Monday, 7 December 2009

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The Sopranos

Here's an offer you can't refuse - the whole of The Sopranos in one boxset

James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano) with fiancee Deborah Lin

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I loved The Sopranos. Didn't everybody?

True, but lots of the show's biggest fans were blokes with a rich fantasy life casting them in the lead role as top gangster, or capo di tutti capi, if you've done all your Godfather homework.

They missed the point.

Me, I loved it because it showed Tony Soprano and his crew as brutal, greedy parasites which may not have been very flattering, but I bet is spot on.

Tony (James Gandolfini) is one of the best gangster characters of all time - not because he's glamorous but because he's fat, lives in the bland suburbs of New Jersey and has the same problems every middle-aged man has with his family and work.

At times you almost feel sorry for Tony trying to handle his idle wife, his tricky son and daughter and a poisonous mother.

At work, in ahem the garbage disposal industry, Tony and faithful lieutenant Sil (Steve Van Zandt) try to keep in hand Tony's dim junkie nephew Christopher (Michael Imperioli), ludicrously vain Paulie (Tony Sirico) and other assorted psychos while fighting off constantly circling rivals with their hungry eyes on the Soprano family's turf.

Almost, but not quite, because just when Tony's getting cuddly he plots a killing, or at least an arson, to remind you just what he's like.

Oh, and guess what? Every last one of them loves The Godfather and watches the sentimental portrayal of the Mafia with tears in his eyes and not a drop of irony.

 The
Sopranos Season 1 - 6 is released as a luxury DVD boxset by HBO

Gillian Crawley