Review of The Sopranos: Season 1

The Sopranos Season 1 Review

Grade: A+

We shouldn’t fault TV shows for starting off slow. After all, that’s the greatness of the televised medium, right? The writers have plenty of time to learn from their mistakes and figure out what works and what doesn’t. It often takes years to fully realize the potential of a series. But The Sopranos season 1 kinda ruined that for everyone.

The first season of David Chase’s landmark crime drama is so monumental that it set an unrealistic precedent: every TV show is now expected to get off to an equally iconic start. Pretty hard to do when The Sopranos season 1 will forever be the greatest debut in TV history.

Even though it’s not as experimental as The Sopranos season 3, nor as epic as The Sopranos season 6, the crime drama’s first season in 1999 is still the show’s most innovative chapter. That’s because it all feels so gloriously new. The writing, the acting, the ambiguity — everything — it’s easy to see why The Sopranos immediately sparked an artistic revolution.

It’s the rare TV series that truly has something for everyone: a gritty thriller of masculine violence, an emotional soap opera of scorned relationships, a healthy dose of hilarious family comedy, an introspective slow-burn character study, and a poignant metaphor for postmodern American life at the turn of the 21st century.

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Even though plot will never play an important role in The Sopranos, season one tells perhaps the most linear narrative in the show’s entire run: Tony Soprano, a mob boss, sees a therapist. The growing tensions with his mother and uncle, both personally and professionally, add to his psychological duress. From there, we follow Tony’s daily life as he struggles to balance business and family.

Every episode offers its own thought-provoking questions, and every character in the ensemble gets a chance to shine. Actor James Gandolfini’s performance as Tony is practically the greatest acting performance in TV history, and I’d go so far as to say maybe even in cinematic history, too. It’s so fully inhabited, such an intriguing duality. A compelling antihero cursed to never change. He certainly deserves to be discussed among the greats.

The rest of the cast does a tremendous job as well, with Edie Falco, Nancy Marchand, Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Michael Imperioli all inhabiting memorable characters. Together, with the large stable of talented writers and directors working under Chase, they create a naturalistic universe that is compelling in every scene.

Season 1 maintains a high level of quality in pretty much every episode (save for “A Hit Is a Hit“), and even contains a few all-time masterpieces (notably “College,” which is probably the greatest episode ever). It starts great and it finishes great, from the terrific pilot to the emotional season finale. Even at this early juncture, The Sopranos was already the best show of all time. (The only other worthy options would be Twin Peaks, The Simpsons or Seinfeld.)

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And it’s only the ground floor. The series will get even better from here. But the relatively small stakes of this foundational chapter will always hold a special place in my heart. Despite all the violence, bloodshed and existential depression spattered throughout the storyline, season 1 is The Sopranos at its most optimistic.

Perhaps Tony himself says it best, in the season’s masterful final scene, when he tells his kids to cherish the little things, remember the times that were good. Like the time the family of ducks came to nest in the swimming pool. Or the time Tony and his daughter went on a college visit to Maine. Uncle Junior going down to Boca (he doesn’t go down enough). Tony hallucinating a busty girl next door (discontinue the lithium). Livia Soprano attempting to murder her own son. The family all gathered for a candlelit dinner during a thunderstorm.

Season 1 of The Sopranos contains more unforgettable moments than other TV shows can muster in an entire series. As far as debuts go, it’s pretty much a perfect year of television.

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