The Sopranos Are Back, With A Bang

After many month's of patient waiting, Sopranos fans, of which I am one, were rewarded last night by the welcome sound of the show's theme over the familiar images of the drive from the exit of the Lincoln Tunnel on the Jersey side to chez Soprano in the tonier precincts of the state. It felt like coming home.

Over a year and a half have passed and we are immediately assured that life has gone on in Soprano-land while we were away. Janice and Bobbie have a daughter. AJ is now "joe college". Meadow and Finn's relationship continues and she is about to begin an internship arranged by Tony's lawyer. Artie and Charmane are reconciled. Carmela's spec house is under construction, not without difficulties, and Uncle Junior has sunk further into dementia. It was like a visit to distant family members one hasn't seen in a while.

And they're off and running. Mystical Egyptian musings about the seven souls that migrate from a person at death accompany a montage of remembered characters in their current incarnations. I won't detail the plot that emerges, except to say that no good deed or legally earned money goes unpunished.

As for the future, the newly svelte Vito has delusions of future grandeur and it cannot be a good omen for Finn that his accidental discovery of Vito's homosexuality last year was included in the "Previously on the Sopranos" segment before the start of last night's show. I can't wait to see what happens.