User Reviews

Despite its title (which is a pun on TV show I Dream of Jeannie, and also related to Tony's conversation with Dr. Melfi about his recurring erotic dreams), the finale of the first season has nothing of the poetic beauty of the previous episode. Instead, it is a superb exercise in suspense and shock, with a few vicious killings that reflect the main theme of the series: trust.

The path is laid out in the first few minutes, when Tony and Uncle Junior agree on whacking Jimmy Altieri, a decision based on facts identifying him as the rat they've been looking for (the other suspect, Pussy Bompensiero, has mysteriously disappeared). While Chris takes care of the job, Junior is arrested by the feds, who also try to make Tony cooperate by having him listen to a recording that implies the attempt on his life was organized by his uncle and his mother. Of course, with the former in jail and the latter in a hospital bed after an alleged stroke, there isn't much to do. Another problem comes in the form of Artie Bucco (John Ventimiglia), who has been told by Livia it was Tony who arranged the arson of his restaurant at the beginning of the season and is now seeking revenge.

I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano ties up all the threads of the season in a satisfying way, leaving plenty of room for interesting material for upcoming episodes. The question that is asked (who is trustworthy?) foreshadows moments of real darkness, and it gives Gandolfini the opportunity to play the New Jersey boss at his most duplicitous, as he coldly authorizes the murder of a person who violated his trust and later, out of pure desperation, yells to Artie: "I didn't touch your place. I swear on my mother". The latter scene has an odd feel of black humor to it, as does the bit where Chris and Paulie eliminate another troublemaker: what could easily have been just the latest grisly murder becomes a disturbingly entertaining sequence when Paulie falls into a bush of poison ivy and complains about the itch while completing the execution.

And that goes without mentioning the ending: smart, unsettling and wonderfully realized, it makes Nancy Marchand's failure to win an Emmy (she lost out to The Practice's Holland Taylor) even more inexplicable.

After receiving his Uncle's blessing Tony orders the hit on rat Jimmy Altieri to go ahead (knowing that he'll have to order a few more hits over the course of this episode), Jimmy is swiftly taken care of in a Times Square hotel room by Christopher and Sil -with a rat stuffed in his mouth for added symbolism. With no hard evidence to go on, the viewer must base their assumptions on what Jimmy doesn't say as much as what he does to indict him. He doesn't appear to argue with Sil or Chrissy when they hold a gun to his head, but rather accepts his fate. He asks for a sit-down with Junior and 'his' capos to cover ground which was already covered. We assume that he was a rat.

His wife and therapist both assume that his mother was in on the hit, which agitates Tony to some degree but a meeting with federal agents Grasso, Harris and Cubitoso confirms it. They have some doctored tapes for him to listen to in which his mother reasons that someone with such a deteriorated mental state as himself isn't worth keeping around, in the hope of making him flip. Agent Grasso hangs his head in shame as these words reverberate from the speakers, knowing that it was Livia's cousin Cakey she was originally discussing. Tony remains strong in the face of this pressure, but inside he knows that he will have to take action -"blood or no blood", as his Uncle June might say.

There's good news for Artie Bucco though, as he finds "the insurance really came through" on his new restaurant Nuovo Vesuvio. But his friendship with Tony soon turns sour when he takes a duck ragu over to a hospitalised Livia, only to discover that it was his high-school chum who set the old Vesuvio's on fire for the insurance money. It seems that Art is Ma Soprano's new choice of killer, as he will hold a hunting rifle to T in the parking lot moments later. It is here that the brilliant diplomat Tony defuses the situation and lives another day, while Artie takes his frustrations out on his own hatchback. Arthur thinks his crisis is one of a more spiritual nature, so he confesses his hatred of all men to Father Phil and the truth about his friend. The Priest tells him he should be confessing to Charmaine but when he tries to, she is in one of her rare good moods so he fuhgedsaboutit.

It seems Father Phil really was a schmora after all, when Carmela finds he has been accepting gifts from Rosalie Aprile over one of their trademark ladies' luncheons. Her worries are later confirmed when she finds Roe baby-feeding him her home-cooking at church. When he pays her a surprise visit at home (purportedly due to the weight of the federal indictments on the family), she confronts him with the ugly truth: he is addicted to "that whiff of sexuality" he enjoys with his female flock, and is a hypocrite for denouncing Tony and the late Jackie's lifestyle while leeching off it through Carmela and Roe. She also accuses him of manipulating spiritually-thirsty women in need of intellectual enlightenment and world culture like herself. "Wow" is his sole reply as he walks out the door, tail between legs.

Over at the Bing, Tony confronts his Capos with the truth he's been hiding from them: he's been seeing a shrink. But it's not the worst thing bigmouth Paulie has ever heard, as he was seeing a shrink himself a while back. Sil speaks for himself and Pussy when he declares that things would be better if all tough-guys could be a little more open with one another. Chrissy is frustrated by this and storms out, his macho code-following as an OG proved to be a total waste of time.

T's passed his coastguard's test and wastes no time in putting Chucky 'Sheets' Signore to sleep with the fishes. Paulie is stung by Poison Ivy when he and Chris chase the athletic Mikey 'Grab-bag' Palmice through woods until he twists his ankle and, trying to worm his way out of a tight corner, denies his involvement in the Brendan Filone hit and accuses Junior of being the real perpetrator. "Yeah right, Junior! Mr Magoo!" he scoffs, an observation which will bear truth later in the series. But for now Magoo has been saved from his nephew's wrath by the federal government, who offer him immunity in return for admitting his nephew was really running things. Pride is his sin however, and he keeps his mouth shut (unlike in 'Boca').

Meanwhile, Tony pays his mental mother a visit with a pillow in hand (possibly to keep his hands busy, or...) only to see her being shuttled down the hospital corridors in a supposedly comatose state. She appears to be smiling menacingly as they wheel her away from his point-blank accusations, or could he just be seeing things... However shitty his current situation may be, he is glad to find his therapist Melfi has flew the nest on his advice and celebrates with a very 'family' dinner at his surprisingly welcoming friend Artie's Nuovo Vesuvio. Chris and Ade canoodle by the bar, while Sil and a freshly-calamined Paulie salute their new boss, "in name and in everything". In a classic scene which will be echoed in the series finale, Tony tells his ducklings to appreciate "the little moments, that were good" in life. They drink to this while a storm rages outside, physically and figuratively.

Dr. Melfi suggests that Livia was involved in Tony's assassination and he freaks out. But it turns out to be true. Tony starts cleaning up his family from rats like Jimmy, but he doesn't get to Junior who is arrested or to his mother who has a stroke. He reconciles with Dr. Melfi admitting that she was right about his mother, The season finale is full of action. I sure didn't describe most in my brief summary. A lot of excitement. And a nice and in a way dark ending that makes one want more.

My favorite part is Tony finding out its his mother and Junior's doing and the smile he sees his mother give him.

I always thought the shot of Artie coming around the corner after the shot begins with Tony getting out of his car was one of the most beautiful shots in the series. You can feel the hate in his eyes. You can imagine exactly what someone would see before someone kills them. When the FBI is playing the tapes with Tony, one of the recordings comes from when Junior and Livia were talking outside of a theater. That's kind of impossible unless they wired her too. Another interesting thing to note is the references to ducks in this season finale. We know that ducks represent tony's family and him wanting to keep them safe. When Tony is telling Carmela about his mother calling the hit on him, Carmela says something along the lines of "Your mother is one bizarre duck" and when Arty goes to visit Tony's mother in the hospital, he brings her Duck Ragu. Season1 is such a great debut season, and this is a great finale and one of the show's best episodes. This season is probably the most conventionally entertaining and even cliché. But it's so well acted, the dialogue is so great, and the show is almost fully realized.

In an episode that is a bit too busy for its own good, Tony wants to settle up with Uncle Junior and Livia, but Junior ends up in the hands of the law while Livia feigns a stroke and is hospitalized. Tony has Chris take out Jimmy, the rat Tony has been looking for, and later in the episode, Chris and Paulie take out Mikey in a sequence brimming with black humor. The feds let Tony hear the tape of Junior and Livia plotting Tony's demise. Tony then does his best to kill his mother right in front of witnesses, but it is not to be. Watch for her very slight smile (or is it only Tony's imagination?) as Tony is dragged away from her. It may remind you of a certain smile on the lips of another female character from the previous episode. Speaking of females, Tony tells Dr. Melfi about dreaming of taking Jeannie Cusamano from behind in the most graphic terms. Later, on Tony's orders, Dr. Melfi will be sent out of town for her own good, which doesn't do Tony much good when he forgets and stops by her office only to find it empty. Artie goes to visit Livia in the hospital, and in no uncertain terms and quite clearly, she tells him Tony torched Artie's beloved Vesuvio. Next thing you know, Artie has a rifle pointed at Tony's chest. Before the episode is over, Tony and family will end up in Artie's new eatery, and all is apparently forgiven. Paulie and Sil just happen to be there at the same time, much to the chagrin of Artie's wife, who has told Artie she doesn't want the new place becoming a mob hangout. Plus, Carmela becomes jealous of her priest's flirtation with her best friend Ro, and later reads him the riot act. What an episode! May I breathe now? In later years, some episodes would move forward with slender plotting and fewer characters. Not this baby. This is the 800-lb. gorilla of SOPRANOS episodes.

In this excellent conclusion to the first season, Tony gets confirmation that Uncle Junior was behind that botched hit. He, of course, doesn't let on that he knows (and there is no way he will cooperate with the Feds), while he goes about "cleaning house". This includes eliminating the rat. Meanwhile, Livia shows up at the Soprano house, on her own, and the idea is floated that she may be suffering from Alzheimer's.

The operative words there are "may be". As we've already seen throughout this first season, Livia is quite a piece of work. And we see full well that she is still a real sore spot for Tony, who unleashes some real rage on Dr. Melfi, after which she's afraid to be alone in a room with him.

Later, after Tony has calmed down, he advises the good doctor, for her own safety, that her life could be in danger. These scenes with Gandolfini and Bracco are truly electric, and we can easily see how fearsome Tony can be when his buttons are pushed. Tony also finally decides to be open & honest with his crew by confessing that he's been seeing a psychiatrist.

Guest star John Ventimiglia gives a standout guest star performance as Artie is confronted with the knowledge (given to him when he visits Livia) that Tony is the one that torched his earlier restaurant. Later, he's livid enough to confront Tony with a gun, and he will likewise need time to calm down while he recovers and reassesses this item of information.

The scenes of violence are parceled out carefully but pretty satisfying as the family take out the trash; the sequence with Mikey is particularly good as he gets chased through the woods (there's even time for some comic relief as Paulie realizes that he's going to get poison ivy).

Things ultimately come to a real head as several members of the family finally get arrested; the final moments are appealing as Tony reminds his wife & kids to treasure the little moments in life.

Superior television, overall.

Eight out of 10.

Final 3 episodes of silliness were just such an anti climax .

It was as if they were all directed /produced differently .And rushed to a conclusion .So disappointing.

Yes. My Headline is based on my ranking of seasons from best to worse. I know some may disagree, but I've felt this way since the show ended in 2007. And as a tradition I make it a point to watch the entire series once a year. Season 1 is and always will be my top favorite. It's very dark, funny, and yet disturbing. Right off the bat we see how dysfunctional Tony's family can be and the outcome of Tony's behavior towards it. Every episode is top notch and never a dull moment. Tony's character is extremely like-able in this season, in-spite of him being a criminal mob boss. What makes season 1 so great is the originality of his foes. That being his own Uncle and his Mother. The two people in his life he tries so desperately to make happy that wind up turning on him, which is by far the worst kind of taboo possible. And you almost want to cry for Tony having to face these disturbing realities. Season 1 is a pure classic in the introduction of all the characters and their personalities. And every episode is top notch.

Nice final episode .

Very tense at some moments mostly when Tony hear the truth trough a tape that is his own mother who tell about the shrink to Junior and he also heard ghe death wish . Not gonna lie that scene at the hospital near at the end with that face to face was heartbreaking : We know Tony try his best for his mum but her is a little bit different.

I was also surprised to learn that the mic was placed in the retired home where Tony's mother stay and that was not Jimmy but he get killed anyway .

Junior get arrested and his plan to kill Tony because he sees a shrink failed .

We had also an important face to face about Tony and his friends about revealing that he see a shrink and it was interesting to see how communication can lead to something interesting without judgment and just pay attention.

Another important confrontation that was expected was with the shrink : the last appointment was pretty violent . But everything get back in order and we understand better Tony trough her and even more the sense of some dreams and the problem with his mom

I want also to make a general review of the season 1: I really found it interesting and i didnt expected to dive into the stories pretty quick. The only thing that can be a little bit disturbing is that it dont really have high stakes : every episode is a succession of events that Tony or other characters react to : there is no objectives to succeed or something . It was more a chain of events that lead to a better understanding of Tony and how that man deal with his personal problems and his business . I love that emotional part and that shrink sessions and bring humanity and another point of view that we can identify ourself trough the shrink even if she also bring some lights to certain areas . And it bring some orignal moments and scenes : A mafia boss who need to see a shrink and just remind us that we are all humans at the end of the day despite our jobs and reputations .

I really love that first season and i hope more interesting stuff in season 2 .

Need to see more.