The Sopranos Season 4 Episode 3 'Christopher' Full TV Reaction!!
Added 2023-01-30 17:11:11 +0000 UTC
Comments
Well said, this is also my vote for the weakest episode. It's just a bit too openly didactic, which causes some characters to start acting a bit out of character in my opinion. My other vote would be for In Camelot.
Marcus Cato
2023-01-31 18:50:55 +0000 UTC"He was gay, Gary Cooper?" I don't have much to say about this one. Some episode has to come in last in Sopranos episode rankings and I think this one is it, maybe "A Hit is a Hit" beats this out. It had some great moments, especially the last scene but the Columbus scenes are a little too ham-fisted and on the nose for this show's standards imo. Yes I know this is basically a rebuttal for the criticism the show had received to this point. I'd have to respectfully disagree about this episode not moving the plot forward since it has Karen's death, Paulie spilling the Ginny Sack joke, more interaction between NJ-NY, and Janice shenanigans, so it gets points for those. Again, not a bad watch but this is a C+ episode when the show pretty much always has A/A+ episodes.
Sol95
2023-01-31 15:37:09 +0000 UTCArtie trying to be a tough guy was hilarious. He hid in the car like a little girl after being hit with a cherry slurpee
Mr. Chumpus
2023-01-31 08:20:02 +0000 UTCThis episode shook me to the core. Not because of the Columbus controversy. Ralph's "ass play" is frightening
Mr. Chumpus
2023-01-31 08:14:44 +0000 UTCHey, paisan, nice to hear from you. Yeah, I'm sure that's true, but I've watched this series all the way through so many times I've come to really appreciate this one. I really think the Sopranos is rarely better than when it ruminates directly on the Italian American Experience. One, because it does it so well, and two, because so few other TV shows or movies EVER do it at all. Lots of shows and movies are done by Italians or about Italians, but precious few about actually being Italian. And they get it right, too.
Robert Livingood
2023-01-31 07:16:05 +0000 UTCAlthough the Sopranos is better than mostly everything out there even when they have a down episode, whenever there is a discussion about the weakest episodes of the Sopranos, this one gets mentioned a lot.
Marcus Cato
2023-01-31 06:55:30 +0000 UTCHonestly, I thought you guys might have that reaction to this episode. It is certainly a bottle episode (like “Pine Barrens”) that doesn’t move the plot forward, but to elaborate further on a prior comment in these comments, I assure you that David Chase felt it necessary to make because all through the Sopranos run on TV, it took A LOT of criticism from certain Italian American groups who found it demeaning to Italians. Chase, through Tony’s monologue at the very end, tells us what hogwash he thinks such claims are. Yes, once upon a time, like every other newly arrived group, Italians were discriminated against in the US but such times are long gone and to consider Italian Americans a persecuted minority is absolutely ridiculous. It’s quite the contrary, actually, as few groups have found more success in America while also managing to integrate their own culture into the broader fabric—through food, fashion, art etc (just like the professor who spoke at the church women’s group says). In fact, I think David Chase felt it was ridiculous that this even had to be said at all, but he sure hammered home his point. You can always tell what David Chase really thinks about something when he trots out Dr Melfi’s ex husband, Dick La Pena, to advocate for the opposite view. BTW, you guys wondered what Dick said when he was watching the news report on the clash between the Italians and the Native Americans at the parade: Dick says, “This could be scored with Albinoni’s Adaggio.”, referring to the famous elegiac classical music piece Adaggio in G minor by composer Tomasso Albinoni. The inference being its such a tragedy that these two persecuted peoples are fighting with one another when only one of these groups, the Native Americans, are actually aggrieved. The whole Columbus controversy always made me chuckle anyway because I had lots of family members like Furio, who never liked Columbus because he was a Northerner and it always bugged them that Italian Americans made such a big deal about him. Forget the whole genocidal, slave trading issue, he was Genovese, so fuck him, the snooty fuck.
Robert Livingood
2023-01-31 06:02:07 +0000 UTCLiterally everything in their life is in their life because they are Italian. LOL. You can't move up unless you can prove your family lineage. Great illumination by the writers to demonstrate how clueless they sound. Also, she's a piece of ass. at least she was when you married her. JFC tony. LOL
Michael Kang-Beats
2023-01-31 04:30:58 +0000 UTCPoor Bobby. Bobby's too good of a person so I give him 50/50 odds that he's alive at the end of the series.
Jeffrey Miller
2023-01-31 02:47:52 +0000 UTCI really like the last scene with Tony going in on Silvio's ridiculous views concerning being Italian American. Where Tony is talking about how the present is nothing like the times of Silvio's grandparents and Silvio has faced no meaningful discrimination (outside the feds lol) combined with that statement from David Chase makes me think Chase wanted to say, "Because Italians were assimilated or 'became white'"
Jeffrey Miller
2023-01-31 02:43:15 +0000 UTCLet me be clear, I'm not making any sort of personal statement here. But since you were curious about the meaning of the episode, "Christopher" was creator David Chase's response to some Italian-Americans who believed The Sopranos reflected poorly on Italian-Americans. From David Chase: "I have bigger gods to serve as an artist than someone's narrow concerns about how the portrayal of them affects their self-esteem," he said in the film magazine, Their self-esteem is their problem. Italian-Americans have made tremendous contributions to this country, right? We're working. We don't have great unemployment. We're free to go wherever we want. So, why can't we deal with this?" Even in the episode, Tony says that Italian self-esteem is not connected to Christopher Columbus or The Godfather or whatever. The character of Dr. Melfi's ex-husband is also a commentary on this. David Chase has clearly had to deal with some backlash from his own community about The Sopranos.
Ellie Miller
2023-01-31 02:17:12 +0000 UTCFun fact. Don’t know if it was mentioned but this episode was written by Christopher. Michael Imperiolli who played Christopher wrote on the series for a few seasons. I think this was his last season in the writers room.
Ghost Crusaders
2023-01-31 02:13:17 +0000 UTC"THAT BETTER NOT BE COLUMBUS! 👉🏻" it was a Columbus Day protest, Artie, who else would it be? 😂
Carlos Hurtado
2023-01-30 21:50:13 +0000 UTCJay Silverheels, who Ralphie mentioned when he confronted the Indian leader with the truth about Iron Eyes Cody, was the actor who played Tonto on the Lone Ranger (w/Clayton Moore as The Lone Ranger).
Mike Tocci
2023-01-30 21:09:09 +0000 UTC
