Toodle-Fucking-Oo

Although the first film people usually come up with when discussing The Sopranos is Goodfellas, there are times when other gangster flicks are just as deserving to be mentioned. In the case of this episode and a few others from Season 2, for example, it is suitable to compare them to Mean Streets, the Martin Scorsese masterpiece that better than any other picture depicted street life and gave the world the first proof of Robert De Niro's talent.

The main link between Marty's film and David Chase's show is, once again, all in the casting: while several series regulars and guest stars appeared in Goodfellas as well, David Proval comes straight from Mean Streets. Proval, who played one of Harvey Keitel's associates in the film, joins the cast as Richie Aprile, older brother of the deceased Jackie, who has just been paroled after ten years in the joint. It doesn't take long before he starts to cause trouble, though: he sends a former client to the hospital, doesn't get along with Christopher (the latter slapped Adriana, who happens to be Richie's niece) and disagrees with most of Tony's decisions, finding a more sympathetic ally in Uncle Junior, who is old-school in everything except the language ("Federal marshals are so far up my ass I can taste Brylcreem" - a classic!). Meanwhile, Meadow gets in trouble for throwing a party in Livia's empty house, and Dr. Melfi freaks out because of the effect Tony has on her life.

Apart from the memorable line Junior delivers, Toodle-F**cking-Oo calls for plaudits for how it develops two established characters and introduces two new ones: in the first case, Meadow comes off as more "rebellious" than her attitude in Season 1 suggested, while Dr. Melfi, wonderfully incarnated by Lorraine Bracco, shows that psychiatrists might have as many problems as their patients (a concept that is used to terrific effect in Showtime's drama Huff); this situation leads to the screen debut of Melfi's own therapist, Elliot Kupferberg, a welcome return from oblivion for New Hollywood legend Peter Bogdanovich, who does however play second fiddle to Proval's gut-driven energy. Even though it's been 27 years since Mean Streets, Richie acts as if nothing had changed, right down to the way he casually commits acts of unspeakable violence. "I thought I told you to back off Beansie!" Tony yells. "I did, and then I hit Drive!" is the instantly cool answer. It is almost possible to hear "Jumping Jack Flash" all over again...