4x06 Everybody Hurts

I've never been a big fan of the Artie character on The Sopranos. He's a little bit too dumb to live, and in a lot of ways he feels out of place, not in the sense that he's not a mob guy (Melfi and Adrianna and even Charmagne fit into the show without being in the mob), but more that he feels kind of like a bumbling sitcom dad transplanted into a more grounded, weighty show. There's space in 'The Sopranos' for a character to idolizes and envies the mafia guys while being a bit too much of a muppet to ever hack it as one of their soliders, but his shtick tends to be a little too broad and predictable to really work for me. And his ill-fated attempts to collect his money in what was an obvious scam were pretty weak.

By the same token, I wasn't a huge fan of Gloria either. She was initially kind of interesting, since we'd never really seen Tony at the beginning of a relationship before (short of Melfi), but the crazy woman/mother substitute business got tiring quickly.

That said, I love the effect that both of these characters have on Tony in this episode. The popular narrative about the character of Tony Soprano is that he's a sociopath, but I don't think that's true. He's obviously not a good person, but he still has good impulses and feels the weight of some of his moral choices, even if he disregards them or acts on them in misguided ways. I love how the episode goes over how guilty Tony feels about Gloria's death. How he dreams about her, talks to her old colleagues, obliquely bounces his feelings off of Janice, gets angry at Melfi, and how, ultimately, it motivates him to potentially save Artie's life.

Now it's still all a little selfish. Twice Tony asks if people think he's a toxic person, and it reflects an insecurity, possibly a realization, that by the nature of who he is and what he does, he sows destruction and discord wherever he touches. When he's talking to a hospitalized Artie, Tony asks him what it would be like for him to have to find Artie dead and live with that guilt. Tony is narcissistic, but also sees himself as benevolent, as the kind of guy who would at least try to help if the people he considers close to him would come. He's clearly regretful that he (in the gross oversimplification of the situation that tortures him) turned away from Gloria's cries for help. It's an interesting, more vulnerable, even considerate side of Tony than we've seen on the show -- one who would willingly call 911 to save his friend's life.

There's other interesting stuff in the episode. Carmella is sublimating her feelings for Furio by setting him up with a dental hygenist she knows. Adrianna is trying to extricate herself from as many activities as possible so she doesn't have anything to tell the FBI. Even AJ gets a bit of a story, as we see him living high off of his dad's reputation, but finding himself feeling awkward about when he realizes that the reality doesn't match the popular image for mob life. It's not one of the sharpest storylines the show ever did, but like most AJ stories, it's simple enough and to the point. But the meat of it is Tony, who shows a side rarely seen.