The Sopranos

The Sopranos is soon to be over and I've been watching. I didn't watch at first but then tried it, liked it and saw all the back episodes. The one that really sold me on the series was the third, Meadowlands, where AJ learns his father is a gangster. Warning, spoilers follow.

I haven't been that impressed with the second half of season 6. I find it's a little slow, particularly when whole episodes have concentrated on just one story (Tony at the lake, Tony and Paulie traveling). I like the tension of will Tony kill someone (first Bobby, then Paulie, etc.) but then it's good to get back to the whole crew. Given what seems to be fitting less in an episode it's odd to see them spend time on Vito's son; which was kinda interesting but seemed to come out of no where.

I liked yesterday's episode with Christopher. It was interesting to see how hard it would be for a recovering alcoholic to be in the mob (this is a face-to-face business, you gotta be there, we don't leave voice mail messages about stolen goods). I don't get why Paulie was stealing from his own guy's stash, that seemed kinda rude and dumb, but I guess that's in character.

I think this season starting out showing the various paths Tony could take:

Eugene tried to retire to Florida but wasn't allowed and ultimately hung himself (he was also an FBI informant)
Christopher has been trying to get into a new line of work and deal with addiction
Vito ran away but couldn't hack it in the real world
Johnny Sack went to jail (and got sick and died)
Bobby is still in but his family is more important to him now
Paulie is still in but is a loser
And of course Tony got shot and almost died

With this second half of the season they seem to have Tony back to his old self and a little less confident. I think that's probably the most realistic choice but the least interesting. I hope they don't do a movie, that gives them more freedom in ending the series.

The police could always arrest him but it's not clear if his informing the FBI about what he thinks might be muslim terrorists makes that more or less likely. There's always the New York mob who might wack him. He could have potentially run away, but his new gambling debts seem to make that unlikely. He seems to be ending his therapy which might have helped get out of the mob but hasn't. His family life seems pretty constant though now that AJ is suicidal that might be a traumatic event. For a while he was groom Christopher to take over but now it's not clear that anyone is in position to do so. Carmella's speech about a piano hanging over him seems foreshadowy.

I suspect they might go boring and just leave things continuing on as always, with some underlings getting wacked. I hope they do something more interesting. Maybe Christopher gets pinched for the murder and turns states evidence because he's pissed at them for enabling the alcoholism. Maybe Phil will kill Tony for a business reason.

They also need to address the family. I'd like to see Carmella stuck supporting herself. They've done nothing with Meadow, they keep trying to show she's smart and good but she keeps coming back to the family that ruins her relationships (kills her boyfriends, disapproves of her boyfriends, scares off her boyfriends). I suspect either AJ will kill himself or put himself in a position where he is killed. That should send Carmella over the deep end but she'd still have no realization that she's a horrible mother. Maybe it will be the event that gets Meadow away from her family.

What do you think?