Pine Barrens

Simply one of the finest episodes that ever graced not just modern-day television but TV full stop! Buscemi did a sublime job in adding sympathetic moments to comedic ones. Tony & Gloria's match-ups are fantastic but Paulie & Chrissy show every actor how it's done. Who knows what eventually happens to the Interior Decorator, just absorb the beauty that is Pine Barrens. The music is spot on and the hilarity of the lines make this one to savour. "Put remote back on docking station" and revel in the performances of some truly great actors. A true masterpiece in the annuls of TV. Do not mix relishes either, it just don't taste good!! R.I.P Big Jim.

This episode stands out because of the quirky tone. I fully understood why this was the case when I saw it was directed by Steve Buscemi, who's undoubtedly taken notes from the Coen brothers. The tone works so well with the 2 main characters in the episode, Chris, and especially Paulie, who often stand for the laughs.

It's got all the ingredients for a great dark comedy. Paulie and Chris get lost in the woods while looking for a crazy russian they thought was dead. They keep calling Tony for help and this results in him having a steak thrown at him.

While the drama is there, this is the first time 'The Sopranos' has felt like a mostly comedic attempt to make fun of the characters, which is exactly what the show sometimes need.

As an actor, Steve Buscemi has a thing for playing acerbic, tastily verbose misfits or weirdos - Exhibit A: his collaborations with Tarantino and the Coen Brothers. And though I'm not familiar with his work as a feature film director, I'd guess he applies the same sensibility behind the camera, judging from the four episodes of The Sopranos he directed in Seasons 3-6: the typically black humor that characterizes the show reaches its culmen of darkness, pushing the absurdity button like never before. The best example of this is his first contribution to the show, the delightfully quirky Pine Barrens.

The title is taken from a wood just outside New Jersey, where Paulie and Christopher plan to bury a Russian hood who caused them trouble while they were collecting money on behalf of a flu-stricken Silvio. Things don't really go as imagined: the Russian isn't dead when they arrive, so he runs away in the middle of the woods. As Chris and Paulie pursue him, they get lost and must seek shelter in an abandoned truck, since staying out in the open during the night would most likely kill them (it's freezing cold). Back at home, on the other hand, Tony gets to experience Gloria's darker side after a jealous Irina calls him during a date, and Meadow's romance with Jackie Jr. comes to a painful end.

That last plot batch is handled with a lot of care, the result being a poignant closure to one of the season's predominant sub-stories. Elsewhere, however, Buscemi isn't as mannered; on the contrary, he exploits the surreal nature of ongoing events to deliver what can only be described as the darkest of comedies. The Tony-Gloria thing, for one, climaxes in a wonderfully crazy sequence that deserves to be cherished as one of the show's most memorable. But what really sets Pine Barrens apart from all other episodes is the central section: the prospect of watching two beloved characters freeze to death in the middle of nowhere should be downright terrifying, but the atmosphere created by the director and the profanely witty conversations between Sirico (at his best) and Imperioli have the opposite effect, inducing hysterical laughter instead of angst.

Quite simply a wonderful 50 minutes. The finest of the entire season.

This series premiered over 20 years ago. I heard of it, seen "Bada Bing" on t-shirts, coffee cups etc, listened to many people talking about this series, but still had no interest in it.

Finally, a few months ago, I decided to check it out. At first I was kind of forcing myself to get through the episodes, wondering what all the hub-bub was about.

I am getting more intrigued now. And this episode is the cream of the crop thus far. It is really cool for the producers to put some comedy into this otherwise serious show.

Excellent television right here. Watching it in 2019 & it still holds.