The Soprano legacy at Schema : more than ethnic

The Soprano legacy

Was it the best portrayal of a mob/Italian-American/American (period) family ever?

"I said to myself, This show is about a guy who's turning 40. He's inherited a business from his dad. He's trying to bring it into the modern age. He's got all the responsibilities that go along with that. He's got an overbearing mom that he's still trying to get out from under. Although he loves his wife, he's had an affair. He's got two teenage kids, and he's dealing with the realities of what that is. He's anxious; he's depressed; he starts to see a therapist because he's searching for the meaning of his own life. I thought: The only difference between him and everybody I know is he's the don of New Jersey. So, to me, the Mafia part was sort of the tickle for why you watched. The reason you stayed was because of the resonance and the relatability of all that other stuff."

"An American Family" article in Vanity Fair
"'Sopranos' set a new standard for portraying life in the underworld" article in Popmatters.

I only started watchin the show when it came on A&E a little while back but it def did strike me as very non-typical TV like. It was like they expanded on the gritty and realistic and documentary like portrayal Martin Scorsese laid out on the mob in Goodfellas, "something much more unique: 'unique'" says Vanity Fair. Apparently HBO's then head Chris Albrecht saw something very unique about it too:

"I said to myself, This show is about a guy who's turning 40. He's inherited a business from his dad. He's trying to bring it into the modern age. He's got all the responsibilities that go along with that. He's got an overbearing mom that he's still trying to get out from under. Although he loves his wife, he's had an affair. He's got two teenage kids, and he's dealing with the realities of what that is. He's anxious; he's depressed; he starts to see a therapist because he's searching for the meaning of his own life. I thought: The only difference between him and everybody I know is he's the don of New Jersey. So, to me, the Mafia part was sort of the tickle for why you watched. The reason you stayed was because of the resonance and the relatability of all that other stuff."

Popmatters says that, now, in retrospect, its very clear why the Sopranos connected with audiences so much: "Nobody had ever seen gangsters depicted this way—as complicated people with quirky (if monstrous) personalities who found modern life as baffling as the rest of us."

"An American Family" article in Vanity Fair
"'Sopranos' set a new standard for portraying life in the underworld" article in Popmatters