The opening sequence alone justifies the huge acclaim The Sopranos has gathered since its debut in 1999. After a brief flashback which shows Tony as he throws away his gun while running away from the meeting that resulted in Johnny Sack's arrest, we cut to the present day, with Tony getting arrested because someone saw him throw the gun. As the cops knock on the door, Carmela asks: "Is this it?". Obviously it isn't (the gun charge is too weak, especially since there was a three-year gap between the fact and the arrest), but in a way Mrs. Soprano has a point: this is it - the last selection of episodes produced for the finest drama in television history.
With the charges dropped, Tony has another preoccupation coming along: his birthday, which is celebrated by paying a visit to Janice and Bobby at their lake house. While the women discuss parenthood and other normal stuff, the brothers-in-law alternate fishing, discussions about death and preparations for an upcoming business deal. It all goes very well until Tony makes some off-color remarks about Janice one night and a quiet evening turns into a fistfight between alpha-males. Part Two of Season Six goes through one heck of a start...
Soprano Home Movies doesn't really count as a season premiere, but feels like one anyway for how it slowly yet brutally brings forward the grand theme of the last nine episodes of the show: death. Sure, many characters have carked it over the course of the previous 77 episodes, but the beautiful conversation Tony and Bobby have about what they think happens when you die is big enough a clue in regards to what the main concern of the final season will be. Moreover, having such a soulful sequence followed by a down-and-dirty fight sums up the series in the most perfect way: a poetically violent masterpiece.
With the charges dropped, Tony has another preoccupation coming along: his birthday, which is celebrated by paying a visit to Janice and Bobby at their lake house. While the women discuss parenthood and other normal stuff, the brothers-in-law alternate fishing, discussions about death and preparations for an upcoming business deal. It all goes very well until Tony makes some off-color remarks about Janice one night and a quiet evening turns into a fistfight between alpha-males. Part Two of Season Six goes through one heck of a start...
Soprano Home Movies doesn't really count as a season premiere, but feels like one anyway for how it slowly yet brutally brings forward the grand theme of the last nine episodes of the show: death. Sure, many characters have carked it over the course of the previous 77 episodes, but the beautiful conversation Tony and Bobby have about what they think happens when you die is big enough a clue in regards to what the main concern of the final season will be. Moreover, having such a soulful sequence followed by a down-and-dirty fight sums up the series in the most perfect way: a poetically violent masterpiece.