User Reviews

This does a much better job (than the pilot) of establishing the characters of The Sopranos as well as establishing what will be the look and feel of the series for it's duration. We see the already full formed characters such as Paulie, Pussy and Chris in action, doing what they do best, making calls, collecting debts and generally wheeling and dealing in their own inimitable fashion.

Every character in episode 2 is already the fully formed finished product, and the writing and acting is superb.

Immediately gone is the comical style and (most of) the ill advised artful camera angles of the pilot, any comedy flows naturally from the drama, such as the magical moment where Livia bounces her friend off her car bonnet (Nancy Marchand's twisted and addled delivery of all her scenes is awe inspiring and every time she is on screen we know we're in for a treat).

What we see here though is a proper hook for the casual viewer. An episode that will make people (who have not watched before) watch again. There's genuine tension and peril with the conflict between Chris and Brendan and Junior, as well as Tony and his mother. This episode is raw, angry, aggressive and rich in character development.

It's already a perfect example of The Sopranos we know and love.

Oh, and of course what fully formed episode of The Sopranos would be complete without Tony beating Georgie the barman with a telephone receiver? We have lift off.

9/10

Tony continues to deal with his stressful life. In the business he has Chris and Brendan rob trucks that are under uncle Junior which also results in an accidental death of a driver. And he has problems in private life as well when his mother has a fire at home and he is still trying to convince her to go to a "retirement community". And his son's teacher's car is stolen and Tony's people are on the case.

A good second episode where we get to know more of the characters and have more action.

Loved the acting, very talented cast. Especially liked Nancy Marchand as Tony's mother in this episode. And lets explore more on whether he hates her or not.

Unusually for an HBO series, this episode of The Sopranos has a teaser (or pre-credits sequence, if you prefer). It's a once-in-a-lifetime event that never occurred again throughout the show's run, but this one time is truly special: as Tony and his friends are chatting about Lady Diana, cloning and the Eiffel Tower, a program about organized crime is shown on TV. One of the interviewees is a former wise-guy (similar to Henry Hill in Goodfellas) who declares the glory days of the mafia are over, causing Silvio to cheer up the crew by quoting the most famous line from the third Godfather movie: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!". Cue "Woke Up This Morning" and another fifty minutes of essential gangster stories.

After a fairly streamlined pilot (just Tony talking to Dr. Melfi and a few flashbacks revealing how stressful his life is), David Chase goes for multiple plot threads in the second show: the main storyline sees Tony getting in trouble with Uncle Junior over a series of hijacked trucks Chris and his friend Brendan Filone are messing with, whereas two subplots deal with his private business, be it regarding his mother (he and Carmela are looking for a nursing home where she can live peacefully) or his son (AJ's teacher had a car that was stolen; Pussy and Paulie are in charge of getting it back). And in between he keeps exposing his thoughts in the psychiatrist's office.

With the first episode being mostly about the overweight mobster, 46 Long allows some of the supporting players to have more space for their true nature to come out: scariest of the lot is Junior, who may be old but not weak or foolish - this man will beat you to death if you give him the wrong look! Similarly creepy is Livia, who hides something sinister beneath the whining surface (the moment when she asks her son to stab her should have been enough to get Nancy Marchand an Emmy). Chris has an edgier side too, but is too ambitious to keep it under control, meaning things can (and will) get ugly in future shows.

However, for all the darkness there is also some priceless comedy, albeit of the foul-mouthed type: as Pussy (referencing Rockford, another Chase character) and Paulie search for the carjacker, they wind up at Starbuck's, where Paulie goes nuts over how them Yanks stole Italian "copyrights" (cappuccino, espresso, et cetera) and explodes in a memorable rant: "We invented this sh*t and all these other c*cksuckers are getting rich off it!". That such a funny scene is followed by violence is to be expected, given the series constantly juggles awkward humor and moments of pure nastiness, both of which are hugely watchable. In fact, the Godfather quote might even refer to how hard viewers find it to stop watching the show: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!".

After being introduced to the big fat Jersey mobster in the pilot, the big fat Jersey mobster's two families are given more wiggle room to show and develop themselves in '46 Long'.

The matriarchy is further reinforced by Tony's well-intentioned selfless visits of goodwill to Livia, in which he is eventually forced to put his foot down and his mother in the nursing home (or 'retirement community' as some prefer); Uncle Junior is angered by his nephew's nephew's actions regarding the hijacking of a DVD-loaded Comely truck (one of the few remaining pies Junior still has a whole finger in); Paulie and Pussy have to search for a stolen car belonging to AJ's science teacher (on Tony's orders of course, knowing his son's science grades could do with a boost) and acting boss Jackie Aprile comes out of chemo to rule on what will be his last sit-down.

A recurring theme in this episode is the then-imminent 21st Century, all the things that will come (and have already came) with it and our inability to handle them. Be it Georgy/Livia and their ineptitude with modern telecommunications; Tony's disregard for DVD players, in favour of his more familiar laserdiscs; the pole with which the various underbosses of the DiMeo crime family touch the soon-to-be empty throne atop the organisation ("This day and age? Who wants the f*ckin job?"); Chrissy's adherence to the Mafia hierarchy in fear of taking the other path alone, foregoing the guiding hand of his 'Uncle Tony'.

In Melfi's office Tony is forced to confront the fact that he may hate his mother -and he doesn't like it one bit (aren't sons supposed to love their mothers? he thinks). At the Bing, Georgy's phone-related f*ck-ups get to be too much for him when he ends up whacking (not 'whack' whacking) poor Georgy to the ground with the telecommunications device. On the way out of the strip-club, we share one of our common ponderous silences with Tony as the song 'Battle Flag' by Pigeonhed drones on with 'Maybe it's time to get down, on your m*therfuckin knees'. Maybe it is, Tony.

When I reviewed the pilot, I mentioned that the first episode of a show can be the most difficult in a show's run. What I probably should've mentioned is that the problems that can be encountered while making a pilot will almost definitely run over into the next few episodes as well, even if the foundation has already been established. '46 Long' certainly feels like the show is still finding its footing, what with the cold open scene, corny music during Tony's panic attack at Livia's house, and an overwhelming focus on black humour. This is not to say that all of these features are inherently misguided - I do really enjoy some of the humour in this episode - but it is obvious that the balance of the various elements of genre in this show have yet to be refined.

The reason for my high score comes predominantly because the scenes with Livia are just fantastic, both in how they are written and the excellent performance of Nancy Marchand. She provides an excellent comparison to the other world that Tony deals with (that being the gruesome world of the mafia) and her presence in the show is definitely integral to the character development of Tony Soprano. The scenes between Tony and Dr. Melfi are just as good, as we can see a determined Melfi cautiously trying to weave her way around Tony's lifestyle while attempting to be as direct as possible. I had almost forgotten how significant Melfi was as a character on her own before she became little more than an expository device in the later seasons.

The other parts of the episode (the stolen car and the truck hijacking) were still entertaining, but I think that the emphasis on comedic value was a slightly undermining factor in both scenarios, particularly with regard to the very stereotypical gay couple who stole the car. However, I did like how the episode had a central theme - generational conflict - with the interview shown during the cold open having many elements of foreshadowing to it.

"46 Long" is the second episode of the first season of The Sopranos. He does a great job developing the conflicts previously established in the previous episode much better. It focuses a little more on other characters like Chris or Brendan, with whom Tony is not entirely happy.

Again, it is not one of the best episodes of the series by far, but the truth is that it is an episode with a better development of the actions of the characters.

The only "but" that I put, is that sometimes the plot deviates a lot from the main plot in other not very important plots, as is the case of the car of the professor of A. J.

In conclusion, it is a pretty solid episode that lets us know more about the main and minor characters in the story.

8/10.

Tony's mom is insane!!! She's one of the craziest and best characters on the show. That face was a little creepy at the end. That part when she ran over her friend hahaha. Tony and his uncle are both captains in the family. They have crews under them but are level in terms of the hierarchy. Jackie is acting boss of the Di Meo family, since longtime reputed Boss Ercole 'Eckley' DiMeo was sent to prison. Christopher is actually a cousin of Tony's wife, Carmela but Tony calls him his "nephew". Love this show.

Not nearly as good as Episode 1, but still brilliant. I loved how this was the only episode that had a scene before the opening credits, and the fact that they were arguing about relevant things like FBI mob enforcement and then they got off in a tangent about Princess Diana. Steven Van Zandt shines in this episode as Silvio and so does Nancy Marchand. We are introduced to Chris' moronic buddy Brendan Filone who accidentally kills a Comely truck driver which infuriates Uncle Junior and Tony. The hit in this episode was interestingly done but nothing really intriguing. I loved the ending, where Tony has his mother on hold at the Bada Bing, and he's trying to think of what he should do. Written by David Chase; Directed by Daniel Attias. My Rating: 9/10.

So basically , its the same structure as the first episode .

We got the problem with the mom and even if its really interesting and we can feel that Tony tried really hard to help his mom to live her life. The POV with him looking at the pics let us see that he really loved her and how intimate that scene was .

We got that situation with the teacher get robbed his car but its very superficial and go wrong after an unintentional shot and murder .

We have also the therapy session but lets be honest its going nowhere : we got more feeling from Tony but thats all .

So yeah i dont really know what to think : it clearly lack of a big objective that keep our attention trough the whole season . The structure its kind of the same with different events and problems . Im a little bit disappointed but hope to see the Complexity and the meaning later.

From what I've been told, the pre-credits sequence in this episode is a once in a lifetime occurrence in the series, which can only signify its importance. It's a really interesting scene too – as a former wise-guy is interviewed on a television set, Tony and his friends discuss cloning, the Eiffel Tower, Lady Diana, and the programme on the television. Seeing their reactions to the man in the TV declaring the glory days of the mafia to be over is somewhat curious – it demonstrated that these men knew that they were mobsters, they acknowledged it. They also despised those who spoke against their organisation. Plus it was cool just to see these guys playing cards and talking about the trivial talk.

The dude in the TV brings up an interesting point. He claims that the modern mafia have lost their mojo, that the sense of honour and the code of silence that kept them strong for so many years was gone. The mafia had eaten itself inside out. What's also interesting is that this point is recognised by both Tony Soprano and Chris Moltisanti on separate occasions in this episode. No doubt that this will play a huge part in future story lines. Other than that the intro allows for Silvio to cheer up the crew by hilariously quoting Al Pacino's most famous line from The Godfather Part III, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."

46 Long is an excellent episode. It feels like the true beginning of The Sopranos. Tony's accent has been changed to make it more authentic, the characters are more recognisable, and the story seems to be fleshing itself out. It all seems more coherent and streamlined. I imagine, now that the cast and crew knew the series had been officially green lighted, they all brought their A game.

There are multiple plot threads in the second episode, the key of which involves Chris and his idiotic friend Brenden Filone hijacking trucks which belong to Tony's Uncle Junior, which prompts several arguments and lessons learned for the troublesome youths. Despite his recklessness and inability to control his outbursts Chris is shown to be loyal to Tony. The other major plot line involves a continuation of Tony's troubles with his mother, which have amplified so much that she has ended up setting fire to her house and running over her friends. After many hilarious rants from both mother and son, she eventually (and grudgingly) agrees to move into the nursing home- I mean, a retirement community. This scene if followed by a particularly touching one of a teary-eyed Tony going through his mum's old portrait photos….and having one of his now- infamous anxiety attacks. Which brings us back to the shrink meeting with Lorraine Bracco, in which Tony, in spite of his mother's inappropriate behaviour and the psychiatrist's provoking questions, defends his mother. He states, rather movingly, that it is a son's duty to care for his mother.

The third plot line involves that of Anthony Jr's teacher having his car stolen and Tony, for all the wrong reasons of course, offers to find it for him using the dynamic duo Paulie and Salvatore. This pairing is something else. I was cracking up so much at the antics from these two as they searched for clues on the whereabouts of the vehicle, especially Paulie. From his ingenious breaking-and-entry method to his bemoaning of the theft of Italian culture. Not to mention they fail to deliver the car but refuse to give up – Anthony Jr's teacher is bemused when he finds his car safely in the parking area. Except with none of his papers. And it's a different colour. And the paint is still wet.

In conclusion I very much enjoyed what I think is the real opening of The Sopranos, as it contained plenty of humour and drama, juggling the two well enough for a seamless 50 minutes of gangster life.

My Rating: 8/10

Full Review: http://cineranter.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/the-sopranos- review-s1e2-46-long/

They can finally convince Mrs soprano to move to a nursing home after she hit one of his friends with her car. The driver got shot dead when Brendan was robbing his truck.