pentyne posted:

All right, time for the second episode of season 1.

Anyone on the fence about continuing you'll see a noticeable increase in the overall quality of the show from this point on. It slowly increases until by the end of the season anyone who tries to say the show is "overrated" or "mediocre" is just objectively wrong. There are minor things you could complain about and nitpick, but on the whole the show is flawless.

For some background, the first couple of episodes HBO was exerting a lot of pressure on David Chase for how they wanted the show to go and what their marketing/research department said would bring in the most viewers. Today, everyone knows that Sopranos set the standard for serious TV drama but at the start it was regarded as another shock-a-thon like Oz or Sex in the City. Chase eventually won out through sheer perseverance, and got free reign to craft the story he wanted without a exec leaning over his shoulder and saying "No, this won't work, viewers won't like this" and having to scrap ideas.

For anyone going in fresh, the one thing I'd mention is to take a look at how Tony and co. are portrayed when doing "good things" for civilians who are friends/associates etc. Another major thing is how the rampant drug use among the up and coming young guys is exactly the kind of poo poo that gets people 25-life from either dealing or bad decision making and why the "golden age" is over and done with.

I think this episode would've been a better pilot to draw people into the Soprano's, but the entire thing with Melfi and Tony's internal issues needed a ton of time for them to establish a working relationship and set the stage for what comes next.