"Human frailty, it makes me sick sometimes."

Said Christopher somewhere near the beginning of last night's "Sopranos." I jotted down the quote and meant to do a substantial post last night, but I got tired of the episode, which was relentlessly about Vito's homosexuality. Okay, I get it! I don't think Vito was ever an interesting character, and now we're watching whole episodes full of his comic/tragic end? That is, I think it was the whole episode. I fell asleep halfway through, and now I'll have to start over again. Did it get better? Adam at Throwing Things says it was the worst episode this season.

Actually, I don't find Vito comic or tragic. It's as though they were planning endings for different characters, and they came to Vito, realized they'd never given him any interesting qualities, and quite apart from that, noticed that they'd never dealt with issues of homosexuality, so they just went ahead and made Vito gay so he'd have a final story as they wrapped up all the characters in the final season.

I woke up in time to watch the new episode of "Big Love." This was a well-written episode, with lots of characters and story lines, but a single theme: the problem the first wife -- the only legally married wife -- presents for the other wives. Grace Zabriskie got a lot of screen time, which I love. I could watch her fret and purse her lips for a whole hour. I love when she seems both very confused and sharply knowing. And I quite adore Chloe Sevigny -- so grim and conniving, but sad. Both Zabriskie and Sevigny play second wives on the show, and both are ravaged by their second-rate status. The hope they see lies in lording it over wives lower in the hierarchy. Sevigny's Nicki loves to oppress third wife Margene and is thrilled at the prospect of a fourth wife, as if having another dog to kick would really make life swell.