Created and written by David Chase; starring James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Drea de Matteo, Robert Iler, Adia Turturro, Jamie Lynn Sigler, Dominic Chianese, and Joe Pantoliano as Ralph Cilfaretto.
With only slightly less fanfare than the series’ second season premier, The Sopranos kicked off its third season with a two-episode extravaganza Sunday night. With the exception of Big Pussy (who was fed to the fish at the end of last season) and Mama Soprano (the actress Nancy Marchand, who played Tony’s mother Livia, passed away in June), the gang’s all back. And there are even a few new additions, including Hoboken’s very own Joe Pantoliano as Ralph Cilfaretto.
The first episode chronicles FBI agents as they struggle to wiretap the Sopranos house. Set to the Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” the episode is slow and methodical and encapsulates why the series is such a critical success. We witness, through the eyes (and binoculars) of the agents, the Sopranos go about their daily lives: Tony’s heads off to work; Anthony Jr. cuts an assembly at school; Carmela attends her weekly tennis lesson; and Meadow acclimates to her first year at Columbia University. The only real drama occurs when the FBI agents are forced to abandon their mission because the Sopranos’ water heater explodes, flooding the basement and sending Tony and Carmela back to the house.
With the exception of The Untouchables and maybe Married to the Mob, audiences generally root for the gangsters in American mob movies. The Sopranos is no exception. We feel a sense of relief when, at the end of the episode, the only information the FBI uncover is that according to Carmela, Tony needs more roughage in his diet. When David Chase juxtaposes these romanticized images of mob with the quotidian aspects of suburban life – like bursting water heaters and tennis lessons – The Sopranos is at its best. The second hour of Sunday night’s season premier, which focuses on Livia’s death, is only slightly less evocative. In typical Sopranos fashion, the hour begins with a slice of “ordinary” suburban life. Tony awakes to find Meadow watching a movie with a male classmate. Unfortunately, the slice of life quickly turns acrid when Tony warns the student, who is half black and half Jewish, to stay away from his daughter.
Just when things between father and daughter are about to heat up, Tony learns that his mother has passed away. After an excruciating memorial culminating in Carmela acknowledging that Livia was a miserable wretch, Chase offers us a shot of Tony, alone in the dark, watching the classic gangster movie Public Enemy starring James Cagney. (We are shown excerpts from the movie throughout the episode.) The movie ends with Cagney’s character’s corpse being dumped on his mother’s front door. Unlike Livia, who orchestrated a failed hit on Tony during the series’ first season, the mother in Public Enemy expresses unconditional love for her gangster son. Watching Tony watch the movie, his agony is almost palpable.
Needless to say, if the first two episodes are a sign of things to come, the third season of the Sopranos maybe the best yet.