Posted on 01/09/2019 4:58:33 AM PST by simpson96
For the longest time, I’ve considered myself a Sopranos superfan. Perhaps THE Sopranos superfan.
As a teenager, I followed the New Jersey mafia drama since its debut 20 years ago this week – Jan. 10, 1999 – often employing illegal online file-sharing services to download the episodes, as my parents wouldn’t fork over the money to subscribe to the Movie Network (Canada’s HBO equivalent) so a 16-year-old could learn about the subtle art of “waste management.” In the years since creator David Chase inflamed America with his infamous cut-to-black series finale, I’ve rewatched my precious Sopranos DVD box-sets over and over (last count: nine full-series revisits … maybe 10). And in 2013, a month after the death of star James Gandolfini, I organized what I thought was a supercool Sopranos trivia night at a downtown Toronto bar. Nine rounds of questions, worth 100 points, including a section on the show’s gangster-spouted malapropisms (Sample: Which character says, “Create a little dysentery among the ranks”?). I think four people attended.
But my fandom pales in comparison to the veritable Rhodes Scholars of Sopranos Studies, television critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz.
(snip...) the pair have reunited to write The Sopranos Sessions, a 20th-anniversary analysis of what they rightly call the greatest and most influential series in television history.
The massive book, which arrives this week, not only offers deep-dive essays on every single one of the series' 86 episodes (including copious David Foster Wallace-esque footnotes), but also includes an intense, insightful multichapter interview with the usually press-shy Chase. What’s more: Chase finally clarifies the ending. Sort of.(snip)
“It was because of The Sopranos that you got The Wire, Deadwood, Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones and on and on and on,” says Zoller Seitz.
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
as an American of italian descent i could care less about the show- though i did like the Bada Bing scenes..
it is funny though how the snowflakes find everything culturally inappropriate, including the song Baby Its Cold Outside, yet continue to fawn over a television series which stereotypes Catholic italian Americans...once again, i love the hypocrisy of the left...
I really enjoyed this series but hardly best ever. Perry Mason, Andy Griffith, Breaking Bad to name a few that were better.
Mad Men and Six Feet Under were better.
Great show. When The Sopranos started its run, my team from work started dressing like them. The shirts, haircuts and mannerisms made our team the talk of the company. “Want anything fixed, go see EQ’s Production IT Team.” Couple of posters of us were spread around IT.
We had over a 600 man IT group from all over the world. When I went to visit our Mumbai location, in the data center there was a picture of us. It was cool.
Thank god we didn’t dress up like Ghost Busters.
Sorry, never watched it. Not a big Mob guy.
Agreed. Best of all time is a bit of a stretch.
My Sicilian grandfather left Italy in part to get away from
the mob to find it imported here too, nothing to be proud of
yet many Italian-Americans revel in the association, dance to the
Godfather theme at weddings, etc.
Funny thing he had an industrial business for 40 years and the only
time a protection shakedown came his way it was from an NYPD Cop
Pauli was the best!
Perhaps if you didn't live there, the show would be a big bore. I watched about 3 episodes the other night. I was surprised - considering how Gandolfini died - at how many references there were to his overeating. I wonder if the writers were aware of HIS foibles.
Never watched it.
I knew a guy back then who would religiously record each episode and STILL stay home to watch it every week.
The third biggest leftist freak I’ve ever known, and more dishonest than the first two.
Yes...the soap opera part sucked but the gangster stuff was pretty great!
My favorite is and will always be Norther Exposure.
It could have something to do with Gandolfini's high whiny voice. It grated on my nerves. The stupidity and brutality of most of the characters. Two episodes in I realized it wasn't my cup of tea.
From a portrayal basis this was a very good representation of LCN in NJ. Showing these a holes as a bunch of degenerate gamblers, drug users, and violent psychopaths was very accurate. In north jersey there was one father/son group that loosely ran things. Those people were to be avoided at all costs. Even if you were a “ friend” you were constantly looked at as a potential mark. They virtually ran things in the nj cities with their Democrat stooges up to the 80s. IMO the federal strike force program took a good deal of them out.
It will be....until Game of Thrones ends. Then Sopranos will be #2.
What amazed me was the number of times somebody was killed, and the body was left there, along with all kinds of fingerprints and DNA evidence from the killer. Despite this, no one was ever arrested or even questioned about the murder.
FWIW (Uncle Junior’s place was filmed in Jersey City at corner of Seaview & Ocean Ave. You see PS 40 as Tony gets out of his car and cross street. 2 blocks west on Seaview in same episode Christopher is outside apt building.)
About a month ago I read that they might be bringing Northern Exposure back with new episodes. Not sure if it’s “a thing”, though.
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