Sopranos Redux

I didn't follow the Sopranos when the series was on HBO more than a decade ago, even though I recognize that the show had a cult following and was the topic of many a discussion in the office on the day after each episode was on.

I did tune into an episode or two during the six-year run, but I never became a fan, partly, perhaps, because we dropped our subscription to HBO during the program's run.

Then a few weeks ago, my wife returned from an outing with some of her friends, one of whom mentioned re-watching the series through the Internet. I checked my Roku connections, and, lo, the Sopranos was offered on Amazon Prime at no extra cost.

The result: We watched the entire six year run on successive evenings, two or three episodes at a sitting. It gave us continuity of the situations and characters without the benefit of space between episodes or seasons.

The overriding themes seemed to be gratuitous violence, hyper-profanity, lust, serial adultery, and over-eating. The stories and situations became repetitive. Who was going to get blown away in this episode? Who is Tony or Chris going to be sleeping with in this one? What is A.J. going to be moping about in that one? Is there any character worth caring about?

There were good acting performances by many of the cast, including Edie Falco as the long-suffering, misbehavior-enabling Carmela, and the late James Gandolfini as Tony.

But what struck me as a major appeal to the audience was freedom. Who among us has not been so angry at someone that we wished we could blow them away. Laws of the land, a sense of right and wrong -- a moral compass -- and the desire not to go to prison kept us from acting out our rage. There were no such barriers for the Soprano bunch. And in the six years the show was on, I don't think anyone went to prison for murder.

For them, the notion of 'gun control' was the ability to shoot straight, which, of course, isn't always the same thing as being a straight shooter. More properly, the series was a simple case of overkill.