The Sopranos: Season 2

Boy, it sure took my girlfriend and I a long-ass time to finish the second season of what many have called the greatest TV show of all time. We started last March, and only just finished. Must have been a pretty shitty season, right? Wrong! I actually enjoyed it from start to finish (and especially the finish, but more on that later), and simply never could quite find the time to get back into it after watching the first five episodes a while ago. But allow me to backtrack just a moment and explain why it is that I like this show. It isn't the mobster genre. I could take or leave the parts that involve Tony organizing a hit on somebody or running a crime ring or whatever. What I'm enjoying is the depth of all the character interactions, particularly within Tony's family. Tony is the way he is, and because of this, his wife is the way she is. And maybe Tony is only the way he is because his mother is the way she is. And Tony's kids, coming of age, are finding out more and more every season just who and what their dad is and it's certainly affecting who and what they are. I know that's vague as shit, but I'm trying to avoid spoilers at all costs. Because quite frankly, this is a show that people should watch and enjoy for themselves. I'm glad I'm finally doing so. Now, about that season-finishing goodness... I think that the Season 2 finale was the best episode I've seen yet. It starts out with the aftermath of the previous episode, in which a big event occurs, and for ten or fifteen minutes it's just diarrhea humor after Tony eats at an Indian restaurant.  Then he begins to have some bizarre and foreboding dreams. Then he and his associates go off and do something you always knew they'd have to do, but wished they wouldn't. And all of a sudden some repercussions from a previous incident manifest. And then the season ends with Tony living large but with this foreboding sense of an impending downfall. I've certainly done it no justice, but seriously, it went from "low-brow humor" to "surreal dreams" to "this is really very touching and sad" to "oh shit, that thing they did is coming bak to bite them in the ass" to "oh, Tony, live it up you sick, bad man!" all within one beautifully crafted hour of television. I'm very excited to see what comes next and that is why I am sure that we can finish Season 3 before another three months have gone by. But first it looks like I'm gonna have to sit through a season or two of True Blood. Through one and a half episodes so far. Tons of tits. Pretty cool.