Personally, I'm glad the show went a more unsettling route.

I respect your opinion, but I feel the show used this event to explore something that was truthful (David's maybe not so interesting reaction) rather than something that would be more conventionally dramatic. And I feel it is good not to trust art. That's the most exciting art, maybe?

Good points, but aren't most victims of such an extreme personal violation angry and traumatized for a long time afterwards? What else can they do?

I understand how you feel, but the truth is Very Bad Things do happen to people, and it usually is out of the blue. I think SFU is all the better for including this episode, and making it as jarring and uncharacteristic as it is. One of the greatest feats in the episode, as John points out, is showing just how…

I am that Ralph Robert Moore, and thanks so much for your
kind words. I love critical analysis, which is one reason why Teti’s pieces on Six Feet Under, my favorite show, are always such a treat. Good to hear from you.

The problem for me with the first season of The Sopranos is that the violence isn't done well— the sound effects/foley effects don't match up well with the face-punchings. Fortunately, there was so much violence in the later seasons they had enough practice to correct that.

And dogs end up being Ruth's salvation.

I think too that Nate feels he's superior to other people— after all, he was a manager at an organic food market, fighting the good fight— so he's more likely to receive messages from the other side that others just aren't honest and real enough to get (witness his disdain of the dirt shaker in the first season, when…

I love the Claire and Edie dynamic this season. How enamored Claire is of Edie, someone who seems to have it more together than Claire does, is more empowered, yet the writers had the courage to evolve that story line into Claire just not being into Edie that way (after several determined attempts otherwise.) The…

There’s a great Special Feature on the boxset for this season where Alan Ball is editing the bonfire sequence. Among other things, he explains that it was necessary to make some very careful cuts so viewers wouldn’t realize that the second story window from
which Nate throws Lisa’s belongings was too far away for…