“The Sopranos” — Walk Like A Man
Pic via HBO.com
Of the five episodes we’ve seen this season, last week’s was easily the worst. Still, I felt last week’s episode was still pretty great television. In other words, it’s been a fabulous season as we slowly march to the sea. Last night’s episode was par for the course in its awesomeness.
I love that grimacey-face Pauly makes. It’s like his brain is saying, “I can’t express my feelings and so I’m just going to contort my face in this way.” Add that face to the image of him shredding Christopher’s lawn in a late-model Caddy and you have yourself a magical recipe of Soprano-bliss.
Of course, the above scene leads right to the episode’s climax where Christopher does everything in his power NOT to boil over, NOT to rock the boat, NOT to bring down everyone around him, but HAS to take out someone (who better than a guy whose big gig is writing a Law and Order, right?). Speculation after the break…
Each week we’re led to believe someone else will ultimately bring down the family. Of all of the possibilities of finality, Christopher is an integral piece of what I have to imagine being THE END. In a way, the whole series has been as much about him as it has Tony. He was the heir apparent until Adrianna got pinched by the feds. What I really appreciated last night was Christopher addressing head-on not only Adrianna for the first time since she was clipped, but also the reason why he hadn’t been around in what seems like ages.
On the other side of the episode A.J. wallowed for about 2/3rds of the hour before hanging out with some young-up-and-coming earners introduced by his father, and surprise! surprise! he kind of likes the power — power being the one thing that is in no short supply at the Soprano household, yet has always eluded A.J., the runt of the family.
It seems obvious at this point that he will eventually get sucked into the “family.” Probably just in time for everything to crumble around him. The Sopranos is chalk-full of tragic characters, and sometimes I feel like A.J. is the most tragic of the bunch. He isn’t smart enough to pave his own way out like Meadow, and he doesn’t have Tony’s toughness. He’s like a lump of too-wet clay, where you can’t really shape it into anything because it will just collapse under its own pressure. Robert Iler has really taken hold of this character. I can’t say that he’s even close to being one of the top actors on the show, but he can certainly hold his own.
One more thing: how worthless is Melfi? She’s basically there so that when James Gandolfini is acting his ass off they can cut away to something in order to match together various takes. That, and to show off her calves.
