Excellent episode. There were some abrupt cuts here and there, but overall I liked the fact that it focused on Tony's two sons -- AJ, his flesh and blood, and Chris, his surrogate child, and how he corrupts them.
What's striking about the episode is how at the beginning of it, AJ and Chris, in different ways, do not fit Tony's ideal for what it means to be a man. AJ is heartbroken and possibly suicidal after his break up with Blanca. Chris is not so much a part of the old boys' club anymore now that he's avoiding the temptation of the Bing and Satriale's.
What does Tony do in response to these changes in his two sons? For AJ, he pushes him into strip clubs and parties and, inadvertently, small time mob stuff with his friends. AJ has always seemed more sensitive than his father, even at the height of his brattiness. He's never seemed to have the fortitude of Tony, but he also never seemed to have Tony's mean streak or callousness. Does he have Tony's selfishness? Sure, in spades. But not the amoral will to take what he wants that drives Tony. So when we see AJ holding down the guy who owes his friends money, while they pour acid on his toes, it's startling, due in no small part to the wicked smile that emerges on AJ's face, the same kind Tony sees in the mirror after beating down his young driver earlier in the season. There doesn't seem to be the same wickedness in AJ that there is in Tony, or at least it seems much milder, but Tony thrusts AJ into his world, and seems to be bringing out more of that side of his son.
With Chris, it's a little more complicated. Chris is in too deep to ever break out of the mob life, even as he becomes more and more disillusioned with the lifestyle in general and Tony in particular. And as his affair with Julianna indicated, he's not exactly ready to be a steady family man either. But through his sobriety, he seems to be making a change for the better, and it, plus the specter of Adrianna who continues to haunt every moment the two share, drives a wedge between him and Tony.
Tony said as much at the beginning of the half-season, but he's moving away from Chris and moving more toward Bobby as his familial lieutenant (another gentle soul Tony's recently corrupted). He doesn't have time for Chris anymore, and breaks his balls over his temperance, as does Chris's other surrogate father figure, Paulie. Eventually, Chris starts to crack from the pressure of it. He throws little Paulie out of a window. He goes back to drinking. And in the moment when he's trying to explain his connection to his daughter, all his mob family can do is crack jokes, and he sees them as a group of braying jackasses to which he no longer belongs. Once upon a time, he was proud enough to call himself a member of the mafia that he celebrated his name being in the paper for it. Now, he shoots J.T. Dolan after the writer cuts through his self-pity and confessions of things Dolan shouldn't have heard, and tells Chris that he is, in fact, part of the mob.
Tony makes things worse for his two sons. He turns them into worse people than before he got his greasy mitts on them. He makes both of them more violent. He makes both of them more like him. And he makes both of them a little closer to his misery in the process. It's sad, because, as is often the case, Tony seems to have a moment of clouded self-realization with Melfi, where he understands and laments what he passes down to his kids.
The Sopranos is often a show about the abuses and conflicts passed from one generation to another. In that moment, Tony is genuinely saddened at the idea that he passed his depression on to his son, that he's the root cause of AJ's misery. Despite his protestations to the contrary, he seems to viscerally understand Chris's statement that he inherited his propensity for drug abuse from his own father. And yet, when push comes to shove, Tony pulls AJ and Chris down into the mud with him much more deliberately. That's always the story with Tony. He's smart enough to understand, at some level, what he's doing, but he can't admit it to himself, or lacks the will to make a change, and hurts the people around him because of it.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2015-08-21T22:11:42Z
Excellent episode. There were some abrupt cuts here and there, but overall I liked the fact that it focused on Tony's two sons -- AJ, his flesh and blood, and Chris, his surrogate child, and how he corrupts them.
What's striking about the episode is how at the beginning of it, AJ and Chris, in different ways, do not fit Tony's ideal for what it means to be a man. AJ is heartbroken and possibly suicidal after his break up with Blanca. Chris is not so much a part of the old boys' club anymore now that he's avoiding the temptation of the Bing and Satriale's.
What does Tony do in response to these changes in his two sons? For AJ, he pushes him into strip clubs and parties and, inadvertently, small time mob stuff with his friends. AJ has always seemed more sensitive than his father, even at the height of his brattiness. He's never seemed to have the fortitude of Tony, but he also never seemed to have Tony's mean streak or callousness. Does he have Tony's selfishness? Sure, in spades. But not the amoral will to take what he wants that drives Tony. So when we see AJ holding down the guy who owes his friends money, while they pour acid on his toes, it's startling, due in no small part to the wicked smile that emerges on AJ's face, the same kind Tony sees in the mirror after beating down his young driver earlier in the season. There doesn't seem to be the same wickedness in AJ that there is in Tony, or at least it seems much milder, but Tony thrusts AJ into his world, and seems to be bringing out more of that side of his son.
With Chris, it's a little more complicated. Chris is in too deep to ever break out of the mob life, even as he becomes more and more disillusioned with the lifestyle in general and Tony in particular. And as his affair with Julianna indicated, he's not exactly ready to be a steady family man either. But through his sobriety, he seems to be making a change for the better, and it, plus the specter of Adrianna who continues to haunt every moment the two share, drives a wedge between him and Tony.
Tony said as much at the beginning of the half-season, but he's moving away from Chris and moving more toward Bobby as his familial lieutenant (another gentle soul Tony's recently corrupted). He doesn't have time for Chris anymore, and breaks his balls over his temperance, as does Chris's other surrogate father figure, Paulie. Eventually, Chris starts to crack from the pressure of it. He throws little Paulie out of a window. He goes back to drinking. And in the moment when he's trying to explain his connection to his daughter, all his mob family can do is crack jokes, and he sees them as a group of braying jackasses to which he no longer belongs. Once upon a time, he was proud enough to call himself a member of the mafia that he celebrated his name being in the paper for it. Now, he shoots J.T. Dolan after the writer cuts through his self-pity and confessions of things Dolan shouldn't have heard, and tells Chris that he is, in fact, part of the mob.
Tony makes things worse for his two sons. He turns them into worse people than before he got his greasy mitts on them. He makes both of them more violent. He makes both of them more like him. And he makes both of them a little closer to his misery in the process. It's sad, because, as is often the case, Tony seems to have a moment of clouded self-realization with Melfi, where he understands and laments what he passes down to his kids.
The Sopranos is often a show about the abuses and conflicts passed from one generation to another. In that moment, Tony is genuinely saddened at the idea that he passed his depression on to his son, that he's the root cause of AJ's misery. Despite his protestations to the contrary, he seems to viscerally understand Chris's statement that he inherited his propensity for drug abuse from his own father. And yet, when push comes to shove, Tony pulls AJ and Chris down into the mud with him much more deliberately. That's always the story with Tony. He's smart enough to understand, at some level, what he's doing, but he can't admit it to himself, or lacks the will to make a change, and hurts the people around him because of it.