The Sopranos is still good but it does look different today

I have done what I guess a lot of people have been doing and have rewatched The Sopranos on Amazon Prime. Guess what: It’s good. It gets to some rich, dark places. This was the first time I’ve rewatched it since it came out. And the world doesn’t really need my thoughts on this but I have some anyway:

1. The people in The Sopranos are really bad people. I guess this is part of what people found revolutionary and interesting at the time (?) but in 2019 it really does wear on you that all the characters are so relentlessly terrible. And this becomes a real problem for the series because it settles into some very predictable narrative rhythms, where the show sets up a hard decision or a moral test for a given character and then, pretty much without fail, the character chooses to do the wrong thing. It’s hard to think of any exceptions to this at all.
2. Now, the show did some legitimately great, fascinating work showing how those characters then construct self-protecting lies and rationalizations they can tell themselves and others. But just as a matter of plot it’s a problem when there is virtually no chance any character will ever choose to do the right thing.
3. Related: Boy, Christopher Moltisanti is one of the worst people in all of literature. He is also a cartoon, and his terribleness starts to feel a bit ridiculous in a binge watch.
4. The most striking scene to me on this viewing for whatever reason was Tony’s confrontation with Meadow over Jackie Jr. in the episode “No Show.” The part I’m talking about starts at 2 minutes here. James Gandolfini is masterful.
5. It’s hard to quite remember the early-peak-TV era when still a whole lot of people were watching the same thing at the same time, or the way this show became an absolute sensation at the time. However, in later episodes the show starts to remind you of its own status with various winks and nods. These haven’t held up very well! Tim Daly’s character pawning his Emmy and being told it’s not as good as an Oscar; the TV (in the final episode, no less) blaring a snippet about how important writers are to contemporary television. Boooooo.
6. Related: The show really comes apart in the last season. Both halves of that sixth season are mostly bad and feel either very reheated or fan-fictiony (“What if the Sopranos gang met a rapper?” etc.) in the way TV shows can start to feel when they are out of gas.
7. The ending is good, though.

These are more negative than I meant them to be. It’s a good show!