Hitting Out

Speaking of The Sopranos, Todd VanDerWerff has been re-viewing every episode. He's still in the first season, and for a while he's been warning about "A Hit Is A Hit." He finally got to it and explained what's wrong--and I couldn't disagree more.

I've always liked this episode. One reason is that it goes in a different direction--which is what Todd (I'll call him Todd because I don't want to spell his surname again) has trouble with. It explores Hesh's character and goes into the music business (thus the punny title). I find the stuff with Hesh explaining what makes a hit a lot of fun. And the subplot where the rapper (who's presented in an uncliched manner which for some reason Todd considers cliched) tries to get royalties for an old act that he thinks Hesh cheated is also fascinating.

But one thing that prevents me from loving the hour is a cringe-inducing scene where the white collar guys take Tony out golfing. They think it's cool to hang out with a gangster, and I was intrigued to see how the scene would play. Instead of being a little different (having them connect in some way with Tony, for instance), it's exactly what you'd expect. They treat him like an object, ask him gauche questions, and he feels embarrassed and out of place. I literally can't watch this scene, it's so cliched and obvious. Needless to say, this is what Todd thinks almost saves the episode.

One of the things I like so much about the show is how it's able to capture other voices. Not just gangsters, but academics, students, politicians, analysts, cops, kids, etc. In this episode, they have people in the music business sounding real, but fall down in the clash of cultures. (It's not as bad as the excruciating gay stuff in New Hampshire we'll get with Vito, but it's an early indication sometimes they take the easy way out.)