Television Review: Sentimental Education (The Sopranos, S5X06, 2004)

Sentimental Education (S05E06)

Airdate: April 11th 2004

Written by: Matthew Weiner
Directed by: Peter Bogdanovich

Running Time: 55 minutes

Long-running television dramas often face a narrative paradox: their initial strength lies in unflinching explorations of the human condition, yet over time, character flaws risk becoming mere fertiliser for formulaic tragedy. The Sopranos, despite its groundbreaking realism, increasingly succumbed to this tendency by its fifth season. Characters’ attempts at self-improvement or moral reckoning were routinely undercut by hastily revealed weaknesses or contrived circumstances, rendering their downfalls frustratingly inevitable. "Sentimental Education" (Season 5, Episode 6) epitomises this pattern. Tony Blundetto’s abortive rehabilitation, Carmela Soprano’s ill-fated affair, and AJ’s academic farces collectively illustrate how the series’ later seasons traded nuanced character study for deterministic storytelling. While thematically cohesive, the episode’s reliance on preordained failure exposes the creative exhaustion creeping into David Chase’s otherwise revolutionary narrative framework.

The episode’s title, borrowed from Gustave Flaubert’s 1869 novel L'Éducation sentimentale, signals its preoccupation with disillusionment. Flaubert’s work, like its predecessor Madame Bovary, dissects the chasm between aspiration and reality—a theme mirrored in the trajectories of Carmela and Tony Blundetto. Yet the title’s dual meaning extends beyond literary homage. "Education" here operates literally (AJ’s schooling, Tony B’s massage therapy certification) and metaphorically, as characters confront the limitations imposed by their upbringing and moral rot. Carmela’s fleeting romance with Robert Wegler, for instance, begins as a quest for intellectual enrichment but devolves into transactional exploitation, underscoring her inability to transcend the Soprano family’s gravitational pull. Similarly, Tony B’s vocational training proves futile against his ingrained criminal impulses, rendering his licensure a bitter punchline rather than a redemption arc. The Flaubertian influence thus transcends allusion, structuring the episode’s fatalistic ethos.

Carmela’s storyline exemplifies the episode’s exploration of self-delusion and compromised agency. Tasked with salvaging AJ’s academic prospects, she weaponises her sexuality to manipulate Wegler, AJ’s school counsellor. Their affair initially appears to satisfy Carmela’s long-suppressed desires for intellectual and romantic fulfilment. Wegler, an academic insulated from the Sopranos’ brutish world, represents an escape from Tony’s domineering shadow. Yet their relationship quickly sours when Wegler interprets her advances as transactional, accusing her of leveraging sex to secure AJ’s passing grades. This rupture forces Carmela to confront an uncomfortable truth: any future relationships will inevitably be coloured by her husband’s influence or her own moral compromises. Edie Falco’s performance here is masterfully subdued; her final scene, silently weeping in Wegler’s stairwell, communicates volumes about the impossibility of authentic connection within the Soprano orbit.

Parallel to Carmela’s disillusionment runs Tony Blundetto’s doomed quest for legitimacy. Freshly licensed as a massage therapist, Tony B secures a partnership with Sungyon Kim, his Korean employer, whose work ethic he admires. Yet this venture collapses under the weight of Tony B’s addiction to risk and comfort with violence. A subplot involving a fortuitously discovered $12,000—left by fleeing drug dealers—accelerates his downfall. This deus ex machina, while narratively expedient, strains credulity. As the user notes, such a contrivance clashes with The Sopranos’ trademark realism, reducing Tony B’s arc to a hurried parable about inescapable criminality. His return to Tony Soprano’s fold, defeated and destitute, feels less like tragic inevitability than lazy fatalism.

Peter Bogdanovich’s direction provides the episode’s saving grace. Known for his work in New Hollywood classics, Bogdanovich imbues scenes with a quiet, observational realism—particularly in Carmela’s scenes with Wegler. His experience acting on the series (as Dr. Kupferberg) likely informed his empathetic handling of the cast.

Contrastingly, Matthew Weiner’s script falters. While his later work on Mad Men would refine his talent for layered characterisation, here his reliance on narrative shortcuts—Tony B’s inexplicable cash windfall, Wegler’s abrupt moralising—betrays a lack of faith in the audience’s patience. The $12,000 subplot, in particular, reeks of Hollywood contrivance, clashing with the series’ established commitment to psychological realism.

Sentimental Education ultimately functions as a meta-commentary on The Sopranos’ own narrative constraints. By Season 5, the show’s universe had grown so morally claustrophobic that character growth became impossible—a reality mirrored in Tony B’s regression and Carmela’s resigned despair. While thematically coherent, the episode’s heavy-handed symbolism and reliance on fate over agency undermine its emotional resonance. Bogdanovich’s deft direction and Falco’s poignant performance salvage moments of authenticity, but Weiner’s script succumbs to the very determinism it seeks to critique. In the end, the episode educates its audience not on the complexities of human nature, but on the creative perils of conflating tragedy with predictability.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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