The shows gonna be forgotten, like everything.
Tony would almost certainly have assessed his own existence in the same terms as Chase does the shows.
Namely: Its all a big nothing.
That final cut to black awaits every one of us, both individually and as a species.
Its legacy, then, despite Chases dark-edged humility, shows no signs of fading.
Were at a time in pop culture history when we are surrounded with some might say drowning in choice.
Were drowning, but at least were drowning in Dom Perignon.
It was a show about everything.
It was a show about nothingness.
Simply put: Jan. 10, 1999 was D-Day for TV.
Sepinwall is the chief TV critic for Rolling Stone, and previously worked for both Uproxx and Hitfix.
Hes also the author of a clutch of highly-regarded books on TV, among themThe Revolution Was Televised.
Both men were critics at the Newark Star-Ledger throughout the time thatThe Sopranoswas on the air.
Further Reading: What a Sopranos Prequel Might Look Like
The book is divided into three parts.
Chase is an auteur extraordinaire, an almost holy figure.
Sometimes his sentences demand the sort of close examination normally reserved for entire episodes of his magnum opus.
His genius bleeds into and out of every blessed moment.
he chides) and veils others in ever greater cloaks of obscurity.
question may find themselves pleasantly surprised… and then hopelessly disappointed.
And then pleasantly surprised again.
And then, well, you get the idea.
Its a journey that seems destined to go on and on and on and on…
Or is it?
As Laura Lippman says in the foreword toThe Sopranos Sessions, there are levels ofSopranosobsessiveness.
Ive pondered and pored over its myriad meanings and symbols, and Ive proselytized in its name.
But Seitz and Sepinwall make me feel like a newbie, a late-night channel-flicker.
Their insight is staggering and immersive, though still entirely accessible to those in the earlier stages ofSopranos-based obsession.
(That woman is a peculiar duck, Carmella tells Tony.
Always has been.)
Just more questions carried across the sky by a great wind.
Where am I going?
Tony Soprano wasnt alone in therapy.
Arguably, we were in there with him.
You may not be as intense a fan ofThe Sopranosas I am, and thats okay.
Theres something for everyone.
The Sopranos Sessions is out now.you’re able to buy it on Amazon.
