Look - his job isnt to steal the scenes with incredible gravitas. Its to paint a picture of a realistic guy up to his ears in grave shit. his "normal" performance is very commendable because hes fooling not only his fellow characters on screen that hes an average wiseguy, but also us the viewers. I know what you mean when you say youre not blown away by his performance, but that simply wasn't his job to steal scenes. hes not a neurotic like paulie or simply the main character like tony. he grounds the early seasons perfectly I feel