Far, far better than I had expected it to be, this season of The Sopranos proves to be the most satisfying yet. This is particularly surprising because I had already watched the first five or six episodes of the season when they first aired and was not that impressed. One second viewing, these episodes are still not very impressive, however, they are building to a truly great final three episodes that almost makes the hours of meandering worth it.
What really impresses about this season is the lack of hackneyed plot developments. The Sopranos is king of taking plotlines straight out of "lesser" network television series, dressing them up with some blood and cursing and passing it off as insightful and groundbreaking. In The Sopranos worst moments (so far for me that would be all of season two although I have not watched seasons three or four), there is nothing but daytime television quality plotlines going on. (More on this in my season two review because now the show has hooked me and I need to know how they got to where they've ended up in season five.)
However, the series still lacks the recklessness and sheer bravery of shows like The Wire, Oz, Nip/Tuck and The Shield. Those shows are in the pantheon. The Sopranos is just a spiffy pretender to the throne, all perfect plot geometry and studious acting. And although you can see the final plot developments coming from a mile away, the way they play out is still very interesting. So maybe The Sopranos isn't the best show on TV. And maybe it's just prettified soap opera writ large. But there's a reason One Life to Live has been on for fifty years, it taps a chord in all of us. It's the same chord struck by The Sopranos. And hey, the critical tongue-bath this show gets means you dont even have to feel guilty about watching it.
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