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Employee of the Month is one of those wonderful Sopranos episodes: so rich of events, character and a truly dark streak. Most movies would have trouble jamming all this stuff into a two-hour running time; this series manages to beautifully in 50 minutes.Firstly, the show deals with the two new characters introduced in previous episodes: Ralph Cifaretto and Jackie Aprile Jr. (Jason Cerbone), son of the deceased boss from Season One and nephew of the crazy Richie Aprile who rampaged in Series 2. Whereas Tony insists the kid should lead a normal life, Ralphie, who's currently sleeping with Rosalie Aprile, tries to become Jackie's new best friend by letting him participate in a gloriously violent business settlement.More importantly, though, this chapter belongs to Lorraine Bracco, who goes where no actress has ever gone before with her role: after being brutally raped, Dr. Melfi is confident justice will triumph. When that isn't the case (the creep is released thanks to a lot of bureaucratic crap), she seriously considers asking Tony for help.Were this a mainstream drama show, that kind of idea wouldn't have made it past the synopsis stage. But this is HBO, and so such a decision represents a triumph of narrative boldness, not to mention actorial: Bracco approaches Emmy-baiting territory with her doubtful, effortlessly gripping performance and receives superb backing from Peter Bogdanovich (always reliable as Elliot Kupferberg) and James Gandolfini, who responds to the ambiguity with more ambiguity.As for the program's trademark "comic relief" it comes in the form of the news that New York boss Johnny Sack (Vincent Curatola) is buying a house in Jersey, prompting gags about his wife's weight. Pick of the bunch? Silvio's "She's so fat her blood type is ragu" and Paulie's gleeful "She's so fat, she goes campin', the bears have to hide their food". Hilarious.
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