21 Years Later- The Sopranos (1 Viewer)

Saint Jack

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Since the country is on a de facto house arrest for the next month or so, I decided to pass the time by rewatching The Sopranos since the prequel film to supposed to release the prequel film in September.
I barely remember the show when it first premiered. I was 8 when the show first started, so my experiences when it premiered was staying up late with the door locked with the volume really low.

After a week I’m in the middle of Season 4, it still holds up. Tony Soprano is the greatest antihero in TV with Walter White coming in a close second.
 
I just watched it (first time) a couple months ago actually. It held up for me as well.
 
Greatest Drama Series of All Time :bowdown2:

Seen the whole thing probably 15 times...it's comfort tv for me, and sometimes I watch it just to fall asleep lol
 
Tony Soprano is the greatest antihero in TV with Walter White coming in a close second.


there are some pretty major differences though between the two

WW started with good intentions but let the idea of being the kingpin take over

Soprano was always a scumbag and hardly ever a likeable person


Greatest Drama Series of All Time :bowdown2:

Seen the whole thing probably 15 times...it's comfort tv for me, and sometimes I watch it just to fall asleep lol

kewee!! :cheer:
 
there are some pretty major differences though between the two

WW started with good intentions but let the idea of being the kingpin take over

Soprano was always a scumbag and hardly ever a likeable person

I disagree TS was never a likeable person. The genius of Gandolfini/Chase, was at times, making you forget he was a ruthless gangster and portraying him as a goofy, albeit highly flawed family man. Then a few scenes later, he's slapping hos, shaking people down, and ordering guys whacked or even whacking them himself.
 
I disagree TS was never a likeable person. The genius of Gandolfini/Chase, was at times, making you forget he was a ruthless gangster and portraying him as a goofy, albeit highly flawed family man. Then a few scenes later, he's slapping hos, shaking people down, and ordering guys whacked or even whacking them himself.

I don't think there was ever any doubt that Tony Soprano was anything but a piece of work gangster...despite being able to put the mask on and be a 'family man' you always knew the good side of him was a fraud...there was no real ambiguity there...he's a great character and Gandolfini was excellent in the role but i never liked the guy and i certainly didn't see him as an antihero

WW was the epitome of the family man and turned into a gangster...it's quite a different narrative
 
I tried to get into it once. To be honest I was lost on who was who within a couple of episodes. I may give it another go with all my down time.
 
Compared to some of Breaking Bad villains, Tony Soprano would never stand a chance or even come close to grasping the mindsets of Mexican drug cartel lords, their hitmen, their tactics. Guys like Gus Fring, the Salamachas, Todd, Todd's uncle and his white supracemist meth making, meth-dealing operation, Tuco, Crazy-8, all of them or most of them individually or collectively would eat Tony Soprano and his New Jersey mob syndicate alive. I could envision a Lydia-type character existing in Soprano's, but her business acumen, perceived high sense of sophistication, over-cautiousness in business decisions, but she wouldn't be impressed by some wannabe fat Italian Jersey gangster, she probably would find him and most of his crew uncouth, ill-mannered, sloppy, and borderline stupid and write them off a lost cause.

If anything, BB and now Narcos has revealed that compared to their North American or Italian contemporaries, Columbian/Mexican drug cartels are infinitely more ruthless, nasty, a more fertile breeding ground for deranged, amoral, psychotic psychopaths to flourish and perfect their anti-social behaviors than worst violent behavior some New York mafia capo could ever dream of. Men like Pablo Escobar, Felix Carrado, El Chapo, Giselda Blanco amassed immense political power, influence, and control that went hand-in-hand with how big, large, and profitable their drug empires became. They were the shadow government bribing, extorting, threatening, killing local and regional mayors, corrupt police officers, administrators, high-level government officials in Columbia, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Peru, Chile. Even the now-defunct Maoist revolutionaries Shining Path in Peru engaged in some drug trafficking or manufacturing as a means of increasing the group's revenue in the 1980s and early 90s.
 
With TS, the ruthless wasn't about body count or gruesomeness. It was about who he was willing to kill. You could be his friend for 30 years, he finds out you flipped, you're gone. Views you as a nephew? Now you have a drug problem? Sayonara.

Its true charactes like Tuco, Don Eladio and Gus Fring were way more violent. Yes the Italian Mafia has nothing on Columbia/Mexican cartels. But kinda misses the point. There was never any illusion that Tuco, Eladio and Fring were anything more than what was presented on the surface. With TS, you would get played into sometimes thinking "Well he's not such a bad guy. Yeah maybe he is a gangster, but is he really worse than corrupt executives/politicans? Sure he kills, but maybe they had it coming" Then the rug gets pulled out.
 
I disagree TS was never a likeable person. The genius of Gandolfini/Chase, was at times, making you forget he was a ruthless gangster and portraying him as a goofy, albeit highly flawed family man. Then a few scenes later, he's slapping hos, shaking people down, and ordering guys whacked or even whacking them himself.

I wouldn’t say he was a total sleezebag. There were times when he did have regrets or limits to what he would do.
I don’t know if I should use spoiler tags for a show that’s two decades old, but I’ll use them just in case.

He warned Davey not to get into the executive game. Tony only got angry when he kept bringing up Meadow and his son going to the same school. And he does feel guilt when Gloria offed herself and that guilt lead Tony to forgive Artie on a loan.
 
Just finished it again. Currently watching Part 1 of a behind the scenes doc.
 

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