Army of One
- Episode aired May 20, 2001
- TV-MA
- 1h
Ralphie issues his final decision on the fate of Jackie Jr., Anthony Jr., faces military school after getting expelled, Paulie and Ralphie have a financial conflict while the FBI assigns Adr... Read allRalphie issues his final decision on the fate of Jackie Jr., Anthony Jr., faces military school after getting expelled, Paulie and Ralphie have a financial conflict while the FBI assigns Adriana a new "friend."Ralphie issues his final decision on the fate of Jackie Jr., Anthony Jr., faces military school after getting expelled, Paulie and Ralphie have a financial conflict while the FBI assigns Adriana a new "friend."
- Charmaine Bucco
- (as Katherine Narducci)
- Bobby 'Bacala' Baccalieri
- (as Steven R. Schirripa)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDominic Chianese, who plays Junior Soprano, sings near the end of the episode. Chianese is an accomplished tenor and musician, having released a CD titled Hits in 2000, on which he sings American and Italian songs. He performed Salvatore Cardillo's sentimental classic "Core 'ngrato" ("Ungrateful Heart").
- GoofsMajor Zwingli is wearing two ribbons in the wrong order of precedence. The Army Overseas Service Ribbon (bottom row, middle) should be in the place of the Army Service Ribbon (bottom row, left) and vice versa.
- Quotes
Anthony 'Tony' Soprano Sr.: I work hard all day to pay for this six thousand-square foot house, big-screen TVs, food on the table, video games, all kinds of scooters and bicycles, Columbia University, and for what? To come home to this?
A.J. Soprano: Sucks to be you.
[slaps AJ]
Carmela Soprano: [gasps] My God, Tony!
Anthony 'Tony' Soprano Sr.: There's more where that came from! We're starting a new regime around here!
- Alternate versionsFairuza Balk appeared in the original airing of this episode as Agent Deborah Ciccerone. However, Balk was unable to return to the role for the following season due to scheduling conflicts. Lola Glaudini was cast in the role for the following season. Balk's scenes were reshot with Glaudini in the role. Glaudini appears in all subsequent rebroadcasts of the episode and in the DVD release
- ConnectionsReferences The Phil Silvers Show (1955)
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.
- bob the moo
- Oct 19, 2009
Details
- Runtime1 hour
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1