So I'm watching The Sopranos

I am blown away by how fantastically this show has aged. Yes, I laugh when I hear Jamie Lynn-Sigler singing "Oops, I Did It Again" and I smirked when Tony defended sending AJ to military school because "the US hardly goes to war these days."But really, I've watched four of the six seasons so far and I occasionally find myself thinking how thoughtfully written the characters are. Like, Tony Soprano gives me all sorts of feels. He is, by definition, a total psychopath. But why, as a critical viewer, am I completely drawn to him? I love Tony Soprano. I love James Gandolfini for playing Tony Soprano.

Tony is the father of two good kids and the husband to the flawless Carmela (Edie Falco). He's also the godfather of the New Jersey mafia. He has panic attacks because his mother is just insane and a total nut as well. Also because he is the godfather of the New Jersey mafia.

Tony is a relatively stand up guy. Of course, you're comparing him with scummy people in the mafia business, so his good morals usually come into play when like, someone kills their mistress. What I've noticed from the show is that it likes to punish you for liking Tony so much. You begin making excuses for him. "Oh, yeah he constantly cheats on Carmela, but at least doesn't have affairs with multiple women at the same time." "Yeah, he kicked the shit out of the poor bartender at his strip club again, but it's funny." I mean, when you think about it, it's unsettling.

I love the range of problems written into story arcs. I suppose in that business and lifestyle, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. Things like the FBI bugging your basement or the neighborhood priest being a mooch and eating your whole tray of ziti. (By the way, I made baked ziti after hearing about it all the time and I now understand how there's always a tray of ziti in their fridge. There was so much I must have eaten it for five lunches and I still had leftovers. Ziti making hopefuls, beware of recipe sizes.)

On my journey to watch all four New Golden Age of Television shows (The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men, Breaking Bad [subject to vary I suppose]), I think The Sopranos is my favorite. It's the first show to inspire better television writing and I absolutely understand it while watching. I'm not kidding, this show is fantastic. It's like Breaking Bad where you're supposed to hate the main character, but the difference is you actually hate yourself for liking and rooting for Tony Soprano and a lot of the people associated with him. Also similar to Breaking Bad, the wives are the best. Carmela Soprano is my hero.

Really worth watching all six seasons. Try it!