Do you rate the Sopranos?

surely your problem is with american dramas in general? i think The Sopranos is the peak of that genre at the mo - I never watched ER or The West Wing (i know they're all very different shows) as they just couldnt hold my interest as much as The Sopranos...maybe I am secretly drawn to the old 'hey crime and gangsters ARE cool and exciting' idea and I can't admit it...but i stand by the belief that just the quality of content and performance in the show is very strong, at least compared to anything else on TV...i'd say 'Six Feet Under' was as good though.

er has always been unwatchable

The conversation thing is basically due to a love of language. People do actually speak like that in real life. The "Try it with the relish" line is obviously English literature's finest moment.

I just cannot make dates with TV shows, but despite only seeing one in four episodes of the Sopranos if I see the start I have to watch them all. Its a magic interplay of the soap form with the drama form (ie things changes, but characters stay the same). The discovery in US TV over the last five years of story arcs which do not necessarily effect character in genre shows has been the key thing that has revitalised it. (ie Non-fear of syndication accessibility).

(i mean the Freud is utterly fun to watch obv, and a brilliant displacement device to get to stuff which would never be said, but it's pitiful as actual psychological insight and makes for very clumsy narrative instrusion also...)

the Soprano's is a class amongst the modern genre of self discovery boundry pushing TV (OZ, 6ft under etc), like blueski said, the 'Mafia' links are kinda irrelavent to the beauty of the show, its the usual family struggles (rebelion, drugs, defiance, marital etc) that are exerted on tony and Carmela from two families. both have degrees of control over Tony, both are as repugnant, lovable, stupid as the other. And primarily both are linked to a man who has no real control over either yet is head of them both and often can only act in an uncivilised way (but hey its the Mafia).

David Chase doesn't seek to glorify the Mafia - he certainly doesn't have a hard on for them he just see's them as ordinary guys working like 9-5'ers but in a slightly different way.

The Soprano's is great, possibly the best thing i have seen for ages and ages - kept me captivated for five series so far. It has invloved some of my favourite people in film (esp Steve Buscemi who directed the best episode of all), and long may it reign.

Should it be viewed as just a mafia thing - def not, the same way Sipowitz wasn't just a cop, homer isn't just a nucleur technician they have more depth than that - Tony may not have much depth as an individual but as a character he is fantasticly rich.

virtuoso flurries of very diverting acting are one of the pleasures in the sops, obv, but this is also one of the reasons i think there's less there than meets the eye at other levels

What I think of it is this: it is well-acted and well-written, and is made with high production values.

However, at the end of the day the Mafia are a shower of macho pricks the world would be better off without, so it doesn't really hold my interest.

hooligan slapstick!!

"Do you want some X?"
"No, I'm taking Nyquil"

the west wing and ER are really awful.

I think Oz wins but I won't go into it right now: I'll wait till the new series starts (if there is one).

The Sopranos is tat; probably one of the most overrated programmes in television history.

well, there's a lot of violence and its late at night and I don't think the audiences are great for this.

it isn't always formally impressive--there was some choppy shot/countershot stuff in the last episode when tony and his wife were having dinner. i only notice this because typically the show is extremely accomplished in that regard.

an interesting article: http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/03/29/sopranos_televisuality.html

VAN MORRISON

but i do think they wrapped everything up pretty nicely, as opposed to leaving you hanging for the next year and a half.

poor Adriana! the way the camera drifted off to the sky as Sylvio shot her so cold! Anthony and Tony's manner colder.

i missed a few episodes of this series - i missed Buscemi's whack! and i missed T's young squeeze getting burnt. what i've been wondering tho is was there ever any blowback about Ralphie?

Johnny Sack is just brilliant - obv. the acting throughout the show is great but watching this character grow and the performance is terrific. really enjoyed the confrontation between him and T by the bridge.

it feels like they can't tie everything up in just one more hour.

Last paragraph.

Btw last week's dream episode was phenomenal. I love the dream episodes.

last episode was okay - i was actually quite moved by the distant children singing 'Mr Tambourine Man' in the school that Tony had sat down on the steps of to recover - very subtle. Tony and Carmela lying in bed thinking that AJ might be gay also funny. Sylvio is always interesting to watch in that he's NOT interesting, if you know what i mean, and the way they gently showed T getting annoyed with him, Paulie and several other people was neat.

Rather pedestrian otherwise. I think the Adriana storyline should have had more impact, Tony should have been more affected by it ("she's a cunt").

The next series needs to be better or we'll all get a bit bored, I think. The supreme confidence the writers had in previous seasons seems to have gone. Do they know what to do with the characters anymore?

Sopranoes vs SFU? First two seasons of SFU were outstanding, but it's run out of steam somewhat. Not as funny or as believable - this series was very dark indeed.
LAtest season of Sopranoes was magnificent, with a momentum the previous one lacked. (also not letting the guy who plays Chris write episodes helps. The one with all the issue based scenes where they start discussing Native Americans etc was really clumsy)

So who's the capo di cappi in the show now then? Little Carmine? Billy Leotardo? Tony? Or is this going to be our plot arc for series six? Alongside Meadow's boyfriend/gay builder, and either Chris shooting Paulie or vice versa.

"I didn't think it would matter since you never come round here no more T"

Tony's orgasms, good god