Shakespeare would’ve written The Sopranos if he was alive – it’s that good
WHEN I meet some-one who has not watched David Chase’s mobster masterpiece, I am insanely jealous.
Imagine being able to sit down and indulge yourself in all 86 episodes of gangster Tony Soprano’s journey for the first time ever. Sheer heaven.
If you are one of those lucky few, you will have no doubt been bored to death by people like me telling you what a treat you are in for.
But let me try to summarise what it’s all about. Although, like all great boxsets, it is about so much more than just the plot.
Tony Soprano is a middle-aged, middle-ranking, New Jersey-dwelling mobster.
He has psychological issues caused by a complicated relationship with his dead mob father and very much still alive — and psychopathic — mother, which sees him go to a therapist.
It is a fact he tries very hard to keep secret while jostling for position in the mobster rankings, following the boss’s death.
Devastating watch
As he rises towards pole position, he struggles to maintain a work/life balance which, in this instance, can be the difference between life and death.
Put simply, this is the show that started EVERYTHING.
Without this, it would have been years before studio bosses realised viewers wanted slow- burning, well-written storylines, played out by deeply unlikeable anti-heroes.
I talk about boxsets for a living, but it is difficult to see a landscape that has Game Of Thrones, Mad Men or Breaking Bad in it had Chase not paved the way.
Over the six seasons, you become so deeply attached in the lives of these characters, it can often mean a shocking and devastating watch.
It will come as no surprise that mafia henchmen have not got an amazing life expectancy — but as the inevitable happens, you realise just how much you have grown to care about each character.
The casting is exceptional. With his lead role, the late James Gandolfini gives one of the most nuanced performances ever seen, and the series made stars of the largely unknown rest of the cast.
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The Sopranos was not afraid to do things differently either — with trippy dream sequences and self-contained episodes that only feature a couple of characters sparring for an hour.
You may have heard about the way The Sopranos ends — whole theses have been written on it.
And much like the whole thing, the final hour is television like you have never seen before, and arguably will never again.
If Shakespeare was alive, he would have written The Sopranos. It is that good.
The Sopranos (15) Six seasons
★★★★★
The Assistant
PERHAPS the first true #MeToo film, The Assistant is a slow, quietly brutal take on the abuse of power.
The incredible Julia Garner plays Jane, an assistant in a new job working for an entirely unseen New York movie boss.
Set almost entirely in an unremarkable office, we see her deviously and viciously pulled to pieces.
She comes to realise she is being made complicit in her boss’s wrongdoing.
Earrings are found on his office floor while beautiful but unqualified assistants are hired and put up in nearby boutique hotels – where he has frequent “meetings”.
Putting up with a furious wife demanding to know where her husband is, Jane’s job is relentless and thankless.
She is berated, humiliated and belittled and is constantly made to “know her place” – with “her” being the operative word here.
It is a brilliant watch – not least for a spine-tingling scene between Jane and Matthew Macfadyen’s HR head, when she attempts to complain.
It strikes a real chord in its certain realism.
The Assistant (15) 87mins
★★★★
HARLEY Quinn was the only decent thing to arise from 2016’s awful Suicide Squad, and now Margot Robbie’s character has been given a story all of her own. Kind of.
With its full title of Birds Of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn), this is a violent, foul-mouthed riot.
It has plenty of problems, yet recovers well enough to be huge fun.
Set a short time after the events of Suicide Squad, Harley and Joker are over – and she is not taking it well.
Furious, in a funk and hounded by the many people she’s wronged in the past, Harley finds herself in the bad books of a crime lord called Black Mask (Ewan McGregor).
She then gets sucked into a pretty incomprehensible caper involving a diamond, face-peeling, off-shore accounts, female empowerment, squad-building and hyenas in a bath.
Robbie is fantastic (you can’t imagine anyone else playing this role) and McGregor looks like he’s living his best life, chewing up the
Technicolor scenery. It’s camp and kick-ass, but also a bit of a hot mess.
It crams so much explaining and plot into its first hour, you don’t have a bloody clue what’s going on.
But when it settles in, it does so nicely and, to its credit, left me wanting more.
Birds Of Prey (15) 109mins
★★★★
Trying
WITH the exception of The Morning Show, AppleTV+ has struggled to make waves over here.
However, with this first UK production, they are starting to make serious headway.
Rafe Spall and Esther Smith play Jason and Nikki, a North London couple desperate for the one thing that has eluded them – a baby.
They go through the usual processes until adoption is the last avenue left.
We follow their journey through this torturous process as they try to keep a lid on their lunatic friends, odd family and pretty unsuitable lives in the eyes of the adoption panel.
If you liked Catastrophe, you will love this. It is charming, sweet and snortingly funny.
The chemistry between Spall and Smith feels fresh and genuine (and how lovely to have a Brummie accent on such a high-profile show).
Darren Boyd’s hilarious appearance as possibly the most obnoxious pr**k on the planet is the icing on the cake.
It is an easy watch that leaves you feeling warm inside and will give your laughing muscles a good workout.
Trying, eight episodes
★★★★
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