The Sopranos

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The Sopranos
Genre: Crime drama Serial drama Psychological drama Black comedy Running Time: 43–75 minutes Country: United States Release Date: January 10, 1999 – June 10, 2007 Network(s): HBO Created by: David Chase Distributed by: HBO Entertainment Starring: James Gandolfini Lorraine Bracco Edie Falco Michael Imperioli Dominic Chianese Steven Van Zandt Tony Sirico Robert Iler Jamie-Lynn Sigler Seasons: 6 Episodes: 86

The Sopranos is an American crime drama television series created by David Chase. The series revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster who struggles to balance his family life with his role as the leader of a criminal organization, which he reluctantly explores during therapy sessions with psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco). The series also features Tony's various family members, Mafia colleagues, and rivals in prominent roles—most notably his wife Carmela (Edie Falco) and his protégé and distant cousin Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli).

Why It Has Respect

1. A very creative concept for its time. This certainly isn't the only crime show, and it takes a lot of obvious inspiration from The Godfather (even having plenty of clever Easter eggs), but it stands out by also including the subject of mental illness in it, specifically with Tony.
2. Incredible acting all around, especially from James Gandolfini and Edie Falco.
3. Loads of incredible characters who are highly complex and fleshed out very well.
4. Plenty of very interesting villains as well, showing how problems in the Mafia are often internal and not related to the police at all.
5. A very well written story throughout with plenty of very interesting plot points.
6. It uses the extra allowance for content that HBO offers to make the setting and story more realistic and complex without making it overly edgy.
7. It has a very interesting storytelling structure where each season has an overarching plot but also some episodic storylines that build into them, as well as plenty of character arcs. It's also interesting how many of the episodes have little to no violence anyway to build upon the realism.
8. It realistically shows the Mafia life in more modern times more realistically and how things in New Jersey, specifically, still have aspects of it to them even if in a diminished capacity.
9. It advanced the careers of not only many of its actors but also plenty of creatives in HBO, such as Terence Winter, the creator of Boardwalk Empire.
10. It has a great blend of dark humor and more serious moments, and in the latter camp, it also has a decent amount of genuinely shocking moments to boot.
11. Great musical score, especially the iconic opening theme song.
12. Lots of great guest stars, such as Jon Favreau playing himself in one episode.
13. Wonderful direction all around, especially from some famous actors like Steve Buscemi (who also acted in it).
14. Lots of great and relevant themes are explored throughout, such as the drawbacks to a life of crime and how there's really no happy ending to it, and especially how power and wealth corrupts and those with it do things nobody should do. It also shows how it affects the Soprano's children as Meadow relates a memory where she found a loaded handgun and gold Krugerrands while Easter egg hunting as a child.
15. The series finale, while controversial, was still an interesting way to end the show, especially with a cliffhanger that fits in with the theme that you never know when death is going to come or how you're going to die in the criminal life.

Bad Qualities

1. Characters can be pretty unlikeable at times; Livia Soprano and Uncle Jun are particular examples, even if that's entirely intentional.
2. Some episodes are slower-paced or more confusing at times.
3. The series finale, while great, was pretty controversial when it came out (and still is today to an extent).
4. The spin-off movie, The Many Saints of Newark, was a major box office bomb and often criticized by fans for being unnecessary (not to mention it came out 14 years after the original season ended and felt like a cash grab as a result)

Trivia

• James Gandolfini often got calls from real-life "Wise Guys" complimenting him on his performance.