BY GAWD, THAT'S FURIO'S MUSIC!: Excellent "Sopranos" episode on Sunday night, making up for the previous week's middling Christopher Columbus-based effort. I believe the central plotline (New York underboss Johnny Sac's attempts to whack Ralphie over a comment the latter had made about the former's overweight wife) was a satire by creator David Chase meant to direct at the casual "Sopranos" fan who doesn't follow the nuances of the show and only tunes in to see "who's gonna get whacked." We're led to believe that Ralphie (always #1 in every "who's getting whacked" poll) and Johnny are about to both be killed, until of course neither one is. Good stuff.
And after last week's sicksicksick Ralphie-Janice romp, we were treated to a very different kind of disturbing sex scene as Tony attempted to seduce Carmella, who (having a not-quite-hidden crush on younger henchman Furio) was clearly not into it- especially with Furio's favorite Italian dance music blaring from Meadow's room down the hall. The scene, as so many great "Sopranos" scenes are, was at once brilliant and awkward, echoing the earlier thread involving Johnny Sac and his wife's weight problem. A half hour after Tony mentions that he's overweight but Johnny tells him that "it's different with women, they've got that body image thing," Carmella realizes that she'd probably rather be sleeping with the younger (and yes, thinner) Furio than with her husband. She even questions whether the nightgown Tony bought her would fit, though it does. This was all done in a VERY subtle way, mind you, but don't think it won't come up again in the season's remaining nine episodes.
And how about that Rhode Island-based family of hitmen? It's been floated by some friends of ours that they're associates of Buddy Cianci, but I think it's more likely they're in with the Banjo Boy from "Deliverance."