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Just watching this episode while i'm working and realized it contains one of my favorite scenes that epidomizes the excesses of this family. It's the scene where Tony and AJ are watching a football game in their den. 2 people surrounded by enough snack food to power a New Years Eve party. I count at least 6 different bags of chips (big fans of Lays products), bowel of popcorn, 2 cans of nuts and various soft drinks. I remember watching this when it orginally ran in season 3 and marveled at this sort of subtle approach defining who these people were.

I'm willing to bet Tony nailed at least 3 bags on his own before the game was over.

bloodshot wrote:Just watching this episode while i'm working and realized it contains one of my favorite scenes that epidomizes the excesses of this family. It's the scene where Tony and AJ are watching a football game in their den. 2 people surrounded by enough snack food to power a New Years Eve party. I count at least 6 different bags of chips (big fans of Lays products), bowel of popcorn, 2 cans of nuts and various soft drinks. I remember watching this when it orginally ran in season 3 and marveled at this sort of subtle approach defining who these people were.

Your post also reminded me of that scene in the fourth season ("Mergers & Acquisitions" if memory serves) where Tony is admiring his new movie room (which we hardly ever see used throughout the rest of the series) and he is shoveling popcorn into his mouth, then passes out watching The Fugitive. He wakes up, brushes off the slobby popcorn remnants, and contemplates whether to call Valentina--while Carmella is off grocery shopping for the family no less. SO much excess! And so much instant gratification. It really is what keeps most of the main characters functioning on a day-to-day basis.

This isn't much a stretch, but this episode instantly reminded me of the (in my opinion) underrated "Chasing It" episode from season 6 pt2.
At the end of "Fortunate Son", when Christopher is in the car with Paulie, complaining about how being made and running the NFL books isn't all that it's all cracked up to be, he even utters the line 'chasing it.'
"Welcome to the NFL," Paulie says.

And there's Tony's flashback to Satriales, and Johnny telling Tony he must never gamble, and a man always honors his debts.

If it were available on my On Demand, I'd watch these two eps back to back.

By the way, I loved the choice background music playing when Tony and Paulie are at Vesuvio's--the R&B standard"Since I Met You Baby"... "my whole life has changed..."

This episode if F---ing tight

nuff said

This episode has never been one of my favorites, and I still wouldn't rank it in the top tier or anything, but I've really come to appreciate it a lot more.

I like the brief, rarely-discussed little scene of AJ looking totally bewildered and out-of-place as he looks around the Columbia campus. It's just an authentic depiction of what a kid his age would feel. Everything looks totally new and weird and alien to him, it's just overwhelming and scary to this (quite sheltered) high school freshman.

And of course with the Satriale's flashback this episode is, in a way, one of the most thematically pivotal of the series. I love the moment in therapy when Melfi describes Proust in great, loving detail to which Tony can only reply, "this sounds very gay."