The sopranos: The show that shaped TV’s future

Bringing the mafia into the living room

The sopranos is an american crime series that first aired on january 10th 1999, and is considered one of the greatest TV shows of all time and one of the most

successful ones.

As a matter of fact, the show is often credited with starting the “Golden Age of TV”. Both regular audiences and critics have agreed that this show revolutionized television.

This is confirmed by the manifesting list of awards that the show has won over the 8 years it aired.

The creator and showrunner of the sopranos “David Chase” was inspired by his deep interest in psychological themes and complex characters.

He was so interested in the “organized crime” theme, seeing that he grew up in a working-class Italian-American family in New Jersey which is the main location in the show and many of the themes in the Sopranos reflect the cultural backdrop of the family.

Chase was unsatisfied with the stereotypical representation of mafia members in movies during that era, especially how they focused mainly on the action, murders and their lack of portrayal of human connections and feelings, along with how they showed them as completely cruel human beings with no empathy at all, as well as how they depicted them as pure evil , thus completely ignoring what he thought are the most interesting areas in this “world”.

He wanted to make something way bigger than what was shown during that era. Chase portrayed mobsters as real human beings , showing their deep connections , relationships with police and their traditions that were respected and sacred by all members of the so-called “family”.

One of the other main aspects that David Chase focused on is the main character , the famous “Tony Soprano”, who was seen by his fellow family and mafia members as a cold hearted ruthless mobster, but in reality he was struggling with many mental health problems such as panic attacks and depression.

Chase has always been interested in Therapy and mental health, and the juxtaposition of Tony’s life as a violent crime boss with his attempts to understand himself through therapy created a unique and innovative narrative for the show.

The show was aired on HBO which is an american television network that has created over the years some of the greatest shows of all time such as : “Game of thrones”, “The wire” , “Succession”, “The leftovers” and many more.

HBO was hesitant at first when they heard David Chase’s idea, as they weren’t sure if an hour-long drama about a mob boss struggling with family issues and

psychological problems is going to attract viewers .

However , the network’s executive agreed for the project , after they thought that it had a big potential as they wanted HBO to always create unique and “ahead of their time” shows.

The complex story Tony soprano

Background

Played by the great “James Gandolfini” , Tony is a complex and thought-intriguing mob boss of the “DiMeo” crime family in New Jersey.

Tony was involved in the mafia environment since being a child as he was the son of “Johnny Boy Soprano” who was the family’s boss when he was a kid.

Tony’s father had a big influence on his personality and development as he was emotionally absent from his son’s life .

He is also the son of “Livia Soprano” who is a cold hearted , manipulative , pessimistic mother who was a part of creating Tony’s insecurities and anger issues which we can see as a source of discomfort and emotional distress to Tony through the whole 6 seasons .

Personal life

Seeing a mobster’s personal life wasn’t a thing viewers were used to seeing at that time, and the sopranos managed to show in a beautiful, artistic way the human connections that Tony had.

I’m going to start talking about his wife “Carmella Soprano” , who is one of the central characters in the show, where we can see her enjoyment of the material benefits of Tony’s criminal success.

The complexity of their relationship due to Tony’s constant cheating while she was secretly knowing and the extreme tension that we can clearly see in their conversations, are some of the main aspects focused on in the show that made viewers compassionate with her.

Tony also had 2 kids “AJ” and “Meadow” through whom we saw their personal development through the series and their gradient awareness of their father’s real source of money.

We also saw how they struggled with understanding the nature of their father’s work and complex lifestyle which created some moral conflicts for the both of them.

They always questioned if the love that they felt towards him was unethical and a crime itself, which made them want to create a distance between them.

The prodigy “Christopher Moltisanti” 

Christopher Moltisanti, Tony’s “nephew” as he called him, is a mafia member in

Tony’s crew that has seen tony as a mentor since being a child,leading to a complex relationship where tony has to separate his emotions towards christopher with “family work”.

Christopher’s admiration of Tony is seen clearly just from the beginning as he looks up to him as a father figure, and he is eager to make a name for himself in the family not only for self pleasure but also to show Tony how important he is , wanting him to be proud and recognize his potential.

While being harsh with the other mafia members , we can clearly see how protective Tony is of Christopher as he sees him as the future of the family and the genuine concern for his well-being that he offers especially with his mental health and even helping him with his drug addiction.

Tony has always protected Christopher and forgave him after doing some unforgivable faults that if other members of the family did they would be immediately kicked out or executed , the thing that created big concerns for the others after they interpreted that Tony only really protected his relatives and he can easily sacrifice the others in the faith of their well-being.

Tony’s desire of taking control of his crew and family members didn’t really fit with Christopher’s ideas, as he was threatened by his desire for independence and thought the mafia world should be his main focus, while Christopher, at some part in the series, dreamt of becoming a successful filmmaker as he saw validation in this industry and the mafia became an obstacle.

Tony has always encouraged Christopher and wanted him to find what he wanted to do with his life but in reality he was always trying to sabotage him so he doesn’t “lose

him ».

Deep Impact

Tony soprano is known as being one of the most influential characters in the TV world, as he was one of the first protagonists that portrayed an anti-hero.

Lead characters before the sopranos came in were defined by “good” or “bad” and Tony Soprano’s complexity broke new ground in how antiheroes were portrayed on TV.

Tony inspired a lot of TV shows and characters such as:

-Walter White (Breaking Bad): Walter shares clear similarities with Tony, where he is a deeply flawed character who balances a family life with his illicit activities.

The creator of the breaking bad universe himself “Vince Gilligan” said in the aftermath of the death of James Gandolfini in 2013:

“Without Tony Soprano, there would be no Walter White. »

As he wanted his character taking risky options after he found himself in mid-life crisis just like Tony Soprano.

-Bojack Horseman : The animated show “Bojack Horseman” was inspired by Tony Soprano’s psychological depth.

Much like Tony, BoJack’s internal struggles are often a source of both dark comedy and tragic pathos.

The creator and showrunner of the series has literally cited the Sopranos as inspiration for Bojack.

PS: There have even been some Soprano’s jokes in the series.

Succession: Tony’s complex family dynamics and dysfunctions clearly influenced the show where business and personal connections intertwined.

Just like Tony , the characters in succession are driven by personal insecurities and power struggle.

These were just some examples and the list goes

on and on.

Therapy in the sopranos

Therapy was a weakness for Italian Americans and even a big sign of lack of masculinity to mobsters.

Tony was so reluctant to see a therapist at first , afraid of what his fellow friends and “family” members would think of him .

And this exactly shows how much Tony is afraid of how people see him through the series highlighting his insecurities.

He finally decided to see a psychiatrist when his wife urged him to get help after he had a panic attack and collapsed after seeing the ducks that used to live in his pool fly away.

It may seem a funny or even a dumb thing to happen to someone in his position but it is the breaking point for us to find out who tony soprano really is.

We found out that this fearless mobster is facing depression without him even knowing it.

We understand through his meeting with Dr Melfi that he doesn’t enjoy the things that used to bring him happiness , he feels hopeless and that he is losing control over his family connections and relationships with his mob members , without forgetting the fact that we clearly see Tony in a lot of scenes dissatisfied with his life and making comments on tiny details, the thing that enrages his family especially his wife Carmella.

We also see that he has severe anger issues , and becomes enraged after the smallest conflicts and his inability to control his anger makes it harder for him to keep a good connection with the ones he loves.

Tony also showed signs of PTSD implicitly ,where he has nightmares about the people he murdered in the past and problems related to his mafia work.

Should we hate or love Tony soprano ?

I’m pretty sure if we ask the audience that watched the sopranos this exact question they will either take a lot of time thinking before answering it or they wouldn’t even

know what to answer.

And in that point we know how genius the whole idea of The Sopranos is, as the audience finds itself empathising with Tony and condemning him for his actions at the same time.

And this shows how David Chase mastered the art of creating a “real” character or to make it more clear a character that people can relate to.

Human beings naturally would prefer watching a show that has characters that embodies them and that makes us feel like they’re way deeper than just a TV character, that Tony Soprano really lives somewhere in this world.

Despite being a rude boss that usually solves problems with violence and crime , Tony is a compassionate father and husband that always thinks of his family members and wants the absolute best for them.

And despite backstabbing his friends , the characters that we created a fictional relationship with, without showing any form of mercy , we see Tony caring about animals and always there to defend them and fight those who intend to harm them.

Tony soprano clearly challenged the traditional notions of right and wrong and we are forced to create our own interpretation of who he really is.

Even Tony is torn between his identity as a gangster and his desire to be a good family man and a worthy friend.

He wants to be seen as a serious mob boss who is worthy of this position and respected by his “colleagues” and loved by his family which causes him an internal conflict.

The show never resolved this tension , leaving it to the audience to make their own interpretations and decide to feel towards him.

Comedy in the sopranos

Despite being a dark themed crime show, the Sopranos never failed to make us laugh in nearly all 86 episodes.

The show did what most comedy series and sitcoms failed to do and it’s to make the viewer laugh unexpectedly , which makes the scene even funnier than what it should be.

The inclusion of dark humour at serious scenes was a thing that David Chase and other directors of the show clearly excelled at.

The show focused mainly on character driven comedy , as an example the mob member “Paulie Gaultieri” is one of the funniest characters in the show despite being depicted as a heartless murderer throughout the show.

Paulie’s quirky habits , his unpredictable behaviour and his overreactions made most of his interactions with other characters hilarious and gave us another aspect of the mafia world.

Most of the people who watched the sopranos will remember Paulie when they hear some specific words and expressions such as “Maddon” which is a slang expression in italian and is derived from “Madonna” which means “Virgin Mary” in English and is used as an exclamation of surprise.

Such a thing is used to satirize stereotypes about the mafia and italian-american culture.

We can also observe this critique in the obsession of Italian Americans about food in the show , as the words “Ziti” and especially “Gabagool” have been used obsessively during the show and which are some classic Italian dishes.

The sopranos even had some long conversations where characters communicated about food and the show’s creator David Chase succeeded in deleting the stereotype by using parodies.

And how can we talk about the use of comedy in the sopranos without mentioning “Pine Barrens”?

To make things clear, “Pine Barrens” is the 11th episode in the third season of the show which is one of the best reviewed TV episodes ever.

This episode will always be remembered on how the show captured the dark absurdity of life as a mobster. The episode takes a simple task and turns to be chaotic ,fantastic , full of humour , bad luck and especially misunderstandings.

Even being seen as a pure comedic episode that swerved from the show’s atmosphere , it showed the hilarious dynamic between “Christopher” and “Paulie” and it had a lot of interactions that showed the nature of their relationship.

Fascinating cinematography

If the show’s cinematographer “Alik Sakharov” participated in a competition for worst picture he would’ve been last.

The camerawork in the sopranos is something that we can’t pass by, the techniques used , the fluidity of camera movement , the lighting and beautiful shots are eye capturing and remarkable.

One of the techniques that caught my attention is the visual isolation which is one of the most used in the show.

To make it simple, it is the use of wide shots , particularly in scenes where characters are alone and isolated in empty and wide spaces and it is generally used to show

how small the characters are within their surroundings , emphasizing feelings of hopelessness and loneliness.

The show also used the color palette to play a significant role in matching the characters feelings and psychological state.

For example, we see that the color red is usually used when the characters are in a situation of danger or to symbolize violence and anger and warm colors like yellow tones are used mostly in domestic spaces to give a sense of relief and comfort.

The choice of music 

The sopranos used a big variety of music genres that had been used in the most appropriate times that made the scenes more fluent and eye-catching.

The show used a mix of pop,rock, classical ,jazz music and even opera during the entirety of the show that showcased the psychological depth of the characters.

And how can we talk about music without mentioning the opening theme “Woke up this Morning” .

The song’s combination of jazz, blues, rock and electronic beats reflects the disordered life of Tony, the song became iconic and to this day people connect it directly to the sopranos.

Golden Globe Awards

1. Best Television Series – Drama (2000, 2001, 2003)

2. Best Actor in a TV Series – Drama:

○ James Gandolfini – Won in 2000, 2001, and 2003

3. Best Actress in a TV Series – Drama:

○ Edie Falco – Won in 2003

Written by Aziz Mzoughi