Unfettered by network censors or squeamish advertisers, this HBO series capitalised on America’s abiding fascination with the Italian Mafia, asking the question: What would happen if a shrewd but depressed mobster, struggling to operate a RICO-diminished business while living the wealthy suburban life, suffered an is-that-all-there-is midlife crisis?
The answer proved to be one of the most riveting, funny and appalling series ever on television.
Almost overnight, The Sopranos redefined what you could get away with on the small screen.
Not only was there a complete free-for-all as regards swearing (in the second season, the word “fuck” is said 715 times), violence and nudity – all things the advertising and sponsorship-hungry networks forbade – but Sopranos creator David Chase created in Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) a rich and complex anti-hero that could never have been attempted on a mass-market network show.
Shuttling between his meat-market Mafia clubhouse, the Bada Bing! strip club and his Jersey Luxe house, Tony managed to avoid prison, kill his rivals, deal with his children’s problems at school and almost convince his wife, Carmela (Edie Falco), that despite his incorrigible cheating, he really loved her.
In any other programme, hulking New Jersey mobster Tony would have been a supporting character – a one-dimensional violent thug to highlight the godly virtuousness of the handsome hero.
But, suffering crippling panic attacks, Tony sought the help of therapist Dr Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) and started to plumb his relationship with his poisonous mother, Livia (the brilliant Nancy Marchand, who died after the second season).
We were privy to his sessions with his therapist as he told her about his childhood and his extramarital adventures. All this extra stuff didn’t stop Tony from being a monster, but it helped us understand him.
The Sopranos unveiled the reality of life in organised crime. They weren’t shooting each other every day. They sat around eating baked ziti, betting, and figuring out who owed whom money. Occasionally, violence broke out – more often than it did in the banking world, perhaps.
But strip away all the guns and flashy suits and piled-up pasta dinners, and The Sopranos is really a series about people who lie to each other. Tony lies to his wife, to his therapist, even to himself.
Every relationship in the show is built on lies – Tony and Artie, Tony and his crew, Tony and Junior, Tony and Livia . . . The drama in The Sopranos comes not just from the big mistakes, but from the lies concocted to cover them up.
Although the show revolves around Tony, it also boasts a universe of vivid, funny, tragic, real characters: Tony’s status-hungry wife, Carmela; their two children, self-entitled Anthony Jr (Robert Iler) and smart, genuine Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler); Christopher (Michael Imperioli), Tony’s young, impetuous, Sonny Corleone-like nephew, and his white trash girlfriend, Adriana (Drea de Matteo); Tony’s venom-spouting mother, Livia (Nancy Marchand), and his wayward, hippy-dippy sister, Janice (Aida Turturro).
Silvio (Bruce Springsteen sidekick Steven Van Zandt) and Paulie (Tony Sirico) were Tony’s ever-loyal goons.
The famous cut-to-black ending is considered one of the most popular yet hotly debated topics in television finale history, confounding, intriguing, and enraging viewers.
And bada-bing – just like a whacking, The Sopranos was over.
The Sopranos became the first cable series to win a Golden Globe for Best Television Series – Drama and the first cable series to win the Emmy award for Outstanding Drama Series.
Rolling Stone Magazine rated it the number-one television show of all time, and the Writers’ Guild of America voted it #1 in their list of ‘101 Best Written TV Series of all time’.
It was also voted #1 in TV Guide‘s ‘Top 60 Greatest TV series of all time’.
Tony Soprano
James Gandolfini Dr Jennifer Melfi
Lorraine Bracco Carmela Soprano
Edie Falco Christopher Moltisanti
Michael Imperioli Corrado “Junior” Soprano
Dominic Chianese Silvio Dante
Steven Van Zandt Paulie ‘Walnuts’ Gualtieri
Tony Sirico A.J. (Anthony Jr) Soprano
Robert Iler Meadow Soprano
Jamie-Lynn Sigler Janice Soprano/Baccalieri
Aida Turturro Adriana La Cerva
Drea de Matteo Livia Soprano
Nancy Marchand
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The answer proved to be one of the most riveting, funny and appalling series ever on television.
Silvio (Bruce Springsteen sidekick Steven Van Zandt) and Paulie (Tony Sirico) were Tony’s ever-loyal goons.
And bada-bing – just like a whacking, The Sopranos was over.
Rolling Stone Magazine rated it the number-one television show of all time, and the Writers’ Guild of America voted it #1 in their list of ‘101 Best Written TV Series of all time’.
Dr Jennifer Melfi
A.J. (Anthony Jr) Soprano
