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Review:
The Sopranos
Written
By Tammy Winkler, January 14th, 1999
Think you’ve
got stress?
Take a look
at Tony Soprano, head of two New Jersey families: his own and the
local syndicate of, uh - THE Family! The former calls him "dad"
and the latter calls him "Capo". Tony, played by James Gandolfini,
begins to have anxiety attacks, blacking out for short periods.
These attacks bring him to the office of psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi,
played by Lorraine Bracco, who was an Oscar nominee for "GoodFellas",
appropriately enough.
Tony’s marriage
is a bit shaky, he’s got two bratty teenage kids, a cranky mother
and there are all sorts of problems with his "waste management"
business. The first episode, which premiered on Sunday, dealt mostly
with Tony’s first session with Dr. Melfi, but we did see a few people
get roughed up by other members of Tony’s "company". The first show
gave a good idea of what a "waste management engineer" does with
his days!
Dr. Melfi prescribes
Prozac for Tony and he begins to feel better almost immediately.
When he tells the doctor that the medicine is helping, she assures
him that it takes several weeks to become effective and that it
is the talks they have that are doing the trick. He had been nursing
a small family of ducks in his pool and had become saddened when
they flew off. She makes him realize that he is afraid his family
will fly away, too and that is causing his depression. I’m not exactly
sure which family he took that as meaning, but her statement made
a light bulb go off in his head and he admitted she was correct.
The Sopranos
has been called a "sitcom" and a "drama-comedy" by different reviewers.
It’s hard to put a label on this one, much as it was hard to categorize
Ally McBeal before that show got totally goofy. Here is some
rough language here and there - mobsters tend to cuss, after all!
I found the
acting to be excellent. Gandolfini was 3-dimensional, not your typical
tough-guy-with-no-heart, but a killer nonetheless! His wife, Carmella,
played by Edie Falco of HBO’s OZ, is what all non-Jerseyites
like to think all New Jersey women sound like - which I personally
find hilarious, being a Jersey chick myself!
Tony’s mom is
played by Nancy Marchand; remember her as Mrs. Pynchon on Lou
Grant? She’s paranoid and disagreeable, but hey!, she’s Mom
and Tony has to put up with her.
The shows exterior
shots are all done in New Jersey, which is fun for viewers in this
area. It was neat to see the same morning paper I read each day
laying in the Soprano’s driveway! It was also neat to see Bruce
Springsteen’s former E Street Band member, Steve Van Zandt, making
his acting debut as Silvio. Told ya I was a Jersey Girl!
I enjoyed The
Sopranos very much and thought it was a wonderful lead-in to
ABC’s The Practice. Like The Larry Sanders Show and
OZ before it, I think The Sopranos shows HBO’s penchant
for making fine series and would recommend giving it a look!
Premiered Sunday,
January 10th at 9pm EST. Encore showings on January 11th, 12th,
14th, 16th, 17th. New episodes every Sunday at 9PM EST.
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