(Digression: The poverty of resources back then was really unbelievable. I didn’t watch TV without it. Today, many things that are taken for granted in life, such as Youku, veryCD, and BtChina, didn’t exist at that time, and they were able to live a good life. So parents It is not difficult for a generation to adapt to the current life, and it is not difficult to understand. I estimate that their age is more antique than them, and they should belong to one of the people who still use VHS today).
But watching The Sopranos today, you will naturally understand why Americans made this drama a milestone in the history of TV dramas. There is a point that I agree with, that is, American films have been lacklustre in the past ten years, and even if they are commendable, nothing is considered revolutionary (Citizen Kane, Godfather, etc.). However, there are many good works on TV, especially HBO (the reason is discussed in The Wire).
From this point of view, The Sopranos can be regarded as a pioneer. Although Oz is still entertaining today, it is still melodrama (melodrama) in general, and one of its big selling points is its sensationalism. This word is not easy to translate in Chinese. It probably means that it deliberately creates a sensational effect (for example, "Reference News" often puts on the title of Michael Jackson is determined to be murdered. As a result, it is usually a British tabloid. In short, this word in English has a derogatory meaning, because this kind of plot driven (plot driven) works is technically no different from pulp fiction (pulp fiction). It is a means of entertaining the public and has no artistic value. But for the human brain that likes to accept narratives, this is the most direct way of stimulating, so when I was a kid, I also liked most, such as The Practice (lawyer nature) is also such works.
The structure of The Sopranos is obviously more complicated and profound, because he subverted many stereotypes about gangs, and effectively involved many social issues in the United States in the plot, often sharply pointing out the problems. For example, with regard to children's education, The Sopranos touches on a lot of American class conflicts and aesthetic opposition, and these things are difficult for me at the age of 12 to understand. First of all, my English was not good at the time. At most I watched a plot. I didn’t understand a lot of word play (a clever use of language, usually puns) and common sayings. I watched this dialog intense (focus on dialogue). The series is naturally strenuous. There is also the above-mentioned content problem. At the time, I didn't understand American society at all, and issues such as aesthetics were only available to universities, so the content was a bit more difficult. The third is that when I was a child, it was difficult for me to look at the details like I do now. I usually look at it roughly, so many descriptions are not noticed.
In addition to structure and content, Sopranos is commendable even as a traditional work. Although the focus is on deconstructing American social and media traditions, even if these things are aside, Sopranos is very successful even as a melodrama. While the story is fascinating, it also portrays many characters vividly, just like a Ukiyo-e in the corner of a black and white world in New Jersey.
In terms of achievements, The Sopranos is clearly better than Oz, but in my eyes it is still much inferior to The Wire. First of all, although the plot and characters of Sopranos are extremely successful, many parts of the plot are still deliberate. The characters occasionally tend to be facialized and cartoonized, which is not as natural as The Wire. Secondly, The Sopranos has many surrealist and psycho-analysis influences in style, such as its many dreams. As an apprentice of Bazin, I think The Wire’s realism is in art The artistic conception is one level higher, and the corresponding emotional impact (the intensity of the content) is much stronger. The most important point is that although The Sopranos is ambitious, attempting (and succeeding) to redefine a genre, and deeply portrays the impasse of the American middle class, The Wire is clearly better than It is a description of American society as a whole. In terms of depth and poignancy (sharpness), The Wire's relatively worst second season, part of its achievements in describing the decline of the lower middle class is already similar to The Sopranos. And the achievements of The Wire throughout the five seasons have reached the heights of Dickens and Balzac. It is a representation and portrayal of a society like "Comedy on Earth", as well as a deep criticism of it.
Even so, The Sopranos is still an excellent work and it is worth seeing. Like another work that I criticized when I was a child, Shakespeare's Hamlet, The Sopranos is not a mystery, but a real crystallization, but I couldn't understand it at the time.
Note: Because the above mentioned mostly involve university studies (such as aesthetic concepts), I think in English when writing, and write in Chinese. Many of them are in English. I can only write in English first if the Chinese cannot be turned temporarily. Later, I will write in Chinese (such as sensationalism, I still can’t write it, I can only add a paragraph), not deliberately pretending to be B, hereby declare.
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