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 ...
Never watched the Sopranos. I recently binged Six Feet Under. Darn good show!
Adam Arkin is Hilarious
in Northern Exposure.
I never saw it once, although I did chat quite a few times with old people in a largely Italian-American community a few decades ago. They only had negative things to say about gangsters, and the accounts they shared were saddening. They were angry that gangsters were being glamorized by Hollywood.
It’s a fair question. However, we saw the head shot, because there was a blood spray. Obviously not immediately fatal, but had to be gravely injured. As far as “best”, it’s comparing apples and oranges. You like different shows for different reasons. If they’re both well done, how can you compare, say, Mad Men to Sopranos? That said, Sopranos was
My favorite until I saw Breaking Bad
I binged on 6FU back in 1999. I brought VHS tapes from an ebayer.
I never could understand why Hollywood loved this turdburger so much.
My memory goes back to the 1970s, when every street was cluttered with trash, and every creek looked like a dumping ground.
Say what? There's someone out there somewhere who needs to have that ending explained to them? Or maybe there's more than one ending that was shown here or there at some time or another?
The ending that I saw was not open-ended at all.
Nah. Firefly was the best TV series. It just didn’t last very long.
I agree. The Sopranos was a fine series and the acting was superb, but Breaking Bad is the best TV series of this type I have ever seen (and I’ve been at least an occasional TV viewer since 1953).
Growing-up in Pittsburgh I found the series had a WAY too familiar feel.
This is a pretty mobbed-up town. And for what its worth I had Italian-American friends who actually bragged about their relatives who were “made”.
Just sayin’.
But all through the whole series, all of Tony's crime "family" were shown to be despicable characters, and in the end Tony met his demise as the reward of his own criminality - along with his wife and their kids.
That wasn't clear enough?
You must have been a different place than me
Thanks, I’ll look for it.
However the 90s cast was once in a life time, so I’m skeptical a remake could ever recapture the charm.
I ordered the complete Norther Exposure series three weeks ago. :)
I used to love Firefly until I found out Fillion and Whedon were complete scumbags. To tell the truth, I would have to say I find myself watching Netflix or Prime eps of Deep Space 9 or Babylon 5 the most although GoT is awesome right now.
Entire Series are Pricey!
Why?
$22
I have never seen reruns of Norther Exposure since it went off the air anywhere, so...
Yeah... the NY-NJ metro area.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.