A3's growling blues tune “Woke Up This Morning” plays while we ride with Tony Soprano from Manhattan (where the NYPD wears blue and the criminal-justice system has two separate yet equally important parts), to Jersey (where, the opening implies, the story behind the story unfolds). It’s eye candy for fans of vérité location shooting. The Lincoln Tunnel and the New Jersey Turnpike give way to industrial smokestacks, pre-war housing, mom-and-pop stores, and finally, the Sopranos’ gated mini-mansion. The Manhattan skyline, visible in Tony’s rear-view mirror, featured the World Trade Center towers until season four—and then, an aching blank. This is the story of a commuter, a suburbanite heading back home from the city after a day of business. But it’s also the story of an out-of-state haven for the powers behind those Manhattan skyscrapers—or at least the concrete in their foundations and the trash they generate.
