Product Description
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All thirteen episodes from the second series of the
Mafia family saga. In 'Guy Walks in to a Psychiatrist's Office',
Tony is now in control of the family business, but faces further
professional and famiglia problems in the form of the Feds,
long-lost sister Janice, nephew Christopher and a returned Big
Pussy, keen to prove that he is no rat. 'Do Not Resuscitate' sees
Junior out of jail on medical release, while the ailing Livia
fears that her son is planning to pull the plug on her. In
'Toodle-F**king-oo', Richie Aprile - brother of the late, great
mobster Jackie, is out of jail after ten years, and tells his
former protégée Tony that he wants his turf back. 'Commendatori'
sees Tony travelling to the old country to discuss the family car
'export' business with Zi Vittorio, head of the Napoli branch of
the family. In 'Big Girls Don't Cry', Tony reorganizes the
pecking order of his various employees, and while Paulie and
Silvio are happy with their respective promotions, Christopher
and Pussy are less than impressed. 'The Happy Wanderer' sees Tony
back in therapy with Dr Melfi, and railing against having to
organise an 'executive' game of poker for various Mafia
high-flyers. In 'D-Girl', Christopher decides he would like to
become a Hollywood player, while Pussy is threatened with prison
unless he goes into Tony's house wearing a wire. 'Full Leather
Jacket' sees Richie attempting to make peace with Tony, while
Carmela turns to her neighbour for advice about Meadow's
prospects at college. In 'From Where to Eternity', Christopher
has an out-of-body experience during surgery, while Dr Melfi
turns to her own psuchiatrist for help over her substance abuse.
'Bust-Out' sees Richie approaching Junior regarding a possible
alliance, and Tony decides to drive David Scatino out of business
just as Carmela hired Scatino's brother-in-law to decorate their
living room.In 'House Arrest', Tony is advised by his lawyer to
spend more time on his legitimate business ventures. 'The Knight
in White Satin Armour' sees Tony preparing to sever all ties with
an out of control Richie. Finally, in 'Funhouse', a doubt-ridden
Tony decides to find out where he really stands with Pussy once
and for all.
From .co.uk
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The second series of The Sopranos, David Chase's
ultra-cool and ultra-modern take on New Jersey gangster life,
matches the brilliance of the first, although it's marginally
less violent, with more emphasis given to the stories and
obsessions of supporting characters. Sadly, the programme makers
were forced to throttle back on the appalling struggle between
gang boss Tony Soprano and his Gorgon-like Mother Livia, the very
stuff of Greek theatre, following actress Nancy Marchand's
unsuccessful battle against cancer. Taking up her slack, however,
is Tony's big sister Janice, a New Age victim and arrant schemer
and sponger, who takes up with the twitchy, face-wannabe
Richie Aprile, brother of former boss Jackie, out of prison and a
minor pain in Tony's ass. Other running sub-plots include soldier
Chris (Michael Imperioli) hess efforts to sell his real-life
Mafia story to Hollywood, the return and treachery of Big Pussy
and Tony's wife Carmela's ruthlessness in placing daughter Meadow
in the right college. Even with the action so dispersed, however,
James Gandofini is still toweringly dominant as Tony. The genius
of his performance, and of the programme makers, is that, despite
Tony being a whoring, unscrupulous, sexist boor, a crime boss and
a murderer, we somehow end up feeling and rooting for him,
because he's also a family man with a bratty brood to feed, who's
getting his balls busted on all sides, to say nothing of keeping
the Government off his back. He's the kind of crime boss we'd
like to feel we would be. Tony's decent Italian-American
therapist Dr Melfi's (Loraine Bracco) perverse attraction with
her gangster-patient reflects our own and, in her case, causes
her to lose her first series cool and turn to drink this time
around. Effortlessly multi-dimensional, funny and frightening,
devoid of the sentimentality that afflicts even great American TV
like The West Wing, The Sopranos is boss of bosses in its
televisual era. --David Stubbs