Newspapers:
“Sunday's sublime episode represents another of Chase's bold moves — a last return without a big bang. This is an hour that slips slowly into darkness on the kind of domestic melodrama that irks Action Sopranos fans uninterested in psychological abundance. It is a mournful, foreboding episode, and it's expertly fraught with the subtextual family tensions of modern stage drama.” (
) “Sunday’s premiere marks the start of the show’s valedictory tour, a chance for the actors and the series’s creator, David Chase, to show off one last time and for viewers to pay their respects to the family that changed television, mostly for the better” (
“I'm satisfied, at least, that "The Sopranos" hasn't lost touch with its roots.”(
) “The culmination of this series could be an all-too-short, less than definitive nine-hour stroll that leaves our soul unsatisfied but our lives enriched.”(
) “If he's destined to go out, television's capo di tutti capi had better do it with a bang that rattles the gates of hell, not a frail tumble or a whimper.”(
) “Tony's world — absurd, perverse and bestial as it is — has come to seem very real, very plausible, very American.” (
) “The two episodes that open the final run are, as
Sopranos
episodes tend to be, masterful examples of the TV art… But they don't do much to move us toward the conclusion” (
) “With its tragicomic wit, psychological insight, recurring themes and cultural references, "The Sopranos" has claimed its place as literature - with a killer soundtrack.” (
“It's hard for me to watch completely fresh without wondering a tad too much where it's leading.” (
Magazines:
"These episodes, however, are all about unintended consequences, as well as the underlying idea that a mob boss is not necessarily someone whose feelings you want to hurt (
"Sopranos" looks to be taking us on one of its darkest journeys yet en route to the finish line, setting a tantalizing table for the forthcoming climax." (
) "every minute is alive, loaded with middle-aged melancholy (Tony's) and dread (ours). Offering a tableau of almost hilarious mellowness and serenity (
)
Online:
"The first two episodes mark a return to "The Sopranos" we fell in love with, every scene rich with humor and sadness, every moment heavy with echoes of the past and omens of things to come." (
) "I'm pretty pleased with this premiere. It didn't set off the people who always complain that there wasn't enough action and killing …and it certainly didn't set off the people who love the character development and back story." (
"I watched this episode a couple times to review it, and it was only on the second viewing that I appreciated how well constructed it was, how perfectly pitched the character interplay was, how many tiny lines and moments resonated with earlier events from years ago." (
)
Compiled by Alex Weprin
