The Sopranos, like the film Fight Club, is one of those really amazing things that all of the douche bags you know like. There is something really brilliant about the idea that a hard-headed chauvinistic Italian mob boss in New Jersey has to set aside his male bravado and see a psychiatrist. Of course, most people watch this TV show because of the chic of gangsters, from Scarface to gangster rap. These are the people who glorify the lifestyle of crime and who quote Godfather whenever it seems appropriate enough in order to prove that they are badasses. It is almost as though David Chase knew that everyone's annoying friend with something to prove was going to flock to The Sopranos, because he makes fun of those people every so often. There is nothing more funny than when one of Tony Soprano's enforcers misquotes a Godfather line while disposing of a body. It makes me believe that Chase made this show for people like me, people who adore the irony of a mob boss in therapy, rather than the people with big, expensive framed photos of Al Pacino above their fireplaces.
I kind of feel like The Wire is similar in that it can seem like just another cop drama on the surface. But as you continue to watch, it sucks you in. Then you begin to realize it's so much more, and that you're watching one of the best shows ever made.
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