HBO’s The Sopranos is arguably the greatest and most influential television series ever made. Centering on family patriarch and mob boss Tony Soprano (played memorably by the late James Gandolfini), the series explores the often brutal day-to-day business of the New Jersey mafia, as well as Tony’s relationships with his family, therapist, and fellow mobsters. The Sopranos produced many of the most acclaimed episodes in TV history during its six-season run, including “College,” “Pine Barrens,” and its hotly debated finale, “Made in America.”
Nevertheless, a show with 86 total episodes was bound to occasionally miss the mark. And even though critics and fans of the show share differing opinions on what its best episode is, there is a clear consensus on its worst one: the fourth season’s third episode, “Christopher,” which film critics Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall described as “the…nadir of the show, period” in their book, The Sopranos Sessions. Written by Michael Imperioli (who plays Tony’s nephew, Christopher Moltisanti), the episode addresses the controversial legacy of European explorer Christopher Columbus and his commemorative holiday. However, most reviews found its treatment of the issue to be shallow and clunky.
An Unusual Episode

The biggest problem with this episode is that the characters’ behavior and dialogue is at odds with how they act and talk throughout the rest of the show. For instance, the episode begins with one of Tony’s associates, Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt), becoming infuriated by a newspaper story about some Native American activists’ intent to protest an upcoming Columbus Day parade. Silvio, who reveres Columbus as a symbol of pride for Italian-Americans, decides to stage his own counter-protest, against Tony’s advice.
This premise struck Vox’s Dylan Matthews as silly and contrived because Silvio “has previously demonstrated no interest in politics or history or really anything other than the operations of the Bada Bing [the strip club where Tony’s crew conducts much of their business].” Furthermore, AV Club’s Emily St. James describes the unsubtle writing for “Christopher” as a noticeable aberration from the show’s normal approach to dialogue: “This is a show where nobody really says what they’re feeling, and that’s a strength. Here’s an episode where everybody says what they’re feeling all of the time, and that’s why it doesn’t work.”

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Furthermore, despite the series’ reputation for handling heavy subject matter with nuance and grace, this episode seems to treat Columbus’ legacy with kid gloves, never fully confronting the horrific effects of his actions. Matthews describes the characters’ discussion about him as “sound[ing] like it was written by an eighth-grader assigned by his history teacher to write up Columbus’ pros and cons.” Furthermore, although Tony chides Silvio for idolizing Columbus at the end of the episode, his reasoning has nothing to do with Columbus’ misdeeds.
Matthews argues that the episode’s message boils down to “Yes, Columbus was a hero, but Silvio’s focus on Italian heritage is myopic, and at some point you have to move on.” While there may be some value to this idea, it doesn’t feel appropriately condemnatory towards Columbus himself. After all, one could replace “Columbus” with “Michael Jordan” and “Italian” with “American” in Matthews’s sentence and the point would still stand.
A Flawed Exploration of Racism

The episode’s questionable racial politics can also be seen in its unflattering depictions of Indigenous people, which has the cumulative effect of largely undermining the credence of their cause in the audience’s eyes. For instance, in one scene, a college professor who has organized the protest is taken aback by the assertion that actor Iron Eyes Cody was ethnically Italian, not Native American, making him look comically ignorant.
Furthermore, after Tony convinces Mohonk Chief and CEO Doug Smith (who is revealed to have only a sliver of Native American DNA) to try (unsuccessfully) to get the protest canceled, Smith ends up inviting them to his casino, ostensibly as a conciliatory gesture. However, Tony later reveals that Smith’s ulterior motive in inviting them was to get their help in booking Frankie Valli at his casino. As Matthews sums it up, “Even though David Chase and the staff clearly agree that Columbus Day is unseemly, they for whatever reason decide to put that case in the mouths of wholly unsympathetic characters.”
Why Does This ‘Sopranos’ Episode Exist?

Given the episode’s overall lack of major plot and character development, it is worth asking why Michael Imperioli wrote this episode in the first place. Fortunately, Imperioli himself answered this question on his and Steve Schirripa’s podcast Talking Sopranos: “The episode was our way of sticking it up their [rear ends].” Imperioli was referring to the politicians and anti-defamation organizations that claimed The Sopranos perpetuated harmful stereotypes of Italian-Americans.
In fact, in a rather ironic twist, Sopranos leads Dominic Chianese and Lorraine Bracco had their invitations to New York City’s Columbus Day Parade rescinded the same year of the episode’s airing.

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The show’s awareness of its Italian-American critics is most obvious in one particular scene. Tony’s wife, Carmela (Edie Falco), and her fellow mob wives attend a luncheon where they hear a speech about the need to change Americans’ perceptions of Italian-Americans as criminals. It’s hilarious in hindsight, as the speaker uses former New York City Mayor (turned convicted criminal) Rudy Giuliani as a positive example of Italian-American representation, betraying the otherwise timeless show’s age.
But whether The Sopranos takes its critics’ accusations seriously is a little ambiguous, as Matthews points out: “The episode at times reads like an attempt by the writers to thumb their noses at the critics, but at others it appears to be apologizing to them…” St. James, meanwhile, feels like the episode fails as a response to that controversy because it seems “divorced from the arguments of that earlier period [of the show’s first three seasons].”
Of course, one bad episode does not in any way diminish the overall greatness of The Sopranos. Such is one of the benefits of television — not every episode has to be a masterpiece. Plus, despite its flawed central storyline, both Matthews and St. James give “Christopher” credit for setting up other storylines, such as the nascent relationship between Bobby Baccalieri and Janice Soprano and the declining relationship between Tony and Johnny Sack, which would make for compelling drama throughout the rest of the season. As St. James bluntly states at the start of her review, “The show had not been this bad before, and it would not get this bad again.”
All six seasons of The Sopranos can be streamed on Max through the link below:
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