Gomez, Nick

The Sopranos - Season 6, Part 1

The Sopranos, Season 6, Part 1 is the most contentious release yet in the acclaimed series' history. While many fans think it jumped the shark at the exact moment Vito said "I love you, Johnny Cakes" , this season also contains some of the series finest moments and plumbs new depths of character, while continuing to add to the body count. Things get started with a bang, literally, that unexpectedly sends Tony (James Gandolfini) to the hospital and into a coma where he experiences an alternate reality while in limbo. At one point he awakes and asks "Who am I? Where am I going?" encapsulating this season's central theme in a moment of desperation wrapped in a fever dream. But it's not all existentialism. With Tony and Uncle Junior both of the picture, the capos in the Soprano crew try to take advantage of the situation and begin jockeying for position while a reluctant Silvio (Steve Van Zandt), acting in Tony's place, struggles to keep everyone in check. Things aren't going much better for Tony's family, as A.J. (Robert Iler) confesses to Carmela (Edie Falco) that he flunked out of school, and while at Tony's bedside, swears revenge for his injury. The stress of the situation finally gets to Carmela, who takes up Dr. Melfi's (Lorraine Bracco) offer to help and finds herself in the strange position of confiding in her husband's therapist, revealing for once that she feels some guilt over making the kids complicit in how Tony makes his living—plus there's the issue of whether she really loves him. Christopher (Michael Imperioli) continues to provide much of the comic relief for the series, culminating in one of this season's best episodes when he flies out to L.A. in a bumbling attempt to get Ben Kingsley to sign on for his fledgling movie (Saw meets The Godfather), and ends up mugging Lauren Bacall for her goodie basket at an awards ceremony. Sowing further discord in the ranks, Vito (Joseph Gannoscoli) finally gets outed as homosexual, and is forced to flee for his life up to New Hampshire where he meets "Johnny Cakes." Finally, even with New York boss Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni (Vince Curatola) in prison, Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) makes plays against Tony and eventually sets in motion a hit against someone on Tony's crew, and now a larger war with Johnny Sack's crew seems to be looming.

Series creator David Chase seems to be saying with this season that character is destiny. If so, then Season Six, Part 1 is taking the necessary time to flesh out who these people really are, and is leaving the destiny part up for Part 2. The fact that the series' writers have been able to maintain such a strong show with so many interweaving storylines for so long is a feat not to be taken lightly. That said, this season of The Sopranos does deserve some of the criticism it's received: the Vito storyline would have been better served by resolving it in fewer episodes, and the season ending is the most unsatisfying one yet, leaving many fans wanting more. But the bottom line is that this season deserves more praise than criticism, proving that even at its weakest, The Sopranos is still the strongest show on TV.--Daniel Vancini

Several crises threaten Tony and his crew; for starters rival boss Johnny Sack (Vince Curatola) is in prison and the always-tense relations between the New Jersey and New York families are strained through the unpredictable behavior of Sack?s surrogates. Then there are the inevitable power struggles that ensue when certain family members are eliminated by natural and other causes.Running Time: 720 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 026359330124 Manufacturer No: 93301

Brotherhood - The Complete First Season

This riveting Showtime series puts a familial spin on Angels with Dirty Faces, the 1938 James Cagney-Pat O'Brien classic in which two childhood friends take divergent paths--one becomes a priest, and the other a hoodlum. In Brotherhood, Michael Caffee (Jason Clarke) is an idealistic and respectable Rhode Island state representative dedicated to the preservation of his close-knit lower-middle-class Irish neighborhood, the Hill. His older brother, Michael (Jason Isaacs), is a gangster who returns home after a seven-year absence (one step ahead of a hit, two steps ahead of the Feds) to pick up where he left off. The stage is set for backroom skullduggery and mean streets thuggery, as both men pursue their visions of the American dream on opposite sides of the law. At the heart of this series is the conflict between the estranged brothers. With the exception of clueless matriarch MaryRose (Fionnula Flanagan), Michael is not exactly received with open arms. "You're a tornado," Tommy tells him early on. "You suck everything in and spit it out broken." Indeed, the man is a psychopath. When a henchman of neighborhood mob boss Freddie Cork (Kevin Chapman) threatens a woman, Michael not only repeatedly bashes his head against a car, but for the coup de grace, cuts off his ear. In one gut-wrenching scene, he compels a woman to sell him her store by inducing her mentally challenged brother to play Russian Roulette. No wonder Tommy insists, "We're not the same in any way." But don't be too sure. Michael is a good man and devoted father and husband, but he isn't above (or beneath) using Michael's inside information to blackmail a stubborn colleague who won't vote his way on a freeway project that could destroy the Hill.

As the season unfolds, he will be forced to make more ethically challenged deals with the powers behind the scenes, one of whom has a mysterious connection with his mother. Brotherhood mines the clash between personal and professional lives to flesh out its characters. "The people's business" doesn't pay well, and Tommy is forced to moonlight as a real estate developer, and perform all home repairs. Eileen (Annabeth Gish), his picture-perfect politician's wife, smokes pot and is having an affair with a man she knew in high school. Declan Gigg (Ethan Embry) is a conflicted policeman who grew up with the Caffees. Comparisons with The Sopranos are inevitable, but Brotherhood quickly establishes its own unique voice, if not accent. --Donald Liebenson

A working-class Irish family is torn between right and wrong when two brothers live out their destinies on opposite sides of the law. BROTHERHOOD tells the story of two brothers who sometimes share a twisted sense of moral compromise--each with his own skewed idealistic vision of what makes the American dream. System Requirements:Run Time: 583 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 097368507845 Manufacturer No: 850784

The Practice - Volume One

Defense attorney Bobby Donnell could've had his pick of high-paying jobs at any number of fancy Boston law firms. Instead, he chose to be his own boss. The Practice: Volume One combines all six episodes from the debut mini season in 1997, along with seven episodes from the sophomore year. Though it would've been a more cohesive collection if entire two seasons were included on this four-disc DVD set, it's still a welcome addition for fans of this David E. Kelley drama. Starring Dylan McDermott as Bobby, the cast also includes Kelli Williams as uber-attorney Lindsay Dole, Emmy Award winner Camryn Manheim as Ellenor Frutt, and former cop-turned-defense attorney Eugene Young (Steve Harris). Then there's their friend--and also foil--prosecutor Helen Gamble (Lara Flynn Boyle), who admires the team's tenacity but stops at nothing to beat them in court. During the early seasons, Donnell's firm doesn't bring in enough money to decorate their offices, which are filthy--just like many of their clients. But as they slowly build a reputation as the go-to firm for clients who most likely are guilty but want to be set free, they begin to wrestle with moral dilemmas. As can be expected from a Kelley series, the cases presented here are fabulously sensationalist. But they also touch on human emotions, such as when they represent a client who was fired for being unattractive. The lawyers also have bittersweet moments as they realize they have surpassed their former legal mentors, some of whom have been seduced by the promise of big money. The most compelling episodes involve Dole--a brilliant but unseasoned attorney--who slowly and methodically tackles the tobacco industry. While the opponent has teams of senior attorneys, associates, paralegals, and interns at its disposal, Dole tirelessly works the case and refuses to give in, even when the outcome seems inevitable. The end result isn't believable in the least, but her passion sets the groundwork for one of the show's most watchable characters. --Jae-Ha Kim

The Practice: Volume One Extras

View a clip of David E. Kelley speaking about the creation of The Practice.

Beyond The Practice: Volume One

More From David E. Kelley

More TV Dramas

More From 20th Century Fox

Stills from The Practice: Volume One

Set in Boston The Practice centers on a firm of passionate attorneys to whom every case is important and every client worth a fight to the end. Pursuing justice however sometimes means crossing the line...System Requirements:Running Time: 559 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 024543426226 Manufacturer No: 2242623

Drowning Mona

New Jersey Drive

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film Urban Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 1-FEB-2005
Media Type: DVD

New Jersey Drive

Drowning Mona

The Agency

The Sopranos - The Complete First and Second Seasons

The Sopranos, writer-producer-director David Chase's extraordinary television series, is nominally an urban gangster drama, but its true impact strikes closer to home, chronicling a dysfunctional, suburban American family in bold relief. And for protagonist Tony Soprano, there's the added complexity posed by heading twin families, his collegial mob clan and his own, nouveau riche brood. The series' brilliant first season is built around what Tony learns when, whipsawed between those two worlds, he finds himself plunged into depression and seeks psychotherapy--a gesture at odds with his midlevel capo's machismo, yet instantly recognizable as a modern emotional test. With analysis built into the very spine of the show's elaborate episodic structure, creator Chase and his formidable corps of directors, writers, and actors weave an unpredictable series of parallel and intersecting plot arcs that twist from tragedy to farce to social realism. While creating for a smaller screen, they enjoy a far larger canvas than a single movie would afford, and the results, like the very best episodic television, attain a richness and scope far closer to a novel than movies normally get.

Alternately seductive, exasperated, fearful, and murderous, James Gandolfini's Tony is utterly convincing even when executing brutal shifts between domestic comedy and dramatic violence. The first season's other life force is Livia Soprano, Tony's monstrous, meddlesome mother. As Livia, the late Nancy Marchand eclipses her long career of patrician performances to create an indelibly earthy, calculating matriarch who shakes up both families; Livia also serves as foil and rival to Tony's loyal, usually level-headed wife, Carmela (Edie Falco). Lorraine Bracco makes Tony's therapist, Dr. Melfi, a convincing confidante, by turns "professional," perceptive, and sexy; the duo's therapeutic relationship is also depicted with uncommon accuracy. Such grace notes only enrich what's not merely an aesthetic high point for commercial television, but an absorbing film masterwork that deepens with subsequent screenings.

In its second season, The Sopranos repeatedly defies formula to let the narrative turn as a direct consequence of the characters' behavior, letting everyone in this rogue's gallery of Mafiosi, friends, and family evolve and deepen. That gamble is most apparent in the rupture of the relationship that formed the spine of the first season, the tangled ties between Tony and Livia, whose betrayal makes Tony's estrangement a logical response. Filling that vacuum, however, is prodigal sister Janice (Aida Turturro), whose New Age flakiness never successfully conceals her underlying calculation and opportunism. Soprano's relationship with therapist Melfi also frays during early episodes, as she struggles with escalating doubts about her mobbed-up patient. At home, Tony contends with wife Carmela's ruthless ambitions on behalf of college-bound Meadow (Jamie Lynn Sigler), as well as son Anthony Jr.'s (Robert Iler) sullen adolescent flirtation with existentialism--the sort of touch that the show handles with a smart mix of sympathy and amusement. --Sam Sutherland

Karaoke: Classic Country Favorites, Vol. 6

Classic Country Hits made popular by artists such as: Small Town Saturday Night by Hal Ketchum, I Loved Them Every One by T.G. Sheppard, You Know Me Better Than That by George Strait, You're The Reason God Made Oklahoma by David Frizell & Shelly West, Family Tradition by Hank Williams Jr., Ghost Riders In The Sky (A Cowboy Legend) by Johnny Cash, Redneck Girl by The Bellamy Brothers, Born To Boogie by Hank Williams Jr., Love Don't Care (Whose Heart It Breaks) by Earl Thomas Conley, I Know Where Love Lives by Hal Ketchum, Same Ol' Love by Ricky Skaggs, and I Cross My Heart by George Strait.