expecting a similar scene from "Princess Bride" where Christopher would keep repeating to the retired cop:

"My name is Christopher Moltisanti, you killed my father, prepare to die!"

Was it really the nurse that was the mole at the doctor's office, or that doctor they closed the door on? We don't know. I thought it was funny how that nurse was trying to make eye contact with Tony, so maybe she was the mole, and just trying to appeal to Tony's libido as well. The FBI sure know how to get to the Sopranos' weaknesses (pretty women who show an interest in them).

Is the bartender at the Bada Bing also named "Bobby"? That's confusing.

Nobody mentioned that Tony was squirreling his money this episode. I forget what the
The song was "World Destruction", by Time Zone,which is a colaboration between John Lydon (aka Rotten) and Afrika Bambaataa. I think it was released in '83 or '84

Yep -thank God The Soprano's are back on the air!

A couple of corrections/answers:

1 - AJ is NOT in military school. He couldn't go to military schools because of his panic attacks. Check the final episode of last season, An Army of One

2 - The bartender at the Bada Bing is Georgie, not Bobby. If the FBI wanted a disgruntled cog in the Soprano's wheel, Georgie may be a good choice.

And on a final note, the administrators are very active on this forum!

Berk

Ok,

Someone please explain to me who this new older guys is hanging with Uncle Jun. I thought Bobby Bacala was his body guard. Also what is Bobby getting bumped up to??

My observations...

No way would the FBI have a new mother as a mole for the mafia. That was some serious foreshadowing. I don't think you you should get too attached to her.

That nurse was a huge mcguffin (especially her leaving). It was the doctor that was the mole. I can't believe the snitch couldn't say if it was a man or woman.

I'm so sick of Janice, didn't she move away? I wouldn't let that pig within 2 feet of me.

I was wondering if that cop really did what Tony said but Chris answered my question (nice screenwriting). "He would have had me kill you anyway".

I'm disappointed in how his son's role is turning out. He is nothing but a punk kid (I guess that is reality). He never does anything interesting except eat cereal and get in trouble at school.

It was nice to see Tony get very worried about the new promotion for Bobby as he slowly realizes how stupid he is.

I didn't buy the Pauli in jail story. It also sounded like a set up. No reaction/comment from Tony? Isn't Paulie a made guy in his group?

Doug