Hell Hath No Fury like Family

Ever since the historic, memorable first season, The Sopranos has been the best show on TV. From the acting, directing, writing, character development, versatility, the show has all the qualities of greatness.

However, there are many who say that the show has “fallen off” since the first two amazing seasons. This is and isn’t true at the same. I’ll admit, the first two seasons were superior to the last two (Seasons three and four), but the show really hasn’t lost much in
terms of what made it the best when the pilot first hit HBO.

The Sopranos: The Complete Fourth Season starts off with a first episode better than any season yet except the pilot. For All Debts Public and Private gets things started with the usual scene of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) walking out in his boxers and bathrobe to get the paper, just as every season starts off with. Carmela (Edi Falco) is hassling her husband about money, wanting to invest in trust funds and stocks, but Tony is resistant, saying that business is going slow for a bit. The real plot of the episode though, is the relationship between Tony and Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), T’s nephew. If you remember correctly, at the end of season three, things between Tony and Chris had hit the rocks after Chris questioned Tony’s decision on a certain matter. However, in Season four, Tony gives Christopher the name of a police officer who killed his father in order to bond Chris to him. Whether or not the man really was the murderer of Chris’ dad is never revealed, Christopher kills him anyway. I thought this was a great way to start the season, as the episode dropped subtle hints of things to come in the next 12 episodes.

One of the best aspects about this season is that it involved a lot more screen time for Johnny Sack, who had been stuck in a somewhat minor roll until now. Sack, the acting boss of one of the 5 families, has been friends with Tony for quite some time, but their relationship is in serious jeopardy as the two families cannot seem to compromise on a percentage for a certain source of income the two had contributed to.

Of the 13 episodes this season, there are three that really stand out (besides the first one). The first of these three is actually the second episode of the season No Show. Asides from the usuall Mob scenes in this, thee real conflict is that Meadow (played by Jamie Lynn Discala), Tony’s daughter, is threatening to drop out of Columbia and maybe move to Europe with her friends. The highlight of the episode is the climatic fight between Meadow, Carmela, and Tony near the end of the episode. Tony, who had previously been in favor of Meadow taking the trip in hopes that she’d meet a nice Italian boy to settle down with, then changed his mind. When asked why, he responds “Your mother dosen’t want it”. Meadow, who had been dropping subtle comments hinting at her dad’s position in organized crime throughout the argument, responded to this with “Wow…Listen to Mr. Mob Boss.” This is really a great moment in the series, as Meadow, who confronted his father about this before, is now really laying it all out in the open. We see the best of James Gandolfini after Meadows comment, the rage in his face, his devotion to the character was evident. “You got something you wanna say to me?”. He says. He plays it off in the end, saying that that wasn’t the issue at hand. In the end, we see Meadow applying for classes for the next semester at Columbia.

The next great episode in the season is the un forgettable Whoever Did This. One of the biggest treats throughout the episodes leading up to this one was watching Joe Pantoliano play the outrageous character Ralfie Ciffarento. The performance which might have won him the Emmy, however, was most likely from the versatility as an actor he displayed in this episode. After tragedy hits Ralphs son, and an unfortunate accident happens to his race horse, to make things short, Ralf loses his head.

I’m sure those who have already had the pleasure of viewing Season 4 expect my final episode covered to be the season finale, Whitecaps. However, I feel that the best episode of the season was The Strong Silent Type. In my opinion, the very best part of season 4 was the pleasure of watching Michael Imperioli’s acting. His character, Christopher, had become more of a heroin addict as the season progressed, and in this episode, the family confronts him about it. After Christopher hits Adriana, his girl friend, played by the beautiful Drea de Matteo, she goes to Tony for help. Tony is forced to make a decision. Can he continue to have a heroin addict in the family? Normally, no, however, this is his nephew, whom he dearly loves. He is forced with the difficult decision on how to handle the matter, and it brings out the best in both actors. In my opinion, Michael Imperioli is the best and most talented actor on the show and had a very bright future ahead of him.

As far as the show goes, there’s really nothing to big of a flaw. The writing, directing, and most impressively the acting all continue to be amazing. The only flaw of this DVD set is the special features are non-existent, consisting of just cast and crew bio’s and commentary on a couple episodes.

As much as I’d love to hive this 5 stars, a perfect A, I can’t due to the fact that I’m reviewing a DVD, not the show. A good DVD is filled with special features, a quality this box set lacks. If I was reviewing the show, I’d give it a 5 star rating in a heartbeat.

In conclusion, the whole Soprano gang is here. Silvio, Paulie, Furio, Tony, Chrissy, Meadow, AJ, everyone. From the love affair between Furio and Carmela, The Johnny Sack, conflict, Christophers drug problem, and the amazing season finale, The Sopranos: The complete Fourth Season is one of the best to date. And despite it’s lack of features, there’s still 4 discs with almost 13 hours of Soprano greatness.

A-