Tagarchief: The Sopranos

The Verdict: Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

As a devoted fan of The Sopranos – my all-time favorite show – I thought there wasn’t much left for me to discover. But HBO’s new two part documentary Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos offers fresh insight, focusing primarily on the mastermind behind the series, David Chase (1945), especially in its first half. Chase is a compelling figure: intelligent, introspective, and a natural storyteller. Director Alex Gibney (Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) places Chase in a metaphorical psychiatrist’s chair, allowing him to speak candidly about his upbringing, his eccentric mother, dreams, death, and how these themes shaped The Sopranos. Chase recalls his time in college down south, which he disliked, though he was exposed to European cinema by directors like Godard, Bergman, and Fellini. “I saw 8½, and I don’t think I understood it, but it blew my mind”, he reflects. This experience ignited his desire to become a filmmaker, leading him to study at Stanford’s film school. The documentary even shows part of his student film – a gangster story with an attempted Godard flair, which is amusing in its ambition. While Chase’s destiny wasn’t in film directing, he found his calling in television. He worked on successful shows like The Rockford Files and Northern Exposure, but his true breakthrough came when HBO greenlit The Sopranos in 1998. The series became a cultural phenomenon, and Chase infused it with deeply personal elements, including therapy sessions and his tumultuous relationship with his mother. Other talented writers like Robin Green and Terence Winter also contributed significantly to the show’s depth. In The Offer, a recent series about the making of The Godfather, we learn that Coppola saw the film as a commentary on capitalism. Similarly, The Sopranos carries an underlying critique of America’s decline. As Chase puts it, “Americans have gotten so materialistic and selfish that it made a mob boss sick.” That vision, combined with Chase’s storytelling genius, is part of what makes The Sopranos so enduringly powerful.

Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos is now available on HBO Max

The verdict: to stream or not to stream? To stream (especially Part 1)

The Sopranos – A Quantum Mechanical Ending (Video)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

‘There are only two endings for a high profile guy like me, dead or in the can, big percent of the time.’
– Tony Soprano in ‘For All Debts Public and Private’ (SE4, EP1)

In retrospect, this quote already told us how the show would end. Except it wasn’t one or the other. Rather, Tony Soprano got both. The New Jersey mob boss ended up like physicist Schrödinger’s cat, both dead and alive at the same time.

In this new video on Jeppy’s Video Circus, we see the ending for what it truly is: a kaleidoscope of all possibilities existing simultaneously.

25 Years Ago On This Day, Pop Culture History Was Written

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

“It’s good to be in something from the ground floor. I came too late for that, I know. But lately, I’m getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over.”
– Tony Soprano

On January 10, 1999, pay channel HBO launched the pilot episode of The Sopranos, the show that would change television forever. Before this ground breaking phenomenon, movies were far superior to television in terms of intelligent writing, production design and the actors involved. The Sopranos changed all of that.

‘The Sopranos wasn’t the first show to break all the rules’, write Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall in their book ‘The Sopranos Sessions’ (see also Oz and Twin Peaks for example), ‘but it was the first show to do that and still become a massive, enduring hit.’

But what is so good about The Sopranos? Maurice Yacowar in ‘The Sopranos On The Couch’, writes: ‘For openers: it’s brilliantly written, performed, and filmed. Each episode has the polish of an excellent feature film – with a tighter yet more complex, resonant script than most. The show is also relentlessly entertaining. The characters are engrossing, the plot twists astonishing but coherent, and the dialogue mined with ironies and poetic resonance quite beyond what we are used to hearing on the boob tube or even on the commercial cinema these days. Unique for a television series, details connect not just across the hour but across a season and beyond. The viewer has to dig for links and meanings beyond what’s spelled out on the surface and is often left with mysteries. That makes the show more like European cinema – and a complete departure for American television. At the same time, The Sopranos provocatively raises major questions about how and why we live.’

In 2021, I published the ultimate The Sopranos tribute. You can read the highlights from this tribute below:

And if you still haven’t seen the show, it is not too late! It is still available on HBO. Seriously, you’d be a douchebag to miss it.

Wiseguy Guide for Rookies

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Terminology

Agita: Stress
A good earner: What wiseguys are supposed to be.
Associate: Involved with Mafia but not yet a made guy.
Bada Bing!: Stripclub owned by Silvio Dante (in The Sopranos).
Busting someone’s balls: Bothering somebody with sh*t.
Bust Out: Ordering on a company’s account till it runs out of credit and goes bankrupt.
Capo / Captain: Crew boss. Leads a number of soldiers. Reports to underboss.
Consigliere: Counselor of the Don. For example Tom Hagen in The Godfather and Silvio Dante in The Sopranos.
Contract: Someone needs to disappear by means of a hitman.
Don: Boss of organised crime family.
Fanook: Gay
Goomar: Steady girlfriend on the side. Of course most wiseguys are married like good Catholics ought to be.
Illegal gambling: A wiseguy’s main source of income
La Cosa Nostra (LCN): Literally ‘our thing’. Mafia. Organised crime families.
Made Guy: Connected to the mob by blood-oath.
Making one’s bones: Performing a first kill for the mob.
Mustache Pete: An old-fashioned mob boss.
OC: Short for Organised Crime. Term used by the FBI.
Omerta: Bow of silence. Never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut.
Opening the books: New members (made guys) are accepted by the mob commission.
Outstanding loan: It’s time for a weekly visit to collect or bust some skulls in.
Points: Interest over debt. Average mob rate is two points weekly.
Pop someone: To shoot someone.
Rat/stoolie/turncoat: Wiseguy that betrays his friends. Usually because he fears a lengthy prison sentence or getting whacked (or both).
RICO Laws: Main government tool for prosecuting members of the Mafia. Stands for ‘Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations’. According to the federal statutes, RICO can be applied to anyone who is involved in the ‘operation or management’ of a ‘pattern of racketeering activity’ designed to acquire or maintain an interest in an ‘enterprise’.
Sit down: Conversation between the Don and two conflicting made members.
Soldier: Lowest rank under made guys.
To eat: To be allowed to earn.
To flip: To turn FBI informant.
Vig: Amount charged by bookmakers for services. Short for Vigorish. Also known as juice.
Whack someone: To kill someone.
Wiseguy, Goodfella: Made member of the mob.

Expressions from The Godfather

Moe Green Special: Gunshot clean through the eye because someone’s eyes became bigger than his stomach.
Going to the mattresses: Going to war.
‘Take the gun, leave the Cannoli’: What you say after you have popped a guy.
An offer you can’t refuse: Either your brains or signature will be on the contract.

Rules

Never insult, threaten or hit another made guy. (*GoodFellas, The Sopranos, Gotti)

Stick to the omerta (never rat out your friends). (*GoodFellas, The Sopranos, Gotti)

Money should be carried in a bundle. Not in a wallet. (*Donnie Brasco)

Mustaches are not acceptable. (*Donnie Brasco)

Who kills a don can never become a don. (*Mobsters, Gotti)

A made guy is untouchable for anyone except of course the bosses. (*GoodFellas)

A soldier kicks up money to his capo who gives a piece to the (under)boss. Never keep income secret from the bosses. (The Sopranos)

Never start an affair with another member’s wife. (Casino)

* Examples of movies in which those rules were broken.

Read also: The Sopranos – 100 Greatest Moments