It's Christmas time and Tony starts reminiscing.
This is another very strong reflective episode with great character moments.
Christ is notably absent from Christmas as a number of characters struggle to comprehend the meaning. I have to admire the cynicism of the writers who show characters using the festive season to display such blatant hypocrisy. Presents are bought out of guilt, children are entertained by organised criminals, a pretentiously religious sister manipulates a brother, yet the only genuinely religious character ironically sleeps all the time!
Much of the humour associated with Christmas, particularly relating to Santa, is superbly done, but as ever the writers underpin it all with dark events such as the fate of Big Puss. Two characters are directly associated with playing Santa and we see their contrasting versions, but in a more serious sense Tony is the real Santa (or Satan) if you like anagrams. The narrative of the episode is brilliantly structured around his Christmas list of duties.
I have always appreciated that one of the ultimate male hypocrisies is the attitude towards a potential son-in-law being "how dare you treat MY daughter the way I treat her mother". This is captured brilliantly in Tony's devilish response to Jackie's behaviour. The follow up scenes involving presents on Christmas Day is priceless.
All actors are on great form, especially James Gandolfini, Tony Serico, Stephen Van Sandt, Steve Shirripa, Edie Falco, Katherine Narducci, and Aida Turturro.
Visually it is superb as always, with great cinematography, editing and symbolism. The flashbacks and styling are as good as they can be for the budget allowed by the show.