Sapranos - why so much fuss about the show?

[movieboy]

I have never watched Sopranos before & I started watching it now. I am around 1 and a half seasons through.

It's a decent show but based on how famous it is & how highly it's rate, I expected something epic. If I were to rank it now without watching further, I would probably give it a score which would come at my 65th percentile at best. I have probably ranked 100+ TV shows higher than that.

So I was wondering if it gets better? Or was the show so highly rated because it was special for those days?

[frederic_g54]

I have never watched Sopranos before & I started watching it now. I am around 1 and a half seasons through.

It's a decent show but based on how famous it is & how highly it's rate, I expected something epic.

This post couldn't have been timed better, as I've also started watching it (finally!) and just finished season 2 this week.
So far, I've come to enjoy the show and consider Tony Soprano one of my favourite characters ever written, not to mention, portrayed. Gandolfini's starring turn frequently blurs the line between performance and total persona, and he's surrounded by a great supporting cast.

The most interesting aspect of the show, for me, is how it challenges the viewer to almost sympathise with what's essentially a murdering, cheating mobster, by attempting to humanise him in a way. I can't judge the rest of the show as I have 4 more seasons to sit through, but I personally find it very engaging and fun to watch. Best show ever made, though? I guess, I'll find out.

[movieboy]

This post couldn't have been timed better, as I've also started watching it (finally!) and just finished season 2 this week.
So far, I've come to enjoy the show and consider Tony Soprano one of my favourite characters ever written, not to mention, portrayed. Gandolfini's starring turn frequently blurs the line between performance and total persona, and he's surrounded by a great supporting cast.

So I finished the show. It got better in Season 2 & I ended up rating it at 81 percentile. However, I gave a few points for maintaining the standard for 6 seasons - I still don't consider it a great show, but a good show but keeping up a good show for 6 seasons is most certainly creditable. It most certainly has a lot of good characters, but I rate it below what I consider very good to great shows like

- Line of Duty
- Better Call Saul
- Homeland
- 24
- Bosch
- Money Heist
- Goliath
- Shield
- Wire

and many more.

I expected something gripping like the above. Sopranos was good & it kept me occupied through the 6 seasons but it wasn't gripping - not something I wanted to binge watch.

What I disliked about the show

- not a gripping plotline which keeps you wondering what's going to happen next
- I hated all the Melfi & other psychiatry parts of the show - I know it lets the main character talk to us, but it was still not interesting to me
- I hated his alternate life episodes which he dreams about - in general I hated all dreams of his

[CosmicMonkey]

Part of why The Sopranos is so famous is because when it came out, and during atleast it's first 3-4 seasons, it was miles above anything else on TV at the time. It was the first "prestige television" show, and it's critical and popular success led to the flood of great serialized dramas we had throughout the 00s and 10s. While I still think The Sopranos is pretty good, I agree that later shows have surpassed it in depth and quality of writing.

[movieboy]

I agree that later shows have surpassed it in depth and quality of writing.

Yes, agree. Almost all the great non-sitcom TV shows have been after this show.