The Sopranos: The Complete Series [DVD] [2007]

The Sopranos is the greatest piece of work in any moving image medium that I know of. Quite a statement I know, but hear me out... and I will take you through the [obvious] facts of the case, as well as my own feelings on the matter. First of all without doubt. The writing is brilliant: pared to the bone realism interspersed with heart-wrenching drama, gut-wrenching violence, and heart-breaking emotion. Secondly. The acting is both superbly realistic, and yet highly characterised and supercharged with emotion. Thirdly. The cinematography [and it is a truly Cinematic TV series] is both beautiful and unflinching. It looks as fresh - and feels as gripping - watching the first series again now, as it did when I saw it 15 yrs ago. But for obvious reasons, I will mainly talk about the acting.... After last week's tragic news about the death of James Gandolfini i've been watching clips, scouring the web for his [often bit-part] movie performances, and reading about his life. If you want to see something of James Gandolfini the man, I would recommend his two documentaries for HBO about US soldiers experiences of PTSD - " Wartorn 1861-2010 [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC ]" and " Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq [DVD] [2007] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC ]." If you want to know about James Gandolfini the actor then purchase this DVD box set. He took a character who in baser hands would just be a 260lb New Jersey-Italian version of Godzilla, and together with David Chase and a bunch of genius writers, turned him into an Everyman for our dystopian times. We see the look of pain and childlike shame and helplessness when he tries to confront his mother, and then minutes later the cold eyed rage as he pistol-whips a junior goon with a telephone handset. Every episode is a roller-coaster of adrenalin, laughter, and seriously heavy themes. It says as much about the conflictedness of modern fatherhood and the hypocrisy of the modern Catholic church as it does about globalisation, and the amount that contemporary Governments and Corporations have ingested, and even added to, the ethics of Gangster-Capitalism. And not just Tony - every one of the leading actors give performances of incredible versatility and power. But every one of them benefits hugely every time they share the screen with Gandolfini. In his film roles he is a great character actor, even when his characters don't get as much screen time as they deserve [see Night Falls On Manhattan [1996] [DVD] [2001 ], or The Mexican [DVD ] - where the film noticeably loses pace, or any sense of realism after he is killed off with almost three quarters of an hour to go!]. But in The Sopranos he seems to both dominate every scene he is in, while bringing out the very best in his colleagues. It's hard to equate the Alpha Male who is Tony Soprano with the mortified, mumbling, man who speaks about his acting career on "In The Actors Studio: James Gandolfini" [available on youtube]. If you've never seen The Sopranos before, but have noticed the outpourings of grief over the death of James Gandolfini - from ordinary fans and from many, much more famous collaborators and fellow actors: then I beg you to buy this box set. You will not have spent a wiser £45 quid in many a long year. I am very jealous of the experience that is about to unfold in front of your eyes and ears [did I mention how good the music is?] for the first time over the coming days and weeks: until you too, are haunted by the sound of Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. No, really... you will. Tell me about it - I radically reviewed my opinion of Steely Dan's early career after listening to one episode of The Sopranos [can't remember which but it involves Tony's sister - another amazing performance]. For the rest of us who watched this series live, and countless times later on the tapes we made of it: get this and watch the beauty of the cinematography, the exquisite staging and settings - and most of all those magnificent faces - on a new TV or monitor and prepare to be amazed and touched again by this magnificent piece of art. 6/5! And God bless James Gandolfini. As an actor, and as a man, he had as much of an affect on me - in my late 30s - as Humphrey Bogart had when I was 11 or 12. I learned more about parenting from James Gandolfini than I ever did from any of the books I bloody read. Pity my children if you wish, but watch this box-set and you will understand.

Brilliant series delivered on very high-quality PAL format DVDs. What's especially nice is that, even with the large number of discs (28!) needed to cover the entire series, the box set is not bulky. On the flipside, it's not loaded with all the bonus materials that other box sets offer. But any fan of The Sopranos will be well pleased to own this collection. As for the program itself, there's no need to review the show itself. Anyone who is viewing this product already knows what a genius television series it is. The only thing I will offer is that when we have a Sopranos binge watch, we like to pair our viewing with recipes from The Sopranos Family Cookbook, which can be found here on Amazon. I especially would recommend Carmela's sausages with tomatoes and peppers, which can be made to serve four or fifty (no lie!).

Quite simply the best thing that has ever been put to screen, either on TV or cinema! As soon as it started on CH4 I was instantly hooked, from the opening credits and the opening sene. What makes it stand out is how character driven the show is and not just the main protagonist of the show Tony Soprano but also his family and his other family the mob. A fantastic representation of the pressures Tony faces juggling his life with his wife and children and his life in the Mafia all while seeing a psychiatrist. The development of every character in the show is brilliant, making you feel like you get to know them personally. The writing, production, directing and acting are second to none often giving you the feeling that each episode is mini movie, brilliant story lines from episode to episode with great sub plots in between and you find yourself loving and empathising with some of the characters even though they're portraying totally immoral and despicable people. The combination of humour, violence and the immorality of the mob world make this a truly unmissable drama and a must watch for anyone who has not yet seen it. Quite a controversial ending to the show which some people felt let the show down but I personally thought the ending was great, just depends on how you interpret it yourself, so I won't give anything away to anyone who hasn't watched the show yet. First bought the box set on DVD and now have the blu-ray version, worth every penny as I watch the box set at least once a year over a three or four week period. So if you haven't seen it get it bought and get it watched....Capiche!

I snapped this up at £40 as a birthday present (for me!) and it's one helluva bargain. I see the price has gone back up to £50 as I write this, but really don't let that put you off - a whole 80+ episodes of a brilliant piece of TV history is worth so much more. My wife and I caught a few episodes when it originally aired on UK telly, but it was the re-run on Sky Atlantic that did for us. We found the one week wait for the next episode was agonizing, so had to get the box set. We are totally addicted and can watch three episodes on the trot if left to our own devices. We're going to be gutted when we've finished watching it all (which won't be long now as we're well in to series 5) With regard to the actual box set - I was worried that I should wait for the release on Blu Ray, but my Sony Blu Ray player does a good job upscaling the DVD content, and the end result is very watchable (half way between off-air SD and HD quality). I was also concerned by reviews talking about judder during camera pans. And indeed this was noticeable during the Series 1 episodes. I'm glad to say the problem seems to be restricted to that series, and a couple of moments in Series 5 (strangely). We've not watched any of the 'extras' yet, so I can't comment on those. All in all, a brilliant set. The greatest piece of TV I've seen (apart from *maybe* The Wire)

The Sopranos is a masterpiece, one of the few television series that unfolds like a great novel, with compelling writing and characters. The series is groundbreaking, with particular relevance to Western culture due to its focus on the mental health problems that plague our society, such as depression and anxiety. The premise is relatively simple: Tony Soprano, the protagonist, is a Mafia boss in New Jersey who struggles to balance his work and home life, and consequently seeks the advice of a psychiatrist. The two families of Tony Soprano cause him considerable stress and he suffers from panic attacks as a result. The Sopranos comprises hundreds of characters, and watching the series for a second or third time is therefore more rewarding and enhances the audience's understanding. The series tackles difficult issues such as family, gender roles, sex and the climate of rage buried within the American psyche. Despite criticism of the show due to its casual violence, I believe the bloodshed serves a purpose and is never gratuitous. The sixth season is the best in my opinion, but all seasons have something to offer. There is never a weak episode, but unfortunately some episodes are much better than others. This is not the case with The Wire, where all episodes are consistently good. I would strongly recommend The Sopranos to all lovers of television. I would rate it just behind The Wire in terms of overall quality, but above Breaking Bad.

Enjoyable series following The Sopranos mafia family over several years, as the children are growing up. Took me a while to get into it - the characters are not very likeable (most of them are mafia hoods after all) although the performances are excellent all round. Too much swearing for my liking, the scenes of violence were sometimes shocking but, dare I say it - thrilling. Surprisingly there were also many humorous moments, some of which made me laugh out loud. I enjoyed the last series most of all (curiously this was split into two parts - Season 6 and Season 6 The Final Episodes), as by then I’d finally got to grips with who was who, some of the characters had grown on me, and things were rounded off as it reached it’s denouement. Hailed by many as a classic, I wouldn’t quite go that far and I wouldn’t watch it again as I have for example Breaking Bad and Fargo, but it is up there as one of the best and anyone who likes top quality series should at least give it a try.

Nothing short of brilliant, The Sopranos made a splash at TV dramas, with one of the ultimate anti-heroes. Not only Tony Soprano is one the most compeling characters in the history of television, the problems that make his life so difficult are not so different from the others that do the same to our life as well: mother, wife, daughter, "job associates". Eventhough Tony Soprano is the "capo" of the Jersy mob, the show goes way beyond the tradicional mob movies: of course he is one tradicional mobster, other than the fact that he has a shrink to make him deal with the problems of his life that, most of the time, have nothing to do with what he does for a living... In the most extreme circumnstances, we find Tony making some human decisions that level with some of absolute rage and anger, but, at the end of the day, if there had to be an ultimate mob boss, I'de like that to be Tony Soprano, because he is such a nice guy, a goodfella... Noteworth is the fact that Nancy Marchand had health issues that held the part of Livia Soprano from being one of the most manupulative "villans" in the history of TV, and she was just another mother, another wife... In the end, I've seen this show on TV as it went along, I've seen it on divx twice and I now bought it in DVD, so I'm just about ready to take another peak at it and I know it's pretty much going to be just like my first time... About the box set, there should be more subtitles available: I'm yet to know what's the extra expense to put the subtitles for all of the Western Europe...

Even if you just are casual viewing of Sopranos original programming this is must have. It is most carefully crafted drama series of this genre to have such an inception. The writing, the characters, acting, plot twist, dialogue, chemistry, rhythm it has all this and much more. Great to rerun once again as reminder of how captivating such as this can go. Most definitely recommend to all. Thank you