In my personal opinion, there are only two popular television series I have found to be binge-worthy: Breaking Bad, and The Sopranos. And if I had to choose which is the best of the two, it would be The Sopranos. When it first aired on HBO, I originally began watching the series at season 4. I found all the mafia characters despicable with their behavior. At times, I hated the main character, Tony Soprano, over how ignorant he was, how he treated his wife, and every bad decision he made just irritated me. It wasn’t until the season finale when everything went black in that infamous diner scene when I was convinced to start from the show beginning to get a better, more reasonable perspective of why that kind of ending happened.
Today, I’m actually binge-watching The Sopranos for the 4th time. I now think Tony Soprano is probably the greatest, most human Anti-hero in storytelling history. Others might think otherwise, but that’s just my opinion. The same goes for most of the mobster characters — especially Paulie Gualtieri, the man’s a legend to me — though they may be sociopathic, they are still human, and like every human being on this planet, they have their faults.
Ever since I heard a prequel film to The Sopranos was in production I’ve been both a little skeptical and excited. But when I learned the creator of The Sopranos, David Chase was co-writing the screenplay, I was relieved, and my skepticism faded to black. And now that the trailer for The Many Saints of Newark has finally been released, I jumped for joy at seeing James Gandolfini’s son, Michael Gandolfini plays the young Tony Soprano. It looks like the film will stand alone on its own two feet rather than relying on the nostalgia from the television series.
