Irregular Around the Margins

Tony and Adrianna spend time together and this leads to problems.

This is one of the most memorable episodes of the show with great dark humour and character moments.

The first time I saw it was during its original broadcast, without having seen any episodes of seasons 4 or 5, and it made no difference, such is the standalone quality of the story. It also has lasting consequences that stay with certain characters and impact later episodes, which shows great continuity and foresight by the writers.

What I love most is the irony in the plot and the dark humour. There are so many funny and awkward situations, plus the banter between certain characters is tremendous.

Tony, Adrianna, Christopher, Carmela, Tony B, and Dr Melfi all have superb character moments and the actors are on top form. Edie Falco does great work with facial expressions and Michael Imperioli is constantly brilliant.

Visually it's awesome, with great cinematography, editing and production design.

I have to admit it, in the first couple of seasons, I found scenes with Christopher and or Adriana at best mildly amusing and at worst somewhat boring. This begins to change in season four, and really does an about face in season five.

On paper this episode might sound preposterous and even ridiculous. But the writing, direction, and acting on The Sopranos not only makes the situation believable, it makes it compelling.

Tony has been hanging around Adriana's nightclub more, and the two begin to talk. Adriana's father has never really been in her life. Tony has lost the woman he is married to and can't get the woman he thinks that he wants. It just seems that Tony can't have a deep conversation with a woman without mistaking any connection made with love, and he begins to develop feelings for Adriana. One night after the club closes, Tony and Adriana are driving out to score some coke - and I don't mean the soft drink - when they have a one car accident that lands them both in the ER. Neither is badly injured, and Tony is without a scratch, bodily that is.

But the social damage is tremendous. The gossip starts to fly. Christopher knows his uncle's reputation with the ladies and goes full caveman. Even the FBI surveilling Tony are in on the joke. And then a way out of this mess comes from the oddest place - Tony's recently paroled cousin, Tony Blundetto.

This just goes to show that Tony is smart enough to see the consequences of his actions. He has just sat in Melfi's office a short time ago and laid out all of the reasons he should stay away from Adriana. But his appetites and passions always get the best of him.

I believe at the time of this episode it was not guaranteed that they would come back for another season and they were trying to cram in as much as they could into season five and wrap up storylines in case they didn't come back. They almost didn't come back for season five. That's why it took them a year and a half between season four and five. I didn't really get the dinner scene at the end. Everyone knew that Tonyand Carmela were separated so it wouldn't be a surprise if she wasn't there. I don't remember another scene at Vesuvio where all of the other members of the crew were sitting at other tables. I know that they wanted to show that there was no hard feelings between Tony and Chris but the whole thing with Vito coming over to the table and shaking both of their hands in full view of everyone was sort of contrived in my opinion. Why would he do that on his own after what had happened with Chris earlier?

This one episode is maybe one of the greatest episodes of Sopranos series ever. What a performance by Michael Imperioli. He showed a lot of his art in these dramatic scenes. I just love this one episode simply because you don't know what is going to happen around the next corner. The directing is brilliant, making the spectator being carried along the flow of the story and wondering and lasting for what will happen in the next scene. I have already seen this one episode before, but I must say it is worth to see it again and again. It could be equally compared to any other fine crime/drama movie. If watching for the first time - enjoy. If not, enjoy as well.

Tony and Adriana romance comes out of nowhere and completely undermines their characters. Then Chris goes mental and physical abuses Adriana despite having frequently cheated on her, and they all continue as if nothing happened.

Terrible, terrible, multi character ruining episode.