The Sopranos

[miriam_e]

Over the years many people whose opinions I respect had told me The Sopranos was a TV show worth watching. I could never understand what was the great attraction of watching a show about a bunch of violent criminals. Finally, after all these years I watched the pilot episode. I have to say I still have no idea why anybody would want to watch it. I guess that the sort of people who are fascinated by watching a train wreck in progress might get something out of watching a lot of utterly repellent characters go about their days, but I found it nothing more than a waste of time. Sure, the production values are superb, the acting is excellent, the direction and camerawork are very good... but for what? If you make a fantastically detailed painting of a heap of steaming shit it doesn't matter how well it's painted; it is still shit. What a waste.

Comments

[greylock]

I could never understand what was the great attraction of watching a show about a bunch of violent criminals.

I won't say you are wrong, but I can't understand this position.

I presume you won't be a fan of Dexter, Breaking Bad, The Wire, Sons of Anarchy, Deadwood or The West Wing?

I've never seen a full episode of most of those shows, but I have seen bits and been sucked into them and they all seem well written and compelling.

[miriam_e]

Some violence in books, films, and TV I can handle. I don't enjoy it, but I'll put up with it in order to set to the good parts. In the Sopranos there are, as far as I can see, no good parts. None of the characters has any redeeming features (except perhaps the psychiatrist, and she is not really part of the story). All of the main characters are thoroughly repellent and vile. I really can't see what anybody gets out of watching it. I know many people do, and many of those are, as I noted, people I respect very much.

Some of those other shows you mentioned do have redeeming features.

Dexter is especially interesting because although it is superficially about a serial killer, it is really about what constitutes morality, and a whole lot of people who are intrinsically good (including, weirdly enough, the serial killer) who try to do their best in life.

I started watching Breaking Bad, but had to stop after a while when the characters started to lose all their good aspects and the stories became about veangeance and petty wrongs.

The Wire is one of the most brilliant shows I've seen. It had much more violence than I am comfortable with, but it would not have been as important or as effective without it. Even the worst characters had good aspects. Everybody was trying to make their way in bad circumstances. It showed how short-termism can screw you and everybody around you no matter how much you want to do the right thing, and how it's one of the big drivers of corruption in society.

I haven't seen Sons of Anarchy.

I only saw the first season of Deadwood. Again, almost all the characters had some kind of good in their hearts. I liked the way it revealed that the "Wild West" so beloved by so many in the USA (especially religious free-marketeers) was a really horrible place to live. And the show's creators did this by being very true to historical events. I found it really gruelling to watch though, and probably won't watch further episodes.

I've only seen the early episodes of The West Wing and loved its depiction of how good USA could become if it had a really smart and honest president backed up by an equally smart and incorruptible team (this was back in the revolting "Dubya" Bush and nasty Dickhead Cheney era). Unfortunately we see now with Obama how he can be very smart and want to do the right thing, yet still be subverted by the forces of religion, bureaucracy, greed, empire-building, and the military industrial complex.

I'm attracted to stories that contain elements of light comedies, gentle romances, and important knowledge... preferably all three at once. :) I don't like violence, but will put up with some in order to get large chunks of one or all of the three I qualities I mentioned.