Woke up the next morning...

UPDATE: Well, that was fast service. Though my day-after "Sopranos" review hadn't been posted to NJ.com when I woke up at the crack of dawn, it showed up 10 minutes after I e-mailed my bosses. So here's the beginning of the column, and remember, if you haven't seen the premiere yet, make like a Knight of the Round Table and run away, fast as you can.

The moral of the story: always keep your cell phone charged.

Wowzers. Where to start? Even if you might have predicted that Tony was going to take a bullet, would you ever have expected it to happen in the first episode of the season? And in such a stupid, pathetic fashion? This wasn�t Tony getting shot by Phil Leotardo, or one of his own captains, or anyone else who should pose an actual threat to him, but by a frail, senile old man in a ratty bathrobe.

And then that crawl into the kitchen! If the episode had closed on the gunshot, it would have been a great shock ending. But to dwell for so long on Tony�s attempt to make a phone call (as a terrified Junior scrambles to hide in an upstairs closet) took it to a whole different level of gut-wrenching.

Whether Tony lives or dies, comes back to full health or walks around with a colostomy bag, I won�t even speculate - mainly because I already know and don�t want to spoil it. But the interesting thing here is how Tony�s past is catching up to him in dangerous ways...

To read the rest, click here. Then hurry back to comment. After sitting on this one for weeks, it's about time I get to hear some other thoughts on them.