Watching The Sopranos

I've got eight hours to try to get 7 more episodes of The Sopranos season 2 watched. Unless Ed doesn't have to work tomorrow and thus won't have to leave the house before 8 to return the DVDs to the library that were all due Tuesday.

The Sopranos is an unlikely show to have attracted me and I held it in distaste and even disdain for most of the years it was on HBO though I never saw a single episode, only trailers and teasers on cable TV. Then I picked up The Gospel According to Tony Soprano by Chris Seay on the Friend's of the Library sale table at the library a few years back and it intrigued me because I'd once had a copy of the 1965 book The Gospel According to Peanuts.

So I bought Seay's book and it's been kicking around my room ever since. I haven't read the book cover to cover but have browsed in it enough to get the gist of Seay's thoughts and learn that The Sopranos was considered a quality work as both film and story and that serious themes regarding human nature and culture were being addressed by it.

So I was primed when the entire series became available in our library system a few months back and decided to give it a try. I watched season one a few weeks before I left town and my turn for season two was getting close when the date for leaving closed in so I deactivated my request until my slated return date so season two awaited me last week along with five movies. It was a lot to try to get watched in one week even if I'd not needed to spring clean our room as well.

As expected I find the violence and language hard to take and yet the quality of the story and the writing and acting and directing has kept me mesmerized for one and a half seasons.

At any rate, here are a couple more links that discuss the show on the level I mean:

The Gospel According to . . . Charlie Brown, Tony Soprano, and other unlikely spiritual guides. by Andy Crouch

Tony Soprano: 61 Minutes Left to Find Redemption by Cathleen Falsani