HBO's Underrated 'Sopranos' Episode Officially Put This 'Penguin' Star on the Map 20 Years Ago

Published Sep 12, 2026, 12:01 AM EDT

Thomas Butt is a senior writer. An avid film connoisseur, Thomas actively logs his film consumption on Letterboxd and vows to connect with many more cinephiles through the platform. He is immensely passionate about the work of Martin Scorsese, John Ford, and Albert Brooks. His work can be read on Collider and Taste of Cinema. He also writes for his own blog, The Empty Theater, on Substack. He is also a big fan of courtroom dramas and DVD commentary tracks. For Thomas, movie theaters are a second home. A native of Wakefield, MA, he is often found scrolling through the scheduled programming on Turner Classic Movies and making more room for his physical media collection. Thomas habitually increases his watchlist and jumps down a YouTube rabbit hole of archived interviews with directors and actors. He is inspired to write about film to uphold the medium’s artistic value and to express his undying love for the art form. Thomas looks to cinema as an outlet to better understand the world, human emotions, and himself.

The big takeaway from The Penguin series was not the titular protagonist, but instead the character’s criminal arch-rival, Sofia Falcone, played by Cristin Milioti. While she has been consistently exceptional, Milioti finally got the praise she deserves thanks to the HBO crime drama. It’s hard to think of a more inspired beginning to one’s career than Milioti, whose second screen credit saw her in a brief role in another HBO crime drama, The Sopranos. MIlioti appeared in an overlooked but remarkable episode, directed by Steve Buscemi, which displayed incredible insight into the show’s thematic fabric.

In the Season 6 episode of The Sopranos, “Mr. & Mrs. John Sacrimoni Request…”, the titular incarcerated New York boss, best known as Johnny Sack (Vincent Curatola), is granted a temporary release from prison to attend his daughter Allegra’s (Caitlin Van Sandt, daughter of series regular Steven Van Zandt) wedding. Sitting alongside Johnny, his wife Ginny (Denise Borino), Allegra, and his son-in-law Eric (Adam Mucci) is his second daughter, Catherine, played by a then-unknown Milioti. She would later appear in two additional episodes, including the harrowing Season 7 episode “Stage 5,” where John’s fight with cancer would meet its tragic end. Milioti’s brief appearance on ***The Sopranos *would come full circle over 15 years later **as the co-lead in The Penguin, which clearly draws inspiration from the David Chase organized crime drama.

Your answers point to the iconic universe your values, your instincts, and your particular way of seeing the world were built for. This is where you would find your people — and your purpose.

You believe in the cause — in the idea that freedom is worth fighting for even when the odds are impossible and the empire is vast.

You understand, in the deepest part of yourself, that the journey matters as much as the destination — and that the world’s beauty is worth protecting even at great cost.

You believe that love, loyalty, and doing what’s right are not naive sentiments — they are the most powerful forces in any world, magical or otherwise.

You see the world clearly — its power structures, its hypocrisies, its brutal arithmetic — and you are not paralysed by that clarity. You use it.

You believe the future is worth building — that curiosity, cooperation, and the expansion of understanding are not just ideals but the most practical path forward for any civilisation.

Milioti only has two lines in “Mr. & Mrs. John Sacrimoni Request…”, but, as with every inconsequential performance in The Sopranos, she leaves an impact. While they visit John in the prison waiting area, Ginny and Allegra talk about their diet, which prompts an already irritated Catherine to yell, “Can we ever talk about anything in this family besides food?!” Honestly, based on the amount of gluttony that occurs in the show, Catherine’s point is valid. The episode was directed by former cast member Steve Buscemi, who previously directed the acclaimed “Pine Barrens.” For any inexperienced actor in her early 20s, starring in *The Sopranos would be an overwhelming endeavor. Milioti said to Entertainment Weekly *that **her stint on the show was “one of many profound, emotional, moving, and meaningful synchronicities” **in her life. At the time of her Sopranos role, her family couldn’t afford an HBO subscription when she was cast.

Milioti may have felt like a deer in headlights while filming, as she shared a story with EW about an awkward time when she accidentally ate a prop shrimp during the wedding sequence. Luckily, she found support from Buscemi behind the camera. “He was so incredibly kind to me,” Milioti said in an interview. She expressed gratitude for his warmth and for making her feel protected on set as a young actor who hardly knew where to look on camera. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t seen an episode of *The Sopranos — *Buscemi made her feel like a series regular.

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