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The Washington Post gave season six remarkable credit as “The television landmark that leaves other landmarks in the dust.” This final season is certainly full of drama and violence. Tony nearly succumbs to a gunshot wound, inflicted by his Uncle Junior, who is growing increasingly more senile. Johnny Sack’s imprisonment is straining the virulent relations between the New Jersey and New York families almost to the breaking point. He is forced to face up to a final enemy, cancer, that proves to be too powerful an adversary. Tony discovers that his captain, Vito, is gay, which raises even more tensions, since Vito’s wife’s cousin is head of the New York Mob. He’s so incensed by the dishonor that Vito has brought upon his family that he has Vito killed. Season six continually confronts Tony with new stresses, including troubles on the job that cast suspicions upon almost all members of the staff. Plus he faces the necessity of dealing with increasing chaos in his home life and pressures from the law. The final season will consist of nine episodes. The first episode, which began airing on April 8th, confronted Tony with a brutal reality check from Bobby, his henpecked brother-in-law, who beats him up. Not to give too much away, Tony ends up bringing vengeance down upon Bobby “Tony style.” The opening two episodes set the stage for the destiny that Tony Soprano is heading for, rather than being explosive and full of action like Season 5, for example, which was my personal favorite. There are scenes showing Tony fishing and looking for excuses about why Bobby had beaten him up. Bobby is given his first assignment to do a hit, and struggles to do so. He is struggling to deal with the reality that his kids are no longer children but not yet grown. Christopher finally finishes production on his movie The Cleaver, which gets Tony into trouble with Camila because she picks up on the fact that the movie plot is based upon Tony’s life and reveals the sordid details of Tony’s affair with Christopher’s old girlfriend, Adriana, who later got whacked by Silvio, Tony’s number two. Following Tony’s progress during this sixth season is like taking a Mob 101 course. I’m anxious to see how it all ends. I have to say that I really do hope they kill off Janice, who must be Sopranos most annoying character. It will be poignant to see the Sopranos come to an end. The stories of violence, lawlessness, betrayal, and injustice were told with a panache and charm that somehow redeemed all the carnage. The Sopranos has been an outstanding masterpiece and one of the best series that HBO ever produced. Thanks HBO for great television! Behind the Scenes on the Sopranos’ Movie Set One of the elements that always kept viewers off balance was the fact that any cast member could be killed off at any time. Steven R. Schirripa (who played Bobby, Tony’s brother-in-law) referred to this as the “Big Pussy Rule,” since if a major character such as Big Pussy could be killed off, as he was in season 2, then no character except for Tony himself was safe. The director, David Chase, always informed the actors far in advance of the death of a major character in order to prepare them for the event. The cast made it a tradition to take cast members who are scheduled for death to a restaurant in Little Italy, named Il Cortile, for a farewell dinner. The Sopranos always had an emphasis upon violence. Here are the numbers: 1. From Season 1 through episode 2 of Season 6 there were 75 deaths, including 52 murders. The so-called “Aprile Curse” was a theme common to every season because at least one member of the Aprile crew or family dies. |
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