User Reviews

As a consequence of Brendan's death, Chris is worried about his life and is angry about Junior. Tony wonders how to deal with it and gets a good advice from Dr. Melfi to make his uncle feel like he is in charge. He does so by giving him the title of another mafia guy who passes away from cancer. He also wants to learn more about his doctor and the guy he assigns to do it beats up her friend. There is also some new development in the relationship with his son as Anthony finds out what his father really does for living.

A pretty good episode. I guess for now the issue with uncle Junior is settled but I would assume this isn't for long. I liked the story with the young son finding out who his father is. This could bring some interesting development. And another thing that Tony's work may have an effect on is the life of his doctor who already got affected. now how will this go?

Tony is becoming very concerned about being discovered as a psychiatric patient, knowing it won't be good for images. Christopher discovers his friend Brendans' corpse and becomes paranoid, ultimately determined to wage some sort of war with Uncle Junior. Jackie succumbs to cancer, which will mean someone else will need to ascend to his just-vacated position. Tony takes this death particularly hard, knowing it could just as easily have been him. Anthony Jr., after repeated scuffles at school, realizes that a classmate is scared of him, and is mystified by this fact. It is Meadow who educates the blissfully unaware Anthony Jr. on just what their father REALLY does for a living.

Also among the story threads is the fact that Tony has decided to learn whatever he can about Dr. Melfi, and tasks a corrupt police detective (veteran actor John Heard, making his first appearance in the role) with tailing her. This enables us to see more of the doctors' personal life, and adds to the drama when the unstable detective oversteps his bounds and decides to beat up the doctors' date (Mark Blum). So now we have more than just Christopher as an on-the-edge character who wonders what will become of him; the date can tell he's being shadowed and is now afraid to venture outside his home.

'Meadowlands" has moments both utterly affecting - Tony reacting to hearing of Jackies' death - and humorous - as Tony administers some punishment to Mikey Palmice using a stapler. The air is thick with tension during crucial confrontations between Tony and Uncle Junior, but Tony realizes that it will be better for him if it is his uncle who fills the power vacuum.

Light on violence this time around, but containing some powerful passages, this sizes up as another engrossing episode of this popular series.

Eight out of 10.

Opening with one of David Chase's typically provocative dream sequences, wherein Tony (or rather Tony's subconscious) confronts the possibility that he may be using Melfi for the motherly attention he craves, that his crew suspect him of seeing a shrink, that his life may end soon like Jackie's and that he is perhaps neglecting his son. Tony wakes up to the reality; plays his son at Mario Kart for some much-needed bonding where, as in life, he cheats to win.

This episode is as much about the patriarchy as the matriarchy, with Tony having to contend with his troubling yet fatherly Uncle Junior over the killing of fellow troublemaker Brendan Filone; deciding with the other Capos on a new 'man of the house' once Jackie passes ; his own son's curiosity over how he does business and the security he needs from the risk 'the whole (shrink) arrangement' could be to his credibility -and life.

In the end however, all his problems seem to be solved when he makes amends with Junior by crowning him de jure boss of north Jersey, with Tony as de facto mob boss. However, the crown will serve as a lightning rod for all of the surveillance, hits and arrests; providing Tony with the patriarchal security he needed from his Uncle all along. As AJ will see at his Uncle Jackie's funeral, his father has far more sons than him alone.

Tony's maternal tendencies are still explored, with further comparisons drawn between Melfi and Livia in the form of the advice they lend to the men (Livia telling Junior how to handle Filone) in the mob, with Jennifer unwittingly becoming an accomplice to Tony's crimes when she advises him to create an 'illusion of control' for his 'testing' elders. You'll find the dirt tends to stick, Jen.

I love when Melfi finally realizes that Tony has used insights to be a better gangster and that she's basically become just another one of Tony's criminal operations. It's our moment as the audience where we realize we've been rooting for a monster. I always feel like Tony Soprano was as relatable and even likeable as he was because Gandolfini's genuine warmth seeped through during just such moments. This is basically where AJ stops being a likeable kid and becomes a lost, hopeless douche. I mean AJ is annoying throughout, yet the scripting is quite good at showing why that is, and how he's disillusioned with a life of unearned luxury earned by a psychotic, highly dangerous father. That mob website Meadow showed AJ was hosted by Geocities and took 8 mins to load. I love how meadow gave that I told you so look. Also AJ looked so innocent & naïve and I loved the way Jimmy/Tony winked at his son, it gave me warmth. That closing shot of AJ and Tony looking at each other at the funeral always breaks my heart. The decision to make peace by giving Junior the title of caporegime, if in name only, was such a brilliant decision on Tony's part and lets the audience know that this guy isn't alpha dog only because of his imposing physicality, but that he's also intellectually superior to other gangsters around him.

"Meadowlands" continues the hot streak of episodes from the first season, being even better than "Denial, Anger, Acceptance".

It really is a very interesting episode. First of all, we get to see a little more of A. J.'s school life. And his different fights with the boys from school, ending in A. J. winning a fight without even fighting.

Tony's hallucinations increase when he looks at his peers in Dr. Melfi's office and also Tony's sadness to know that Jackie has passed away because of his fight against cancer (something that sincerely saddened me because I really liked the character). Chris's fear also increases when he discovers the bloody scene of the crime of his friend Brendan, who has been shot in the eye.

But without a doubt the best thing about the episode was the moment when A. J. discovers that his father is in the mafia. That scene at Jackie's funeral really lets us see that A. J. he has begun to notice everything his father is involved in, thanks to Meadow who also told him about it previously.

In conclusion, Meadowlands is one of the best episodes of the entire series which has crucial moments in the development of the characters.

10/10.

After last week's stellar episode, 'Meadowlands' (to me at least) feels like a bit of a comedown. Don't get me wrong, it's still good, but I found some of the writing in this episode to be a tad clunkier than usual. That being said, this episode has some significant milestones for the series. The hypnotic dream sequence at the beginning is the first of many to come, and this episode is also the first to really put an emphasis on A.J. over Meadow. With regard to the dream sequence, there's a lot of good stuff going on (the Melfi and Livia comparison, A.J. peeping through the door, Jackie's foreboding speech), but I've never understood why the newspaper that Paulie is reading is in Japanese. It's not the only event in the episode that felt without purpose - Tony beating up Mikey Palmice is such an uncharacteristically blunt move that could have landed him a LOT of trouble and is a moment that seems to exist only to fill up a violence quota - this is supposed to be a mob show, after all(!)

This episode is quite an important one for Dr. Melfi, whose involvement with Tony begins to intervene with her personal life as he demands to know more about her. This intrusion comes in the form of the stereotypical bent cop, Detective Vin Makazian, as he beats up Dr. Melfi's date for little to no reason. Despite Melfi seeming to be on the ball at this point with regard to Tony's psychology, the two fairly obvious Freudian slips he makes as she explains the situation appear to go over her head.

Of course, this is not Melfi's only major purpose in this episode - she inadvertedly gives Tony some very strategic advice, leading Tony to reconsider quitting therapy. Of course, I am referring to Melfi telling Tony to give controlling elderly people the illusion of control, which he puts firmly into action by giving Junior the position of acting boss. This is definitely my favourite part of the episode and for me it is one of the defining moments in the season. Other moments I really liked include all of the scenes featuring Christopher and Adriana, Livia's never ending pessimism during her conversation with Tony, and Jackie's bittersweet funeral.

One final (rather petty) point: I can forgive the clichés of A.J.'s storyline here for the sake of important exposition and some great scenes for his character towards the end of the episode, but what I CANNOT forgive is how sloppily the Mario Kart scene was executed. I mean, the least they could've done was told James Gandolfini how to hold the controller properly!

The fourth episode of The Sopranos opens with a bizarre dream sequence from Tony, in which his subconscious focuses on Dr Melfi's lovely legs (Oo-lalla is this going somewhere?), his crew suspect him of seeing a shrink, he fears he may end up like Jackie, he faces the possibility that he may be using Jennifer for some much-craved motherly attention, and confronts the fact that he is neglecting his son. After he wakes up, Tony plays some Mario Kart with Anthony Jr and, like in his life, covers his son's eyes and cheats to win. Meadowlands makes a departure from the casual violence that we have seen in the first three episode. Here we can see how a mob typically reacts to a death in their ranks when they find out. From Chris' side, he's become paranoid after seeing his friend lying in a blood bath and misguidedly suspects this was Tony's doing for giving his daughter drugs, spouting all sorts of frenzied drivel. He then spends a couple of days avoiding Tony and confronts Meadow, who is sure to tell him that she had nothing to do with it. And from Uncle Junior's point of view, well, nothing of course. A hit is a hit, and the next time we see Uncle Junior and his crew he is contently eating away, probably awaiting a far more important death in the coming days. Chris joins the crew in visiting Jackie in the hospital. It was slightly – hmm, is touching the correct word? - seeing Tony's reaction to Chris walking in with a cervical collar. He wisely suggests that this was Junior's doing. Chris, rather unwisely, loads his gun and, unless I misinterpreted the scene, prepared to whack a made man. Talk about doing a Tommy DeVito. Luckily he's brought to his senses by his boss. After failing to fight off the cancer, Jackie finally snuffs it. In doing so, he leaves New Jersey without a boss, which could threaten to start a war unless Tony plays his cards right. Before the announcement of the death, Tony, in the most macho way possible, confronts Junior about the death of Brendan and the beating of Chris. He does so in an extremely professional fashion. Despite this, Junior makes senseless demands and warns Tony to come "heavy" the next time he comes down Junior's place. I've found Junior's behaviour pretty disgusting and quite simply I think he's a cranky old man. And, according to Tony's crew, the big guys down in New York think so too. Despite this, Tony plays it cool and gets an idea after having talked to Dr Melfi about giving senior citizens the illusion of control. Speaking of Dr Melfi, Tony hires a corrupt detective to follow her without hurting the woman or any one she is with. So of course the guy goes bat **** crazy and proceeds to beat up Jennifer's date on a night out. Still, at least he got enough Intel to let Tony know that his psychiatrist has issues of her own. This low key but very important episode's title is probably derived from Tony's daughter, who plays a central figure to the plot. She of course is blames by Chris for his beating at first, and interestingly tells a naïve Anthony Jr the truth about their father. This is after the boy raises a question about why another kid at school refused to fight him. These little scene show just how much David Chase and co. take care of the supporting cast, who are all fully realised characters with their own problems and issues. This is amplified in the episode's closing at Jackie's funeral, where Anthony Jr looks on at his father confused and taken aback at having learned the truth, who in turn gives him a sharp wink. The most pivotal scene in the episode comes after Tony's heartfelt "Buon' anima" with the crew in honour of Jackie. He goes down heavy to Junior's (who awaits him without a sign of sorry at the loss of Jackie) and crowns Junior and the de jure boss of north Jersey. What may seem like a submissive move carried out in order to avoid a fight is in fact extremely clever: everyone knows Tony is the man who really runs things, but he won't be the one serving as a magnet for surveillance and hits. In addition Tony gains two new territories. Junior is now the face and the face alone. For me I feel Junior knows that Tony is the true boss. I think he's jealous and spiteful of him for it. Had he had enough balls he could have called himself the boss and taken the claim to the captains, but instead waits for the main who really calls the shots to make a decision. This could be seen as a wise move on Junior's part though, and any hasty decisions could lead to tension and, ultimately, war. Tension s all around, but the big game players are being wise. Christopher, take note. My Rating: 7.5

An interesting episode .

We got that Tony want to know more about his shrink and i need to say that she is very sensual and sexy : its a pleasure to look at her during the sessions. But everything go wrong. When the mens sent by Tony beat her friend .

And with that incident , it unlocked something quite new : its the shrink who tell her story to Tony .

We got that delusion from Tony's son who learned the hard way the real job of Tony and see the repercussions on his life and his ennemies at school.

Junior have that new title after the death of Jackie and have a new deal with Tony .

Tony and his wife get a little bit more distant in that episode .

The events were pretty great and follow a logical line and made things quite believable like a real events happening here . Need to say that Blonde prostitute at the club have a gorgeous body and breast : i really get hypnotised for a few seconds .

Need to see more and need to see how things will turn.