Meadowlands

After three episodes bathed in occasional, casual brutality, Meadowlands represents a bit of a departure, with no blood and the only death being that of Jackie Aprile (Michael Rispoli), who succumbs to cancer and leaves the New Jersey crew without a leader. Tony is more shocked than most people by the event, and discloses the reason to Dr. Melfi: he isn't much older than Jackie, meaning he might die just like that in the near future. Christopher, on the other hand, is completely paranoid after being beaten up by Uncle Junior's henchmen and loses it completely after finding the corpse of his friend Brendan Filone. Completing the series of complex emotions is Anthony Jr. (Robert Iler), uncertain and bewildered after his sister has told him what their father really does for a living.

The title of this low-key episode might derive from the name of Tony's daughter, Meadow, and that is justified by the fact that her role is central to the plot: Christopher thinks Brendan carked it because Soprano Sr. found out they sold drugs to Meadow in the previous show, and it is the "perfect daughter" who lets in her younger brother on the family's biggest secret. These two plot threads also mark the perfect example of how David Chase and the writing team craft the supporting characters with care: Chris and his girlfriend Adriana (Drea de Matteo, originally a nameless waitress in the pilot) have, starting with Episode 3, proved to be more than just another wise-guy and his mistress, while A.J., a mere brat in the show's early moments, is starting to transform into a more layered, dramatic figure - it is testament to the brilliant script and the sharp performances that the relationship between the smarter Meadow and the more naive Anthony emerges as more solid than the usual teen siblings bond.

But let's not forget Gandolfini: a master of visceral violence, he gets to show Tony's softer side in Meadowlands, and the result is quite astonishing, never more so than he tearfully raises his glass in Jackie's honor and pays his respects with a heartfelt "Buon' anima". In addition, his facial expression is what truly makes the final scene extraordinary. Without revealing anything, I can say it cleverly subverts one of horror cinema's most iconic images: this time, it ain't the kid that's bad...

Tensions between Tony and Uncle Junior reach boiling point and AJ makes a big discovery.

This is a strong episode with a number of memorable moments.

Tony's fear of his therapy being discovered is an underlying factor in the best parts of Meadowlands. It starts with a surreal opening sequence that is the first of many great scenes of this type depicted by The Sopranos. Whether or not he continues seeing Dr Melfi is also the subject of a great exchange of dialogue with Carmela.

Ironically resolution to this dilemma is cleverly linked to his other big problem involving Junior. This is a brilliant idea by the writers for giving a logical reason for a self-serving character like Tony to choose a certain strategy. This theme is given plenty of acknowledgment and continuity in later episodes.

There is another great scene involving Livia as Tony visits her at Green Grove. James Gandolfini and Nancy Marchand are absolutely fantastic as ever in their banter.

The parallel B plot involving AJ's school confrontation for me is not as interesting, but is well done nonetheless. It also starts off a great father-son arc between Tony and AJ that gets even better in later episodes.

Some aspects of the scenes involving Vin Makazian feel a bit forced, but if anything thing they portray how Tony impacts the lives of ordinary people not even connected to organised crime. John Heard is superb.

Gandolfini leads the episode brilliantly as ever with the standout supporting performances, for me, being Michael Imperioli, Drea de Matteo, Jamie-Lynn Sigler and John Heard.

As always there is plenty of great visual storytelling, particularly in the opening and closing scenes. Even though it ends in a fairly somber situation it is made darkly funny by the look Meadow gives AJ.

For me it is an 8.5/10 but I round upwards:

The development keeps to be interesting and you just gets sucked more and more in with each episode!

This episode sees Tony in a stressfull situation after learning about Brendan and Chris's reaction! He id not okay with it. He desperately wants to Seattle it but without loosing face and still gain something from it! He likes to be in control and does not like when things gets out of control!

Also some interesting development with Dr. Melfi as Tony wants to know more about her and the fallout from that!

Also some very good development and focus on Tony's son Anthony, who does not know what his father is actually doing for a living and how he handles it!

This was definitely the greatest episode that I have watched so far. This was very emotional and amazing at the same exact time. Anyways, my favorite characters in this episode were Tony, Tony Jr., and Chris. This was definitely an underrated episode of all of the show, which is in terms of the rating. I haven't even seen half of the season yet, but/and this is already on track to being a top 10 show, top 5 if I had to sit down and think about it. I am pretty sure that this show brought so much to other crime shows, like Breaking Bad. Definitely watch this show if you are looking for one of the greatest crime experiences you want to see.

This was another great episode, I felt bad for Chris the first time but not this time honestly they could have killed off Chris here and saved us all his junkie antics later, other than that great episode with a lot going I like the back and forth between uncle jun and tony.