The Sopranos

[Weredog]

Am I the only Buffy fan who doesn't like Veronica Mars, Charmed and Will & Grace?
If I don't get my dose of vampire dust, I like to spend the rest of my time watching Tony get panic attacks. Anyone else?

[Southpaw]

I loved this show while it was on. It wasn't just simple mob plots. This show had a TON of very complex characters. Tony obviously was at the center of a lot of it. I remember one season they even did an entire dream episode for Tony, sortof like Restless.

It was also a very interesting take on the state of the American family. Tony, Carmella, Meadow and AJ all represent many of the issues that parents and kids go through in present day society. Carmella represented the lonely housewife who wanted to do something more productive with her life. Meadow represented the overachieving daughter who did not want to end up like her mother, thus she does well in school and ends up going into law. AJ represents the underachieving son who doesn't know what to do with his life and always feels like he has to live in the shadow of his fathers successes.

Looking back on this show, it actually reminds me a little bit of Buffy. Theres drama, action, and comedy in the show. Characters like Chrissy and Pauley had some really funny moments. Also the writers of the show wasn't afraid to take risks and go outside the box in some episodes, very similar to Whedon. They tackled several controversial issues including depression, suicide, drug addiction, sociopathic behavior, and the use of therapy in present-day America.

It was an amazing show, and there isn't really anything else on the air quite like it.

[Wolfie Gilmore]

Am I the only Buffy fan who doesn't like Veronica Mars, Charmed and Will & Grace?

Well, I think Veronica Mars is enjoyable, but I wouldn't rave about it. The other two...mostly I say yuk. Though I do love Karen on Will and Grace. She's like Patsy from Ab Fab and keeps liquor in her handbag. What's not to love? But aside from her...no, you're not alone

If I don't get my dose of vampire dust, I like to spend the rest of my time watching Tony get panic attacks. Anyone else?

Sadly I don't have the Sopranos on DVD, so have only seen it all the way (actually, still haven't managed to see the last two eps but got spoiled so still sulking, but sure I will watch 'em soon!) through once. But I am going to get the DVDs as soon as humanly/financially possible...then I'm sure I will be binging on Tony binging on food, murder, girls and self pity

For yes, I love the Sopranos. At first I thought, does the world really need more gangster-related media products? I mean, can you really top Goodfellers? Or Miller's Crossing? Or the various Godfathers? (insert argument here whether 2 was really the best...)

But that was before I sat down and watched it. It was the therapy angle that drew me in first - it was lent to me by a friend whose parents are both therapists so that's what we talked about most when we discussed it together. Aparently the dynamic between Tony and Dr Melfi is quite accurate in terms of how therapy is carried out, though she does do some things that are ethically very dodgy for therapists apparently (forget what, but certain lines she doesn't draw.)

But then other characters and factors started to tug at my attention. Like Sil. Can't quite say why but he's one of those characters that just wins my heart. Like Jayne. I think it was the "just when I thought I was out..." impression actually. There's nothing I like better than a bit of meta (the whole Christopher making a gangster movie plot was pure gold).

Oh and Livia. Never has an evil bitca been so corrosive and dangerous. I loved the part at her funeral/wake thing where they play "If I loved you" - it's a beautiful song, and so appropriate for her relationship with her children. She and Tony operate on the borders of comedy and tragedy. There's something hilarious about his mum ordering a hit on him (mobster whacked by mummy!), but obviously terrible too.

I remember one season they even did an entire dream episode for Tony, sortof like Restless.

That was (excuse me, i've been watching a lot of How I Met Your Mother lately) AWEsome. I loved all the stuff with the fish!

It was also a very interesting take on the state of the American family.

That parallelism, between the mob family and Tony's "real" family (or...is it his real family, which is more important? Well, the fact that he offs Christopher seems to show that conclusively...) is fascinating. The way that power operates within both types of family, and the place of women in that...and the questions of how parents influence their children (for me there was always the question in the back of my mind, will AJ be sucked into this thing of Dad's ).

I love the wives...it's like the WAGs of football (wives and girlfriends), with the glamour, the wealth...but also the sense of being a bit pointless, of being an appendage to someone who does something but not a person in your own right.

Characters like Chrissy and Pauley had some really funny moments.

Pauley is hilarious...and someone that I have absolutely no sympathy for, and yet he's stll written sympathetically...wait, that doesn't make sense. What I mean is I don't like him in the slightest, but he's written as a rounded human being. And, funny, with all his obsessions (especially the stuff with his "Mah"...love the way he pronounces that).

It was an amazing show, and there isn't really anything else on the air quite like it.

Though, I do have a list of "if you liked the Sopranos why not try..." shows. Well, I feel Six Feet Under did cover some similar ground in terms of families in the Philip Larkin mold ("They fck you up your mum and dad...."). Also the ways that a family business can bring people together and tear them apart. And the death-focus of both shows.

Then there's The Wire - which to me is like the Sopranos, if the Sopranos had focussed equally on the feds/prosecutors as well as on the gangsters.

And Deadwood has some of the same exploration of Realpolitik, and the ways that men in particular relate in the places that violence, business and politics overlap.

[Weredog]

I loved this show while it was on. It wasn't just simple mob plots. This show had a TON of very complex characters. Tony obviously was at the center of a lot of it. I remember one season they even did an entire dream episode for Tony, sortof like Restless.

Are you talking about the 20 minute long dream sequence in season 5? The one in season 5 where Tony dreams/questions if he should kill -- sorry, whack -- his cousin. In terms of artistry, it is exactly like Restless. It brought us, the viewers, deep into Tony's mind and let us explore everything he would never show if he were awake.
The dream itself captures so many things. You know how Restless had the Cheeseman, the useless figure we all get in our dreams? I love how Joss brought in a dream element! I love the bit in Tony where he had real-life actress Annette Benning play Meadow's boyfriend's mother because he never met her. I've dreamed like that all the time! I remember prior to my first day at University, I had Drusilla play one of my professors -- why? 'Cause I needed to stick a face.

Sadly I don't have the Sopranos on DVD, so have only seen it all the way (actually, still haven't managed to see the last two eps but got spoiled so still sulking, but sure I will watch 'em soon!) through once. But I am going to get the DVDs as soon as humanly/financially possible...then I'm sure I will be binging on Tony binging on food, murder, girls and self pity

It is ridiculously expensive! Mine cost 120 bucks for each season. And for what? 13 amazing episodes with no special features?! I just had to be a sucker for the show.............