Our Television Heritage: The Sopranos Primer
Bada Bing.
What is it about gangsters that attracts audiences the way they do? Stories about organized crime have been massive parts of pop culture since at least the thirties, with mob pictures blowing up during the height of prohibition and the earliest days of talkies, notably featuring the likes of James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and/or Humphrey Bogart following into more contemporary works like The Godfather and Goodfellas. Television wasn’t a stranger to the lifestyle either, with The Untouchables causing a sensation at the start of the 60s, itself inspiring an iconic film adaptation in the 80s.
I think part of the appeal is that the life of a criminal can be sexy. Escaping the plot a bit but staying in the same world, we can look at other kinds of crime pictures, like Bonnie and Clyde and Badlands, which show an almost romanticized look at the lives of thieves and murderers. There’s also the appeal of looking in at people ostensibly worse than we picture ourselves as, which results in a mix of superiority and fascination. The average person doesn’t go around breaking legs when shafted, but seeing the mind of someone who does unspeakable acts on a daily basis can take you into a mindset that you wouldn’t traditionally think of.
But the highs are only part of the appeal, I believe. What brings people back is the dramatic tug of the mafioso lifestyle, how almost every person we see connected to crime ends up miserable in one way or another, be it facing a gruesome death or suffering in their own personal turmoil. Coppola in particular saw the possibility to ring opera out of the mob picture, which is why The Godfather still ranks among the all-time greatest films. Behind the gorgeous three-piece suits and jewelry tends to be an aura of melancholy and a life not long for this earth, or at least not one meant to be living.
The Sopranos works very similarly in that regard, which is why it still ranks among the greatest television series of all time- #1, in fact, according to TV Guide and Rolling Stone, and part of an unofficial five-way tie for first in Alan Sepinwall’s TV: The Book countdown (which it shares alongside The Simpsons, which is first place to Sopranos’ second, and fellow OTH elects The Wire and Cheers in third and fourth, with Breaking Bad being the last part of that tie*).
I’ll come out and say it now- I think the acclaim is deserved, and I’ve been looking forward to this for a while. The appeal of The Sopranos, the reason that audiences keep coming back well past its start in 1999, is how effortlessly it works as entertainment and high art. There’s plenty to grasp behind every little crack in the series, but it never stops being a treat to watch, remaining as fun as any show it’s up against. The cast in particular deserve their roses- I’ve been waiting to return to Edie Falco’s Carmela for ages- as does the incredible writing and vast scope.
Enough can’t be said about how HBO’s ventures into TV production changed the game, how cable’s lack of restrictions allowed shows like The Sopranos, Sex and the City and Oz to go beyond basic broadcast’s rulebooks at the time, allowing graphic violence, sex and strong language in with practically no hassle, or the technical aspects that make the show still look handsome today. That’s what we’ll discuss every week, as well as character, story and structural analysis, as well as a bit of context and note-keeping.
I intend to cover the show’s iconic six season, 86 episode run in full, although how I’ll pace the episodes remains to be seen. My initial thought is that the average episode of The Sopranos is going to be denser than the other shows we’ve covered here thus far, and for that, I’m not sure if I should cover one episode a week, or my standard two. Luckily, since these seasons are odd-numbered, I have the ability to experiment, so I think that we’ll do the pilot by itself, then cover episodes two and three the following week and see how this works. Regardless, I hope to finish Sopranos before The West Wing, so we can ease right into the next series on our never-ending road trip through the best of TV, The Wire.
And yes, I will cover The Many Saints of Newark, but after the original series.
As it’s become tradition for HBO to air their A-list shows on Sunday nights, we’re going to stick to posting these reviews on the same day The Simpsons was posted, so come back here on the 16th as we start our first therapy session between Tony Soprano and Dr. Jennifer Melfi, and we discover how some ducks brought our man into session. Gabagool optional.
*Out of curiosity, the other OTH series, barring SNL of all things, do all feature in the book in the following positions:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer- #25
The West Wing- #37
ER- #45
M*A*S*H- #11
The Dick Van Dyke Show- #29
All in the Family- #10
The Mary Tyler Moore Show- #19
Seinfeld- #7
Friends- #78
Deadwood- #9
Star Trek- #61
The Golden Girls- #55
I Love Lucy- #8