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THE SOPRANOS (1999-2007) TV SERIES REVIEW

5/26/2018

*****

A Shakespearean-style Mafia saga masquerading as a man’s mid-life crisis. ‘The Sopranos’ truly turned Television into theatre.

Family first” has always been the message behind the best Mafia movies whether they be ‘Goodfellas’ (1990) or ‘The Godfather Trilogy’ (1972-1974) yet where is the line drawn between one’s real family and their criminal “famiglia”? That’s the bulk of the dilemma faced by New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) throughout ‘The Sopranos’ (1999-2007).

When we meet Tony in Season 1, he is deeply disillusioned with his double life; trading time between the state’s most influential crime family and his own deeply dysfunctional one.

He spends his down days - when not “whacking” FBI moles - cheating on needy wife Carmella (Edie Falco) for Slavic hookers and battling the adolescent angst of daughter Meadow (Jamie Lynn-Sigler) and son A.J (Robert Iler). Meanwhile Tony deals regularly with his abusive, Alzheimer’s-suffering mother Livia (Nancy Marchand) and the tumultuous love-hate relationships of lying sister Janice (Aida Tuturro), uncle Corrado (Dominic Chianese) and nephew/mafia protege Chris Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli).

On gangster terms, ‘The Sopranos’ wouldn’t appear to be treading groundbreaking grounds. Yet - despite multiple references and nearly 30 cast members shared with the genre classics the show is heavily indebted to - this is no ‘Godfather’-lite tale of one’s rise and fall from grace.

Unlike Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill in ‘Goodfellas’ (1990), Tony Soprano didn’t grow up his whole life “wanting to be a gangster”. He’s a man drawn in by line of duty and honouring those who came before him in the family business; already top of his game. And yet simultaneously dreams of leading the “normal life” his fake “waste management” profession might provide.

It’s this incongruence of values that causes Tony to collapse on his lavishly sprinkled lawn; the result of severe anxiety attacks that lead him to seek help from a psychiatric shrink named Dr.Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco).

Tony is a huge, hulking figure; commanding authority wherever he goes and capable of snapping one’s neck should they disrespect him. Yet it’s his vulnerability through an invulnerable shell that showcases the magnificence of Gandolfini’s Emmy-winning mobster monster performance.

In Gandolfini’s hands, Tony Soprano is a big man who wishes he were small; entrapped by his surroundings the same way millions of average joe Americans have felt at least once in their lifetime. His self-loathing and sense of insignificance - despite his underworld status -adds realism and relatability to the series; stretching far beyond Mafiosos and into mid-life crisis; metaphoring the then uncertainty of the new Millenium.

As shrink Dr. Melfi, Lorraine Bracco - one of the 27 series actors to have also starred in ‘Goodfellas’ - is terrific; providing a semi-surreal insight into the self-destructive and narcissistic, but ultimately fragile ego of this tragic King Lear-like figure. In many ways , she embodies the viewer’s own acidic anxiety and moral dilemma surrounding Tony; embroiled by fear, loathing and love, but unshaken respect that keeps us rooting for him largely for fear for our own safety and sanity!

Performing in the same series as a star the size and bravura of James Gandolfini is enough to make anyone look and feel little; which is why another ‘Goodfellas’ graduate Michael Imperioli’s furious turn as Christopher Moltisanti deserves every plaudit.

Far from being a sidekick to the pot-bellied protagonist, Chris vividly represents what Tony might’ve liked to be; exuding the hot-headed rage yet naivity of an angry young man in pursuit of power; burning to prove himself to the big boss yet lacking honour and code. Initially his attempts at wooing his great idol are irksome - no one likes a little man acting big - yet Chris’s character grows every bit as Tony’s withers; discovering the price paid by a life of crime; exemplified in his heartbreaking love story with the beautiful Adriana (Drea DeMatteo).

Drawing in 13 million viewers during its 6 season airtime on HBO, Writer David Chase’s series is widely heralded for kickstarting the 21st Century’s Third Golden Age of TV”. The era where the once ridiculed “idiot box” - responsible for routinely churning out bland episodic filler - became the mass producer of serialised, original, adult drama. Meanwhile - on a mainstream front - TV’s big screen cousin descended into franchise obscurity.

Save for ‘The Wire’s Dickensian portrait of a city’s social structures, ‘The Soprano’s Shakespearean-style storytelling is unparalleled; often wildly theatrical - much like its central character’s fuming fits of rage and paralysing panic attacks - yet down n’ dirty in its destructive depiction of domestic drama and the blurred lines that loathsome to lovable characters spin back and forth from within the space of the show’s 86 episodes.

Such literature-like longevity is impossible to accomplish even in the entire 12 hr breath of the cinematic ‘Godfather Trilogy’; making room for moments of
f-bombarded black comedy, blood-splattered violence and shades of surrealism unseen in a small-screen medium reviled for playing it soberingly safe.

Most of all, the series rebooted our obsession with antiheroes. The duplicitous, often despicable protagonists who defined cinema in the 70s before squeaky-clean superheroes took their place. If it weren’t for Tony’s all-too-real aura of grey morality, the likes of Walter White (‘Breaking Bad’), Stringer Bell (‘The Wire’) and Don Draper (‘Mad Men’) may never have been born.

For them all, Tony Soprano remains their godfather...

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20 GREATEST TV EPISODES (IN NO ORDER!):

5/25/2018

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DR.WHO
2.13: ‘Doomsday’ TV Review/Recap

*****

A fitting denouement for TV’s most beautiful ‘beauty and the beast’ love story.

Has there ever been a better ending for a TV character than what Russell T.Davies gave Rose Tyler? While I’ve always felt ‘Dr.Who’ has been at its best in it’s quieter, creepier, behind-the-sofa moments (take ‘Weeping Angels’ scareshow ‘Blink’ as cream of that crop), it’s impossible not to be won over the sheer scope and size of this season finale. One which’s poignant mix of spectacle and tears truly lived up to the ostensibly overused term “cinematic”.

The spectacle, of course, arrived in the much-anticipated Dalek vs Cyberman showdown which could have easily fell into ‘Alien vs. Predator’ idiocy yet felt goosebump-inducingly loyal to fandom in its blasting banter (“this is not war! this is pest control!”) while delivering blockbuster entertainment on an unprecedented scale. The unforgettable imagery of Daleks emerging from an ark-like prison over Canary Wharf to exterminate the tin-hearted metalmen below was the kind of kid’s drawing that might have been sketched between school classes in the 70s. An impossible dream given the wobbly sets and bubble wraps that once substituted for “special effects” yet gorgeously realised here. A suggestion of how much CGI has worked wonders for this infamously cheap cult series.

Save for our own, the tears, meanwhile, belonged to Billie Piper; pouring pitifully as she beat the wall between worlds screaming “TAKE ME BACK!”. On the other side - having plunged millions of his two most famous foes into the void (“hell” in the words of Noel Clarke’s ridiculously redemptive Mickey) - David Tennant’s tragic Doctor delivered a more muted response; walking away in utterly defeated silence every bit as powerful.

When I first watched Rose - aged 9 back in 2006 - losing her grasp of that void-opening leaver and being sucked into “hell” against the Doctor’s Darth Vader-style “NOOOOO!”, I genuinely thought this might be it for the time-traveller’s favourite. We all knew Piper was leaving the show, not the means of doing so. Imagine if Davies had done the unthinkable - killing off a main character. Something which may be staple in ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Game of Thrones’, but far too dark for teatime family-friendly ‘Who’.

The last time ‘Dr.Who’ did such was when bratty, baby-faced Adric crashed into prehistoric Earth in the 80s, but Writer Davies - being the sentimental soul he is - certainly wasn’t going to let that happen to the show’s best loved companion since Sarah Jane Smith.

And yet having Rose saved last minute by her alternate universe dad and sealed-off in a parallel world remained utterly fitting. The Doctor - a God-like figure capable of saving entire civilisations - couldn’t do the same for the one he loved most; moreover he essentially imprisoned her.

Rose too bore the brunt of her own naivity; her schoolgirl-like dreams of travelling “forever” with the love of her life were ignorant of the Doctor’s pleas that his near-thousand year lifespan couldn’t provide the same longevity for her limited and eventually ageing human existence. It was inevitable that “forever” could never be...that’s the curs of the Time Lord.

Over the years, the ‘Beauty and the Beast’-like ballad of the Doctor and his Rose has been polarising to say the least; branded by many Whovians as hormonal hodegepodge.

For myself, however, this heart-wrenching romance between a 900 year old Time Lord and a 22 year old estate-bred eastender is what truly made the rebooted series and Tennant’s brooding alien loner quite so human.

However much Steven Moffat attempted to over-complicate yet ultimately stupify ‘Who’ as showrunner (his standalone episodes during the Davies era remain outstanding), he fell short of Davies because his stories lacked one vital organ - heart (two in the Doctor’s case!).

There’s nothing in the chemistry of Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor and Karen Gillan’s Amy Pond nor Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth and Jenna Coleman’s Clara Oswald to match what Tennant and Piper accomplished in their breathtakingly beautiful parting at “Bad Wolf Bay”.

The latter, in particular, slapped every snobby sceptic in the face when it came to proving pop stars can act!

Rose’s breakdown with the tear-flooded question “am I ever going to see you again?” always gets me; as does the Doctor’s uncomfortably calm “you can’t”; attempting to lighten the mood with stories of being last of the time lords and his TARDIS before quietly melting too upon Rose’s immortal revelation “I love you”. A response to which never materialises as the Doctor’s hologram vanishes into thin air...a single tear dripping back in the big blue box and the lip-reading beginnings of a sentence starting too with “I”. Ahhh the feels!

This was the first time a TV show truly moved me; having relived the moment a million times since. Spoilt only Russell T. Davies bringing Rose back in the end...

This is a tragedy and tragedies shouldn’t have happy endings!

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TV ROUND-UP: THE BRIDGE (BRON-BROEN) (BBC2), SAFE (NETFLIX)

5/25/2018

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Sofia Hellin was still astonishing in ‘The Bridge’, but Michael C.Hall’s British accent wasn’t the only thing out of place in ‘Safe’.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 6 years since we first fell in love with Saga Noren, her leather trousers and vintage Volvo. That was back when ‘The Bridge’ (BBC2) was quite literally a bridge between her Swedish coldness and the Danish warmth of her bear-like partner Martin Rohde (Kim Bodnia). Their polar opposite chemistry was inseparable and yet our fondness for Saga’s sublime mix of Sherlockian sleuthing and Aspergersy interpersonal skills let her go solo; ending last season -three years ago now - in an uncharacteristically happy and frankly perfect place.

There was nothing happy or perfect to be found in Saga’s state or indeed anything in this first episode of ‘The Bridge’s fourth and final season; upgraded to prime time BBC2 from BBC4’s subtitled Saturday night slot. The opening sequence was especially grim - even by ‘The Bridge’s brutally bleak standards - involving a woman duct-taped and buried in the ground before being stoned to death. While the act itself was largely off-screen with the camera looming away from her injuries, the impact was every bit as harrowing as we watched - from a distance - the dark shadow of a truck throwing rocks to muffled screams.

This woman was, in fact, head of the Swedish immigration board; responsible for blocking an influx of refugees from entering the country. Danish detective Henrik Sabroe (Thure Lindehardt) - now a series regular - believes a Far Left group known as “Red October” is responsible. ‘The Bridge’ has constantly tampered with real-world subjects ranging from abortion to climate change to LGBT as the basis for its often sensational crimes; mostly being manifestations of the extremism that exists beneath Scandinavia’s famously laid-back liberal politics.

This case, however, feels particularly grounded and relevant in its nastiness; exploring the ramifications of the refugee crisis which has ripped through the sub-continent since 2015. Yet pill-popping, goateed, Johnny Depp lookalike Henrik lacks the support of his “Svensk kollega” who is in the slammer falsely accused of murdering her mother with Munchausen’s.

It’s been a while since I’ve felt quite so sorry for a TV character as I felt for poor Saga here; a detective of her brilliance and intellect left picking away at pottery and threatened by inmates who don’t take lightly to the concept of a copper in jail.

This is undoubtedly the masterwork of Sofia Hellin’s performance; evoking empathy for a character who sorely lacks such. It was a bold move on Writer Hans Rosenfeldt’s part having his heroine out of the limlight for an episode’s entirety and, by its end, you may wonder were it the right move, but Hellin made it work. Never has a character as emotionally detached and almost alien as Saga felt quite so human. Truly one of the greatest female characters ever written.

Writer Rosenfeldt has stated this is a saga from which there can be no return. I dread to think what he has in store for our hard-to-love, but utterly lovable heroine. And yet where ‘The Killing’ (‘Forbrydelsen’) and ‘Borgen’ both faltered in their final seasons, ‘The Bridge’ appears to be only upping its ante. It remains “peak Scandi Noir” with an aura of place and culture unparalleled on TV today. However this Saga ends, she and it will be a saga sorely missed...

There was something culturally misplaced about ‘Safe’ (Netflix). It’s a production populated by the BBC’s biggest thesps and yet is produced by Netflix, scripted by American crime writer Harlan Corben and - most bafflingly - headlined by the man who was ‘Dexter’ Michael C.Hall.

Here Hall plays a surgeon which doesn’t sound like a stretch from slicing up corpses as Miami’s most loved serial killer; except here he’s a grieving father having lost a wife to death and now his daughter (Amy-Jane Kelly) who disappeared during a house party. Investigating the case is Amanda Abbington’s local detective who is also Hall’s boyfriend in the show and a young “city copper” (Arteton) who isn’t prone to small town life.

Safe’s small town is also inhabited a French teacher having an affair with a student while being subjected to domestic violence at the hands of her husband.

This “small town with secrets” trope is as old as ‘Twin Peaks’ (1990-1991) and has woven its way from our Norse neighbours in ‘The Killing’ (‘Forbrydelsen’) (2011-2012) to homegrown fare like ‘Broadchurch’ (2013-2017) and ‘The Missing’ (2014-2016).

What those show’s had which ‘Safe sorely doesn’t was a sense of location which brought realism to proceedings. I didn’t believe in this bourgeois British community which’s scorching suns, swanky cars and swimming pools supposedly substitute for southern England yet feel far more like fiery Florida and had none of the ominous atmosphere that a foggy Scandinavian landscape brings with it sinisterly.

I didn’t believe, either, in the doddering detective duo whose ‘Scott and Bailey’-esque banter and prissy prettiness seemed distinctly retrograde in wake of female cop characters as real and rugged as Saga Noren and ‘The Killing’s Sarah Lund.

I didn’t even believe in Michael C.Hall and his broadly British accent; a surprise given he once managed to make us feel for a chainsaw-wielding psychopath like Dexter Morgan and yet felt highly out-of his-depth in the role of a parent experiencing the loss of a child. I yearned for James Nesbitt’s heart-wrenching portrayal of a man never giving up hope despite there being largely none in ‘The Missing’.

Dramas involving subjects like abduction need sensitivity where ‘Safe’ feels soapy and sensationalist. Moreover rather warped it’s Americanised portrait of idyllic Home Counties England. You wonder why they didn’t just set it across the pond.

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THE SOPRANOS (1999-2007) TV SERIES REVIEW

*****

20 GREATEST TV EPISODES (IN NO ORDER!):

DR.WHO
2.13: ‘Doomsday’ TV Review/Recap

*****

TV ROUND-UP: THE BRIDGE (BRON-BROEN) (BBC2), SAFE (NETFLIX)

Meet Roshan Chandy

Roshan's Top 5 Films of the Week

Follow Me on Twitter

Rating System

*** 2 Thumbs Up
Thumb Up
* Waving Thumbs
** Thumb Down
* 2 Thumbs Down

Archives

DVD OF THE WEEK

County Lines (DVD and Blu-ray)
(15, 90 Mins)

TV MOVIE OF THE WEEK

I, Tonya (2018)
(15, 119 Mins)
Sun Apr. 18th, 10pm, BBC2

THE SOPRANOS (1999-2007) TV SERIES REVIEW

*****

20 GREATEST TV EPISODES (IN NO ORDER!):

DR.WHO2.13: ‘Doomsday’ TV Review/Recap

​*****

TV ROUND-UP: THE BRIDGE (BRON-BROEN) (BBC2), SAFE (NETFLIX)

Meet Roshan Chandy

Roshan's Top 5 Films of the Week

Follow Me on Twitter​

Rating System

***** 2 Thumbs Up**** Thumb Up*** Waving Thumbs** Thumb Down* 2 Thumbs Down​

Archives

DVD OF THE WEEK​

County Lines (DVD and Blu-ray)(15, 90 Mins)

TV MOVIE OF THE WEEK​

I, Tonya (2018)(15, 119 Mins) Sun Apr. 18th, 10pm, BBC2

DR.WHO
2.13: ‘Doomsday’ TV Review/Recap

*****

Follow Me on Twitter

*** 2 Thumbs Up
Thumb Up
* Waving Thumbs
** Thumb Down
* 2 Thumbs Down

DVD OF THE WEEK

County Lines (DVD and Blu-ray)
(15, 90 Mins)

TV MOVIE OF THE WEEK

I, Tonya (2018)
(15, 119 Mins)
Sun Apr. 18th, 10pm, BBC2