The Sopranos Season 1, Episode 2 - 46 Long

I can't recall the image that closes the episode, but I can remember the one that opens it - the mob guys all sitting around a table counting money.   That's the overarching theme of 46 Long - how money trickles up and down the Mob hierarchy, and how theft permeates their lives.  Christopher and Brendan are robbing trucks, Livia's nurse is suspected of stealing, Anthony Jr.'s teacher's car is stolen, and Paulie's taking a steamer (or something) from the Seattle and Tacoma Coffee Roasters.

It's very hard to get at Livia Soprano as a character, especially here - she exists as a kind of antagonist to Tony, but it's impossible to read her motivations at this point in the show.  I think you've either met someone like this in your life and fill in the blanks, or you don't think much about her internal state - she is not only decidedly miserable, she seems to take no joy from making others miserable.  Now that my parents and the parents of people I know my age are closing in on 70, it's hard to imagine any of them to be as inept and addled as Livia is here - she's portrayed as a much older woman mentally.  Then again, we see very little evidence that she has an active life mentally or physically, and it's not clear when her husband died. 

I forgot how casually racist most of the characters are, but a distrust and dislike of other ethnicities is already evident from the jump and continues on to episode 2 here.  Livia doesn't trust the postal worker who is black, she doesn't trust her Trini nurse, neither does Tony, and Junior mentions offhand after Tony leaves that 'can you believe it, Tony hired [a black person] as a nurse?'  It's interesting to contrast this to the pains the show makes to demonstrate that New Jersey has deep Italian roots, and so while yes, that means organized crime, Tony also sees Dr. Melfi and a Ms. DiCaprio runs the retirement community.  I don't think these are meta-concerns about the show's negative portrayal of Italian-Americans - I think it's meant to establish that there are other Italians in this world who are not in this miasm.

I have to talk about Paulie and Pussy at the Starbucks stand-in.  It's a broad bit of comedy having these two greaseballs at an upscale coffee place, but Paulie's contempt for the fact that Italian food and drink were co-opted by corporations for mass consumption and mass profit works into the overarching theme of theft.  The scene seems to imply that if these sorts of guys had more business sense instead of just stealing, those might be Italian-run businesses. 

Plus I haven't even really gotten to the main events that drive the episode - Christopher and Brendan stealing trucks.  They truckjack one and the driver asks them to beat him up and tie him up with rope so it looks real.  The second driver isn't so lucky - he catches a stray bullet and dies.  Meanwhile it's established that the trucking company pays protection to Junior, so Tony forces Brendan to return (most) of the stolen goods.  It's implied that the company won't really care about its missing driver.

Nor have I even really mentioned Tony's near-panic attack, his rage fit, or his anger at his mother potentially giving expensive jewelry to his cousin.  I will mention, regarding the jewelry, that Livia supposedly gives it away because Carmela never complimented her on it.  Whether or not this is true, it's highly implied that the jewelry was stolen - Carmela may not have done so because she knows this, and it's not something she wants to think about for herself.

Random thoughts -

Pilot issues:  We get introduced to Brendan, Mikey Palmice, and most importantly, Jackie Aprile.  In the pilot, it was made clear that Tony runs things, but now they've installed Jackie as the (temporary) boss. 

A cold open!  Like Jackie Aprile, cold opens would not last long on this show, but I honestly thought upon seeing the first scene HBO went in and removed the opening credit sequence, so as to not bore binge-watchers.

A host of great lines here - chemo-sabe, Christopher talking about cloning cell phones instead of sheep, Christopher's 'Kundun, I liked it!' to a passing Scorsese.

JD Williams (Bodie Broadus from The Wire) shows up here as a truckjacker.  Fun. 

This show was really great at casting small parts.  The woman who plays the retirement community head is excellent, and I love the dopey guy working at the strip club who Tony beats up.

Funny to think that DVD players were state-of-the-art technology at the time of this episode but that my Sopranos DVDs are not how I'm watching these episodes.  It's harder for the mob to get in on content distrbution.

Also, the aspect ratio of the 'Previously on' is incorrect on HBO On Demand but the actual episodes are correct.  Almost had to break out the DVDs.

Malapropism Alert:  Captain Tiebs.