My Rating of The Sopranos
out in The Sopranos. Source: Screenshot via HBO/Associated Press
70 (C-), 21/30 (21 out of 30). This is done on a five-point scale for each episode, being that five points, an A+, is the highest that you can get.
My rating of each season of The Sopranos (WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS):
Season 1: 5 (A+)
Season 2: 4.5 (A)
Season 3: 4.5 (A)
Season 4: 1.5 (C-)
Season 5: 4.5 (A)
Season 6: 1.0 (D)
The show should’ve just been four seasons. It would’ve been a lot stronger. The series could’ve still been a saga, an epic, but a more tightly wound one if it followed a more specific time and time-frame (like Goodfellas, from the 1950’s to the early 1980’s), clearly stating that the mob has a shelf life that will eventually come to an end at some point. You will either die or be arrested or go into the witness protection program. You should always leave the audience wanting more instead of growing weary of the characters and the story/stories.
What do I think happens to Tony at the end in the diner? I think he gets arrested and that he’s going to prison for good this time. The way it’s shot–that final episode in those final minutes clearly indicates this. Plus, the way his daughter (Meadow) runs in and she’s a lawyer now–she knows what to do this time when it happens. She always felt helpless about it in the past when her dad was dragged off by the cops.
Also, the song Tony turns on on the mini jukebox in the booth he settles into is Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin.’” Many fans of the show think that when the song and the picture cut out after “don’t stop” and Tony looks up (in what I think is kind of an alert and expressionless way) and sees Meadow running in, that he dies. I don’t agree.
Keep in mind that “believin’” comes after “don’t stop.” One of my favorite professors, Barry Moore, who was also the chairperson at the time of the Mass Communication department in film school, said you never want dialogue or music that is too on the nose–too obvious in stating exactly what’s going on and that’s what the song at the end of the show functions as by cutting out.
The unspoken believin’ is the silent optimism and hope that Meadow brings in in being able to know what to do as a lawyer and knows the law in order to help her father when he is arrested this time. Moreover, Tony tells his son (AJ) to focus on and remember the good times. He said something similar to AJ, Carmella (his wife), and Meadow at the end of the first season in Vesuvio and this brings it full circle.
Important point to note/valuable diverging opinion:
My boyfriend’s rating of each season:
Season 1: 5 (A+)
Season 2: 4.5 (A)
Season 3: 4.5 (A)
Season 4: 4 (A-) (He feels that my 1.5 was too harsh.)
Season 5: 4.5 (A)
Season 6: 3.5 (B+) (He feels that my 1.0 was too harsh.)
Overall rating: 87 (B+)
I have noticed men are more lenient on the show than women. Men love mob stories. There’s usually a full letter grade and a half difference between how men and women grade these things–a B+ versus a C-. I remember directing two guys in my group in film school in our Directing for Film class. They were best friends and they were ecstatic that they’d be doing the infamous “It’s nothing personal. It’s strictly business” scene from The Godfather. I was mystified by their excitement. They had worked really hard in reciting their lines and in planning their wardrobe and mannerisms. Perhaps that’s a testament to the film–that they went to such great lengths to get it right–this scene they were doing.
Now, about two decades later and finally seeing The Godfather (It’s very good, not great. My boyfriend disagrees. He says it’s a historically important film in the context of the 1970s and Watergate and I agree that the cinematography in the film is brilliant and it was something we’d strive to emulate in film school.), I’m still somewhat mystified, as a female, about this love of and for the mob that men have with the shows and movies, especially The Godfather.
