4) The Sopranos (Season One)
I intended to binge The Sopranos, thinking I could get through it in a month or two. This was folly. Folly!
There are 86 hour-long episodes of The Sopranos. That's about 26 more hours of television than The Wire, which took my wife and I a great deal of time to chug through even before we had our daughter. This is not a short project. We only got through one season before the end of the year starting in late November and if we manage to finish this off by mid-March, I'll consider that a pretty good success.
I mention The Wire because there's plenty of parallels to that show. Season One of The Sopranos is about organized crime and the various factions and power struggles that can exist within drug gangs as well as between them. There are few people, if any, on the show that we'd consider to be universally good. All of the major characters are very well-drawn and have at least some endearing qualities (in varying amounts) to make us feel for them despite all the muck.
All of that said, it's not fair to hold any show up to The Wire's standard or premise, so that's where I'll cut off the similarities. The Sopranos is much different in that it has a main character in antihero Tony Soprano, portrayed extraordinarily well by James Gandolfini. Tony has what you would otherwise call a normal family unit, with his wife Carmela, daughter Meadow, and son Anthony Jr. They go through a lot of typical bumps in the road you might see in televised marriages and parent-child relationships with one pretty significant exception; Tony is an underboss in the largest New Jersey-based mafia crime syndicate.
A lot of Season One focuses on how Tony manages his relationship with his children and works through their problems. Both kids understand (or come to understand) that their father's in the mob, but neither has a good sense of all that entails. It's a struggle for Tony to be any sort of positive role model in light of his work. The community seems to understand what Tony's business is all about as well, and that affects how others interact with Meadow and A.J.
Tony Soprano lives in a constant moral gray area. Even within his mob activities, Tony is faced with situations that test him to do the "right" thing. Usually, these situations initially cause him rage, but often he comes down on the side of loyalty and (relative) justice, which helps us root for him a lot despite how despicable he can be. It will be interesting to see later in the series whether Tony stays on that side of the line or whether he'll become even more corruptible a-la-Walter White.
Another thing making Tony unique is the fact that he's seeing a psychiatrist. That's a pretty revolutionary idea for a mob character, going each week to spill one's guts to someone for mental health purposes. As you might imagine, a crime syndicate might be uncomfortable with one of its leaders talking in-depth to a civilian about his life. Tony's relationship to the woman, Dr. Melfi, grows increasingly complicated throughout the season and it's fascinating to watch the varying levels of openness and honesty he brings to their sessions.
The other characters are interesting to varying degrees. Carmela is compelling as a wife who seemingly simultaneously condones and disapproves of Tony's criminal activities. The two are only occasionally good together and it's a pretty damaged relationship, in no small part because Tony's cheating on her all the time. Tony's mother, Lyvia, is an absolute monster of an older woman whose bitterness and self-centeredness wear heavily on Tony emotionally -- and later tangibly.
The most interesting and well-developed of Tony's underlings is Christopher, your classic junior member of the crime syndicate who wants more respect among his peers. Christopher is much younger than the rest of Tony's gang and gets himself into trouble with his impatience and temper. Early on in the series, his loyalty to Tony is tested and he chooses the faithful path despite his apparent standing within the group.
Throughout most of the season, Tony's in a power struggle with his "Uncle Junior" a man full of hubris eager to lead the mob and command respect. Junior often makes rash decisions and it's usually on Tony to sway the gang in a more sensible direction without giving off the appearance of stepping on Junior's toes. It's a volatile dynamic that drives most of the conflict in Season One.
I'll list a couple of problems I had with this season. The first is that the word "fuck" (and its variants) are beaten to death so hard that by the third episode, the word contains about as much forcefulness as "toaster" or "grapefruit" or "the". Second, there is a scene involving a hit on Tony that is so poorly executed by the would-be murderers that it comes off as comedic rather than the heart-pounding climax of the episode it was meant to be.
Despite those flaws, the first season of The Sopranos is an addictive TV show and has a satisfying plot with some rich characters. The show does a good job with its supporting cast and there's so much depth to it that they have plenty of room to flesh out the ensemble over future seasons. I'm excited to see how this one will unfold. Only 73 more hours left!
Season Grade: A-
Essential Episodes: "Meadowlands" (s1.ep3), "College" (s1.ep4), "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano" (s1.ep13)
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