Thumbs Up/Sideways/Down

Thumbs Up: The Sopranos
I’ve been into this show for a long time, at first only because a lot of it takes place in my hometown (and Peter King’s as well, which we know because he mentions it about every two paragraphs): Montclair, NJ. In fact, Applegate Farm, where Phil took his publicly defecating nephew for ice cream in last week’s episode, is literally a five-minute walk from my old house (we actually used to walk there after dinner for ice cream during summers when I was growing up). So at first I watched mostly because there was actually a legitimate chance each week that someone might get whacked in one of my old neighbors’ front yards. But like everyone else, I stayed with it because it was and is one of the best shows on television.

Except this year, it seemed like it was suffering from “Hogan’s Family” syndrome, meaning there were huge crises on each episode that came out of nowhere and were then miraculously resolved within one show. The Hogan Family epitomized lazy 80s sitcom programming by taking tidy, 30-minute conflict resolutions to their extreme: the mother was killed off and the family barely blinked, the entire house burnt down and they were back in it the next week, best friend Bert announced he was HIV-positive and within one episode was dying in Mike’s arms…As I said, this was characteristic of lots of crappy 80s shows, but it seemed like The Hogan Family was the most egregious.

And now it seemed like The Sopranos was falling into that trap. I don’t know if it was because it’s the last season or what, but out of the blue Johnny Sack had cancer and was dead almost immediately, Tony suddenly had a severe gambling problem and was on the verge of squandering all his money on football games, etc. But they recovered this week with the best episode I’ve seen in a while, and it made use of all the slow-burning conflicts that have made the show much more realistic than others: Christopher’s ongoing heroin addiction, AJ’s romantic woes, the Middle Eastern thugs who may be terrorists, etc. Phew, it brought me back, and just in the nick of time. For a second there I was worried that they were going to have an episode in which either a) Meadow finds out she needs braces while she’s trying to impress a cute guy at school, or b) a wacky neighbor moves in next door who drives Tony crazy with his zany antics.

Thumbs Sideways: Crying in Public
Seems like everyone was turning on the waterworks this past week. First Andrei Kirilenko went all Jimmy Swaggart on us, and then it was T-Mac in a press conference that would have given Jimmy Dugan an aneurism. Even Tony Soprano lost it at Dr. Melfi’s office. The results have been mixed. As I mentioned above, The Sopranos episode was one of the best ones I’ve ever seen, and AK has come back in a huge way: 20 points, 9 boards, and 5 assists last night, plus 6 blocked shots, AND he played some competent point guard with Derek Fisher out (that is, until DF made a dramatic return wearing what I at first mistook for a Green Lantern costume), Derron Williams sitting with fouls, and Dee Brown possibly paraplegic. AK did everything except goad Don Nelson into a fight with Jerry Sloan, which I’ve been secretly hoping for because it would allow me to imagine what a fight between Phil Donahue and Ted Kennedy might look like.

T-Mac, on the other hand, might want to pace himself with his sprinkler system, because I don’t see how the Rockets are going to get better without a miracle draft pick or a free agency signing. T-Mac, Yao, Alston, and Battier have all peaked, they’re sorely lacking a point guard, Hayes is a backup at best, and Howard and Mutombo are at the bottom of their career downslopes.

Thumbs Down: David Halberstam’s Death
I know this was several days ago, but I just felt like paying homage to a master craftsman. I’m in the middle of Playing For Keeps: Michael Jordan and & the World He Made, with an emphasis on the “World.” Everything is covered here—everything: MJ’s entire playing career thru '98, all his teammates, even all his rivals (the Pistons and Celtics each get a full chapter; Phil Jackson gets several), David Stern, the entire league including all significant owners and agents, ESPN, and on and on. Halberstam could have just called this book Sports in the Late 80s to Early 90s because it’s such a thorough tour de force. And yet I zipped through it in a few days because it’s so engaging. I’m embarrassed to say that I haven’t read The Breaks of the Game yet, which apparently is a must for any hard-core hoops fan. But it looks like it’s out of print, because they’re all, like, $80 on Amazon.com. If anyone knows of an available copy that’s cheaper than an Eagles boxed set of CDs, please let me know.