The title of this episode features one of those great play on words that The Soprano’s writers were always throwing at us. When you look at the title, “A Hit Is A Hit”, you automatically think that a lot of people are probably going to get whacked in this episode, but you’re wrong. The title is referring to hit songs in the music industry. While I’m on the subject of The Soprano’s episode titles, I want to state that I really love how the writers named the titles. Most of the episode titles are spoken at least once throughout an episode, not all of the time, but most of the time.

In November of 2008, I decided to finally take a trip to visit Holsten’s in Bloomfield, NJ – the restaurant where the final scene of The Sopranos was filmed. Over a year had passed since episode 86, ‘Made in America’ had aired, however I felt excited as ever to be in this building. Not only was it the first actual Sopranos location that I was aware of visiting, but it was the exact spot where Tony Soprano was last seen. My girlfriend Jackie, my sister Kate & her husband John came along for the trip.

“Boca” opens up with a scene in a cemetery. AJ Soprano is running around with wild dogs as Livia & Junior Soprano visit Johnny Boy’s grave. The tombstone reads “John Francis Soprano : In memory of a loving husband and father”. I’m surprised Livia didn’t embed the words “he was an angel” somewhere on Johnny Boy’s tombstone.

Welcome to the dream world of Christopher Moltisanti. “The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti” opens up with Christopher experiencing a nightmare regarding the first man that he whacked, known as Emil Kolar (or as Christopher calls him, “Email Kolar”). The unsanctioned hit took place in the first episode of The Sopranos, at Satriale’s. Satriale’s also appears to be the setting for Christopher’s nightmare. This nightmare sequence was done extremely well, considering it was shot back in 1998. I love the scenery and colors used when Emil Kolar first appears in Christopher’s dream.

For the fans of The Sopranos who are into the mafia aspect of the show, “Down Neck” is a very uneventful episode. However if you are into the back story of Tony Soprano’s life, there is much to learn in this episode. On that note I’d like to mention that the true fans will love this and every episode, whether people are getting whacked or not.

“Pax Soprana” opens up with a scene that I believe is some foreshadowing by the writers. Please keep in mind as you read this blog, that I’m not writing it from the perspective of seeing the show for the first time, but I’m looking at the series as a whole, to notice things I might’ve never noticed before and to tie together different episodes, seasons & storylines. With that in mind, if you haven’t watched The Sopranos before, beware of plenty of spoilers on this blog for season one and all six seasons.

The majority of episode 5 revolves around two storylines. The first being Tony & Meadow Soprano’s trip to Maine (that were actually shot in New Jersey) in search of a suitable college for Meadow. Out of this storyline develops the subplot of Tony recognizing a rat aka Fabian Petrulio who was a former member of the DiMeo crime family. So while they are making stops along the way, Tony becomes obsessed with tracking down Fabian.

In November of 2009, the complete first season of The Sopranos was released in Blu-ray format.

I’m not gonna lie, I’d die to have the Sopranos on Blu-ray. I currently own every episode in DVD format, but I would really love to see every episode of the Sopranos in HD format.

Episode 4 of the Sopranos introduces us to the first of several Tony Soprano dream sequences that would show up throughout almost every season of the show. There are many interpretations for Tony’s dreams, especially the latter ones found in the final seasons.

For anyone out there who is a website nerd like me, you’ll be interested to know that in January of 2010 HBO updated their website. It’s been quite a while since they updated their site. I’m talking ALMOST a decade. Sure it’s changed a few times since the Sopranos premiered in 1999, but it really did need a fresh new look.