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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The Sopranos, writer-producer-director David Chase's extraordinary television series, is nominally an urban gangster drama, but its true impact strikes closer to home: Like 1999's other screen touchstone, American Beauty, the HBO series chronicles a dysfunctional, suburban American family in bold relief. And for protagonist Tony Soprano, there's the added complexity posed by heading twin families, his collegial mob clan and his own, nouveau riche brood.
The series' brilliant first season is built around what Tony learns when, whipsawed between those two worlds, he finds himself plunged into depression and seeks psychotherapy--a gesture at odds with his mid-level capo's machismo, yet instantly recognisable as a modern emotional test. With analysis built into the very spine of the show's elaborate episodic structure, creator Chase and his formidable corps of directors, writers, and actors weave an unpredictable series of parallel and intersecting plot arcs that twist from tragedy to farce to social realism. While creating for a smaller screen, they enjoy a far larger canvas than a single movie would afford, and the results, like the very best episodic television, attain a richness and scope far closer to a novel than movies normally get.
Unlike Francis Coppola's operatic dramatisation of Mario Puzo's Godfather epic, The Sopranos sustains a poignant, even mundane, intimacy in its focus on Tony, brought to vivid life by James Gandolfini's mercurial performance. Alternatively seductive, exasperated, fearful, and murderous, Gandolfini is utterly convincing even when executing brutal shifts between domestic comedy and dramatic violence. Both he and the superb team of Italian-American actors recruited as his loyal (and, sometimes, not-so-loyal) henchman and their various "associates" make this mob as credible as the evocative Bronx and New Jersey locations where the episodes were filmed.
The first season's other life force is Livia Soprano, Tony's monstrous, meddlesome mother. As Livia, the late Nancy Marchand eclipses her long career of patrician performances to create an indelibly earthy, calculating matriarch who shakes up both families; Livia also serves as foil and rival to Tony's loyal, usually level-headed wife, Carmela (Edie Falco). Lorraine Bracco makes Tony's therapist, Dr. Melfi, a convincing confidante, by turns "professional", perceptive, and sexy; the duo's therapeutic relationship is also depicted with uncommon accuracy. Such grace notes only enrich what's not merely an aesthetic high point for commercial television, but an absorbing film masterwork that deepens with subsequent screenings. --Sam Sutherland
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gritty non hollywood view of mob life,
By
This review is from: The Sopranos - Complete Series 1 Box Set [VHS] (VHS Tape)
The Sopranos are just your average New Jersey Italian/American family.Yeah right. Tony has issues. He is a dangerous man to argue with and always gets what he wants.Meanwhile his wife is in denial. She loves the luxuries but is uncomfortable with how Tony gets to pay for them.She is seeking help from the regularly visiting priest who is in love ....with her cooking. On the other hand Tony is seeking help from a shrink. Not a good thing to let your enemies know.Tony juggles to control his emotionally problems with his problems of mob control.A bit of flexing muscle is his way of letting of steam.Good when you need to live up to the image of Boss of the New Jersey family business.But family is family and how do you handle it when your uncle believes he is the rightful Boss. Simple, flex the only muscle that Tony doesnt use often enough. His mind. The whole series is a mixture of violent mob everyday life and volatile family life. A definate must see. But you need to take 13 hours out of life to watch coz you dont want to miss a thing.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Series,
By Jim Baxter (Hampshire, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Sopranos - Complete Series 1 Box Set [VHS] (VHS Tape)
By far the best series of the Sopranos, this is a fantastic box set. 5 stars is perhaps a tad generous, but since 4.5 wasn't an option I wasn't going to undersell the item.It's the most violent of the 5 series, assuming the fifth follows trend, which is a plus for me. That sounds a little immature but hey, I don't know many guys who are fans of the organised crime genre who aren't fans of the violence factor. I usually judge series'/seasons based on the ratio of episodes I enjoyed and episodes I didn't. Of the 13 episodes in this box sets, there were only 2 that I didn't "enjoy" and even then, they were more than watchable. The remaining 11 (including the pilot) were fantastic. I look the Sopranos format through all series and if you do too, I recommend looking into Series 1 because the format is at its most fresh and entertaining in this box set.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE SOPRANOS HIT A HIGH NOTE...,
By
This review is from: The Sopranos - Complete Series 1 Box Set [VHS] (VHS Tape)
My son is a big Sopranos fan, so I bought him the set last Christmas. I myself had seen maybe two or three episodes on cable and had enjoyed them. So, when he began watching, I was right there watching with him. What a terrific show. It is absolutely gripping.It is a marvelously creative series with a stellar cast. For those of you who have been visiting relatives in Antartica for the past several years, the story revolves around the mob in New Jersey. It centers on one family specifically, the Sopranos, headed by Anthony Soprano (James Gandolfini), who is married to his loyal childhood sweetheart, Carmela (Edie DeFalco). Together they have two children, Anthony, Jr. and Meadow. Tony's dangerously manipulative mother, Livia (Nancy Marchand), is bound for a retirement home, if Tony has any say. Tony, however, has another family, comprised of a bunch of murderous henchmen, who occassionally march to the tune of a different drummer, as well as a Russian mistress. Trying to balance all this has given Tony panic attacks, so he goes to a psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), whose relationship with her client alternates between fear and fascination. The writing for this series is splendid and the interweaving of comedic and familial moments with the darker, more violent ones provides the viewer with an intelligently woven plot. James Gandolfini is outstanding as Tony Soprano, a powerful mob boss, who can also be a teddy bear of a guy and a good friend, unless you are perceived to have been disloyal. Then, you may kiss your buns goodbye. Tony is mercurial, sexy, fearful, cautious, and, given the right circumstances, deadly. He is a fascinating and beguiling character. Edie DeFalco is compelling as Carmela, who is warm, funny, loyal, and the glue that binds their immediate family together. Yet, she too has her own sting, and she knows the power that her husband has. She is not above using it herself, if necessary. The late Nancy Marchand was terrific as Livia, the manipulative, scheming matriarch. She will be missed, as she was quite a character. All in all, this is a great show and a great video set. I have already seen the first, second, and third seasons. I now can't wait for the fourth season to come out on video.
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