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By PAUL BRENNER
The New Jersey mob barrels down the New Jersey Turnpike once again in the four-disc HBO Home Video
release The Sopranos: The Complete Third Season. This 2001 season cemented the status of The Sopranos as the great
American turn-of-the-century pop masterpiece, even as it originally premiered upon a wave of Sopranos-mania with cash
registers ringing with the purchase of tee-shirts, CDs, Broadway show appearances, biographies and cook books. But
discarding all the hype, the series returns as strong as ever.
The evil mob knights of the New Jersey mean streets hit an unstoppable tride in a 13 episode dynamo of directing,
writing and acting that emphasizes the conflicting emotional gashes from maintaining love and loyalty to the family and
The Family. The major developments of the season include the quick rise and fall of Jackie Jr., the dual psychotherapy
sessions with Tony and Carmela, the reincarnation of Livia in Tony's hot house affair with sexy car dealer Gloria,
Christopher's elevation to Wiseguy status, Ralphie's psychotic murder of his pregnant girlfriend, and the shocking rape
of Dr. Melfi. The episodes themselves keep gathering emotional steam ("Proshai, Livushka,"
"Fortunate Son," "Employee of the Month," "To Save Us All From Satan's Power") and roll smoothly into one another until
the one-two-three punch of "Pine Barrens" (where Beckett meets Scorsese in a snow-covered South Jersey wilderness),
"Amour Fou," and "The Army of One." Add to all that a tremendous soundtrack of such variation and esoterica that even
Bob Dylan is heard at one point singing the old Dean Martin standard "Return to Me" in Italian.
The special features include audio commentary by Michael Imperioli ("The Telltale Moozadell"), Steve Buscemi ("Pine
Barrens"), and series creator David Chase ("Amour Fou"). Also on the collection is a three-minute promotional
featurette, cast and filmmaker biographies, a listing of third season nominations and awards, and DVD-ROM weblinks. The
audio is available in English Dolby 5.1, English Dolby Surround, Spanish Surround and French Surround. The discs are
subtitled in English. |
