The Sopranos. Season Two

The modern-day mobsters are back for the second season.

Well, we all know the premise of this series: The Sopranos is about a New Jersey crime family, and the life behind the gangster curtain─and all the domestic problems included with it.

Season Two sees the once-mighty Uncle Junior indicted, and he spends most of the season under house arrest─complete with the sensor strapped to his ankle. Because of this, his nephew Tony (played by James Gandolfini) now officially becomes the Don of New Jersey. We also see these mobsters dip their hands in anything that will make money, which include airline ticket scams and sales of bogus phone cards.

We also see some changes in the old characters. Aside from T running the show now, his shrink Dr. Melfi begins drinking vodka before their therapy sessions. AJ Soprano undergoes the normal confusion of puberty as he begins to question life after reading the works of Camus and Nietzsche, while Meadow Soprano graduates high school in the season finale. Chrissy Moltisanti (played by Michael Imperioli, who coincidentally wrote Episode 22 of this series) discovers his artistic side, and begins flirting with acting and the movies (watch out for cameo appearances by Janeane Garofalo and director Jon Favreau). But later on in the season, Chrissy encounters a near-death experience when two of his underlings make an attempt on his life. Silvio and Paulie are bumped up to the position of capo, and Tony finally breaks up with his hot Russian girlfriend Irina. And where is Pussy Bompensiero in all of this? He wasn't promoted, because he was a rat for the feds.

Of course, Season Two also has some new characters, including Richie Aprile, elder brother of former boss Jackie Aprile. Then there's Tony's sister Janice Soprano (who also goes by the name of "Parvati," part of some New Age name-change phase she's been going through). And then there's Furio Giunta, the ponytailed thug the Soprano crew brought home with them from Italy.

Season Two has love─Richie Aprile marries Janice Soprano; murder─Janice Soprano kills Richie Aprile; and an execution─Tony, Sil, and Paulie execute their close friend-turned rat Pussy on a boat in the high seas. This is only the second part of the Soprano saga, and there will definitely be more to come.


Rating: Four stars.