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The Sopranos: Walk Like a Man (2007)
Father-son relationship #16 #17
Yes, that is right, I am referring to the previous episode and this one too. This show is remarkably written and although not many people liked the previous episode ( myself included ) I decided upon reading one of the reviews not to rate it until moving a bit further. I can now say that the symbolism of this season is outstanding! Let me try to break it down from my own perspective.
1)in e16, we saw Tony's gambling problem, if we look back to the past seasons ( can't exactly remember which ) we hear Tony saying " I don't know what my dad thought of me " and before that, there was a flashback scene where his father (who did not give him a lot of guidance) explicitly advised him against gambling. Looking at Tony going against his father's advice, got him into the gambling problem with all the immature egos of realization that came with it.
2) In this episode, we see AJ's problem and the way his father directed him, which if well-written should be the first sign of AJ's turning point in the mafia world. His way of looking up to his father will return as it was lost in this season.
As for everything else in this episode, we see Tony's understanding that the depression (along with addiction) is fully inherited and there's nothing that would change that which will result in him ending up the sessions with Dr. Melfi and accepting it as it is. I should however point out that Dr. Melfi has been amazingly accurate with her medical knowledge and should have understood that and addressed him.
Since the Cleaver, Tony's awareness of how Chris blames him and resents him may have seemed unjustified but is proven in this episode when he was talking about Ad with his sponsor.
Lastly, I want to address Chris's perception of his friends that they are not real friends, this has actually been pointed out previously when one of the crew members borrowed money from Vito knowing that he will be dead soon and when all of the crew heard the news one of them said " I wish I borrowed money from him". That shows what they are to one another.
The Sopranos: Stage 5 (2007)
On the verge of the end
This episode is simply perfect. First we have the cleaver, which was produced mainly by Christopher, Carmella brings up the feeling that disturbs her about it which is that it represents Tony, the latter didn't see it this way at first instead he took it as a complement. Heres where it gets interesting, on episode 13 we saw Chris bring up Ad to his wife after they bought the house, making it clear for us that deep down inside him, he still did not forget about Adriana. Now Chris would not agree, however, it is very subconscious. This thought is augmented by Tony's scene with Dr. Melfi by saying that he learned something about the subconscious mind. Back in season 1 (or 2 ) we saw Tony's preferences to women changed with his Russian gomar asking to talk to her instead of just having sex.
You might argue that this happened because of his attractiveness to Dr. Melfi which happened at the same time, which is by all means a valid point, however, there was also a scene with him and Chris in the car talking about his life and Tony at that time in the same season, was asking him about suicidal thoughts, depression which ultimately proves the end point of him learning something from Dr. Melfi.
There are a lot of details in this perfect episode, all in this marks the ending theme of this magnificent show, with the war on the verge.
Finally, it looks like there will be many small conflicts rather than 1 big war, with Tony and Chris relationship, Phill and Chris, Doc and Tony along with inside conflicts between the NYC mob on taking the leadership. This season should truly fulfill and deliver!
The Sopranos: Johnny Cakes (2006)
A smooth transition in characters
This represents a very smooth transition and change of hearts in three characters. Vito's acceptance to his own reality and realization that he has been lying to himself about his sexual orientation. AJ's reaction to revenge was very much motivated by his desire to be "cool" by his friends, ended with an attempted murder and was not charged by the police due to Tony's connections and then taking a turn in his character after this event to be the most stressing situation is when his friends talk to him about his dad to the point where he gets panic attacks.
As doctor Melfi asks a very particular question saying "deep down inside you, do you blame Karm for AJ's behavior?" And the answer to that gets clearer that Tony's reputation is actually whats distressing him.
Tony's shift of character is the smoothest of all, it has been very obvious that he has been very "accepting" after being shot, he found that a little problematic to handle when it comes to his crew, so he copes with it by acting angry in many times. In this episode he has his old habits which he tries to maintain and get rid of at the same time, a very -understandably- conflicting personality. It is obvious that he wants to change, and tries somehow, but it doesn't seem to be as easy as he thought. Overall, I think this is the turning point of his character to be a more wise and stable leader of his house and his crew.
Finally, the neighborhood is changing, with big corporates moving in, which looks to be a problem and a challenge to his crew to make money off of it as they mostly relay on small businesses by keeping them "safe" .. unless they expand to more ways to earn, they will definitely have a lot of problems.
Luther (2010)
A good show
It is a good detective show that asks a couple of good philosophical questions, would you do the wrong things for the right reasons? This is the biggest question that runs all over the show .. another thing I noticed is how the British detectives don't carry guns in contrast with American ones who won't hesitate to shoot when they feel slightly threatened, I find the British version of doing things a little too conservative and the American ones a little too much. It has the tension to attract you till the end. In a lot of times, you'd wonder what would be the right choice if you were in Luther's place or any of the other characters. Worth watching.