“Meadowlands”

Directed by John Patterson   |   Written by Jason Cahill   |   53 min

The School of Hard Knocks, starring AJ Soprano

By Colin Hart

8.7 / 10

“Meadowlands” is only relatively weak. Allow me to explain: The Sopranos‘ first three episodes (the pilot, “46 Long” and “Denial, Anger, Acceptance”) make up one of the strongest collective starts in TV history. It’s only natural that an episode like “Meadowlands” comes along to calm things down. But this isn’t a bad episode at all — the script is smart and well-written, and features excellent directing (the first of many to be helmed by John Patterson). “Meadowlands” is an episode that is only made to seem weak by impossibly high Sopranos standards.

The main reason “Meadowlands” feels inferior is because of a particular storyline — nay, character — that it decides to focus on. Now, I surely…