I liked this one pretty well. There's a lot of what feels like table setting here, but there are some fun moments and there's a lot to everyone knowing more about deception than the people who are doing the deceiving think.
I'll add that I love the parallelism in the scene with Jackie Jr. and his goon holding a "sit down" with the drug pushers, that immediately cuts to the scene with AJ's principal and the school priest holding a "sit down" with The Sopranos in the exact same position.
There's also a lot about what Tony and Carmella want for their daughter. Even though the episode never comes right out and says it, there's a sense from Carmella that she's worried about Jackie Jr. not because he seems like a bad influence or an inherently poor choice (though, unbeknownst to her, he is), but that she doesn't want Meadow to end up living the unfulfilling life that she has. The show does a great job of putting Carmella's dissatisfaction just below the surface, but still visible enough to come through when necessary. The way she asks Tony if there's anything he needs to tell her after he gives her an enormous ring tells the audience that Carmella has been through this before, and her subsequent purchase of the earrings show that she has subtle ways of lashing out when she's weary of the dalliances she has every reason to suspect Tony is engaging in.
There's also a great deal of mileage out of Tony wanting similar things, though for different reasons. Sure, his chats with Jackie Jr. could be chalked up to him simply wanting the best for his daughter, but there's a corresponding sense that Tony sees Jackie Jr. as himself, and wants him to be a better man than he became. He doesn't want Meadow to escape the same way Carmella seems to, but he does want his daughter to end up with someone better than him.
The two's fears about their children also come through in the AJ storyline. There's a certain fear in Carmella, that is subtle, but palpable, that AJ will take the lesson from his lack of punishment (which pretty clearly arises due to his skill on the football field) that he can do bad things and escape any consequences because of the value people place on his extracurricular activities, which would make him exactly like Tony. Tony too is able to commit bad acts (obviously on a scale much greater than vandalism) but never faces punishment because of an understood conspiracy. Tony seems troubled too, but seems generally relieved when he realizes that the punishment won't take AJ off the football team - the one thing that Tony sees as making his kid into someone assertive like himself. It's interesting as AJ is mostly a cipher at this point, and it's hard to know how much of all of this he's absorbing, but I suspect it'll bubble up again sooner rather than later.
(As a side note, the little Dragnet homage was kind of fun, but also distracting.)
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2015-07-13T04:23:43Z
I liked this one pretty well. There's a lot of what feels like table setting here, but there are some fun moments and there's a lot to everyone knowing more about deception than the people who are doing the deceiving think.
I'll add that I love the parallelism in the scene with Jackie Jr. and his goon holding a "sit down" with the drug pushers, that immediately cuts to the scene with AJ's principal and the school priest holding a "sit down" with The Sopranos in the exact same position.
There's also a lot about what Tony and Carmella want for their daughter. Even though the episode never comes right out and says it, there's a sense from Carmella that she's worried about Jackie Jr. not because he seems like a bad influence or an inherently poor choice (though, unbeknownst to her, he is), but that she doesn't want Meadow to end up living the unfulfilling life that she has. The show does a great job of putting Carmella's dissatisfaction just below the surface, but still visible enough to come through when necessary. The way she asks Tony if there's anything he needs to tell her after he gives her an enormous ring tells the audience that Carmella has been through this before, and her subsequent purchase of the earrings show that she has subtle ways of lashing out when she's weary of the dalliances she has every reason to suspect Tony is engaging in.
There's also a great deal of mileage out of Tony wanting similar things, though for different reasons. Sure, his chats with Jackie Jr. could be chalked up to him simply wanting the best for his daughter, but there's a corresponding sense that Tony sees Jackie Jr. as himself, and wants him to be a better man than he became. He doesn't want Meadow to escape the same way Carmella seems to, but he does want his daughter to end up with someone better than him.
The two's fears about their children also come through in the AJ storyline. There's a certain fear in Carmella, that is subtle, but palpable, that AJ will take the lesson from his lack of punishment (which pretty clearly arises due to his skill on the football field) that he can do bad things and escape any consequences because of the value people place on his extracurricular activities, which would make him exactly like Tony. Tony too is able to commit bad acts (obviously on a scale much greater than vandalism) but never faces punishment because of an understood conspiracy. Tony seems troubled too, but seems generally relieved when he realizes that the punishment won't take AJ off the football team - the one thing that Tony sees as making his kid into someone assertive like himself. It's interesting as AJ is mostly a cipher at this point, and it's hard to know how much of all of this he's absorbing, but I suspect it'll bubble up again sooner rather than later.
(As a side note, the little Dragnet homage was kind of fun, but also distracting.)