I enjoyed this one well enough. The flashbacks were interesting. It was nice to see Pussy again, and Tony and the rest of the crew putting the pieces together of when and how Pussy was ratting on them was intriguing, but a lot of the revelations were really on the nose. Not that everything has to be super subtle, but it felt like the show was holding our hands through this episode, rather than letting the audience piece things together on its own. I did appreciate the subtle touches in makeup and wardrobe to convey that this was an earlier time, and it was also nice to see Jackie Sr. at his full power before he started to succumb to cancer.
The Santa scenes were pretty funny though. Leave it to The Sopranos to drop something super funny in with all the drama. Same thing with Janice, who has become one of my favorite characters in just how balls-to-the-wall crazy she is. When she cries and wants to talk about brotherhood in her song after Tony beats up her Russian assailant, it's hilarious. The spirit of Christmas is truly when your brother beats up an Eastern Block mobster after he roughed you up because you stole you're brother's mistress's cousin's prosthetic leg. God bless us, everyone.
The Jackie Jr. stuff is starting to wear, though. The resolution feels pretty inevitable, and I'm ready for them to get to the fireworks factory already. The actor who plays Jackie Jr. just doesn't bring enough to the performance to really make the character compelling.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2015-07-14T01:51:54Z
I enjoyed this one well enough. The flashbacks were interesting. It was nice to see Pussy again, and Tony and the rest of the crew putting the pieces together of when and how Pussy was ratting on them was intriguing, but a lot of the revelations were really on the nose. Not that everything has to be super subtle, but it felt like the show was holding our hands through this episode, rather than letting the audience piece things together on its own. I did appreciate the subtle touches in makeup and wardrobe to convey that this was an earlier time, and it was also nice to see Jackie Sr. at his full power before he started to succumb to cancer.
The Santa scenes were pretty funny though. Leave it to The Sopranos to drop something super funny in with all the drama. Same thing with Janice, who has become one of my favorite characters in just how balls-to-the-wall crazy she is. When she cries and wants to talk about brotherhood in her song after Tony beats up her Russian assailant, it's hilarious. The spirit of Christmas is truly when your brother beats up an Eastern Block mobster after he roughed you up because you stole you're brother's mistress's cousin's prosthetic leg. God bless us, everyone.
The Jackie Jr. stuff is starting to wear, though. The resolution feels pretty inevitable, and I'm ready for them to get to the fireworks factory already. The actor who plays Jackie Jr. just doesn't bring enough to the performance to really make the character compelling.