Respect Your Mother

The Sopranos 1.02 Review - '46 Long'

Guest Starring:

Frank Santorelli as Georgie

Al Sapienza as Mikey Palmice

Anthony DeSando as Brendan Filone

Drea de Matteo as Adriana La Cerva

[Reviewer's Notes: This episode of The Sopranos originally aired on January 17th 1999.]


Following on from the premiere episode, '46 Long' continues to explore the life of Tony Soprano, his family and his mafia. Of particular mention this week is four central story arcs that took place.

First off the bat was Tony's situation with his nephew Christopher and his drugie friend Brendan who had hijacked a truck carrying DVD players that was being protected by Uncle Junior. After a heated sitdown with Junior, Tony demanded that Christopher and Brendan return the truck and pay a 15k tribute to Uncle Junior in order to apologise. However Brendan, in a drug induced state, hit another truck of Uncle Junior's, this time carrying expensive Italian suits and accidentally kill the driver. After getting yelled at by Tony, Christopher and Brendan skulk away and are forced to return the truck with all the merchandise to Uncle Junior. I have a feeling they will be severly punished in the next episode.

The next subplot involved Carmela and her strained relationship with her daughter Meadow. After catching Meadow sneaking out, Carmela grounds her and tells her she can't go on a trip to Aspen with her friend. The majority of their scenes together involved some interesting conversations and focused on Meadow's desire to do what she wants, combined with Carmela's dislike of Meadow's friend and trying to protect her daughter.
Although unoriginal, this subplot does indicate that not all things are rosy at home, and i look forward to seeing where the writers take this story arc.

Next on the list - Livia's story arc. After her frypan catches on fire, Livia is repeatedly told by both Tony and Carmela that she should move into a 'retirement community' so she can enjoy life without others having to worry about her. She initially refuses, but after accidentally running over her friend, she finally decides to move in to the retirement village, albeit grudgingly. It was quite humourous watching Livia repeatedly refuse to move out of her home and her constant referral to Tony's father as a saint - Tony seems to have a huge respect for his mother, and is torn between doing something that's right for her, at the cost of ignoring her wishes and respecting her wishes, at the cost of worrying about her. She is an interesting character and i'm interested to see what her future story arcs may involve.

Lastly, we come to my favourite story arc of the week - Tony's mission to find Anthony Jr.'s Science teachers car. Dispatching Paulie and Big Pussy to find it, the duo spend most of the episode hitting up coffee shops demanding to locate an employee who they suspect of stealing it. After locating the men involved, they manage to return the car to the parking lot, where the teacher is overjoyed at finding his car back. My favourite scenes of the episode revolved around this plot, such as Tony's comment to his son Anthony Jr.:

"What grades are you getting in Science?" 

"D+" 

"Ok, i'll see what i can do."

Anywho, these are my final marks for the second episode:

• Potency of the season's theme(s) identified in the episode:  ********

• Editing & Scenes of Relevance:  ********

• Main characters connection with audience/actors effectiveness in role:  ********

• Secondary characters connection with audience/actors effectiveness in role:  *******

• Music & Visual Effects:  *******

• Originality and effectiveness of the episode's narrative:  *******

• Integration and effectiveness of multiple story arcs and character relationships:  ******

Overall Marks: 51 / 70

Grade Percentage: 73%

All in all, this week's episode of The Sopranos was interesting, informative and expanded well on many of the character's story arcs and personalities. I look forward to seeing next week's episode.