Finally getting around to watching The Sopranos after seeing it over and over in top three tv shows of all-time lists…
So far I’m not blown away. Maybe 6-7 episodes in. It is ok but not best ever. Maybe it just didn’t age well or gets a lot better in later seasons. Imo so far it isn’t close to the Wire which is in the top 3 as well. When does this show get super good?
If you’re 6-7 episodes in and don’t like it, perhaps you should try Dance Moms instead.
Honestly - my opinion - it’s too late now to watch it for the first time. The show started airing 25 years ago.
To understand how great it was, you have to understand what the state of TV shows was back when it came out, and also how organized crime was always portrayed in movies and TV. The show was very original. But because it was so popular it became part of popular culture, and many, many subsequent shows have borrowed from or been influenced by the show, to the point where most people have been exposed to all the elements that made the show great in its time. If you are watching it now for the first time, it won’t seem new or so impressive because you’ve been bombarded with all the things that made it stand out when it was originally airing in other shows.
The first season does have kind of a different tone than the others. If you don’t get excited by the introduction of Richie Aprile than it’s time to call it a day.
I get that. And it makes a lot of sense but the same time there are a lot of influential older shows that still hold up. I recently rewatched Seinfeld for example and it’s still great. I also watched The Wire year or so back and it totally holds up and I see why that one is on the best ever lists.
But people need to stop putting on their best of all time lists. Maybe most influential of all time list would be better.
I’m going to keep watching… As I said, I’m enjoying it but just isn’t holding up I guess like it’s reputation.
That’s actually fair.
I watched it for the first time about 5 years ago and found it to be extremely overrated by current standards.
Every time he’s on screen i get a little nervous. I think id be ther same meeting that character in person.
There is a lot of character development. I think it holds up but maybe I’m just being nostalgic. I can see how it isn’t for everyone. I love the sopranos, but just never could understand all the love for the wire.
There is a lot of subtle humor in the sopranos, but if you can’t become invested in the characters, I can see how you might not enjoy it.
Every couple of years I alternate between the wire and the sopranos. Both are excellent. But I think the wire is just so much better.
James Gandofini was an excellent actor. I appreciate him more everyone I watch it. He can steal a scene with facial expressions. I just watched the Indian - Columbus day episode last night. His exasperation with Silvio at the end of the episode was perfect.
The show is really funny and a bit Shakespearean as they like to follow dramatic violence with silly humor.
It’s also amazing that all the women in Tony’s life are terrible lol. Except for his sister Barbara. She was good.
Of screen, Paulie was causing all kinds of drama from jail in season 3!
When all the dumb dagos die and when all the pomade burns.
You get pulled in to liking Tony Sopramo and relating to him, then he does something to remind you that he is a murdering shitty human being.
There’s a scene in season 1 or 2 with the psychiatrist’s normal Italian American family shitting all over glorification of the mafia as it’s portrayed in popular media. They hate how it makes Americans think of Italian Americans and how it influences how Italian Americans view themselves.
Whenever Alto gets started on these threads I just see this dude …
I bought the DVD set for every season as soon as it was available. I was a huge fan of the show. But I recently started re-watching it again for the first time in maybe 15 years, and it felt aged.
With The Wire it was the opposite for me - I never watched it until long after it came out, and it was hard slogging through the first two seasons. It grew on me, though. It wasn’t as impactful to me as it was for other people. But then I realized, just on the OG, I had seen tons of memes from the show, and lots of discussion about it.
A few years ago I got my daughter to watch Highlander with me. She was in college at the time, and I had this very nostalgic memory of the movie, told her how great it was - because I remember only the great parts, and the overall story. I was in for a rude awakening. The movie did not age well. Things like, in the first fight in the parking garage, and the guy starts doing handspring somersaults down the parking lane for no reason. My daughter was laughing at how terrible it was, and I was kind of sad because I remember it being such a great movie.
definitely this. also, with these seminal shows like sopranos, the wire, oz, etc. their influence was so great you’ve been watching their dna in everything that’s come out since then.
what was revolutionary and fresh 25 years ago very well may seem rote and formulaic now. especially if you’ve been exposed to the ways those themes and devices have been improved and expanded upon in the ensuing years.
Had never watched all the way through. Never saw first or last season and was too busy during the origional airing to waych consistently, so we watched this year.
I enjoyed and I think it mostly holds up. I had commented on the old og in a sopranos thread about how every woman on that show was a hateable cunt. I hadn’t remembered that from before.
Maybe Melfi wasn’t but any of the other broads could have gotten offed and that would have been fine by me.
My favorite character on the show.
Never a dull moment when Richie was around.
“I did. Then I put it in drive.”
Should have went with the TV series.
