The Sopranos (TV Series) Army of One (2001) User Reviews

Spectacular

[MaxBorg89 · 10/10 · 29 April 2008]

Another year, another finale, and just like its predecessors, Season 3's epilogue shows no signs of pandering to expectations: it's an adult, tragic tale of retribution, lost hope and much more.

First things first: the fate of Jackie Jr. With his safety completely linked to Ralphie's decision, the poor kid's hours are numbered, and ten minutes into the episode Vito Spatafore (Joseph R. Gannascoli) sticks a bullet in his brains. The murder causes great sorrow, especially when it comes to Meadow, who starts drinking and being rude to everyone. As if that weren't enough, Tony also has to deal with his other heir: A.J. has been expelled from school for stealing a test, and is punished by being sent to a military academy.

Whereas the previous series ended with a major death (Pussy), Army of One gets that detail out of the way immediately, so that it can focus on the effect Jackie's premature demise has on those surrounding him: the funniest scene is arguably the one where Jackie's sister proves a lot smarter than the grown-ups by not believing the drug deal story and insisting her brother was clipped by "some fat f*ck in see-through socks" (pretty much Vito's profile). There is also (unintentional) humor in Anthony's face-to-face with Major Zwingli (Tobin "Jigsaw" Bell), head of the military academy, although the laughs actually make the scene more tense.

The show's biggest victory, however, lies in the perfectly structured final scene: for once (barring the series finale) it looks like one of the seasons ends on a cheerier note than usual (without giving away anything: Dominic Chianese's singing voice is beautiful), while in reality the almost lyrical atmosphere conceals a heap of silent despair. Bravo.

"There's more where that came from! We're starting a new regime around here!"

[edantheman · 10/10 · 1 July 2013]

After a short stay at the Boonton Inn, Jackie Aprile meets his grisly fate at the hands of rising star Vito Spatafore. The story agreed upon is that he was killed in an ecstacy deal gone South in the projects. Innkeeper Ray-Ray summarises Jackie Jr's life story succinctly after the OG wannabe forfeits another chess match with Ray's promising young daughter: "How you expect to win if you don't play it through?(it wouldn't be the last time actor Michael K Williams would espouse such sharp street parlay, playing the unforgettable Omar in HBO's 'The Wire' just less than a year later)" Tony no longer feels obliged to his predecessor and best friend Jackie Sr, exclaiming when Jackie plays that card over the phone: "The warranty on his death certificate expired two weeks ago. Your bullshit expired along with it!"

Blood runs thicker than bullshit however, and Tony now feels a greater need than ever to 'save' Anthony Jr from Mobster's Son syndrome. After stealing exam papers, not even his fledgling football career could save him from the Dean's wrath this time and Tony determines to send his son to military school against Carmela's wishes. But the panic attack AJ had earlier in the season recurs when he collapses in full military regalia upon observing the 'total dork' in the mirror. Yes, that "putrid, rotten f*cking Soprano gene" didn't skip a generation and now Tony feels responsible for his unfortunate son's shortcomings.

This is an episode very much about the burden of patriarchy, for Tony and American society at large. He regales Melfi with the story of his great-great grandfather who drove a cart of olive oil off the side of a mountain. "Maybe that was a panic attack," he muses. All we know for sure is that the only Sopranos afflicted by this condition are male. Being men, they must hide their feelings, suppress their true selves and never show weakness because... Well, they don't know why. It is this institutional insanity that men like Tony and Major Zwingli of the Hudson Military Institute must perpetuate to retain their power. AJ represents a generation of men not quite liberated from this, but at least in transition.

For the FBI, it's business as usual too. Sil, Paulie and Chris are arrested on Super Bowl Sunday at Jackie's funeral, on charges of intent to racketeer, only to have their bail paid by half-time. The explosion in counter-terrorism after 9/11 wouldn't affect the small circle of federali we would grow familiar with in later seasons too much, and actually bring the otherwise patriotic Tony closer to them. In the meantime, agent Deborah Ciccerone will become the vivacious Danielle Ciccolella, Adriana La Cerva's new best friend, as part of the Bureau's plan to get close to Chrissy and hopefully buy-bust their way up to the Don. It's a move that would pay off in dividends, as Tony would disseminate more and more of his orders through his wayward nephew in seasons to come. If the arc of the first three seasons represented the mob triumphing over the law then the arc of the latter three would correct that imbalance.

But for now, having lain Jackie Jr to rest, the two families of Tony Soprano will gather around at Vesuvio's to hear Junior sing a Neopolitan-American ballad of love. The old man's soaring performance of 'Core 'ngrato', or 'Ungrateful Heart', reduces most of the adults present, who remained dry-eyed throughout Jackie's funeral, to tears. But his grandniece Meadow sees through the conceit and wants none of it, throwing food at the aging soprano, much to the amusement of her contemporaries. Noticing this, her father chases her out onto the street where, confronted by him at the roadside, she mournfully denounces their lifestyle as 'bullsh*t'. Returning inside to the dinner, he tries to enjoy a Soprano family moment with one less duck than usual. The music then crosses the diegetic boundary, seguing into a French then Chinese rendition to demonstrate to us that what has resonated with these hypocrites is something generational, not cultural. It will not last.

The best possible ending of the season

[belaidinazim-57060 · 10/10 · 18 September 2021]

Army of one is the last episode of season 3 in the sopranos, and what a conclusion to the season. We follow in this episode Ralphie who look like he is going to kill Jackie, after what he said to his mother " he has a problem with drugs, we will get him to rehab, let's hope he will be alright" and of course that's a lie. But for a slight moment we doubt that he would not kill him. That's when he talks with Tony in the car. But he does it anyway. This incident will make tension and anger between these two characters in the next season. And then we see in the funeral a bunch of guys pretending they are sad. In the funeral we see Christopher apologizing about what he said the last episode, but of course the pain won't go soon. In the other hand Tony is suffering, trying to find a way to solve his son situation. He was trying to send him to the military school but that failed because of the panic attacks he has.

So now Tony is angry, frustrated, and like the psychiatrist said "you are blaming yourself" and most importantly he doesn't know what's the solution if this huge problem. And he is so afraid of losing him to the point he can't think anymore. Very strong dramatic scenes deepen the character more and more. And let's not forget meodow perception of reality and of family consideration.

As a conclusion, great closing for one of the best seasons of all time.

Season 3: As engaging and satisfying as ever

[bob the moo · 19 October 2009]

I'm not sure if the death between seasons 2 and 3 of actress Marchand caused a drastic rewrite of season 3 but, if it did then it doesn't show as season 3 delivers another splendid thirteen hours of television that is as consistently riveting as the two seasons that have gone before. We open with an episode mostly focusing on the FBI putting a bug into Tony's house in an attempt to bring down the family in a thread that remains in the background while we return to the normal day-to-day pressure of the business family and the family family.

Yet again this makes each episode to be engaging and satisfying. There are overblown moments, funny moments, dramatic moments, revealing moments and reflective moments but the key to the success of the show is that they all flow together into one overall narrative – season 3 did not have scenes or moments that made me consider fast-forwarding them, just the opposite. During the season I didn't think it would totally be that way. Ralphie being dropped in out of nowhere and positioned the way he was with the character he had put me in mind too easily of Richie from the previous season. Likewise Gloria being introduced into the story seemed to be too obvious as to where it was going – giving Tony more drama from a part of his life that had been done before. To a lesser extent Jackie Jr also seemed to be a thread that had been covered in season 2 with a young man trying to break his way into the organisation by attacking it and getting a name; this was not helped either by how the young man in this season also relates to the "disruptive Capo" character in this season. These seemed like problems at the time but, as these characters and threads settled in, while they may have had a familiar feel, they were all made as engaging and intelligent as I would have expected and they were certainly not just mirror images of what had gone before.

I focus on these things because of them sticking in my mind but the season has a lot going on and in particular makes good use of the wide array of characters that it now has. Tony is still the focal point of course but more and more his family and associates are as well developed and rounded as he is as a character. Meadow and AJ are fuller characters than before while Paulie, Silivio, Christopher and Bobby are all reliable for solid turns whenever they are on the screen. Carmela and Dr Melfi both have improving characters and the threads led by them are as engaging as they main thrust. The show uses all these characters well and delivers many revealing moments without making a big show of them – even though we have plenty of violent, bloody moments which makes for easy hooks the best scenes are often the more subtle and subdued.

The cast continue to benefit from the strong material. Gandolfini is tremendously at the mercy of his own character, his delivery is spot on and he is a great central presence. Falco plays her more tragic figure equally well. At times her material lacks the variety given to her on screen husband but she is still very good. Imperioli adds to the Greek tragedy feel to the show but in this season his character is a bit too simple and he is not given as much to do. I'm not a massive fan of Turturro although it is mostly because I don't like Janice that much – her turn is good though. Chianese's Junior is reliable and does well with each moment he is given. Schirripa's Bobby steps up to join Sirico and Zandt as great characters. Iler and Sigler both do better than previous seasons although Iler doesn't seem totally up to at some points. Cerbone, Sciorra and Pantoliano all do well by joining the cast for this season.

Season 3 gave me a few niggling problems in regards some of the threads echoing earlier threads but these turned out not to be a problem. This left season 3 to be yet another strong, engaging and satisfying season in this amazingly consistent series. The hype around it may put some people off but pure and simple this is just a well-written and engaging show with lots of characters and threads that all work equally well to make a great whole.

Didn't he almost drown in 3 inches of water?

[snoozejonc · 10/10 · 1 July 2022]

Jackie Jr hides out in the housing projects whilst Tony and Carmela clash over AJ.

This is a powerful and reflective episode with some exceptionally good performances.

It cleverly focuses on the situation involving Jackie and how it impacts Tony's attitude towards his own son. The varying outlooks on how AJ should be brought up are contrasted and portrayed in a number of emotive clashes involving Tony, Carmela, and AJ. These are intelligently written and wonderfully performed.

There is plenty of dark humour and irony. The scenes at Hudson, particularly those with Tobin Bell, are superb. Little touches such as when he talks about discipline, substance abuse and simultaneously lights up a cigarette are excellent.

Another well presented theme is the duality and hypocrisy of people who present a loving, communal face within society but in reality are cold and self serving. This is evident in one great scene involving Meadow that is incredibly well made and superbly acted by Jamie-Lynn Sigler.

Some of the issues are laid on quite thick, but it doesn't take you out of the narrative.

Season 3 is a bleak and compelling experience to put it mildly. We have seen a brutal rape, cold blooded murders, continual lies, parents pushing their children away, scenes of great ambiguity and bland "regularness". In the midst of it have been little rays of hope from characters who see the world for what it is make sound observations and strong ethical decisions. This episode just caps off a fairly cynical take on life by the writers.

For me it's a 9.5/10 but I round upwards.

Best Sopranos Episode

[alvarogonzavega · 10/10 · 9 January 2018]

The last 3 episodes of Sopranos S3 are the peak of TV

Season Three Review

[MattBrady099 · 8/10 · 10 April 2016]

Kelli Aprile: "Jesus Christ, look at who our father was! My brother wasn't killed by some drug dealer! He was killed by some fat f**k in see-through socks."

This took me awhile, but here it is. Season 3 of The Sopranos was freaking great just like how I expected it to be. While it's not on the same level of outstanding as season one & two (In my opinion), but it's still a great season with lots to like with it's characters, story and actors. There's a lot in this season that actually did better than the last two seasons, but there's some things that this season didn't do so well. So lets dive in.

Tony Soprano is known for being one of the best anti-hero of all time. He's right up there with Walter White -'Breaking Bad', Frank Underwood – 'House of Cards', Hannibal Lecter – 'Hannibal' and Dexter Morgan – 'Dexter'. Even the most despicable things Tony has done in this season, you still can't help but to like the guy. The reason why I'm bringing this up now and not the last two seasons is because I think this is the season we finally have a full gasp of what Tony is as a character. Imagine a villain who isn't fully aware that he is a villain, but thinks he's a good person and everything that he dose is for the right reasons, and that right there is basically Tony. We also see an other side of him that we understand how Tony's emotion works or the reason why he's so cold at times. Jame Gandolfini delivered a beautiful performance this season, as he always adds new things to his character in every season and making the word 'character development' very relevant in this show. Just like what I said in my season 2 review, James was brilliant and I'm likely going to say that again for my season 4 review, but that's the thing, I'm seriously running out of things to say for this guy, as he's always terrific in everything.

The one thing I absolutely need to praise this season is how engaging it was. All of it has to do with the writing, as it was really terrific and well written for a show like this. This is TV at it's finest and this is also David Chase at his finest of writing.

Some of the performances was pretty good from the cast, but if I had to pick out a weak performance from any of the cast it would be Steven Van Zandt as Silvio Dante. He wasn't awful or terrible, but compared him to the other actors, he really dose stand out as the weakest out of all of them. He didn't do too bad in the past season but for some reason he stuck out like a sore thumb in this season. He just has the same boring facial expression in every scene he's in and it's very distracting after awhile. It's not until I found out that Steven Van Zandt wasn't an actor before he started the show but a musician (and it really shows). But who knows, he might improve later on in the seasons, as that has happened before and I seriously hope I'm right on that.

I already brought up the unfortunate death of Nancy Marchand in my last review, as the episode "Funhouse" was her final TV performance. She died before season 3 could even start filming, so Writer David Chase decided there should be one final conversation with Tony before Livia gets killed off. The dialogue from previous episodes was pieced together for Livia's half of the conversation, and state- of-the-art CGI effects were used to place old footage of her face on a body double, but it's some of the worse looking CGI I've ever seen. I know it wasn't easy for them to do, since it took them two weeks to put all together and the fact that Nancy was a very major character in the show, but the visual effect's are so noticeable and quite laughable. The lighting on her face doesn't match the light of the room or the other characters in the room with her. It was pretty awful.

Overall The Sopranos: Season 3 is a great season with many amazing episodes that makes this show as great as it is. Time for Season 4.

Army of One (#3.13)

[ComedyFan2010 · 9/10 · 13 March 2014]

Jackie Jr. hides in the projects but this doesn't save him for too long.Next day once he steps outside he gets shot. The "family" makes the reason for the death drug dealing, but the younger ones see through it. AJ breaks into his school and gets the exams. This makes Tony want to send him to military school.

A good season finale. I actually suspected to see Jackie Jr. on the run most of the episode. But they decided to get over with it fast and concentrate more on the funeral. It was great to see how Jackie's sister pretty much described how the death of her brother went on. And at the end Meadow left her family unlike in all the other finales before.

Episode 3 season 3

[abdjalilfath · 10/10 · 25 February 2022]

This episode was reelly one of the Top, its really expressed on the value of this brilliant series, actually all the 3 final episodes of this 3 season was great, but what's make me really Related with this final episode is the Final scene The director has expressed a lot through this scene with that high-end music track.

On the other hand, for the first time I saw Tony's weakness, I saw how the problem of his family Iaffected his Authority.

I hope he get back to his strength in the next episodes.

1, 6 part1, 2, 4, 5, 3, 6 part 2

[rdimpstar · 8/10 · 19 March 2022]

Yes. My Headline is based on my ranking of seasons from best to worse. I know some may disagree, but I've felt this way since the show ended in 2007. And as a tradition I make it a point to watch the entire series once a year.

I believe season 3 could have been a better season. And I won't necessarily blame the writers, because they did have a different plot in mind, but the untimely death of Nancy Marchand, (Livia) made them take a different angle, which in my opinion made the season enjoyable, but weak. I'm not saying season 3 is bad. I enjoy all the seasons, I just have this as one of my least favorites. My problem with season 3, is that there's too many episodes that are insignificant. Yet they are enjoyable, but they don't really take us anywhere, and leave us with loose ends.

I was not a big fan of Meadow's boyfriend issues throughout the season. I'm not a big fan of taking a series that is mainly for adults, and putting a bunch of college students in there. I was not a big fan of Jackie Junior, mainly because he was just too simple. I was not a big fan of both Tony and Carmella seeing Doctor Melfie. I found it to be kind of cheesy and unrealistic. And the chemistry of Gloria and Tony was ridiculous. And Janice becoming religious out of the blue??? OK.

What makes it enjoyably entertaining is watching Christopher struggle as a newly made guy. His battles with Paulie, and what he will do to get the money he owes Paulie every week. I also like Ralphie's introduction as the wild coked up maniac antagonist that'll give Tony the most problems in this season.

I can't bash any season of the Sopranos. I'm just giving reasons why 3 is my second to last favorite.

The scene with Meadow running across the street is so reminiscent of the final scene of the show

[Neptune165 · 8/10 · 13 July 2022]

I'm so glad you see the hypocrisy of the final scene, where these murderers and scumbags are celebrating the death of a kid who they use to look after, especially for Tony who saw Jackie Senior as a brother, and is effectively responsible for killing his child. Sharon Angela ( Rosalie Aprile ) does such an incredible job in this episode and throughout the entire series. The funeral scene is truly heart-breaking. She really is one of the best and unsung supporting characters in the series. When junior is eating tony comes over to talk about how stupid Jackie was, and then start dipping his bread in junior's plate, literally taking food from his mouth. They don't say anything about it and the conversation continues, but it definitely looks like Tony just butted his way in. Jackie's death scene is as ridiculous and phony as the life he thought he had in the mafia. The toy looking gun, awful shoot sequence and Vito of all people sneaking on him ? In my opinion it's made purposely bad to showcase Jackie's self deception. The series is full of them. The whole turning point of the series was when Paulie didn't get his money in the sit-down, turned to Johnny Sac in a moment of weakness, (and as you point out, manipulation on the part of Johnny Sac), and eventually told Johnny about Ralph being the joke teller. The joke was the beginning of the end of the Jersey family as we knew it. And finally, you are correct, Adriana was a lovable bimbo.

Jackie you louse, we hardly knew ye

[ctomvelu-1 · 7/10 · 6 September 2008]

Jackie Jr. pays the ultimate price, and Meadow goes off on a tear. Bad boy AJ ends up in military school, run by none other than Tobin Bell of "Saw" fame. As a reaction to Jackie's murder by "drug dealers," Meadow declares she will be leaving school to backpack across Europe, which results in some very tense and tear-filled moments with her dad. She also tries to get Tony to admit he is mafioso, which gets her his patented death stare. At Jackie's post-funeral reception, Junior sings an old Italian song while a drunken Meadow throws wads of paper in his direction -- until Tony chases her out of the room and down the street. A quick moment, with Meadow and Jackie's sister who blabbers on and on about the mob in front of a civilian's daughter, almost brings down the house. Quite an episode. It is a tossup as to who owns it, Meadow or Tony.