Pilot

So, it's the pilot and if you know what's coming up after this, it does rather pale by comparison to the rest of the series but then, it is a pilot. More light hearted, wacky, more odd cinematic camera angles, a very different narrative style to the rest of the series but, even by the half way mark of this pilot it starts to resemble what it is to become, Tony's Looney Tunes Cartoon accent has begun to fade in places and we can almost forget we're watching the 1st episode. It took me a while to give The Sopranos a chance. It was an episode of season 3, the first one I saw in full, that made me want to see it from the start. That was back in 2001. I often think the more comical narrative of this pilot which was probably the subject of many of the early Channel 4 trailers was what put me off for the first few years. That, and the then close resemblance to the then recent film Analyse This. As a first time viewer though, you should not be put off. Within a few episodes you'll see why this is now considered by many as one of the greatest TV shows of all time.

This is how a pilot should be: intense, to the point. Characters presents themselves but not much exposition.

Gandolfini is excellent. (RIP)

Lots of creepy vibes and funny jokes. Action moves solidly from act 1 to 2 to 3. At the end you are hooked.

Aspiring mob boss Tony Soprano has a fainting spell and ends up in a shrink's office. It quickly becomes apparent through his chat with the shrink and a series of mostly comical flashbacks that he is a very bad man involved in some very bad stuff. You can feel the makings of a show here, obviously based on both THE GODFATHER and GOODFELLAS. Everything feels a bit rushed, but hey, it's a pilot and there's a lot to establish. Characters are not truly formed yet. Carmela is a typical New Jersey shrieker of a housewife, the kind we see in movies and hope never to meet. Sil and some of the other "boys" are only briefly glimpsed. Tony himself is not quite yet the Tony we will come to know; the gravitas is missing, if you'll pardon my use of that $100 word. But watch Tony's face as he gleefully runs down the guy who owes him money. He obviously loves the rough stuff, while feeling guilty about being both that guy and a family man with family responsibilities. By the way, the little bit of screen time Uncle Junior and Tony's mom have is worth its weight in gold, as these characters are played by two very sharp veteran actors. But just as THE GODFATHER was all about Marlon Brando, THE SOPRANOS ultimately will be all about James Gandolfini. Bring on all the guest stars you want, but without Gandolfini, there would be no THE SOPRANOS.

... says the first line of "Goodfellas" from 1990. I wonder if this series, as good as it was, would have been such a big hit if that film had not come first. Because it was the very first to examine the mobster life from the working gangster's point of view. All of those that came before either examined the mob from the executive suite ("The Godafther") or the gangsters lived exaggerated lifestyles of wine, women, and song. None of them had any mobsters who were also living suburban lives worrying about letting the sauce stick or picking up a disabled brother from his regular appointment at the hospital. "Goodfellas" did that. What The Sopranos did was build on what Goodfellas had done and drill down deeply into the characters, which is something you can only do in a series.

So it wasn't really a jarring experience late in the 90s to see mobster Tony Soprano, overwhelmed by his unique professional and rather routine private lives, taking his troubles to a psychiatrist. The pilot opens rather abruptly with Tony meeting his psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), for the first time. That meeting intersperses Tony's actual life with what he is telling Melfi, and although he gets the point across to her, he is leaving out some of the details. Such as when he discusses a delinquent debt owed him and how he and the debtor "had coffee". You see the actual meeting which is Tony running down the debtor with a car and then giving the guy a brutal beating.

Tony and Melfi have a complex relationship. Tony is initially a reluctant patient, but that changes with time. I think that Melfi, although she knows what Tony does for a living, initially thinks she can help this man, but that changes with time as she sees he really would never choose any other life than the one he has.

Rewatching this I was wanting to give it a 10/10, but I'm not sure if that just isn't because I am impressed with the series as a whole. So I knocked it down to a 9/10.

The first episode of the era-defying show "The Sopranos". Something made apparent immediately after starting the episode is the influence the film "Goodfellas" had on it. Examples include the use of Tony's therapy sessions serving as narration to the comedic tone of the home scenes.

The worldbuilding also is different from what the rest of the series portray such as the relationship between characters implying they aren't as close as one might expect. This does result in the episode sticking out from the rest which gives the pilot an unique vibe.

Despite this, one can clearly see that the series has good ideas and the ability to make its cast interesting and leaves the viewer wanting to learn more about them. There's a reason why this show had 6 seasons after all.