This Thing of Ours

by David Lavery

In a first-season episode of The Sopranos, Tony Soprano is once again in conflict with his uncle Carrado "Junior" Soprano. Tony is in no mood for conciliation, but neither is Junior, who warns his nephew not to return unless he is armed: "Come heavy," he insists, "or not at all."

As a work of popular culture, a ground-breaking television series, and a cultural phenomenon, The Sopranos always "comes heavy," not just with weaponry but with significance. The cultures of the United States, Great Britain and Canada, Australia, and even Italy (where it premiered in the spring of 2001) have come under its influence and contributed to the cultural conversation about it. Talk, discourse, about The Sopranos has migrated far beyond the water cooler, and not all of it has been praise.

David Chase's The Sopranos has also received starkly contradictory critical assessments. In the eyes of Ellen Willis (whose seminal essay in The Nation is reprinted in this volume), for example, the HBO series is "the richest and most compelling piece of television -- no, of popular culture -- that I've encountered in the past twenty years... a meditation on the nature of morality, the possibility of redemption, and the legacy of Freud." Others have condemned it for racial and sexist stereotypes, excessive violence, and profanity. These eighteen essays consider many facets of The Sopranos: its creation and reception, the conflicting roles of men and women, the inner lives of the characters, obesity, North Jersey, the role of music, and even how food contributes to the story.

Paperback

First published August 1, 2002

Reviews

[Aaron Watling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its good and the essays are interesting but its not an area of study I have much knowledge of so it went a bit over my head. However, I must say I did enjoy Hayward and Biro’s “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Tony Soprano”.

[Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written after the third season; I don't know if there is an updated edition. I enjoyed this book a lot, much more than I thought I would. The obvious thing that is missing, however, is a discussion of how the long-format, closed-end television series has changed and influenced broadcast tv, cable tv and cinema. Still, I recommend this to anyone with a taste for semiotics or analyses of popular culture.