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The Sopranos, Season 6: "Luxury Lounge" [recap]

Another week, another step closer to the end… and a healthy look back at some of the qualities that defined great Sopranos television. This episode, “Luxury Lounge”, dealt mainly with Christopher’s Hollywood excursion, as well as with major trouble in Artie Bucco’s life. Both exhibited past traits that trouble their productivity, from drug use to overall frail nerves…

Poor Artie. Poor, poor, poor Artie. How many times is he going to have to get pulled through the meat grinder before he realizes his recipe for disaster is going off without a hitch? We found out this week that American Express suspended their service @ his eatery, due to frequent fraudulent charges. This, on top of the mounting disappointment in the Vesuvio experience (which was not helped by a new restaurant opening to rave reviews), turned Artie into a raging lunatic. He busted a cap into a rabbit he found snooping in his veggie garden (eating priceless treats from the motherland), as well as beating the ever-loving shit out of Benny Fazio, after confronting Benny on his porch about his mistress/Artie’s hostess, Martina, and their AmEx con at Vesuvio. I’d like to note that I predicted this last week, that it was Artie, and not Tone, that Benny was beating up in last week’s preview. Benny wasn’t shook, either. He was upset, and told Tony that he wanted to kill him, kept referencing stabbing Artie’s balls or something to that effect. Tony calmed things down, and even let Benny keep all of his earnings, in exchange for a party to be thrown @ Vesuvio’s, as well as an apology. Benny kept up his end of the deal, but when Artie tried to stick it to Benny on the sly in front of his family (that whole “Martina” drink comment he made), Benny stuck that poor fucker’s hand in a boiling pot, making his skin come off “like a glove”. Tony tried to calm Artie down, and tried to give him some pointers in his operation, but Artie is a stubborn mule. He ended up cooking the rabbit in a pretty delicious-looking sauce. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail, and Artie will see that psychiatrist Tony was mentioning (was he trying to get him to see Melfi? That’s what I took from the comments).


Chrissy on the other hand, he reverted back to his classic, asshole ways. He went to Hollywood with Little Carmine, trying to woo Ben Kingsley (who had a cameo as himself) to their “Godfather meets Saw” script. Ben was polite, even taking them to the Luxury Lounge, where all of the stars are plied with “swag”, aka gifts that big companies give to stars. Chris seemed VERY intrigued, and was quite miffed when he not only was denied even a glance from the swag givers, but was turned down by Ben for swag AND the movie role. Does that mean he should have busted Lauren Bacall in the face for her basket? No, but it made me laugh like crazy. Was Tony right in sticking it to him for the shitty gifts he got (a dog purse? Tickets to Australia?)? Of course! His boy Benny got himself in hot water @ Vesuvio’s on Christopher’s vacation, and although Chrissy tried to throw it back at Tony “letting him go”, it’s not Tony’s boy. Maybe there was too much dope, drink and hookers in Hollywood for Chris to keep his head on straight…

Other points of interest/humor:

Hearing Ben Kingsley use the words 'chaps' and 'bollocks' in an episode of The Sopranos was hilariously out of place... loved it. And what's up with the random Wilmer Valderrama photo op??

The scene at Vesuvio’s where Artie is speaking to his staff about the AmEx situation, and that banter back and forth about the coats and stolen condiments. The reactions from his workers were priceless.

I also like how, in firing Martina, Artie was harping on getting her in trouble, and made that "we lead the world in computerized data collection" comment... pure jokes! What boss DOES THAT?!?

Rusty got got, but it was kind of on the low. We opened and closed with the scenes in Italian, with his killers giving what seemed to be small talk, about our weak dollar and such. Rusty is out of the way, and even though Tony denied being in on the hit when Phil reached out to him in thanks, we know.

Speaking of Phil, that outburst @ the table early on was kind of left field. OK, we know, Vito’s wife is your cousin. We got it. Why keep making abrasive remarks in those calm situation? We know that you were denied your revenge for the death of your family last season, and I don’t doubt that Tony already has his feelers out there, searching for Vito… now, will Phil get his revenge this time? We shall see…

Since we’re on the subject of Vito, let’s dive into the scenes from next week’s show:

Whoa! Looks intense… and looks to be dominated by AJ and Vito stories. We see AJ in what looks like a strip club, or something, getting all kinds of tore up. This is interspersed with scenes between AJ and Tony, heated arguments about not getting money, and AJ saying “you guys are loaded”… Doesn’t AJ work at Blockbuster??? We shall soon see… and WTF is he getting himself into? What happened to bullets in mummy heads?!

The preview made it seem like the end is near for Vito. Looks like he gets found out there in New England. It’s going to be crazy to see what they do to him. Will they kill him right there, or bring his fat ass back? I don’t like him as a man, not even due to the gay stuff, just his personality, it’s always creeped me out.

I don’t recall signs of Carm, Meadow or some of the other heads… we shall see. I need to rewatch the whole episode, my cable box cut out for a few minutes early on, so I missed some stuff.

If anything changes, this post will change, standard.

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