Slate's Monday-afternoon mob-expert analyses of each episode of the Sopranos is a weekly must-read. I usually find myself nodding as I read, agreeing with points raised and gaining new insights into the show. But this line from Jeffrey Goldberg:

James Gandolfini was over-the-top compelling, taking Tony right to the precipice of permanent unlikableness. In fact, maybe he took Tony off the cliff. I felt pity for Janice, who is without a doubt the least pleasant character in a stable of unpleasant characters.

made me realize that, frankly, I didn't feel all that much pity for Janice when Tony went thermonuclear on her. Partly that's because Janice makes my skin crawl in a way no other character on the show, and maybe ANY show, for that matter, can; her evil is SO banal and SO petty it's far more likely to destroy directly innocent bystanders than a good deal of the actual crime we see on the show. Over and above that, however, I couldn't help but think we were simply seeing Janice at the start of one of her infatuation hobbies, which she seems to acquire at a clip unmatched by any fictional character this side of Bender. Of course she was being good; of course she'd taken what was said in her anger management classes to heart; it was her new thing, and she was going to stick with it until she got bored with it.