"The Sopranos" University (2001)

User Rating:

8.6/10   

Director:

Allen Coulter

Writers:

David Chase (creator)
Terence Winter (teleplay) ...

TV Series:

"The Sopranos" (1999)

Original Air Date:

1 April 2001 (Season 3, Episode 6)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

Noah and Meadow's relationship is disrupted by a friend, while Ralphie starts getting rough with one of the strippers from the Bada Bing.

Plot Keywords:

Misogyny | Beaten To Death | Men Beating Defenseless Woman | Violence Against Women | Controversy

Cast

James Gandolfini	...	Tony Soprano
Edie Falco	...	Carmela Soprano
Michael Imperioli	...	Christopher Moltisanti
Steve Van Zandt	...	Silvio Dante (as Steven Van Zandt)
Tony Sirico	...	Paulie 'Walnuts' Gualtieri
Jamie-Lynn Sigler	...	Meadow Soprano
Drea de Matteo	...	Adriana La Cerva
Aida Turturro	...	Janice Soprano
Federico Castelluccio	...	Furio Giunta
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tom Aldredge	...	Hugh DeAngelis
Sharon Angela	...	Rosalie Aprile
Michette Ardente	...	Mandee
Marie Athanasiou	...	Stripper #2
Daniel T. Booth	...	Waiter (as Daniel Booth)
Jason Cerbone	...	Jackie Aprile Jr.
Frank Delano	...	Bada Bing Wise Guy
John Fiore	...	Gigi Cestone
Kenneth Franquiz	...	Jeff
Joseph R. Gannascoli	...	Vito Spatafore (as Joseph Gannascoli)
Michael Garfield	...	Len Tannenbaum
Ari Graynor	...	Caitlin Rucker (as Ari Gaynor)
Dan Grimaldi	...	Patsy Parisi
Ariel Kiley	...	Tracee
Kelly Madison Kole	...	Debbie (as Kelly Kole)
Luiza Liccini	...	Stripper #1
Yvette Mercedes	...	Homeless Woman
Joe Pantoliano	...	Ralph Cifaretto
Frank Santorelli	...	Georgie
Suzanne Shepherd	...	Mary DeAngelis
Patrick Tully	...	Noah Tannenbaum
Maureen Van Zandt	...	Gabriella Dante
Richard Verdinio	...	Police Officer

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Silvercup Studios - 4222 22nd Street, Long Island City, Queens, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Brad Grey Television

Trivia:

In the Episode "University," Noah's dad is an entertainment lawyer. At the dinner with Meadow, Noah and himself, he mentions that he had been dealing with Tim Daly from Wings all day. Later in the Sopranos series, Tim Daly came on to play J.T. Dolan, Christopher's rehab sponsor as well as a Hollywood writer.

Quotes:

Ralph Cifaretto: Where's Tony?
Gigi Cestone: Gettin' his weasel greased.
Ralph Cifaretto: Oh, your kid brother's here?

Movie Connections:

References Gladiator (2000)

Soundtrack:

Powder Your Face with Sunshine

Ralphie gets raw

From the moment he showed his nasty face in the second episode of the season, it was clear Ralph Cifaretto (Joe Pantoliano) would cause a truckload of trouble. His bouts of madness reach their peak in University, one of the most truly disturbing eps of the series.

The story focuses on two relationships becoming what Woody Allen wittily described as "a dead shark" - a fitting moniker, given death is heavily involved in one break-up. On the one hand, we have Meadow and her boyfriend Noah (yep, the African-American one) drifting apart after a third person starts getting in the way. Nothing too dramatic, though, as opposed to Ralphie's affair with Tracee, a 20-year old stripper who works at the Bing: she is young, naive and optimistic about her future, not to mention pregnant with the man's child; he is arrogant, kinky, easily irritable, hung up on drugs and tends to get violent with random people for random reasons (at the start of the show he hits a guy just because the latter wasn't familiar with Ralph's favorite movie, Gladiator) - not the ideal father for the unborn kid. Tracee desperately asks Tony for help, but he doesn't respond to her pleas, claiming he can't be friendly with employees. Eventually, he has a change of heart, though not in time to stop an unwarranted explosion of brutality.

For the first and only time in the program's history, more focus is granted to the women who work for Tony and Silvio: most of the time, they're just a nice bunch of tits and ass, but through Tracee the previously labeled "stripper" emerges as a more complex, lovable person, and credit is due to the writers for not indulging in predictable "hooker with a heart" characterizations: this is a real human being we're talking about, and it's this unseen humanity that makes it damn near impossible for everyone involved, both in the show and outside of it, to stomach the bloody outcome of Tracee's attempt to lead a better life.

The whole episode is so brutal even fans of the show could find themselves surprised by Ralph's manic acts. Such is the profound insanity of the character, accompanied by the courage of the actor: a subtle bad guy in The Matrix and Memento, Pantoliano reaches levels he's never approached before, not even in Midnight Run, where he played a sort of proto-Ralph; and yet it never feels like he's going over the top, perhaps because with guys like these there is no top. It's an incredible performance, so strong it makes you wonder how come he won an Emmy for Season Four, but wasn't even nominated for Series Three: based on this episode alone, he would have won as easily as his character kills.