Three days ago I started to watch "The Sopranos" for the fourth time. I'll
write a little about it despite
my current problems. Maybe I should say it's
because of my problems. It fits
better into my schedule than other series like
"Rome". When
I was watching "Rome" I made the decision to write detailed summaries of
each episode. I've now suspended my reviews until I have more time on my
hands. While watching "The Sopranos" I'll limit myself to making a few
comments about the episodes. There is really no reason for me to review it.
There are so many websites with detailed reviews of this series. I've checked
at least a dozen of them. You can find them with a simple web search, but I
recommend two sites:
Sopranos Autopsy: This is a review site by a guy called Ron, the best review site I know.
The Sopranos (I'll omit the quotation marks from now on) was a special series.
It was ground-breaking. Critics say that it kickstarted the
Second Golden Age of Television. I don't like that expression, but I'll
let it stand. It implies that there weren't good television series before it.
Maybe it would be better to call it the New Age of Television Drama, if
that expression hasn't already been used by someone else. It was a stylistic
difference to previous television dramas. In the past television series had
seasons lasting 22 to 26 episodes. They ran all year, repeated twice. Episodes
were filmed in a rush, one episode per week, followed by a six month rest
period for the actors. In the new age that began with the Sopranos series were
shorter, ranging from eight to thirteen episodes. The investment per episode
was larger, and two to three weeks were spent filming each episode. It was a
deliberate attempt to put quality over quantity, even if it left television
audiences frustrated by the long gaps between seasons.
Another characteristic of the new age was serialisation. What I mean is, in
the old age episodes were usually standalone and could be watched in any
order. In the new age the episodes have to be watched in order, even if there
aren't explicit cliff-hangers.
I don't want to put down the television drama series of the old age down.
There were excellent series, such as "Star Trek", "Highlander" and "Buffy
Vampire Slayer". However, these series had to struggle with smaller budgets
than new age series such as "Dexter" and "Game of Thrones".
It wasn't a clean break between the old age and the new age. For instance, the
Sopranos ran from 1999 to 2007, whereas "Smallville" (an excellent old age
series) ran from 2001 to 2011. A big overlap.
I personally consider the Sopranos to be the best new age series, due to the
superior writing. It has a large cast, but every single person is well
crafted, so that we know them all intimately. To compare it with "Game of
Thrones", which also has a large cast, the characters aren't as well defined.
Don't get me wrong, I think "Game of Thrones" is very good, but the Sopranos
is better.
The very first scene shows Tony Soprano in a psychiatrist's waiting room,
looking up at a naked statue.
The camera only shows her legs and her upper body. We can assume that the
woman is completely naked. Such a statue seems out of place in a
psychiatrist's office, especially in the waiting room. The sexuality puts men
at unease while they wait for their appointment. The statue stands above the
man, in a dominant position.
Dr. Jennifer Melfi is an intelligent, powerful woman. She knows that her skirt
is short enough to distract her male clients. Sexuality is power.
Tony Soprano is an alpha male. He doesn't allow himself to be overwhelmed by a
sexy pair of legs. He has sexy mistresses (goomahs) throughout the series. We
frequently see him and Dr. Melfi sparring to stay in control.
The relationship between Tony Soprano and Jennifer Melfi is one of the most
important parts of the series. In many episodes we see action scenes
alternating with Tony telling his psychiatrist about what happened. He isn't
always completely honest.
Tony is visiting a psychiatrist because his house doctor (who's also his next
door neighbour) has diagnosed him with a panic attack. In the consultations
Tony figures out the reason himself.
Tony had a family of ducks that lived in his garden and swam in his swimming
pool. First there was one duck, then a second, then a whole family. He went
into the pool every day to feed them. After the ducklings learnt how to fly,
the ducks all left. Shortly after this, Tony had his first panic attack. It's
clear that Tony was afraid of losing his family.
Family.
That's what the whole series is about. Tony is a man with two families. One is
his wife and children. The other is his family of associates as a Mafia boss.
I use that word for the sake of ease, but it's repeatedly stated in the series
that the word Mafia is disliked. They prefer to use euphemisms such as the
business or the family.
I've already written more than I wanted to, so I shan't write about the family
members today. I'll only mention Christopher Moltisanti. Tony usually calls
him his nephew, but on some occasions he calls him his cousin. He's actually
neither.
The relationship is via Tony's wife Carmela. Christopher is the son of her
cousin Dickie, which means he's her first cousin once removed. I don't think
there's a word to describe Tony's relationship to him. He can hardly call him
his first-cousin-once-removed-in-law. Nephew sounds better.
There's a slight continuity error. Don't worry, I doubt many people have
noticed. In the Pilot episode Tony and his colleagues meet at a store called
Centanni's.
From the second episode onwards the store is called Satriale's. The reason for
the change is that Centanni's is a genuine meat market in New Jersey. It was
suitable as an exterior, but the producers soon realised that they would need indoor scenes,
so they needed a new building. They found an empty building a
few streets away which they modified to look like a real meat market.
Apart from this one exception the series is consistent, even if everything
isn't revealed at once. In the first episode we have the impression that Tony
is the boss of the New Jersey Mafia. Oops! I used the M word again! In the
second episode we find out that Jackie Aprile is the acting boss while the
actual boss, Ercole DiMeo, is in prison serving a life sentence. Jackie's time
is limited, because he's suffering from cancer.
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