Johnny Cakes

Tony deals with family and business issues, whilst Vito's friendship with Jim develops.

This is a very strong episode with some standout moments.

There are some quite powerful and well made scenes. One exchange between Tony and A. J. is not just well written, but James Gandolfini and Robert Illier both do exceptionally good work with the dialogue. Gandolfini has plenty of opportunities to shine throughout the show run, but for me this is one of Illier's best episodes having the chance to go through a range of emotions with the character.

The other scenes I love are the brilliant instances of visual storytelling by the cinematographers and editors and effective physical performance from Gandolfini, Eddie Falco, and guest star Julianna Margulies. How can the simple buttoning and unbuttoning of a shirt say so much about what's going on inside a person's head? This is filmmaking at its best.

Vito has a fair bit of screen time and his scenes with Jim are well written from a character perspective. It feels very fantasy-world that the character has fallen into this situation and if this is deliberate on the part of the writers and filmmakers, it works very well as an almost alternative universe to the environment you would normally see the character living his life. The behaviour of Jim and the community of Dartford is nicely contrasted to the world of the New Jersey mob. I don't think Joseph R. Gannascoli has the greatest range compared to other cast members, so for him to carry this plot line for so many scenes is not as compelling as it possibly could be. However, he does have some strong moments, particularly in one scene where Vito makes a quite emotional phone call home and later during a violent, fear-driven reaction to something that happens to him.

As ever the writers include various underlying themes that tie into the plot lines, such as the eroding of small businesses and the character of neighbourhoods by the expansion of corporate America.

Johnny Cakes has been a divisive episode amongst some viewers and I think it relates to the focus on certain characters such as Vito and A. J. who have not been portrayed as the most likeable in previous episodes. A. J. Is the quintessential lazy, spoiled brat who lashes out at those who try to give him everything. I know several people very similar to this character who have not had good parental role models in life (who also gave them a lot of materialistic possessions as compensation). So it all rings very true. Vito has been portrayed as an arrogant, disloyal, ambitious killer prior to the outing of his sexuality and it is hard to invest in the situation as you probably would if it was someone like Christopher, Bobbie, Silvio or Paulie, who are all incredibly entertaining.