TV Series: The Sopranos Season 4 (Part 4)

This section of the Sopranos is about break-ups, some more serious than others.

Tony finally ends his therapy sessions with Dr. Jennifer Melfi. He says they're no longer doing him any good. He could have bought a Ferrari with all the money he's spent in four years of therapy. I wonder how long he'll stay away. In some twisted way he's addicted to Jennifer, her therapy and her legs.

From one camera shot to the next we see Jennifer's legs crossed the other way. Did we miss a Sharon Stone moment?

Carmela Soprano and Tony's associate Furio Giunta have had feelings for one another for months. Carmela claims it's been a whole year. Furio admitted his feelings to his former Mafia boss in Italy, and Carmela admitted her feelings to her best friend Rosalie Aprile, but they've never told each other what they feel. Now it's gone far enough. Furio flies back to Italy without even telling Tony he was leaving. The romance has ended before it began.

I'll save the third break up until the end.

Tony has been operating a HUD scam, involving the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's a complicated scam that's only explained briefly, so it isn't easy to understand. Basically, Tony gives someone (in this case a doctor) money to buy cheap houses in poor areas. Then his appraiser values the houses at three or more times the purchase price. A non-profit company takes a HUD-guaranteed loan to buy and renovate the houses. The non-profit company pays construction workers who work (indirectly) for Tony, but the work is never done, using excuses such as local crime, and the loan is never repaid.

Carmine Lupertazzi, a New York crime boss, wants 40% of the money from the HUD scam, since it's on jointly run territory. Tony offers him 5.5%. Neither side backs down. Johnny Sack, Carmine's second-in-command, is in contact with Tony as his friend. He claims to be negotiating a compromise, but in actual fact he's advising both sides to remain hard. He advises Tony to assassinate Carmine, saying he'll make a better deal as the new boss. Tony agrees and arranges a hit on Carmine, but at the last moment Carmine backs down and agrees to a 15% compromise. Johnny is angry when the hit is cancelled.

Junior Soprano is still on trial for the general charge of racketeering. I don't think it's ever clearly stated what evidence the FBI has against him. Until now he's been released on bail wearing an electronic bracelet. He held meetings with Tony at his doctor's office, because the FBI isn't allowed to place listening devices. Patient confidentiality is sacred.

One thing the FBI was allowed to do was place an undercover agent in the doctor's surgery, as long as she didn't listen to any direct conversations between Junior and his doctor. This beautiful woman, who remains unnamed, is an FBI agent who was posing as a nurse. She got close to Junior by flirting with him. She also flirted with Tony when he visited. Men are so easy to manipulate, and the older they get the easier they are.

If Junior had been thinking straight, he would have known that a real nurse wouldn't have let him kiss her. Young women make old men weak.

Tony sends men to intimidate a juror. He's scared for himself and his family, so he refuses to deliberate with the other jurors. When the jury can't reach an agreement, the judge declares a mistrial. Junior is a free man.

Now for the third break-up. Irina Peltsin was Tony's Russian goomah at the beginning of the series, but he broke up with her in season two. Now she's dating Assemblyman Ronald Zellman. She wants revenge on Tony for humiliating her new lover by whipping him, so she rings Carmela and tells her about his affair with her. Irina also tells her that he's been sleeping with her cousin Svetlana.

Carmela is enraged more than heart-broken. She throws Tony out of the house and threatens to divorce him. There's an incident that highlights the typical Tony Soprano hypocrisy. Carmela confesses that she's had feelings for Furio for a whole year. This drives Tony into a rage. For him, it's worse than his actual affairs with Irina and the other women.

Tony moves into his garage, to put some space between himself and Carmela, but at the end of the season he says he intends to move out. Where do we go from here? The fifth season will reveal all.

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TV Series: The Sopranos Season 4 (Part 3)

It's difficult to keep up with Tony Soprano's love life. I need to make a list. Just when you think he's single (not including his wife) he finds someone else. He meets Ralphie's new girlfriend Valentina La Paz. She makes it clear from the beginning that she's more interested in Tony than in Ralphie. At first he resists her, saying that it's against the rules for him to sleep with a captain's girlfriend. Really? I think he's making up the rules as he goes along. But his hormones win over in the end, and they sneak off for a passionate session in a hotel room.

Valentina tells Tony that Ralphie isn't normal. He doesn't want sex, he just wants to be hurt. In a way I can understand him. Vanilla sex is boring. It can be spiced up with BDSM games, but if the games are a replacement for sex it's going too far. Valentina is bored without sex, so she needs a man like Tony.

As is to be expected, Valentina breaks up with Ralphie. She thinks this will open Tony up for a relationship, but he says the rules still say that he can't date the ex-girlfriend of a captain. Tony and his rules!

Tony doesn't waste any time. He quickly moves on to Svetlana Kirilenko, the close friend of his former goomah Irena. Tony is fascinated by Svetlana. She's lost a leg, but she doesn't let herself become depressed, she carries on with her life. I admit that it would be difficult for me to date a woman with a missing leg, a missing arm or any severe physical disability. I'm sorry if that makes me sound superficial. It's the way I am. But I have to admit that she has a cute face, like a little girl.

Irina isn't completely out of Tony's life. Assemblyman Ronald Zellman, a crooked politician who's helping Tony make money from building contracts, tells Tony that he's now dating and sharing a house with Irina. Tony says that it doesn't bother him, but evidently something about it disturbs him. The rules? Or is it just jealousy? Whatever it is, a few days later Tony bursts into Zellman's house at night and whips him with his belt before Irina's eyes. Is he showing her that her new lover is a lesser man than he was? No explanation is given.

Adriana is different. She doesn't jump from one man to another. She's been dating Christopher since the series began. She's faithful to him, even though he's not faithful to her. Are we talking about rules again? Now she's in a hurry to get married, because she (incorrectly) thinks that a wife isn't allowed to testify against her husband.

Her plans are interrupted by Christopher's drug habits. He travels to a seedy part of town to buy heroin. The dealers steal his car and make him walk home. When Adriana criticises him he hits her. She turns to Tony for help. They arrange for Christopher to be sent to a drug rehabilitation clinic.

The biggest development in these episodes doesn't concern love relationships, it's about Ralphie. Tony receives a phone call that there was a fire at the stables. Pie-O-My and four other horses have died. Pie-O-My especially suffered, because she survived the flames but had to be put down because of her burns. Tony informs Ralphie, who doesn't seem to be overly perturbed. He's comforted by the fact that he'll receive $200,000 compensation from the insurance company. Tony realises that Ralphie arranged for the fire to claim the insurance money. That's the difference between the two men: Tony felt affection for the horse, whereas it was only a matter of money for Ralphie. In a rage, Tony beats Ralphie to death.

Tony calls Christopher (not yet in rehab) to help him dispose of the body. He tells Christopher that he found Ralphie dead, but it's obvious from Christopher's reaction that he suspects Tony of killing him. Tony swears Christopher to secrecy; nobody else can know that they buried Ralphie. The next day everyone wonders where Ralphie is. Tony said that Ralphie might have run away, but it's also possible that Johnny Sack killed him.

There's one small thing connected to Pie-O-My. A few weeks before her death, Tony commissioned a painting of himself with Pie-O-My for $6,000. When the painting arrives Tony is heart-broken and tells his men to burn it. Paulie disagrees. He saves the painting from the fire, and he asks another artist to alter the picture to make Tony look like Napoleon.

This is the new picture that Paulie hangs in his living room. Tony will be furious when he sees it. I'm no art critic, but I consider the new picture far inferior to the original. It's tasteless.

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TV Series: The Sopranos Season 4 (Part 2)

The New Jersey and the New York mob almost go to war over a joke? Is that possible?

Last season Ralphie Cifaretto told a joke about Ginny, the wife of Johnny Sack, the New York underboss. He mocked her because of her weight. It was an inappropriate joke, but everyone present, including Tony Soprano himself, laughed. That should have been the end of it, but Paulie had a grudge against Ralphie, so he informed Johnny what had been said. Johnny isn't like the other mobsters. All the others cheat on their wives with goomahs, but not Johnny. He idolises his wife, however much she weighs.

Johnny demands revenge. First he demands that Tony take action against Ralphie. When Tony refuses, Johnny asks his boss, Carmine Lupertazzi (pictured above), for permission to execute Ralphie. Carmine refuses, but Johnny makes it clear that he'll go ahead regardless. He hires a hitman. At the same time Tony realises that Johnny won't listen to reason and arranges for someone to kill him.

The killers are already underway, when Johnny has a change of heart. He rings Tony to tell him he'll accept an apology. Tony calls off his hitman, and so does Johnny. Peace is maintained. For now.

Ralphie buys a race horse called Pie-O-My from Hesh. After the horse wins two races there's a lot of excitement. Ralphie shares his winnings with Tony. When Pie-O-My is taken ill, Ralphie refuses to pay the medical bills. Tony steps in, because he feels affection towards the horse. It's possible that Pie-O-My will never race again.

The FBI increases its pressure on Adriana. Deborah/Danielle rings her in the middle of an appointment in a beauty parlour and tells her to come to a meeting immediately. Disgraceful!

Deborah passes Adriana on to Robyn Sanseverino as her primary handler. She's supposedly been in the FBI longer and has more experience, but what a miserable face she has! Adriana is told what's been happening behind her back. She's been told that Pussy Bonpensiero and Richie Aprile have been taken into the witness protection programme, but the agents deny this. They want Adriana to give them a steady stream of information. She says (quite correctly) that she hardly knows anything, so they tell her she should make more of an effort to find things out.

The main result of the increased pressure is that Adriana begins to use heroin.

Junior Soprano, the official head of the family, is on trial for a collection of offences, but what bothers him most is the poor quality of the courtroom sketch that's shown on television. The following day he sits facing the artist to make sure that a better sketch is made.

After the death of Bobby Baccalieri's wife in a car crash the wives of Tony's crew show sympathy, cooking meals for him, more food than he could possibly eat. Janice, who's now single, is especially interested in him. She visits him regularly, encouraging him to get back to work, supporting Junior. She isn't much of a cook, so she claims that some of the meals delivered to him are her own.

Tony finds out that his ex-lover Gloria Trillo has killed herself. Tony blames himself and wishes he could have done more for her.

Tony's long time friend Artie Bucco is talked into a deal by Jean-Philippe, the brother of his new waitress. He wants to distribute Armagnac in America. He needs $50,000 to buy the marketing rights, and he'll get his first payments within two weeks. Artie borrows the money from Tony to give to him. But things go wrong. Jean-Philippe spends the money, but is unable to sell the Armagnac. He's unable to pay Artie back, so Artie is unable to pay Tony back. Artie attempts to kill himself with a mixture of alcohol and pills. Tony, still obsessing over Gloria's suicide, forgives Artie. He tells him that he'll take over Jean-Philippe's debt personally, wiping Artie's debt clean.

Tony's son AJ hs a girlfriend, probably his first. As far as I know, he's 17, so it's a good time to start. Wow! She's a real beauty. I'd say she's out of his league, but it seems that she's attracted to him by the stories about his family. She keeps asking him about the things his father does, but AJ is innocent and barely knows anything.

This is what AJ gets up to on Daddy's couch. It looks like a scene from "On The Buses". I shouldn't make fun of him. I was 17 as well.

Once more, there's very little violence in this segment of the Sopranos. There's a lot that could happen, but it doesn't get that far. There are two injuries, but no deaths. It's possible that Jean-Philippe is killed by Furio, but it's off camera. The series handles its subject matter very tastefully.

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TV Series: The Sopranos Season 4

R.I.P. Jerry Adler, who passed away on 23rd August, aged 1996. I would have written about him last week, but he didn't appear in the last three episodes of the Sopranos. He was a secondary character, who only appeared in 28 of the 86 episodes, but he played an important part in cementing the Sopranos mythology. The New Jersey mob was made up of Italian Americans, but Hesh (Herman Rabkin) was a Jew who was a close friend of Tony and enjoyed the respect of his associates. His history was as a music producer, giving work to young black Americans, but making money off them by falsely claiming he'd co-written their songs.

The fourth season starts with the first change in the opening credits since season one. The reason is the date. The third season ended on 20th May 2001, and the fourth season began on 15th September 2002 (broadcast dates). The events of 11th September 2001 necessitated the removal of the World Trade Center (sic) from the credits. Rather than remake the whole credits, the scene was replaced by metal railings of unclear location.

Several things have happened between the two seasons:

AJ (Anthony Junior) has been enrolled into a new school.

Paulie has been imprisoned for unspecified gun charges.

Christopher is using heroin.

Tony's wife Carmela is becoming attracted to Tony's soldier Furio Giunta. She's too reserved to say anything, but she becomes flustered whenever he comes to her house, and, well... it's just obvious from the way she acts.

So much for Janice Soprano's conversion to Christianity. I knew it wouldn't last long. She's taking cocaine and having an affair with Ralphie Cifaretto, even though he's dating Rosalie Aprile. Eventually he breaks up with Rosalie and says he wants to move in with Janice, but she turns him away. She wants a man, but it can't be serious.

After an argument with Christopher, undercover agent Deborah Ciccerone (aka Danielle) can no longer act as Adriana's friend. The FBI decide that she should reveal her true identity. Adriana is threatened with up to 25 years in prison if she doesn't cooperate. This is obviously an exaggeration, but Adriana is scared and agrees to give information.

Deborah/Danielle can go back to her usual hairstyle. I prefer her professional look, but can't she smile?

This is a slow start to season four, but don't worry, things are warming up.

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TV Series: The Sopranos Season 3 (Part 4)

The eleventh episode of season three, "Pine Barrens", is worth a special mention, because most Sopranos fans consider it the best episode of the whole series. Paulie and Christopher accidentally kill a man when a pick up goes wrong. They dump him in their trunk and drive to Pine Barrens, a woodland area in southern New Jersey, to bury the body. They should have checked more closely. When they open the trunk he's still alive. He attacks them and runs away. The rest of the episode involves Paulie and Christopher wandering around in the woods, unable to find where they parked their car.

The main recurring theme in the fourth part of season three (episodes 11 to 13) is break ups. Tony's short, tempestuous relationship with Gloria Trillo is over. She crosses a line by making contact with Tony's wife. She even threatens to tell his wife and children about their relationship. No no no. That's going too far. Tony breaks off the relationship immediately, and when she rings him to ask him to change his mind he sends a man to threaten to kill her if she ever contacts him again.

The other break up is Jackie Aprile, who's been dating Meadow Soprano for only a few months. When Meadow says she's too tired to have sex with him, he contacts another girl to fulfil his needs. What's wrong with him? God gave men a right hand to deal with problems like those. Meadow is suspicious because of his lame excuse; he has to take his car to be repaired. At midnight? Would anyone believe that? She breaks off the relationship immediately. Unlike Gloria he doesn't beg to be taken back.

But the break up is sealed in another way. A few days later Jackie is foolish enough to rob a card game run by his uncle's associates. Jackie goes into hiding, but he's found and shot in the back of the head. He doesn't even see it coming. That's a mercy.

The FBI has no decency. They interrupt Jackie's funeral to arrest Silvio Dante for gambling offences. They know where he lives; they know where he works. Couldn't they have arrested him later? Silvio isn't worried. He laughs at the agents and tells them his lawyer will get him out before his soup is cold.

We hear nothing more about the arrest, but Silvio's prediction comes true. A few hours later we see him at Jackie's funeral wake with his wife. Incidentally, the two actors are also man and wife in real life. They make a beautiful couple.

There are two developments at the end of the season that will have effects in the following seasons. Tony's son AJ (Anthony Junior), shown here looking smart at the wake, is expelled for stealing the results of a school test. There's an unsuccessful attempt to enrol him in a military academy, but the season ends with him being unschooled.

The junior FBI agent Deborah Ciccerone is assigned to get closer to the Soprano family by becoming friends with Christopher's girlfriend Adriana.

Deborah fluffs her hair up and arranges a chance encounter in a clothing store. They're friends immediately. But which look do you prefer? Speaking for myself, I like her professional flat hair look. Did Deborah really have so much hair glued to her head?

This was yet another excellent season? Where will it go from here? I already know the answer, because I've seen it all before, but I'll keep you in suspense.

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TV Series: The Sopranos Season 3 (Part 3)

Look at that! Tony Soprano is advertising Tropicana. What a sellout!

The main events in the third part of season three (episodes seven to ten) concern relationships. Tony Soprano meets another patient in Jennifer Melfi's waiting room. She's Gloria Trillo, a saleswoman for Mercedes. She's being treated primarily because of her repeated suicide attempts, but Tony doesn't know this. She revels in the fact that Tony does anything she asks of him. Even alpha males can turn weak when they see a sexy pair of legs.

Tony's daughter Meadow doesn't waste time after being dumped by her last boyfriend. She begins to date Jackie Aprile Jr, the son of the previous New Jersey boss. Tony has his doubts about Jackie's suitability. On his deathbed Jackie Sr asked Tony to make sure his son didn't follow in the family business. He wanted him to become something special, like a doctor or a lawyer. Unfortunately, Jackie doesn't have the intelligence to follow those career paths, and he has a longing for the life of a gangster. He doesn't last long in college. He drops out, and he says he wants to become a fashion designer.

Meadow is a beautiful girl. Men must be lining up to date her.

Janice is dating a man from her church, Aaron Arkaway. He's a ridiculous character. He suffers from narcolepsy and spontaneously falls asleep at any time, alone or in company,

Is it really possible to fall asleep with a knife in your hand? It looks dangerous.

As you might have guessed from the slumber scene, Janice was preparing the Thanksgiving dinner. But time goes by fast. Tony and his wife soon set up the Christmas tree. That's big! How did they get it through the door?

Another important development is the appropriation of the Lollipop Club. The owner is in debt, so the club is taken away from him. Christopher gives the club to Adriana as a gift.

She renames it Crazy Horse. That's a much better name. It doesn't sound as sleazy.

Tony finally makes peace with Ralphie Cifaretto, out of necessity. Ralphie is a loose cannon who annoys everyone around him, but as Silvio reminds Tony more than once, "He's a good earner". It's all about the money. Tony promotes Ralphie to capo (captain), hoping that he'll calm down when he has new responsibilities.

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