User reviews

I just watched this again today. The scene that always gets me is when Junior goes to the union office to confront Bobbie about her mouthing off about his going down on her. She looks so vulnerable when she says she got hungry and ate a piece of chicken. It kills me.

Tony, Artie and Silvio worship their kids' soccer coach, so when he decides to move on, they pressure him to stay. However, things take a sharp turn when they discover why he's trying to move on. Meanwhile, Junior is in Boca with his gal pal, and munching plenty of carpet. He implores her not to say anything, but she can't resist. In turn, Carmela tells Tony. On the golf course, Junior and Tony trade insults until Tony, stung by one particular comment, decides to fight back and offers up several euphemisms about his uncle's special talent. Junior meanwhile has found out Tony is seeing a shrink, and decides to expose Tony. You know war is on the way. A great episode. The dialog during the golf course scene is funny and slightly scary at the same time. Junior may be old but he's still a fighter.

After the Goodfellas reference in Episode 8, the show gets more ambitious by directly quoting The Godfather, and in a context that is all but majestic on top of that. And yet, as usual, the result is a masterpiece in televised storytelling.

The person who makes that remark is the soccer coach who has been training the girls' team for years. As many of the Italians have their daughters in the team (Tony, Artie and Silvio among them), they are not very happy to learn he is leaving. Their feelings do change quite quickly, however, the moment they hear he might have abused some of the girls. Meanwhile, Carmela becomes aware of an embarrassing detail in Uncle Junior's sex life and can't resist the urge to tell her husband, who naturally starts mocking Junior right away. Too bad the old fella ain't in the mood for jokes, especially after hearing from Livia that Tony is seeing a psychiatrist.

This is one of the finest hours of The Sopranos, as it juggles an uncomfortable storyline and twisted humor with a precision that's mainly unseen in mainstream TV shows. Rape and child abuse have never been a problem for HBO (the former was featured often on Oz), but this time the incriminating act is not depicted on screen: Meadow's harrowing recollections and her father's gut-induced reaction are more than enough. On the flip-side, the serial's acerbic, adult humor emerges at its most perverse in a conversation between Carmela, Uncle Junior and Tony: "Uncle Jun', how was Boca?" the Soprano boss asks about his uncle's most recent vacation. "Lovely! I don't go down enough." is the answer. "That's not what I heard." Carm comments sarcastically (just to enhance the irony: "boca" means "mouth" in Spanish). Even for a network that made its name with Sex and the City, such a double entendre must have been quite edgy when the episode first aired in 1999; that it works, and instills dread as well as laughter is all due to the careful acting (Dominic Chianese's above all), and the scene stands out as a masterclass in great writing, also for its foreboding aspect (I mean, Junior can't let this kind of insult pass by unnoticed).

Overall, an excellent episode and, ironically given The Sopranos is the best drama series ever produced, a really good laugh.

Tony deals with a difficult situation involving Meadow's soccer coach and Junior suffers embarrassment from the mouths of gossips.

This is another memorable episode with fabulous black comedy, philosophical themes and great character moments.

Junior has a considerable amount of screen time and for me has some of the best scenes. His plot contains moments of great humour, strong drama and has importance to the overarching narrative of the season. Dominic Chianese gives one of his best performances with a display of comic timing, controlled rage, and tortured emotions. We see another side to the character and in glimpses he portrays how difficult and upsetting Junior finds living by the code of being a mobster.

Similarly Tony is depicted as someone who lives in an a mostly inflexible world that expects him to always project strength. The writers give him a dilemma that shows whether or not there are more sides to his character and if he can make moral decisions outside of the code. James Gandolfini is superb as ever taking the strong material written for the character and making it brilliant. He delivers humour, intimidation, parental angst, and vulnerability all perfectly.

Livia, Artie, Charmaine, and Silvio all have great moments that contribute strongly to the plot and entertainment of the episode. As ever their actors do fantastic work.

Visually it contains strong cinematography and editing. Some of the angles used to portray Tony in different situations are very nicely done. The opening soccer scene isn't particularly well choreographed (in a sporting sense) but the watching parents make up for that by being so funny.

I don't think it's a perfect episode, as there are certain contrivances that send the plot in the direction it needs to go. I have always been conflicted watching Kevin O'Rourke as Coach Howser. He is entertaining when on screen, but at times feels like a bit of a caricature. However, it is overall a great example of a self-contained story that is also important to what comes in later episodes.

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

"They made me an offer I couldn't refuse." After the Goodfellas references last week, we get one better as the show quotes The Godfather. The reference is made by the girls' football (that's right Americans! Football, not soccer) coach who the mob, seeing as though many of their daughters play for the team, are not happy that he has decided to leave. The majority of the episode is taken up by Paulie, Salvadore and Chris' attempts to bribe, bully and blackmail the coach into staying. Their attitude soon changes, however, when it is discovered that the coach has slept with one of the girls… multiple times. Naturally the mob would like to kick the guy's teeth in but after a heated discussion with Artie (whose thinking is mostly done by his wife) and a warning from Dr Melfi that she would call the authorities Tony wisely decides against hurting the coach, and opts to allow the police to deal with the situation. It does beg the question of whether Tony has a conscience or was just trying to save his own skin. Meanwhile, in an episode full of immature gossiping, there are rumours that Junior "goes down" with his lady friend Bobby when at Boca Raton, which is seen as a sign of weakness. The word of mouth (Geddit? Geddit?) reaches Tony. Dr Melfi doesn't share his amusement, and Carmela finds his glee a sign of hypocrisy…seeing as though he does it himself. Still, it was nice to see Tony and Carmela get along so well, even if it was at the expense of the Boss. This was one of the finest hours of The Sopranos, as two uncomfortable story lines are juggled with enough humour and self- awareness that the whole think is made very entertaining. Tony fires under-the-radar insults at Uncle Junior at a golf course, such as: Tony: "Uncle Jun', how was Boca?" Junior: Lovely! I don't go down enough!" Tony: "That's not what I heard." It's a cracking scene, but the smile was soon wiped off my face as Junior blurts out to his right hand man that nobody would be able to say anything if he thought about clipping Tony. Whoa. That's some heavy ****. But knowing Junior, Tony's behaviour won't go unpunished. First to get some chastisement is Bobby herself. In a scene accompanied by some beautiful orchestral music, Junior majestically…um, shoves a cake in her face. Still, could be worse. And knowing Junior, it's probably gonna get a lot worse… My Rating: 7.5/10

This was definitely another great episode of the series so far. Even though none of the episodes I watched sonce episode five were my favorite, some of these episodes are still a little above the earlier episodes. Anyways, my favorite characters in this episode were Tony, Meadow, and the coach. My favorite things about this episode were the Antagonists, the storyline, and the acting. The coah in this episode gave me vibes to Ted Beneke from Breaking Bad for some reason. Overall, amazing episode. This is just another one od those episodes that should be one of two decimal points higher in terms of what it should be rated.

Very well written episode. The only thing that I'm confused about though is: there is a scene where a character who introduces himself as Clarence is delivering a TV, I noticed a striking similarity to another character, one Paulie Walnuts. However, when I look at the actor Tony Sirico in the cast on here it says he plays Paulie Walnuts Gaultieri; there's no mention of Clarence. Does Mr. Sirico have a brother or look-alike that was on this episode or is am I just seeing a similarity that isn't there? They also seem to have the same mannerism and speaking style.

So many of the facets of this episode are more than mildly annoying- the nonsense is crazy. From the ridiculous 'sports' they constantly try to show (volleyball on an outdoor court/goalie with no goalie gear/parents storming the field and no ejection/etc) and the insanely forced story of attempted suicide/moral authority of handling a situation rather than turning the degenerate in and destroying him legally, and then finally doing right. The insanity over Junior/Bobbi and THAT being the impetus for Tony's destruction by his uncle? It's always been so annoying how mouthy and disrespectful Meadow is to her parents, and even AJ, like there's not even any remotely responsible parenting done.

This is probable of the weakest episodes of the series, and I had completely forgotten how poorly written it was.

Sorry i simply do not buy the plot regarding the mob guys being so invested in keeping the coach around, using extortion and threats as if the coach was himself implicated in any mob related criminal activity (such as illegal gambling and prostitution). He was an unaffiliated civilian who could have reached out to law enforcement if the crew ever did cause him harm. I just can't imagine they'd go through that kind of trouble (until they found out about the other thing)

Then the plot with junior eating box. That could be funny for a few scenes but it's not compelling or convincing enough to carry half the episode.

The broader underlying themes are not lost on me, such as ones duty or imperative to impose ethics upon themselves and discovering the limits of their agency over their world. Or the perils of being so beholden to ones ego and reputation. But the story they went with simply isn't very interesting, the motives are tenuous for the most part, the resolution was incidental and the larger arc is left unaffected.