| "Soprano Home Movies" | |||
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| The Sopranos episode | |||
Bobby returns to the vacation home after committing his first murder. |
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| Episode no. | Season 6 Episode 13 |
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| Directed by | Tim Van Patten | ||
| Written by | |||
| Produced by | David Chase | ||
| Featured music | "This Magic Moment" by Ben E. King and The Drifters |
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| Cinematography by | Phil Abraham | ||
| Editing by | William B. Stich | ||
| Production code | S613 | ||
| Original air date | April 8, 2007 | ||
| Running time | 51 minutes | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of The Sopranos episodes | |||
"Soprano Home Movies" is the thirteenth episode of the sixth season of the HBO television drama series The Sopranos and seventy-eighth episode overall. It served as the midseason premiere to the second part of the show's sixth season, the broadcast of which was split into two. It was written by supervising producers Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, series creator/executive producer David Chase and executive producer Matthew Weiner; it was directed by frequent series director Tim Van Patten. The episode first aired in the United States on April 8, 2007.
"Soprano Home Movies", which is set eight months after the preceding episode,[1] details a weekend that series protagonist Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and his wife Carmela (Edie Falco) spend with his sister Janice (Aida Turturro) and brother-in-law Bobby (Steve Schirripa) at a lakefront vacation home in upstate New York and the complications that arise during this weekend.
The scenes set at the vacation home were filmed in Putnam Valley, New York. "Soprano Home Movies" was watched by 7.66 million American viewers. Critical reception of the midseason premiere was mostly favorable; critics praised the episode for its calm, contemplative storytelling. The episode garnered a number of award nominations and was the episode submitted to Emmy Award voters to represent the season, leading to a nomination for Outstanding Drama Series, an award the show subsequently won.
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In a flashback to 2004, a neighborhood teenage boy witnesses Johnny Sack's (Vincent Curatola) arrest and Tony Soprano's dropping of a pistol in the snow as he flees the scene. The same teenage boy later picks up and fires the gun.
Three years later, in August 2007, Essex County authorities arrest Tony on a gun charge. Tony spends a short period of time in custody before appearing in court with his attorney, Neil Mink (David Margulies) and is released on bail. In Brooklyn, a party is held for Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent), who has recently returned from the hospital.
Tony returns home to a warm welcome. Later, he and Carmela travel to Janice and Bobby's upstate New York lakefront vacation home to celebrate Tony's forty-seventh birthday, where Tony fires Bobby's customized AR-10 assault rifle in the nearby woods. Bobby gives Tony the firearm as a birthday present. The two later relax by fishing on the lake in Bobby's boat. Tony raises the fact that Bobby has never "popped his cherry" in regard to murdering someone and juxtaposes this with the kill record of Bobby's father. Bobby replies that he has "come close," but that his father never wanted it for him. In North Caldwell, New Jersey, A.J. (Robert Iler) uses his parents' bedroom to entertain his girlfriend and has friends over for a party while his parents are away.
Tony, Carmela, Bobby and Janice celebrate Tony's birthday with karaoke, drinking and Monopoly. An argument starts after a discussion of Monopoly house rules. Over Tony's objections, Janice relates a childhood story of their father and mother; tensions reach a crescendo with Tony's remarks about Janice's looks and past promiscuity. Bobby hits Tony in the face and the two have a fight, ending with Tony bloodied and bruised on the floor. Janice scolds Bobby for hitting Tony and Bobby runs outside, where he drives off drunk in his SUV and reverses into a tree. He returns inside and apologizes to Tony and the two couples go to their beds. Tony wakes up in the middle of the night and tells Bobby and Janice that Bobby beat him in a fair fight. The next day, the couples seem to make amends, but as the day progresses Tony increasingly obsesses over losing the fight to Bobby.
Tony and Bobby leave for a pre-arranged business meeting with two Quebecers who want to sell them past-the-date medication. As a part of the deal, Tony agrees to arrange the murder of one of the Quebecers' former brother-in-law and asks Bobby to take care of it. Back at the vacation home, Carmela and Tony leave for home and Bobby sets off for Montreal, where the man he agreed to murder lives. He finds his target in the laundry room of an apartment building and kills him by shooting him twice.
Back home, Tony watches the "Soprano Home Movies" DVD given to him by Janice as a birthday present. Mink calls, informing Tony that the gun charge, though dropped by Essex County, has been picked up by the FBI. Bobby returns to his lakefront house, picks up his daughter and gazes out over the lake in silence.[2][3]
"Soprano Home Movies" was written by four of the show's five season six writers: supervising producers and writing team Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, series creator and showrunner David Chase and executive producer Matthew Weiner, who had been promoted from co-executive producer before the production of "Soprano Home Movies" began. The four developed the episode's story outline along with executive producer and co-showrunner[4][5] Terence Winter.[6][7] "Soprano Home Movies" is Frolov and Schneider's fourth and final official writing credit for the series; it is Chase's twenty-seventh and Weiner's ninth. Chase and Weiner collaborated on two more of the season's episodes: "Kennedy and Heidi" and "The Blue Comet".
The episode title derives from Janice's birthday present to Tony: a DVD onto which she has had transferred old home movies of them and their sister during their childhood.
"Soprano Home Movies" was the first episode of the final batch of episodes to be produced, following a six-month-long production hiatus. In preparation for shooting the episode, series creator/executive producer David Chase held several rehearsals with the lead actors.[8]
The scenes at the lakefront vacation home were filmed over two weeks in June 2006 in Putnam Valley, New York. Additional interior shots were filmed six months later at Silvercup Studios, New York, where a replica of the cabin had been built in a sound stage. The lake seen multiple times in the episode is Lake Oscawana. The scenes of Tony and Bobby fishing were filmed on location on the lake but much closer to the shore than it appears in the episode. The scenes set in Montreal were actually filmed in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Filming of the scenes set in New Jersey and the Soprano residence took place on location in Essex County, New Jersey and in Silvercup Studios. The ripping of Bobby's shirt when he commits his first murder was not in the script but was added during production.[8] While filming the cabin fight scene between Tony and Bobby in Silvercup Studios, Steve Schirripa accidentally headbutted James Gandolfini. The fight scene was choreographed but Gandolfini didn't step out of the way in time. His nose was bloodied but not broken. The real headbutting was kept in the episode.[9]
Gregory Antonacci, who plays Phil Leotardo's advisor Butch DeConcini on the show, is now billed in the opening credits. Joseph R. Gannascoli has been removed from the main credits as his character was murdered two episodes prior to "Soprano Home Movies". The characters Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) and Junior Soprano (Dominic Chianese) do not appear in the episode but the actors who play them are still listed in the opening credits.
"Soprano Home Movies" drew an average of 7.66 million viewers when it first aired on HBO on Sunday April 8, 2007 in the United States. This estimate was done by Nielsen Ratings. This was a significant drop from the 2006 season premiere episode, "Members Only", which attracted 9.47 million viewers and the lowest ratings for a Sopranos premiere since the season two opening episode, "Guy Walks Into a Psychiatrist's Office...", which drew roughly the same number of viewers as "Soprano Home Movies" (7.64 million viewers).[10][11]
The episode was generally well-received by critics. Tom Biro of television webblog TV Squad gave the episode a favorable review, writing "All in all, big thumbs up from me."[12] Marisa Carroll of PopMatters called the midseason premiere "stellar" and wrote that "David Chase repeatedly re-imagines ordinary family scenarios—like a weekend trip to the mountains—in brutal, gangster terms. [...] Such signature exaggerations remain both hilarious and unsettling." She awarded the episode a score of 9 out of 10 (shared with the following two episodes).[13] Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle praised the episode, writing "the series remains as vital and interesting as ever [...] There may be no better (or realistic) way to go forward into this Sopranos swan song."[14] Kim Reed of Television Without Pity gave the midseason premiere an A−, writing "...while, on the surface, not much happened, I think there were a ton of callbacks to previous episodes and that familiar Soprano tension was used to good effect."[15] Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune wrote "this is loose, contemplative Sopranos storytelling at its best."[16] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly was impressed with the midseason premiere and wrote that, despite not being a very eventful episode on the surface, "everything happened".[17] Alan Sepinwall of The Star Ledger gave "Soprano Home Movies" a positive review and praised it for featuring the character of Bobby Bacala in a more prominent role, writing "The hour was largely a refresher course on Tony, Janice and their history, but it also gave Bacala the dignity he's so often been deprived by the writers."[18] Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times gave the episode a mixed review, calling it "solemn" and wrote that "even before last season the series had started to sag in places, a creative fatigue that matched the main characters' weariness and also the audience's."[19] Brian Zoromski of IGN awarded "Soprano Home Movies" a score of 9.5 out of 10, citing the calm, subtle storytelling as a great strength.[20]
In 2007, "Soprano Home Movies" was nominated in four categories for the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards. The episode was submitted for consideration in the category of Outstanding Drama Series. This led to a nomination and the show—which was judged by six episodes from the second part of the sixth season, including "Soprano Home Movies"—won.[21][22][23] It was also nominated but failed to win in the categories of Outstanding Cinematography For A Single-Camera Series (Phil Abraham), Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing For A Drama Series (William B. Stich) and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Aida Turturro).[24][25] The episode was also submitted for Emmy consideration in the categories of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Steve Schirripa) and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (Diane Frolov, Andrew Schneider, David Chase and Matthew Weiner); however, it was not nominated.[26] In 2008, episode director Tim Van Patten was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award in the category of Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series' – Night but lost out to Mad Men's Alan Taylor, also a director for The Sopranos.[27][28]
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