The Sopranos - season 1, episode 8: “The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti”

Spoiler warning: The article below contains spoilers for The Sopranos. If you haven't watched the entirety of The Sopranos, you might wish to avoid reading the article.

The scene stars Michael Imperioli as Christopher Moltisanti and the late Tony Sirico as Paulie Gualtieri. Imperioli has called it “one of his favourite scenes”. Chrissy and Paulie would go on to feature in many scenes together, and star in the much beloved episode 'Pine Barrons'.

This was one of those scenes in The Sopranos that touched on larger plot points while not having to be so inextricably linked for you to care. The characters made you care. You cared because they seemed like real people and they made you feel something.

Paulie knocks at Christopher’s door, and Chrissy answers with a pissed off “Who is it?”

Paulie’s concerned by the apartment looking like “a fucking sty” – and probably also Chrissy’s sad puppydog eyes. Imperiorili’s range of expressions was matched only by lead actor James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano).

“Talk to me,” Paulie says. “This ain’t like you, kid.” Paulie is right in the centre of the screen, surrounded by the darkness of Chrissy’s apartment. The Sopranos wasn’t directed or shot in a particularly flashy way, but many of its scenes were quietly beautiful.

He tells Chrissy he’s heard about him shooting a man’s toe off and word is out.

That darkness is soundtracked with a moody, reverb-laden electric guitar. It flits in and out at perfect times. Chrissy asks, “Does Tony know about this?”

Paulie shakes his head, looking intently at Chrissy. And it’s not a threatening look, but one of concern. He narrows his eyes, “What’s going on, Chrissy?”

Chrissy’s bummed because his film script isn’t taking off. He has 19 of 120 pages. “This fucking computer - I thought it would do a lot of it,” he says – one of the series’ many sharp jokes sprinkled into extended dialogue amid drama.

They’ve been talking a couple of minutes, and Chrissy gulps, working up the courage to ask, “You ever feel like nothing good was ever gonna happen to you?”

Paulie says, “Yeah, and nothing did. So what? I’m alive, I’m surviving.”

The answer sums up the contrast between the two characters: Chrissy’s ambitious, naive and young; Paulie’s realistic, more pessimistic, and more willing to see his life for what it is.

Chrissy says, “That’s it - I don’t wanna just survive.” Imperioli said he thinks that line speaks to Chrissy’s drug addiction that evolves later in the series: he wants something more from life, “something bigger”.

“It says in these movie writing books that every character has an arc,” Chrissy says, and he explains the concept. Paulie sits down. After trying to convince Chrissy to go out with him and “two broads in the car,” he’s ready to listen.

Around this time, the electric guitar’s strings bend, wailing with a bluesy melancholy. The scene is settling down, Paulie’s staying, they’re having a real conversation.

“Where’s my arc, Paulie?”

But Paulie doesn’t see the problem. “I got no arc either. I was born, grew up, spent a few years in the army, few more in the can. And here I am, a half a wiseguy. So what?”

“I got no identity!” complains Chrissy. He wants recognition, he wants to be made.

At the end of the scene there’s a quick cut to Chrissy continuing the topic of conversation with Big Pussy, still looking for satisfactory advice. “You know who had an arc? Noah.”

The Sopranos’ scales would regularly tip quite evenly between drama and comedy, and that combination helps enrich this scene with Chrissy and Paulie. Rather than taking you out of the scene and impinging on the drama, the comedy makes it seem more real.

You believe Chrissy when he says the computer ought to have done a lot of the writing - he’s naive but earnest. He’s putting his feelings out there for Paulie, more than once looking as if he's about to cry.

You also believe Paulie is content with life, as messed up as his may be.

This scene foreshadowed the many fantastic others Imperioli and Sirico would share, and was an early showcase of The Sopranos’ varied moods.

Abbreviated episode credits:-

Directed by: Tim Van Patten

Written by: Frank Renzulli and David Chase

Cinematography by: Phil Abraham

Art direction by: Harry Darrow

Music editing by: Kathryn Dayak

Music featured: ‘Summertime’ by Booker T. & the M.G.’s