Pine Barrens is an episode directed by Steve Buscemi who Is most known as an actor in his most notable works Fargo reservoir dogs and of course his biggest role as Enoch Thomson in boardwalk empire, so why I am saying all of this? It's because he is most known in his early career in the 90s by violent horrific scenes which somehow someway are very funny. If you don't believe that you sure didn't watch Fargo The movie yet. Well in this episode he did not act but directed it and what he created was the greatest episode of the sopranos so far. The episode follows Christopher and Paul trying to get money from somebody but things weirdly get wrong and they end up killing him, at least we think that's what happened. So they take him in a bag to the woods in a very cold day to burry him, however he is not dead yet so instead of killing him and finishing the deal our two very smart characters decide to kill him after he digs his own grave so they don't get tired, but of course this issue get worse even more . He kicks them and run, so they run after him and shoot a dozen of bullets in the air cause they aren't trained or anything they are just normal people despite that Paul hits him once in the head but weird things keep happening. Instead of falling and dying he keeps running, therefore they lose his track. So as a consequence of all of this mess, They are lost and this creates somewhat of a survival from cold and hunger which we see a lot of time in movies, Sometimes its even the main theme of it, But we take this topic as a serious one cause it deals with life and death, Except in this case it's not like that. It's dealt in a comedic way that can't allow you to stop laughing and that what's great about this episode. So how is that possible? How did they successfully turn a very serious matter to a comedic one. First thing is a very simple trick but effective. Paul and Christopher believe they are in danger but most importantly we don't think there is a 1% possibility that they may die, because we know the writer can't sacrifice two of the most important characters in what is nearly a filler episode. As a result of that I nearly died laughing.
Second these two characters are hilarious. You put them together that's a recipe for comedy. Forget the fact that they performed their best acting so far. They showed frustration, anger, fear, even hunger I felt it and of course genuine laugh on each other and on their stupid decisions Just amazing. And what makes the episode even greater is that Steve Buscemi didn't just fill the rest of the episode with empty nonsense. He exploited it developing the main plot, we observe the fall of the relationship between Tony and Gloria, and that's because of the craziness of her, throwing meat stakes at him, And the reason of that doesn't make any sense, he left dinner to rescue two friends from dying. Is that a realist reason to hate him, Nonsense. Anyway the point of all of that is the question asked by his therapist. What attracted you to this woman in the first place? Is there a woman you knew before that has the same character the same needs you can't forget her? Well we need to ask ourselves is it Irina who called him in the same day when he was with Gloria in the boat or is it someone else we don't know about yet? I think that question will be answered in the next episodes.
Second these two characters are hilarious. You put them together that's a recipe for comedy. Forget the fact that they performed their best acting so far. They showed frustration, anger, fear, even hunger I felt it and of course genuine laugh on each other and on their stupid decisions Just amazing. And what makes the episode even greater is that Steve Buscemi didn't just fill the rest of the episode with empty nonsense. He exploited it developing the main plot, we observe the fall of the relationship between Tony and Gloria, and that's because of the craziness of her, throwing meat stakes at him, And the reason of that doesn't make any sense, he left dinner to rescue two friends from dying. Is that a realist reason to hate him, Nonsense. Anyway the point of all of that is the question asked by his therapist. What attracted you to this woman in the first place? Is there a woman you knew before that has the same character the same needs you can't forget her? Well we need to ask ourselves is it Irina who called him in the same day when he was with Gloria in the boat or is it someone else we don't know about yet? I think that question will be answered in the next episodes.