A series that just gets better and better.
The third series of 'The Sopranos' consolidates the brilliance of the first two, rather than taking it in any radically new directions. The characters, their relationships and their environment are so strong; the dramatic irony between our sympathy with and enjoyment of these people, and our knowledge of their brutal and unhypocritically presented crimes, is so complex, that any blatant originality merely for the sake of it would be a betrayal.
But, because the central components are so strong, there is plenty of room for play - in the way narratives are set up to encourage then defy expectations; in the interplay with canonical gangster texts, especially 'The Godfather'; in the consistently creative use of music - for mood and to emphasise character, yes, but also to create ironic distance, to add montages of 'commentary' over the stories, to connect apparently disparate scenes, to add a depth of texture. Because it is in texture that 'The Sopranos' has really developed - the...
BADA BING...BADA BOOM...
If you are looking at this review, you probably already have the first and second season. All I can tell you is that the third season is as good, if not better, than the first and second. This is truly one of the best series ever to have graced the television screen. Leave it to HBO to have come up with such an engaging, well-written, well-acted, and totally addictive series.
There are some major plot developments this season. Starting off slowly, the first episode chronicles the synchronized, often comical efforts of the FBI, which is trying to get an electronic surveillance bug in place in the Soprano's household. The season then heats up considerably from thereon.
Livia Soprano, Tony's wicked mother and a canker in her children's lives, dies, bringing daughter Janice back from where she had fled, after she had bumped off her manic boyfriend, Richie Aprile, last season. Janice returns with a narcoleptic, musician boyfriend who is the antithesis of Richie. As always, Janice...
The darkest, most elaborate season yet.
This season really focuses on Tony & Carmela's role as parents. The gangster plotlines take a backseat to Mr. & Mrs. Soprano's slow awareness that the future they hoped to provide for their children is something of a delusion.
Story lines move in unexpected ways, and some episodes really need to be viewed more than once in order to fully comprehend (Univesity, Fortunate Son). There are some great new characters (Gloria Trillo, Ralph Cifaretto, & Burt Young as a mean old brute, chain-smoking his way through lung cancer), but the main characters have new life breathed into them. Paulie Walnuts, always great comic relief, begins to show a darker side. And Christopher, now a Made Man, has grown into a genuine threat.
By the season finale the characters have evolved in ways that leave them at odds in ways they've never been before.
This is my favorite season yet. Very rich, thought provoking, and in the end pretty frightening. My fav. episodes: Army of One (the finale), Pine...
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