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50% Italian American and 50% Sicilian American and 100% dislike the Sopranos
What didn't you like about it?
Ok let me just condense these down real quick, and by the way, happy for everyone who enjoys this show, good on you. Just thought I would drop my two centos into the discussion:
1) If you're gonna use stereotypes, how are they aging? Are they clownish at this point? I think these are.
2) I'm not opposed to having non-Italian American's play them or vice versa (nod to you John Turturro), but to cast Iler and Sigler as little Italian kids made zero sense to me when there's tons of other actors their age.
3) The pacing was slow and not in a good way. David Chase is not David Lynch and couldn't pull it off (though I think he was trying to imitate Lynch in season 6 with Tony's identity). This did not need to be a 6 season show. Lots of filler. I'm sure HBO wanted even more seasons but they should have cut it down (And then a prequel comes out? Did you care about that?)
4)Most of the show was quite predictable. You really didn't see Ade coming? Or Christopher? Or a whole bunch of them? Very few genuine surprises in the show
5) The finale is just no good. The "suspense" leading up to it is tedious (more DePalma than Hitch), and the way you can tell that David Chase wrote a bad ending is that he's since come out and just said, "yeah, Tony died in the diner." So it wasn't like a good "non-ending" like No Country for Old Men, it was that he just didn't write the ending and told everybody later what happened.
6) The relationship with Tony and Melfie is unintentionally hilarious. I couldn't buy that she would stay through all that. I get a lot of fans call that "brilliant"
7) Phil was an anticlimactic bad guy. Again, it just seems like lazy writing.
Those are seven quickies that come to mind. I don't mean to ruin your childhood. Just one man's opinion.
I am sorry. You seem to have ALOT of preconceived expectations you apply to a show. It never had a chance, did it?
What is you favorite series?
Gnarred for the dialogue - I would like to think I gave Sopranos a fair shot. i didn't see it til a bit later, and it's hard not to wonder if a show is going to be overrated. Still, I had no reason to be predisposed to dislike it. I enjoy plenty of crime / Italian / mafia stuff. I just honestly didn't think The Sopranos was good. Let me know if you had any thoughts about the content of the seven points I tried to make above.
My favorite series? Hard to pick one. I've been in the lodge with special agent Dale Cooper since the 90s. I really liked The Curse last year. Thought the first season of True Detective was exceptional. Bunch of stuff. Saul, Twilight Zone, Curb, Bojack. You know, the usuals. Thoughts?
Ok, I'll have a dialogue with you. I think most of your points are coming from you having some abstract ideal of a show that you measure the Sopranos against, rather than of an actual engagement with the TV Show.
When I read your points I understand:
1) There mustn't be any stereotypes
2) Actors should be of the same race as the charactor they play.
4) There should be genuine surprises.
7) Bad guys should be climactic.
For me none of these points determine if a show is good or not. There are many great shows which do not follow these rules.
The Sopranos played with stereotypes and also created alot of new Italian American stereotypes. So, of course its portrayal of Jersey mob life is going to seem very stereotypical today. It established many of these stereotypes in the first place.
I see the criticism about actors playing charactors of other races. There is a long history of white actors always playing most of the important roles in big movies even if those charactors were minorities. Native, Asian and hispanic actors only got to play small roles or the bad guys. However, I still think the job is to act so it isn't really about authenticity, but about how well and believable the actor plays the role. Al Pacino's portrayal of Tony Montana was great. I didn't care that he's got Italian roots.
Surprises are overated. The Sopranos is character driven show and (at least to me) is mostly about how psychological forces and social forces predetermine much of the outcome or fate of the individual person. People are set in their ways and have to wrestle with whatever social role and childhood trauma they have been given. There are no heroes and there are now crafty villains. Chance and circumstances rather than individual choices of the mobsters determine the outcome of conflicts. Maybe that's why you found Phil to be an uninteresting "bad guy".
If a show captures my attention, entertains me and or make me think about stuff then I like it. The Sopranos is one of my favorite shows. I watched it when I was really depressed. It gave me something to do and made me feel a little better.
Topic: The Sopranos (Read 1357 times)