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 ...
i’m sure that happened..its just like and no different than black people calling one another “nigga”..
and again- i don’t care about the show but laugh at the hypocrisy...the same time they were awarding the Soprano’s, people were making a stink about the Seinfeld puerto rican day parade episode- which was hysterical...
I was in Manhattan last summer and noticed it’s much cleaner and safer and gentrified than my era there in the 1980s
The first few seasons of Mad Men were fantastic.
I loved The Sopranos. My wife and I binge watched it last year. My favorite character was Silvio Dante played by Steven Van Zandt of The E Street Band fame.
We then watched his own television series called “Lilyhammer.” He plays a mob guy who goes into witness protection and asks to be relocated to Lillehammer, Norway, because he fell in love with it watching the 94 Olympics that took place there.
Needless to say he is a man among children as he outwits the populace that is the result of decades of socialism and the nanny state. It’s hard to believe these people were once Vikings.
All three seasons are on Netflix, and if you liked The Sopranos, and especially Silvio, you will love Frank “The Fixer” Tagliano.
Thanks, sounds well worth checking out.
Absoloootly, doll. I lived among the I-A community with its 1% of wiseguys in South Philly during the same time frame, and was astounded how exquisitely The Sopranos captured the ethos. I am a great fan and was riveted by the perfection of details like "Satrialie's Pork Store," or when Carmella tried to impress (and possess) the priest with her ziti. Her hair, her jewelry, her manicure... omg. So many details come to mind, just amazingly accurate, like when Tony wanted to get out of his contract to buy the shore house owned by (and next door to) a shark lawyer, who wouldn't let him out of the contract, and what Tony and his men did next. That episode slayed me.
Love the Sopranos, but Game of Thrones is the greatest show ever.
I liked the Sopranos but another great show was The Wire also on HBO!!!
YES GOT has great characters natural and supernatural, great story and power manipulations, hot babes and guys, great dragon action, maybe the best story telling ever. Greta cast like the others.
I love mafia stories and loved the Sops Wire seemed gritty and real. Nice job by people who knew and love baltimore. Greta cast out of there Idris and the guy that paled the gang killers. I’d take any of these to continue.
WELL SAID
I think the series does expose them very skillfully to be reviled and mocked by the audience. Their moral bankruptcy and banality is on full display. It has traditionally been a very secretive organization that enforced secrecy with fear, threats, extortion, and pure evil. To see it laid bare was very cathartic. Only a fool would look at these men and women as role models.
What I have found praiseworthy is the honesty of bursting the balloon of mystique around prior generations of mob bosses and bullies, their absurdity revealed, the great cinematic artistry and exceptional scriptwriting of the series, and the extraordinary juxtaposition of this 19th-century secret society with the tawdry pop culture of the late 20th century—such as a mob boss having anxiety attacks and going to a psychiatrist instead of seeking a priest he could manipulate and making a confession and a big donation, like his forebearers in the organization.
Purely as drama and tragicomedy, it was extremely well done. I am a person who has read most of Shakespeare, and I found The Sopranos very compelling, and very entertaining.
Nice Take,
Thanks.
Gilligans Island is the best.
I had lived in Alaska from ‘71 to ‘88, and the characters in the Northern Exposure series was “so Alaska”, and I loved it. Everyone was a free spirit there, and it was OK to be, or act, any way you wanted to, and say anything without hearing “tsk tsk” from anyone. Zero PC.
After those years it was difficult to blend in to the normal Lower 48 way of life. I suppose I never did — in my heart. I still have to remind myself that it’s not a good thing to speak my mind, which was no big deal there.
Anyhow, the original NE cast still exists, I think. Maybe they could be reunited. I always liked the Barry Corbin character.
I like season 2, 3 and 4. I don’t like the hippie crap or any of the LA crap.
Pine Barrens was the best.
You need to check out some pre-code films.
Greatest show ever? Highly debatable. I think “Silicon Valley” is more entertaining, for example.
Some will say that this show glorified gangsters and their lifestyles. Were they watching the same show as me? Much as with “Goodfellas”, to me this show repeatedly drove home how tacky and tasteless these guys were, not to mention completely lacking in morality, ethics and values. It was interesting, but definitely didn’t inspire admiration for these guys.
Although... at least I didn’t usually feel dirty after watching it, as most of the characters were somewhat complex and not completely depraved. Now “Boardwalk Empire” OTOH...
I don't think so. The Wire could pretty easily shift story lines each season. One year it's labor unions. Then it's schools. Or newspapers. Or "Hamsterdam." Or the rise and fall of Stringer Bell or Omar Little.
The Sopranos couldn't do that. They were limited to the same basic characters and situations. They couldn't say, "Let's make Tony a Congressman" or let's focus on an Black drug dealer or on the failure of the school system. Given what they had, they did an excellent job. Every one of those killed-off characters had a different personality and trajectory (I think).
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