On top of this, there were all kinds of memorable moments that redeemed the season and made the "lack of whackings' palatable: The second episode, featuring Meadow's visit with scary therapist Linda Lavin and her subsequent fight with Tony. The "intervention" for Christopher that devolved into a full-fledged brawl. Artie Bucco finally snapping, like we always knew he would.

And of course the death of Ralph, conducted as a reverse homage to the Jack Woltz scene in "The Godfather" - rather than get the horse's head in his bed, Ralphie killed the horse and got HIS head cut off. And just as his severed head is moved, we hear a bowling ball roll down the stairs - perfect. For a whacking to work, it has to be special - and Ralph's death certainly was.

Sure, there were two or three weak episodes - but that doesn't mean the show's become "bad" - it's still better than almost everything out there. But lest you think I'm an unconstituted "Sopranos"-booster, I did have my share of problems with Season 4:

- The Columbus Day episode was David Chase's annual transparent attempt to get back at those who rip the show as stereotypical of Italian-Americans; this obligatory charade was old when he did it in Season 1 and by now it's downright tiresome.

- It's become obvious that the writers have had nothing for Uncle Junior to do since Season 1. He may still get all the best lines, but since making peace with Tony at the start of Season 2 he's had two whole seasons of house arrest, one of cancer that he beat, and one of a trial that he won. And why didn't we get to see any of that trial? Imagine the comical possibilities of Junior as a
witness...

- Chase and the writers have always done a surprisingly good job writing the female characters, but several major ones were all but left out of the season. Meadow got next to no screen time between the second episode and the 12th, as her evolution as a character throughout Season 3 was basically left in suspended animation. And Dr. Melfi became more and more irrelevant until Tony finally dropped her on the penultimate show.

- The Adriana-as-FBI-informant arc was introduced at the beginning and looked quite promising - but nothing of interest really ever came of it.