To say The Sopranos was a groundbreaking TV series is, well, obvious. What other mafia show starts with its principal character going to see a psychologist?
In fact, the first episode hinges on the mental health of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), as he wrestles with his own demons. The arrival of a flock of geese that live in his swimming pool causes the Mafia don to feel real feelings. It’s an awkward prop for the narrative but it works well visually. Tony’s panic attacks finally get him to see a shrink (Lorraine Bracco), who finally gets him to open up and feel them.
What are Tony’s problems, apart from running a crime empire?
His mother (Nancy Marchand) is going senile (and is an awful, cold-hearted, loveless woman in general) but he cares for her and tries to get her into an old age home. For anyone with an Italian, Jewish, or Mediterranean mother, these scenes are both hilarious and deeply poignant – especially if you have older parents.
Every time she mentions his late father, the Mafia boss before Tony, she exclaims “he was a saint”. Actually, he was literally the opposite, a criminal who preyed on the weakest and gambling-addicted folk to make his money. Tony has a different memory: “The belt was his favourite child development tool,” he tells his shrink.
Tony Soprano, the OG tough guy, has to contend with – for want of another way of putting it – HR issues. He complains that the youngsters aren’t tough enough and whine about silly problems. His nephew Christopher (Michael Imperioli) has a stomach ache, as Tony relates to his shrink. Later, Christopher kills a rival and then complains nobody gives him credit for “showing initiative”.
As much as Slow Horses revealed that international espionage is filled with as much office politics as any office, The Sopranos is a mafia show about the modern-day mafia.
This is more The Office than your typical mobster series. But that is what makes The Sopranos such a hit and one of the all-time greatest TV shows of all time. It tells a newer version of the old mafia trope. This is no longer the era of Al Capone, The Godfather, The Vegas Years, or Goodfellas. This was turn-of-the-millennium mafia – before smartphones and the internet took over. Ray Donovan is the logical successor to this vaunted tradition.
The reason it works – and is remembered so fondly – is because Gandolfini gives brilliant performances in every season. In every episode.
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The host of characters adds depth to this series, just as it did in The Wire. Everyone has a story, and all those stories create the greater tapestry that makes The Sopranos so exquisite.
It reminded me of a collection of short stories by American author Raymond Carver. Each little story, encapsulated in itself, tells a much broader picture when they are all seen, or read. There isn’t time – and perhaps attention – for this kind of TV-making anymore. It ran from 1999 until 2007 before social media took over our lives (circa 2010) and we stopped luxuriating in such slow-moving, story-building visual media.
It’s also troubling. We may feel sympathy for Tony and his crew but they are in the business of extorting, gambling and beating people up. They are real people, but not very nice.
Tony also has the usual (for an American TV show) problems with his wife Carmela (a superb Edie Falco), who hucks him about not being present in their children’s lives.
Tony is a mess of contradictions. Devoutly Catholic, he is seen with endless mistresses and strippers and has a soft spot for his friends that belies his job. Tony cares for his school friend Artie Bucco (John Ventimiglia) and tries to look out for him, often with disastrous consequences. His gangster uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese) is a never-ending source of trouble and frustration.
Rockstar musician Steven Van Zandt – better known as the guitarist Little Steven and part of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and inner circle – plays a memorable character, Silvio.
In one early episode he does a plausible impersonation of Al Pacino’s famous line from The Godfather 3: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”. A mafia character pretending to be a film star playing a mafia character – played by a real-life rock star. It doesn’t get any more metatextual than that.
There are the cops and FBI agents trying to bust Tony and his crew, who often work from his strip joint, the Bada Bing (now a meme in its own right).
The Sopranos became a cultural icon as much as a memorable TV show. It’s also really funny. In one scene is talking to one of his crew, who was questioned by the cops. ”Obviously you told the cops you don’t know who did this,” Tony says to Vito Spatafore, who replies “I’m upset, but please. I know how to keep my mouth shut.”
Another character replies with deadpan wit: “Unless of course there’s a salami sandwich around.”