Meet Me at the "Pork Store"

Recently I was talking with my sister on the phone and she started laughing. “What’s up?” I asked her. “Oh, I just rented another episode of the Sopranos. You should watch it. It’s hilarious.”

Hilarious? I thought it was a mob drama – something I would never get into.

Curious, I headed out to the nearest video store and rented episodes 1-3 of the first season. Soon enough, I had rented and watched episodes 4-13 (the whole first season). The story line, the actors, and the side-splitting dialogue between characters is infectious.

The Sopranos revolves around mobster and main character, Tony Soprano, his family, and his “family”. Set in New Jersey and shot in Tony’s places of “business”(The Pork Store and strip joint, Bada Bing!), The Sopranos is a mod drama. What I like so much about the show is that it isn’t all centered on “whacking” people, sinking their bodies in the Hudson, and joining the Witness Protection Program. While there is plenty of that, there are also plenty of elements added to The Sopranos that make the characters of the show human.

Tony’s Shrink
For instance, throughout all of Season One, Tony sees a psychiatrist, Dr. Melphi, who he forges a compelling relationship with. You also get to see Dr. Melphi out of her office and business suit and in her street clothes and house. So many times psychiatrists are portrayed in movies and on television as cold, unlikable characters who reside only in their monochromatic offices. Dr. Melphi also has a first name – Jennifer- and ends up running in some of the same circles as Tony. This makes for an interesting twist on things since Tony is determined to keep his appointments with Dr. Melphi a secret in case, God forbid, his co-workers might catch wind of them.

Tony’s Family
Tony’s family plays a big part in the show. There’s Carmella, Tony’s slightly jaded wife, who holds the house together and forgives Tony for many of his short comings. There’s Tony’s teenage daughter, Meadow, who’s getting ready for college. One episode revolves around Tony and Meadow visiting colleges and a weekend of father-daughter bonding. Tony’s other offspring, Anthony Jr., is a junior high student finding himself getting into trouble at school and wondering just exactly what his father really does for a living.

Mama
Tony’s mother, Livia, also plays an important role in the show. Suffering from the “why me” complex, and bringing the concept of passive aggressiveness to new heights, Mama Soprano lends Tony a certain amount of guilt when he decides that he has to put her into an assisted living quarter because she can no longer live alone, unaided. As the show progresses, it turns out that Livia is not the helpless, abandoned mother she’d like everyone to thing she is. In fact, she becomes the source of a lot of the show’s conflict…

Uncle “June”
which brings us to Uncle Junior, Tony’s Uncle, and Livia’s brother-in-law. After becoming “boss”, Uncle Junior becomes a source of tension for Tony. The two often clash heads and while Tony professes to love Uncle “June”, sometimes he’d rather “whack” him and vice-versa.

”The Family”
Tony’s other family consists of some hilarious characters including:

Christopher - Tony’s nephew, who spends most of his time obsessed with becoming a famous, big time gangster, which causes Tony a lot of headaches.

“P*ssy” -Tony's best friend.

Paulie – The guy who watches over Tony and the one who’s super- enthusiastic about doing the “whacking”.

Silvio - Played by ex-E Street Band guitarist, Stevie Van Zandt, Silvio runs the Bada Bing! Club and has a daughter who goes to school with Tony’s daughter Meadow.
I can’t seem to get used to seeing him without the definitive 80’s bandana tied around his head.

Artie - While he’s not in the “family”, Artie is a life-long friend of Tony’s and is fully aware of what he does for a living. Artie and wife, Charmaine, run the local Italian restaurant where Tony and co. do a lot of chowing. Even though Artie cooks for a living, you start to get the feeling he’d like to work for Tony instead.

The Food
Food plays an important role in The Sopranos and could be considered a character in itself. Trays of ziti and sausage and peppers are constantly being passed around. Tony and “family” are continuously eating pastries, particularly canolli during their meetings. There are many scenes filmed around the dining table in Tony’s house and in Artie’s restaurant(s). Every time I watch the show I get hungry. My husband and I started eating Italian food whenever we watched an episode. I had to up my workout routine just to counteract all the calories I was consuming during The Sopranos.

Second Season?
I don’t know what to do with myself know that I’ve run out of episodes to rent. It’s difficult to read anything about the show without something about seasons two and three being disclosed. I’m too cheap to buy HBO, but my Sopranos withdrawals have me seriously considering it. I’m even thinking about going on to Ebay and seeing if anyone has any tapes of Season Two that they want to sell.

Favorite Quotes
Before I conclude this review of The Sopranos, I want to include some of what I consider to make the show irresistible and uproarious – the dialogue between characters. I lifted a lot of these from Sopranos sites on the internet because I couldn’t remember the direct quotes. Here are some of what I consider the most memorable quotes from the first season:

Paulie (after “whacking” a Columbian enemy): “Juan Valdez has been separated from his donkey."

Meadow: “Are you in the Mafia?”
Tony: “I'm in the waste management business.”

Paulie: “Altieri's wake is tonight.”
Christopher: “I phoned in a bomb scare.”
Silvio: “See, now that's over the top.”

Tony: “Life is putting the Prozac to the test.”

Carmela: “Did you know that an Italian invented the telephone?”
Anthony Jr.: “Alexander Graham Bell was Italian?”

Dr, Melfi: “When's the last time you had a prostate exam?”
Tony: “Hey, I don't even let anyone wag their finger in my face.”

Tony: “I took an oath, Carmela.”
Carmela: “What are you, a kid in a treehouse?”

Anthony Jr.: “So what, no f**kin' ziti now?”

Christopher: “This ain't negotiation time. This is 'Scarface,' final scene, f**kin' bazookas under each arm, 'say hello to my little friend!”
Silvio: “Always with the scenarios.”

Tony: “That is a special-made psychological picture, like that, that whatayacallit test? The Horshack”

Livia: “I phoned your house. Some operator answered the phone. I couldn't understand a word she was saying.”
Tony: “Ma, how many times I gotta tell you, that's not an operator, that's an answering machine.”
Livia: “Oh, fancy, fancy.”


Let me end by saying that it's difficult to write an in-depth review of The Sopranos here on Epinions because you can't include expletives or even one of the main characters' names. Where appropriate, I edited the name and left out a lot of the quotes I wanted to include.