With our HBO Max subscription, it was finally time to tackle the original that ushered in the golden era of television. Its influence is unmistakable. It was the first show to trust its audience with a complex season-long arc, a serial plot. There is no Walter White without Tony Soprano; Anna Gunn channels her best Carmela, even RJ Mitte is riffing on Anthony Jr. It brought cinematic film making technique to the small screen. And it pushed HBO to the forefront of quality programming, becoming synonymous with prestige (and violence and nudity). It mixed suspenseful drama and black comedy in a now recognizable dramedy genre. It made bold narrative choices, and the story spent inordinate amounts of time in the hospital, wantonly killing off characters left and right.
Everyone knows it for being the gangster show, but that's really the window dressing. Its central themes are rather the Italian-American experience, family (inextricable from being Italian), the suburbs, fragile masculinity (often performative in front of the other guys, and heavily reliant on racism), and in the later seasons post-9/11 America. The series opens with Tony in his therapist's office, already attacking the idea of the strong masculine type (and possibly contributing to the now open acceptance of therapy in the mainstream), and placing Tony's mental state at the heart of the show. It asks whether Tony can be cured and the answer come season 6 is a resounding no. I think that's why I felt unsatisfied by the ending, because if Tony hasn't grown over the last 86 episodes then how could it be over?
While I can appreciate the show and recognize its greatness, I admit that I didn't necessarily always enjoy watching it. It does feel a little dated. The very overt (and uncomfortable) racism and bigotry that may have been played for comedy back then doesn't land that way anymore. And in a different era of gender politics, the guys are less sympathetic characters today.
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