My Review of "The Sopranos: Season 3"

The Sopranos: Season 3 was a highly anticipated season for me. So much had happened in the second season that I wasn't sure where they were going to go with the characters. There's been a huge reshuffling and that meant totally new storylines.

The season starts off right after the second season and it's kind of weird because Tony's kids Anthony Jr and Meadow have grown up so much since the last season. Anthony Jr in particular looks like he's gone through puberty so he's drastically different from the last season.

They play off of the last season where they had planted the FBI bug in Tony's house. I thought this season for sure will give Tony even more problems. It's not like he didn't have enough issues in the last two seasons but give the guy a break!

Luckily this FBI plot kind of dissipates but it had me questioning myself throughout the beginning of the season. It was a nice little distraction for us as the viewers because it makes us antsy to see how Tony might incriminate himself unknowingly. Then again if this worked then the series would come to a pretty quick abrupt stop.

Right off the bat you see that there's big changes with the Sopranos family. Meadow is off to Columbia University. We know she went there because the family wanted her close to New Jersey. It's the first time she's out on her own and you can tell something was going to come up. In the last season she was already starting to go through a rebellious stage in her life and her being on her own is just going to exasperate things. Still she needs this exploration of her life to see what she wants in life.

One of the major impacts of the season is Meadow's relationship with different men in her life. It's interesting to see Tony's take on these men and what his reactions are. These relationships will of course influence the relationship of Meadow and her father. It's hard to see because you know that Tony loves his daughter and you understand where Meadow is coming from with the tragedies of her social life.

Then there's Anthony Jr also known as AJ. He's starting to go through some of the same things as Meadow did when she was finishing up high school. His rebellious streak is starting to come up and I think his is even worse than Meadow's. With Meadow we had some sort of understanding of where she's coming from. In AJ's case it's more destructive and anger to the world. His friends in part make things worse as they peer pressure him to do even worse things.

Some of the big changes is the new captains that Tony appoints throughout the season. We see the power struggle of some of the lower ranked members. They all have tons of ambition and want to be made men (captains) but the grass is always greener on the other side. It sort of flows with the old saying be careful for what you wish for. Being captain isn't what it seems. There are a lot of responsibilities and tough decisions that they have to make.

Two of the big new characters that were introduced in this season were Ralph Cifaretto and Jackie Aprile Jr. Ralph is a guy you can easily hate. He's a very narcissistic man with a ton of macho bravado. This makes him feel somewhat invincible in some ways. Tony will have to deal with him delicately because he does produce for their family but Ralph can be a handful.

Jackie Aprile Jr. is a very tragic character. His father was Tony's boss and best friend that died of cancer in the first season. Jackie really wants to follow in his father's footsteps but Tony is adamant against it. It was one of Jackie Sr's dying wishes. That's not a great combination because if we know the series we know all of the men in this show are determined individuals that will stop at nothing to get their way. With this in mind I could already tell what was going to happen by the end of the season and I'm pretty sure you do too but I won't give away too many details.

There are an episode or 2 of just character exploration. These episodes kind of give us a glimpse into the personality and darkness behind the characters. Unfortunately and fortunately some of these episodes have created loose ends. The loose ends may pop up later in the season or in future seasons. It makes for more intrigue because you know there are certain things that weren't taken care of that can haunt them later on.

By the end of the season the rifts between the characters in this series have even more strain and it makes me anticipate the next season even more. There are a few X factors that come into play that I'm not totally sure how they're going to take care of. Everyone in this show has some sort of demon or two that they still need to take care of.

Overall, I really enjoyed this season. It opened up a lot of new storylines that were played off pretty well and opened up to more interesting subplots. I still don't know where this series is going for the next season but it makes for really good television. I have to give this season a 7.5 out of 10. There were some parts which kind of dragged. They only dragged because they had to milk off some of the drama that they built up. I totally understood but it did drag the episodes a bit.