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HBO Sunday Night

Written by sdettorre

Anticipation is a curious thing. Sometimes the buildup to an event is more fulfilling than the actual event. Other times, when very little expectation is present, the happening is a pleasant surprise. These characteristics hold true in the television world as well. Everyone was on the edge of their seats waiting for the series finale of Seinfeld only to be disappointed. Conversely no one gave Friday Night Lights a chance this season but it has turned out to be an enjoyable surprise. This past weekend expectation was high for two shows resuming their runs on HBO, The Sopranos and Entourage. Sadly only one was worth price of admission.

The Sopranos kicked off its final run on HBO with several plotlines hanging over from last season. What will be the fallout from Johnny Sack’s plea deal? How will the tension between Tony and Christopher be resolved? Will AJ ever get his head on straight and realize he belongs in the family business? These are just a few of the looming themes that hopefully will be resolved when the final curtain falls on the show.

Unfortunately the show really didn’t examine any of these themes and instead sent Tony and Carmela to the mountains to spend his birthday with Janice and Bobby after Tony got pinched on an impotent gun charge. After spending a night in jail the absolute worst place to go right afterwards would be anyplace that Janice called a residence. She is one of the most despicable people on television. Her character over the years has never been sympathetic on any level and is a lightning rod of emotions. How she convinced Bobby to sleep with her, let alone marry her, is an absolute mystery. Now Bobby probably isn’t too choosy since he is on the north side of 300 lbs himself, but Tony isn’t missing many meals and look at the laundry list of women he’s been with. Not to mention the implied uneasiness that goes along with sleeping with your boss’s sister. Most people shy away from that in legitimate business relationships, let alone one that involves an agenda of murder, extortion and racketeering.

So instead of working out a few other plot developments The Sopranos sent Tony and Carmela for a weekend with the Baccalas. Tony’s birthday gifts included home videos from when he was a kid, a new set of golf clubs, a gun from Bobby that makes Michael Douglas’s arsenal from Falling Down seem like a collection of air guns, and a special gift from Carmela that Dante’s girlfriend in Clerks gave to 57 guys.

During this visit we found out that Bobby never killed anyone, even though his father seemed to have no problem doing it when he was alive. Bobby made it sound like he was uncomfortable doing it and with all the forensic technology today he wanted no parts of being a hit man especially since he and Janice have a young daughter (that implies he slept with Janice which is about as appealing as having Britney Spears baby-sit your kids or Tom Cruise date your daughter).

That evening the Sopranos and Baccalas sat around the house and got a little bit drunker than Vanessa Huxtable did playing the alphabet game with her friends in high school. As the scene played out we learned that the families differed on the rules of monopoly, and personally I side with the Sopranos…land on Free Parking and get all the money from Chance and Community Chest. But Bobby disagreed and one thing led to another, namely Tony calling Janice names, and Bobby sucker punched Tony. Bobby, the guy who doesn’t feel comfortable shooting people, has no problem beating the hell out of a mob boss to defend his indefensible wife, even if Tony was out of line.

What followed showed how post-near death experience Tony will deal with revenge. Rather than taking Bobby out to the woods and doing to him what was done to Adrianna and Tony B., Tony took Bobby to a meeting with some French Canadians and had him take care of a “problem” standing in the way of the family getting prescription drugs on the black market for $35,000 less. Bobby was visibly shaken after the killing of someone at his own hands and the impact of that on him may prove to be more devastating than anything physical Tony could have done to him. Also, having to live with Janice is punishment enough, the mind games are just gravy.

All in all The Sopranos started off pretty well. There was internal fighting, a mob hit, suspense and interest in the coming weeks. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the show that followed The Sopranos.

Entourage, in its 4th season now, might be living off of past success more so than any other show on TV. Consider it the Ken Griffey Jr. of TV. It is the exact same plot every episode. Vince wants to be an “artist”, Eric thinks he’s big time when in fact he’s one bad move away from managing a Sbarros, Drama spends more time in the kitchen than he does complaining about his futile career and Turtle waddles around dressed like Malibu’s Most Wanted.

This season the guys are adjusting to life without Ari since Ari sold them out and prevented Vince from playing Joey Ramone by screwing over the writer of the script. Vince’s new management is handled by Amanda, played by the always beautiful Carla Gugino. She was special in Son-in-Law and even better in Sin City. Anyway, the episode revolved around this tug-of-war for Vince’s career between Amanda and Ari and the planning of Vince’s birthday party by Turtle. There was a lot of feeble attempt at humor by making Ari and Vince seem like a couple who broke up but still tried to maintain a relationship. This might have been a funnier angle if it wasn’t played out in every episode but instead just once or twice, like when Kramer and George had uneasiness after Kramer relayed to George that his girlfriend wanted to break up with him. However Kramer did make an entrance to the Yankees gala as George’s date, while all Ari does is make an ass out of himself and prevent Vince from doing what all single 30 year old actors should be doing…Victoria’s Secret models.

The plot lines for the season seems to be will Vince get the part in Medellin, will Drama ever be able to make a steak without overcooking it and will Eric grow enough to be able to ride the roller coasters at 6 Flags. This show jumped the shark in the beginning of season three, maybe the end of season two. If it keeps going in this direction HBO will have Full House with swearing on its hands in the not too distant future. With regards to Entourage, hopefully HBO will, in the words of Full House alum Joey Gladstone, “Cut…it…out” before anymore damage is done to viewers of the 10 pm time slot on Sunday nights.

If you have a comment please feel free to contact me at tvdinner90210@yahoo.com