"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.". It's hard not to think of that classic line from Goodfellas when Tony Soprano starts recounting childhood memories to Dr. Melfi: unlike Herny Hill, the New Jersey boss's ambitions were entirely different, but fate decided to intervene.
The source of this reminiscing is a family problem: after being caught drunk in class (he and his friends stole some church wine), A.J. faces expulsion from school, and is punished by his parents by being forced to spend time with his grandmother every afternoon. While discussing the matter with his therapist, Tony recalls his own upbringing: Livia being a huger pain in the ass then than she is now, his dad and Uncle Junior going out regularly to collect money from people, and the old man getting arrested one nice day while having fun at a carnival.
Aside from exposing the parallels between father and son, Down Neck serves another important purpose: to show Livia's firm and authoritarian personality, which will reemerge in later episodes to shocking effect. But this story is also riveting for how it deals with an old stereotype (you join the mafia 'cause you were born into it) without pandering to conventions: Tony may have had it in his DNA (though he concedes in another episode that perhaps he was too lazy to seek a different occupation), but the look on his face when he sees who his father really is indicates everything but happiness or pride. Then again, he might have reconsidered when he learned how much you can earn...
Exceptional
The source of this reminiscing is a family problem: after being caught drunk in class (he and his friends stole some church wine), A.J. faces expulsion from school, and is punished by his parents by being forced to spend time with his grandmother every afternoon. While discussing the matter with his therapist, Tony recalls his own upbringing: Livia being a huger pain in the ass then than she is now, his dad and Uncle Junior going out regularly to collect money from people, and the old man getting arrested one nice day while having fun at a carnival.
Aside from exposing the parallels between father and son, Down Neck serves another important purpose: to show Livia's firm and authoritarian personality, which will reemerge in later episodes to shocking effect. But this story is also riveting for how it deals with an old stereotype (you join the mafia 'cause you were born into it) without pandering to conventions: Tony may have had it in his DNA (though he concedes in another episode that perhaps he was too lazy to seek a different occupation), but the look on his face when he sees who his father really is indicates everything but happiness or pride. Then again, he might have reconsidered when he learned how much you can earn...
Exceptional