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Terence Winter: "The Sopranos"

 If Terence Winter were alive in an earlier era, he would be a great novelist. "Members Only," "Long Term Parking," "Pine Barrens," "The Second Coming," "University": Each of these standout SOPRANOS hours had its origins in Terence Winter's pen.


Winter has observed that he himself is around the age of Tony Soprano; when looking for a memorable detail, Winter could just borrow from his own life. (I think "The Sopranos" is at its best when Tony is just a guy in a kitchen. Tony experiences rage when the OJ is "no pulp" rather than "some pulp." He opens the fridge and stares at its contents, selects nothing, then closes the door, his mind in a daze. He has seismic emotional struggles when he realizes he will need to go without smoked turkey. He clenches his jaw when he learns that tonight's dinner will be "takeout sandwiches from Italianissimo." He becomes visibly awkward when he discloses that he can no longer stomach an onion bialy. And on and on and on.)

Winter wrote the last very strong episode of 6A--right before David Chase discovered that he would need to expand his vision, and the series just became "padding" for five hours. Winter's brilliant idea is entitled "Mr. and Mrs. John Sacrimoni Request"; it's a sharp title, because it underlines the weirdness of Johnny Sack behaving "like a normal person." (We never hear Johnny Sack labeled as "John Sacrimoni.") The word "request" is notable; Johnny Sack is asking for *many* indulgences in this story. He asks for guests to attend a family wedding; he asks for permission to leave his prison; he asks for assistance with a mafia hit; he asks for an extension on his evening of freedom. His ostensibly "small" request is that he have a chance to show his emotions when the Feds end the wedding just a little bit early. But that request is too much; Johnny's tears are distasteful to Phil Leotardo, and the human vulnerability in this one minute is the thing that sets Johnny's downfall in motion.

There is an obvious well-documented parallel to Tony Soprano's story here. Tony picks a fight with his new driver, because he wants to demonstrate that he is not like Johnny Sack; he is the strong, silent type. But here's something that people may not notice. This is a Terence Winter episode, so the specifics of Tony's rage are linked with the kitchen. Tony needs a reason to beat up his driver--so he invents a false allegation about the machine that matters most....

He claims that his driver improperly slammed the refrigerator door.
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