Probably a 6.5/10. I just feel nothing for the Juliana character. She seems transplanted from an entirely different show and her style just seems to clash tonally with the entire episode. I wasn't terribly moved by her story with Chris. We've seen him relapsing before, and it was done much better after his wine-heist with Tony. Watching people trip and do nothing isn't terribly interesting, and turning into a montage helped with that. Watching an uninteresting guest character be uninteresting with Chris wasn't a terrible compelling way to spend this would-be finale.
I did appreciate the small rivalry with Tony and Chris. The show hit similar territory with Meadow and Carmela, where Carmela was clearly jealous of the things her young daughter could accomplish and the possibilities still ahead of her. But Julianna really dragged things down, both in her acting and in the sort of toothless storyline.
The AJ story was...fine? I guess? It was interesting to see the difference in how AJ handled the situation with the loud neighbors versus how his father might have done it. Otherwise I didn't really know what to make of it. Are we seeing a small but significant amount of development from him? Is there a parallel to the idea explored in Season 5, namely that Tony needs Carmela in his life to keep him from spiraling out on his worst impulses? Maybe.
I did enjoy Tony's moment with Frank in the hospital. There's a definite sense that there's still something that's changed within him after the coma, even if it's not the clean break he might have initially thought. "There's enough for everyone" is an interesting sentiment, even if it feels like we may be a little too far down the path to his own destruction by now. He is having some realizations -- like the fact that all of his mistresses have a few things in common -- even if he can't put it all together. And we do gesture toward the mob war, though it may be adverted, or at least delayed.
I also liked the plot development with Tony finally helping out on the spec house as a way to keep Carmela distracted from thinking too hard about Adrianna. Tony doesn't want his wife to be too inattentive to his needs, but her being busy means that she's too busy to poke and prod at his business. And the bookends of the episode, a head being shoved under ground in the cold and the family warmly gathered at Christmas are an interesting contrast, with the music sealing the deal.
(I did have a big laugh at the stripper wearing the santa hat.)
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2015-08-11T20:27:31Z
Probably a 6.5/10. I just feel nothing for the Juliana character. She seems transplanted from an entirely different show and her style just seems to clash tonally with the entire episode. I wasn't terribly moved by her story with Chris. We've seen him relapsing before, and it was done much better after his wine-heist with Tony. Watching people trip and do nothing isn't terribly interesting, and turning into a montage helped with that. Watching an uninteresting guest character be uninteresting with Chris wasn't a terrible compelling way to spend this would-be finale.
I did appreciate the small rivalry with Tony and Chris. The show hit similar territory with Meadow and Carmela, where Carmela was clearly jealous of the things her young daughter could accomplish and the possibilities still ahead of her. But Julianna really dragged things down, both in her acting and in the sort of toothless storyline.
The AJ story was...fine? I guess? It was interesting to see the difference in how AJ handled the situation with the loud neighbors versus how his father might have done it. Otherwise I didn't really know what to make of it. Are we seeing a small but significant amount of development from him? Is there a parallel to the idea explored in Season 5, namely that Tony needs Carmela in his life to keep him from spiraling out on his worst impulses? Maybe.
I did enjoy Tony's moment with Frank in the hospital. There's a definite sense that there's still something that's changed within him after the coma, even if it's not the clean break he might have initially thought. "There's enough for everyone" is an interesting sentiment, even if it feels like we may be a little too far down the path to his own destruction by now. He is having some realizations -- like the fact that all of his mistresses have a few things in common -- even if he can't put it all together. And we do gesture toward the mob war, though it may be adverted, or at least delayed.
I also liked the plot development with Tony finally helping out on the spec house as a way to keep Carmela distracted from thinking too hard about Adrianna. Tony doesn't want his wife to be too inattentive to his needs, but her being busy means that she's too busy to poke and prod at his business. And the bookends of the episode, a head being shoved under ground in the cold and the family warmly gathered at Christmas are an interesting contrast, with the music sealing the deal.
(I did have a big laugh at the stripper wearing the santa hat.)