"Sopranos" mania is running wild, brother. Meanwhile, here's Alan Sepinwall, on what was up last year:
Last season started off like it was going to be one of the plottier years to date. From Junior shooting Tony through the wedding of Johnny Sack's daughter and Vito's flight from New Jersey, there was a sense that events were building towards the kind of epic climax the writers usually shy away from. And then, shortly after Vito started flirting with Johnny Cakes, everything slowed down. We got our first Artie episode since season four, Christopher fell off the wagon three different times, and the budding war between New York and New Jersey ended before it could start thanks to Phil Leotardo's coronary.Yea, last season was a bit slow, and the Vito stuff could've been two episodes, instead of five. But still... it's better than about 95% of what's out there. Posted by Stephen Silver at April 4, 2007 05:08 PMYou can explain some of that abrupt change of momentum by what was happening behind the scenes. The first half of the season was mostly written under the assumption that these would be the final 12 episodes of the series, the second half after Chase agreed to extend things for one last year. While there were some gems in those later episodes, you could definitely sense the writers trying to run in place until it was time to resume the march towards Chase's planned conclusion.