I haven't had HBO in years (probably not since I was a kid and remember turning it on to watch Bo Derek in "10" when my parents went out for the evening) and never really got around to renting the season DVDs or trying to watch it digitally.

However, with the death of Gandolfini, so many people are saying how the Sopranos literally was a game changer in television dramas, I'm wondering if I should give it a shot.

With so many things out there to watch, read, see and do, it's next to impossible to separate the wheat from the chaff.

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My music blog: [www.auditorymusings.net]


The Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado

Yes it's worth watching.

[www.wga.org]

The Writers Guild of America thinks that it was the best written show. Ever.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2013 05:12PM by beagledave.

Yes, great show.

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beagledave
Yes it's worth watching.

[www.wga.org]

The Writers Guild of America thinks that it was the best written show. Ever.

Wow, that's quite an endorsement!

I think I'd like to watch it too. Streaming on Amazon Prime or Netflix?

The Soprano's and The Wire - two top notch TV series brought to you by HBO.

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space-time
I think I'd like to watch it too. Streaming on Amazon Prime or Netflix?

Nope, I checked. Only available to rent/buy. No streaming.

Silly rabbit.

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It is what it is.

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RonT
The Soprano's and The Wire - two top notch TV series brought to you by HBO.

Tried them both. Couldn't get myself sucked into either one. Not saying they're bad shows. They just didn't grab me, even though I really wanted them to based on what everyone said.

Plenty of other great HBO shows, though. Boardwalk Empire and Curb Your Enthusiasm, just off the top of my head.

The Wire was an incredible show.

I'd watch it again if NetFlix Streamed it.

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all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

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by believing all possible evil of evil men.

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An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

I tried to watch The Wire and I couldn't get past the dialogue...every word uttered for the first 20 minutes that I watched started with 'f' and ended with 'uck'.

Sopranos on the other hand...if Shakespeare had been alive to write about mobsters...I imagine something like the Sopranos would have been the result.

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MacResource User Map: [www.zeemaps.com]#

Great show and definitely worth watching. Ground breaking show in that it was the beginning of the shift from the networks to cable channels producing high quality original programing. Also, it was a very different take on the mobster genre.

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"They don't call me Colonel because I'm some dumb a$$ army guy" Colonel Homer J. Simpson

I liked the Sopranos a lot better than Boardwalk. Never seen The Wire though.

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no.....fuhget about it.........!!!

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!

It was great to watch the Sopranos on HBO while they were coming out. The Monday morning water cooler conversations of the past episode and anticipation of the next one was tons of fun. Watching the series after the fact in marathon sittings just isn't the same. Same goes for LOST.

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ztirffritz
I tried to watch The Wire and I couldn't get past the dialogue...every word uttered for the first 20 minutes that I watched started with 'f' and ended with 'uck'.

Sopranos on the other hand...if Shakespeare had been alive to write about mobsters...I imagine something like the Sopranos would have been the result.

If you think the Sopranos didn't have a lot of cursing, then you weren't @#$%& paying very @#$%& good @#$%& attention!

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[www.zeemaps.com]

Tony Blundetto: It's hard to believe. My cousin in the old man's seat.
Paulie Walnuts: It's like "Sun-Tuh-Zoo" says: a good leader is benevolent and unconcerned with fame.
Tony Blundetto: What?
Paulie Walnuts: "Sun-Tuh-Zoo". He's Chinese Prince prince Matchabelli.
Silvio Dante: Tzu, Tzu! Sun Tzu, you @#$%& ass-kiss!

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[youtu.be]

sorry, no dis to Gandoilfini.
did nothing for me.
I do like Boardwalk, Deadwood and Carnivale. (so far).

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!#$@@$#!

proofraed by OwEn the c@t.

I've never had HBO, so I missed it while it was running. Decided to check it out via Netflix, and really got sucked into it. I ran out of time for watching stuff, so I still have at least two seasons to go. Someday.

Really like the actress who plays his wife, as well as Gandolfini. Still have a bunch of Nurse Jackie to get through, too. I finally dropped my Netflix account, because I was so far behind on everything. Someday…

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pinkoos

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space-time
I think I'd like to watch it too. Streaming on Amazon Prime or Netflix?

Nope, I checked. Only available to rent/buy. No streaming.

Don't forget about DVDs from Netflix. If you've never dealt with them, they are easy to work with. You can change plans on the fly, pause your account, etc. with no funny business from them.

It's worth watching.

I guess the verdict is in.

Absolutely worth it. If I were made to choose between The Sopranos and The Wire I'd first throw myself in front of subway train.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2013 04:12AM by RgrF.

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RgrF
Absolutely worth it. If I were made to choose between The Sopranos and The Wire I'd first throw myself in front of subway train.

I wish I could un-watch them in order to watch them again.

The Sopranos is most very well written (there are some episodes which are duds).

The thing to watch for is that the main dramatic conflict comes from the 'human' side of Tony acting against the fact that he and his associates are all violent criminals and sociopaths. (Gosh, wonder where Dexter comes from?)

The acting and the writing almost always first rate. Gandolfini's acting is incredible. Falco and the others also deliver consistently amazing performances as well. The soft core porn is pretty good, too and 50% in context.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2013 11:22AM by Steve G..

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Steve G.
The soft core porn is pretty good, too and 50% in context.

Now why didn't anybody mention this early on in the thread? We could have closed the thread down and I could have already been well into Season 1!

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bazookaman
Tony Blundetto: It's hard to believe. My cousin in the old man's seat.
Paulie Walnuts: It's like "Sun-Tuh-Zoo" says: a good leader is benevolent and unconcerned with fame.
Tony Blundetto: What?
Paulie Walnuts: "Sun-Tuh-Zoo". He's Chinese Prince prince Matchabelli.
Silvio Dante: Tzu, Tzu! Sun Tzu, you @#$%& ass-kiss!

Lot of good humor like that. Wife and I used to watch it regularly; It lost me right about the time Tony had that weird dream episode. Kind of a jump-the-shark moment for me. I watched the last ep, though.

The ep I remember most is probably the one involving the psychiatrist (Melfi?) and her attack. Won't say more in case there's any spoiler situation for anyone. But it was a powerful episode and really defined several characters, especially Tony, IMO. Her statements at the end, regarding her dreams/visions about it, were nicely done.

I'd say more but they're all spoiler-y.

pinkoos, rent the first season. It has some low-spots but you can pretty much decide within a half a dozen episodes if it's your kind of thing.

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The ep I remember most is probably the one involving the psychiatrist (Melfi?) and her attack. Won't say more in case there's any spoiler situation for anyone. But it was a powerful episode and really defined several characters, especially Tony, IMO. Her statements at the end, regarding her dreams/visions about it, were nicely done.

I agree, that was a very strong episode.

Two things that got me hooked into the Sopranos, and never looked back.

One, the contrast between the murderous, the thrills, the gangster stuff, with the banal home family life, the suburbs, the shrink, the pitch-perfect pop culture atmosphere.

Two, anytime anyone got murdered (which happened frequently enough to keep you guessing, but infrequently enough that the show's dramatic strength didn't depend on it) it was always original, and believable. Never cliche. Ever.

Think about how hard that is to do. Gangster murders are such a staple of movie and TV entertainment over the last century, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, enacted, from James Cagney, to James Gandolfini. The show's creators took care to fashion each murder in a way that wasn't repeating something we'd already seen. It was always fresh, sometimes clumsy, often spontaneous, or just plain weird. Or genuinely gruesome, frightening. But never boring, never cliche.

The creators were inspired by (and even borrowed several actors from) Scorese's masterpiece, Goodfellas. But in its own way, The Sopranos achieved more depth and realism and richness than even The Godfather. Which is the Gold Standard.

And the cherry on top:

Tony Soprano is arguably the best, most interesting, most compelling, most enduring fictional character in all of popular entertainment, in at least 30 years. Not just movies or TV, but books, any form of fiction. Not just me saying that. TV critics have extended their praise to include comments like that.

It's a credit not only to the show's writing, but to Gandolfini's fine acting. He had a way of being unpredictable, too. You never knew when he was going to laugh, and hug a guy. Or beat the living crap out of him, or murder him. And call someone to help him get rid of the body, at 3:00 a.m. He was likable, even lovable, but also a true murderous psychopath. And a stupid, menacing criminal, a true product of Italian American New Jersey street life.

Great show. I'm overselling it. Definitely worth seeing. Before the pop-culture references become too dated. Mid-1990s, great stuff.

Great detailed description guitarist. I think I'm hooked and I haven't even watched one episode.

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pinkoos
Great detailed description guitarist. I think I'm hooked and I haven't even watched one episode.

Omg, guitarist, that's a brilliant assessment.

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guitarist
It's a credit not only to the show's writing, but to Gandolfini's fine acting. He had a way of being unpredictable, too. You never knew when he was going to laugh, and hug a guy. Or beat the living crap out of him, or murder him. And call someone to help him get rid of the body, at 3:00 a.m. He was likable, even lovable, but also a true murderous psychopath. And a stupid, menacing criminal, a true product of Italian American New Jersey street life.

One the brilliant little touches I loved on the show was not knowing for sure exactly what was going to trigger Tony's switch. It was never random, some of it was predictable, but some of it didn't quite fit into its spot in the puzzle until just before the eruption.

Tony was the boss, Chrissy was heir apparent, Sil was Consigliere, but Paulie, he was the brains of the outfit.

"You're not gonna believe this. He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 10:28AM by Blankity Blank.

Blankety Blank,

Good description of that thing I was trying to characterize!

I wasn't sure other people got that, his unpredictable swings between rage, affection, and disinterest.

It really hit me, in one episode, i forget the setting, the details. But it was in the mix of that macho Italian male thing, the gang (lots of complex competitive male relationships explored in this show I'd never seen televised before) and in a bar, or hangout, or parking lot, one of Tony's adversaries said something really insulting to Tony.

A direct, unmistakable insult. The kind of comment that can get a guy shot in the face, or beaten to death, on the spot. Everyone went silent for a moment.

Tony turned on the opponent, looked at him...then burst out laughing, and hugged the guy. He shook it off, like it was nothing. Then went back to whatever he was talking about, before he was interrupted. The other crew members breathed a sigh of relief, and went back to whatever they were doing.

I got chills. It scared the crap out of me.

And it was such a throwaway moment, too. It wasn't key to the story, or anything. Just a blip in the ongoing story. Not designed to call any special attention to itself.

But I'm sure it was one of those things that's not overlooked, a bit of craft that the creators intended to have the effect it did. The show had abundant moments like that. A cascade of nuances and small details that made Tony Soprano one of the most compelling, watchable fictional characters television had ever seen.

That moment was a turning point, for me, as a viewer. It got me to tune more closely into the show, and watch it not just an observer, but as a fan.