The Sopranos is Back! With Episode #1 - MEMBERS ONLY

This week HBO's hit series, The Sopranos, returned with it's first episode of what will most likely be it's final season. I hate to say it, but I was a little disappointed. Although the ending was quite a shocker, I found that the rest of the episode was mediocre. This is not to say it was bad, but The Sopranos has had some incredible episodes in the past and I was hoping that the season opener would give us one of those.

First of all, they tried to be cute by ball busting the movie industry, slyly placing "products" throughout the whole episode. The first line of the show started out with one of the FBI agents saying, "No one ever went broke, by underestimating the taste of the American public." After that we were treated to subtle and some not so subtle "advertisements" for various American delicacies like Nestles, FedEx, the Rolling Stones (a tattoo of Mick's tongue on Janice's left teat as she reluctantly nursed her new babe) and Armani to name a few.

The directing by Mr. Tim Van Patten wasn't clear enough for me. Too many lines were mumbled and thrown away, some of them very funny. I had to watch the show a second time to catch them all. They also introduced a new character, spent most of the show dealing with his story, then he whacked himself with a noose in the garage. Why the diversion? Maybe future episodes will shed some light.

What did I like? Well, Tony weighing himself, that was damn funny. He didn't like the fact that the scale read 284 lbs. so he kept shedding clothing until it got back down to a respectable 280.
Uncle Jun and Tony's last scene was great. I won't give it away here in case you haven't seen it, but it made the whole hour worth the wait. I thought that Tony and Carmela's obsession with the Japanese food restaurant was hilarious. Of course Tony had to wreck Carmela's fantasy by going there by himself for lunch one day. The little strip act that Meadow did for Fin wasn't bad. Not bad at all. They really used the nice gams camera angle a lot with Dr. Melfi. I can't believes she wears those skirts when she sees Tony. She is frickin nuts! Bobby's train set in the garage was quite humorous. I sense an immanent loss of life for that poor goomba.