Watching The Sopranos for the first time. Woof.

5,916 Views | 68 Replies | Last: 5 days ago by Mat Lanticus
TexAg2001
User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
7:29p, 10/21/26
AG
I tried to watch it at least 5 or 6 times over the years and found it incredibly boring before I forced myself to continue with it about 10 years ago. Sometime around the middle of season 2 I got hooked and binged the rest of it.

The Wire is head and shoulders above The Sopranos, IMO, but it's still a great show. Groundbreaking in its time.
Reply Quote
5
Rigs
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to amercer • 7:29p, 10/21/26
Lol- it was probably the first series ever that was allowed to do 13 episode seasons, and 2 years between them.

Change my mind.
Reply Quote
StinkyPinky
User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to FL_Ag1998 • 8:04p, 10/21/26
AG
FL_Ag1998 said:
If you're watching the Sopranos because you wanna watch a show about the mob then you're gonna hate it and miss the point.

I understand calling it slow. But after finally watching all of it not that long ago, it was one of those shows that as soon as I watched the final episode I immediately started missing that world of Tony Soprano that I had been totally absorbed in.
This. It's not a mob show. It's about a family who happens to be in the mob.
Reply Quote
1
UnderoosAg
User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to TexAg2001 • 10:43p, 10/21/26
AG
TexAg2001 said:
I tried to watch it at least 5 or 6 times over the years and found it incredibly boring before I forced myself to continue with it about 10 years ago. Sometime around the middle of season 2 I got hooked and binged the rest of it.

The Wire is head and shoulders above The Sopranos, IMO, but it's still a great show. Groundbreaking in its time.



I binged S1 of The Sopranos right before S2 dropped (Friend had it recorded on VHS). I've rewatched it more times than I can count, it's my background filler.

I tried watching The Wire about 5 times before it stuck. Almost knew the Snot Boogie Scene by heart. Got to The Cost and I was hooked.

The Sopranos is about a family, or a dude with a family. The Wire is about a system, and you could probably replace balmore herron with prohibition booze or modern day oxy and fentanyl, and it would still work. The Sopranos family story ended when Tony fell dead in the onion rings. But at some point a lot of people knew, or knew of, a Bubbles, McNulty, etc. and helps the show age well outside of the pagers.

And The Sopranos walked so The Corner could warm up for The Wire to run.
Reply Quote
2
Featured Video Previews
Southlake
User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
11:19p, 10/21/26
AG
Breaking Bad > The Shield > The Wire > The Sopranos.
Reply Quote
5
SJEAg
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to Southlake • 5:47a, 10/22/26
AG
I think I've watched every show considered "great" of the past 30 years. Except The Shield. Now I wonder if its age will be tough to overcome for the reasons people struggle now. Pre-dating HD and widescreen, don't think its been remastered, will be rough. Someday though when I run out of content...
Reply Quote
1 edit
Proposition Joe
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to SJEAg • 6:05a, 10/22/26
SJEAg said:
I think I've watched every show considered "great" of the past 30 years. Except The Shield. Now I wonder if its age might tough to overcome for the reasons people struggle now. Pre-dating HD and widescreen, don't think its been remastered, will be rough. Someday though when I run out of content...


It's still enjoyable, but it was my #1 of all time when I watched when it was broadcasted and now I don't think it cracks Top 5?

Breaking Bad, Justified, The Americans, The Wire all higher on my list. Succession likely above it. If we're talking just plain number of great episodes minus the ending/bad-stuff... GoT and X-Files. Maybe Better Call Saul breaks in there.
Reply Quote
Rigs
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to SJEAg • 6:35a, 10/22/26
If you have no affection for "this is a thing that revolutionized TV in 1999, and became the template for most of what came after it on cable/streaming", then no, you would be unlikely to be impressed.

97 shows a year come out now doing what it did first.

So there is def a "I can see so much other stuff lately" that are now doing what no one else was doing at the time.
Reply Quote
1
Cesspool Hustler
User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
12:53p, 10/22/26
To answer a couple of questions (and make a comment or two):
1) I'm 52
2) I love Mad Men. Yes, it started slow too but it definitely got its hooks in me early.

Spare me the "it changed TV" line. That's a bigger cliche' than the characters on the show. Furthermore, that doesn't make something inherently good.

It's hilarious how a few of you take this crap personally and defend a show like it's your family member. The insults are predictable as hell and so telling. "Go back to Big Bang Theory and Two and Half Men". Yawn. Yeah, that's trash TV but liking the Sopranos doesn't earn you some sort of "cred".
So utterly self righteous and ridiculous.

For what it's worth I'm sticking with it. For now.

Oh! One other thing. There was a thread a week or two ago for mist annoying wife or mother or something on TV. I'm not even past Season 1 and I'm immediately voting Tony's mother.
Reply Quote
8
1 edit
Thunder18
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
1:00p, 10/22/26
AG
I struggled to get through S1 the first time I tried watching it...then I tried again a few years later and binged the entire series in a few weeks. It's definitely a very dated show now given how much technology has advanced since it was aired, but if you can get past that it's great. Ironically I have way less of an issue ignoring how dated The Wire is now compared to when it aired. I really love both, but the Wire will always be the GOAT in my opinion
Reply Quote
1 edit
Rigs
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to Cesspool Hustler • 1:15p, 10/22/26
Quote:
2) I love Mad Men. Yes, it started slow too but it definitely got its hooks in me early.

Spare me the "it changed TV" line. That's a bigger cliche' than the characters on the show. Furthermore, that doesn't make something inherently good.
You wanna know where Matt Weiner, creator/showrunner earned enough cred to get Mad Men into production?

That would be working on The Sopranos.

So put your "it didn't change TV" back in your ass.
Reply Quote
13
@NFLPlayerProps
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
2:59p, 10/22/26
Best show of all time. I've lost count of how many times I've rewatched it, has to be at least 10.
Reply Quote
5
Zombie Jon Snow
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to Cesspool Hustler • 3:11p, 10/22/26
AG
Cesspool Hustler said:
To answer a couple of questions (and make a comment or two):
1) I'm 52
2) I love Mad Men. Yes, it started slow too but it definitely got its hooks in me early.

Spare me the "it changed TV" line. That's a bigger cliche' than the characters on the show. Furthermore, that doesn't make something inherently good.

It's hilarious how a few of you take this crap personally and defend a show like it's your family member. The insults are predictable as hell and so telling. "Go back to Big Bang Theory and Two and Half Men". Yawn. Yeah, that's trash TV but liking the Sopranos doesn't earn you some sort of "cred".
So utterly self righteous and ridiculous.

For what it's worth I'm sticking with it. For now.

Oh! One other thing. There was a thread a week or two ago for mist annoying wife or mother or something on TV. I'm not even past Season 1 and I'm immediately voting Tony's mother.


Livia Soprano makes most other TV moms look like saints. Just wait.

But you're way off on Sopranos and how much it changed TV. Sorry. It did. And it can't be a cliche if it is true.

Did you watch TV before 1999?

Major ways it elevated TV - maybe elevated is a better term than just changed though because certainly most of these had been done before. But not as well and not all in one show. Examples like LA Law, NYPD Blue, St. Elsewhere, Homicide, etc. had at times some of these elements. But the cumulation of all of those things on the level they did it was never seen before in one show. It's a giant line in the sand. There was TV before the Sopranos and TV after the Sopranos.

  • The anti-hero as the main lead - other than comedic (Archie Bunker for example) this was not common now it is almost expected (Breaking Bad, various LOST characters, Don Draper and his flaws, Dexter, The Americans, Mr. robot, Ozarks, etc. etc.)
  • Killing off main characters - I won't spoil anything but uhhh keep watching the count by the end of the series will blow your mind- that never used to happen. Long before Ned stark ate it in S1 of GOT.
  • And forget about happy endings and tying a series all up in a pretty bow too. I doubt there would be a Breaking Bad without this first.
  • Elevated cinematic style of a TV show to nearly film quality and these were hourlong deep scripts.
  • Changed the narrative expectations of a show - while it still had some episodic nature it left some things unresolved, had longer character and plot arcs in general and the ending (ahem).
  • Realism like we rarely saw before including the psychological aspects of therapy for a crime boss complete with panic attacks and medication and its impacts on others grounded the show in the real world and his problems were just like our problems
  • Violence on a previously unseen level for TV of course cable allowed that
  • The ensemble cast was certainly done before but the acting was on another level as attested by the many awards.
Reply Quote
10
1 edit
Cesspool Hustler
User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to Rigs • 3:31p, 10/22/26
Rigs said:
Quote:
2) I love Mad Men. Yes, it started slow too but it definitely got its hooks in me early.

Spare me the "it changed TV" line. That's a bigger cliche' than the characters on the show. Furthermore, that doesn't make something inherently good.
You wanna know where Matt Weiner, creator/showrunner earned enough cred to get Mad Men into production?

That would be working on The Sopranos.

So put your "it didn't change TV" back in your ass.


Case in point of dorks taking this **** WAY too seriously. Nobody ****ing cares dude. Go straighten up you Star Wars figurines.
Reply Quote
5
TCTTS
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to Cesspool Hustler • 4:01p, 10/22/26
AG
You went out of your way to post your opinion of a 20-year-old show on an internet message board for thousands of people to see. You clearly *do* care, very much so, and in the process, made probably the most cliched "nerd" dig imaginable, while engaging in objectively nerdy behavior yourself (posting on said message board). I could not care less that you disliked The Sopranos, but at least recognize when you're the pot calling the kettle black.
Reply Quote
12
walton91
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to Cesspool Hustler • 4:43p, 10/22/26
Cesspool Hustler said:

Spare me the "it changed TV" line. That's a bigger cliche' than the characters on the show. Furthermore, that doesn't make something inherently good.

This is my favorite part. "Sure it may have changed tv but that doesn't mean its good"
Reply Quote
12
Diggity
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
5:29p, 10/22/26
AG
my favorite kind of flex.

also, i never saw titanic.
Reply Quote
6
Rigs
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to Cesspool Hustler • 8:41p, 10/22/26
You literally started a thread to "discuss" a show on a place known for TV watching/history.

You didn't come to "discuss". You came for confirmation bias affirmation, and the minute you didn't get that, proceeded to call everyone nerds/dorks for not agreeing with you.

(And while I'm a big enough "dork" I can tell you off the top of my head, without looking it up, the history between The Sopranos and Mad Men, amongst who knows wtf else, have never even seen a Star Wars movie or streaming series spinoff.)




Reply Quote
8
1 edit
Rigs
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to Emotional Support Cobra • 9:33p, 10/22/26
Quote:
I was a kid in the 90s in suburban NJ so for better or worse, the Sopranos looks like home to me, in a visceral manner that is hard to describe if you didnt live with these types of people in your real life, with mobsters living in your neighborhood and Italian grandmas babysitting you and feeding you.
It has to be asked, and I'm disappointed no one did before me- was your family in the mob?
Reply Quote
5
Rigs
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
5:58a, 10/23/26
There's also, to my memory, there was exactly one drama series that didn't have a rough patch. (Hint- it was also on HBO). Guess?
Reply Quote
1 edit
zap
User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to Rigs • 7:18a, 10/23/26
AG
Rigs said:
There's also, to my memory, there was exactly one drama series that didn't have a rough patch. (Hint- it was also on HBO). Guess?

Deadwood
Reply Quote
Mr. Awesome Time
User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to RightWingConspirator • 9:26a, 10/23/26
RightWingConspirator said:
We watched it. Never understood the hype. But we also didn't get the hype for Game of Thrones or Dark or Severance or many others.



I hope you accidentally pass thru a wormhole to 30 years in the future.
Reply Quote
2
@NFLPlayerProps
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to Rigs • 11:13a, 10/23/26
Rigs said:
There's also, to my memory, there was exactly one drama series that didn't have a rough patch. (Hint- it was also on HBO). Guess?

Better Call Saul
The Americans
Mad Men
The Wire (though you can argue season 5 was weaker than the rest, but IMO still better than the vast majority of TV)
Breaking Bad
The Leftovers
Deadwood
Succession
Reply Quote
1 edit
Rigs
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to @NFLPlayerProps • 1:34p, 10/23/26
You chose a few, but got the answer correct in there.
Reply Quote
1 edit
@NFLPlayerProps
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
2:27p, 10/23/26
Right, I disagree with the premise that there is only one. But I'm glad I passed the test
Reply Quote
2
Rigs
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to @NFLPlayerProps • 2:46p, 10/23/26
At least some of us can have fun, if the OP can't.

I'm reconsidering if there was a half point to something I failed to give.
Reply Quote
2
1 edit
Rigs
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to @NFLPlayerProps • 4:09p, 10/23/26
(The half point would go to Deadwood, btw)
Reply Quote
Emotional Support Cobra
User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to Rigs • 4:21p, 10/23/26
AG
Rigs said:
Quote:
I was a kid in the 90s in suburban NJ so for better or worse, the Sopranos looks like home to me, in a visceral manner that is hard to describe if you didnt live with these types of people in your real life, with mobsters living in your neighborhood and Italian grandmas babysitting you and feeding you.
It has to be asked, and I'm disappointed no one did before me- was your family in the mob?


No, but I had school classmates whose parents were. One kid's dad went to prison for a bit when we were in middle school.

Our neighbor lady's sons were connected and she had a kennel with several German Shepherd dogs which were not friendly pets if you know what I mean. She ran a truck stop and was the nicest person but a real tough cookie. She gifted in food, so we would get baked goods and lasagnas delivered to our door occasionally. Once a whole carrot cake.

Another lady used to babysit me and her husband had a "car dealership" and she was their bookkeeper and so nice and would tell me I was too skinny and I needed to eat more.

There is this house on a high hill that was across the valley from our house (it was our "view" to the east.) In reality it was a heavily guarded mob compound and it was guarded at the entrances. I will see if I can find it.

At the end of the day we were all just a community and you didnt talk about it all.

Reply Quote
6
Rigs
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to Emotional Support Cobra • 5:41p, 10/23/26
This is the content we need/deserve.
Reply Quote
3
Captain Winky
User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
5:49p, 10/23/26
Sopranos is on our regular rotation when we want background noise or can't decide what to watch.

Tried rewatching Breaking Bad recently and didn't make it far. Found it to be pretty boring the second time around.
Reply Quote
2
Silvy
User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to Cesspool Hustler • 7:52a, 10/24/26
AG
Reply Quote
boozer93
User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
8:31p, 10/25/26
I tried it last year. Got about 4 episodes in and couldn't take it. Painfully slow and dull.
Reply Quote
1
Rigs
User Profile
Private Message
Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
In reply to @NFLPlayerProps • 8:36p, 10/25/26
(The answer was Succession, btw)
Reply Quote
1
Mat Lanticus
User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring
How long do you want to ignore this user?
24 hours One week Permanently Cancel
8:33p, 10/29/26
AG
Masterpiece

https://instagr.am/p/DfAi-vVhsjD
Reply Quote
3
Refresh
Page 2 of 2 ▼
 
×
subscribe Verify your student status
See Subscription Benefits
Trial only available to users who have never subscribed or participated in a previous trial.