Fact 1. I was born in West Orange, New Jersey.
Fact 2. New Jersey has been my only legal state of residence.
Fact 3. Up until this past week I had never actually watched an episode of The Sopranos.
Yeah...isn't that almost like saying I don't like Taylor Ham or Pepperoni Pizza??? Maybe not.
Of course I know the storyline of this show, how could I not? I even know a few of the places where it was a filmed throughout my state, but I just never watched it. Probably, because I'm not into hype.
Now, Amazon Prime has all the seasons (thanks brother) and I'm hooked. Aside from being filmed in NJ it has been lauded as the best television show EVER by multiple people. Google pulls up multiple recent articles--people are STILL talking about this show, hey I'm talking about it right now.
I laughed when two mobsters go into a Starbucks type establishment and one says,
"An espresso" and the other says,
"I just want some regular coffee."
"What we have today is New Zealand Peaberry." Says the cashier.
So they order an espresso and one-a-doze and it cost $4.25. Seems expensive even for 1999.
Ah the goldchains, wife beaters, track suit jackets, homophobia, loaves of bread and Virgin Marys on the front yards...the sassy nj kid attitude. Hey who wouldn't love having an Uncle Pussy who fixes car?
I'm only a few episodes into Season One and what catches me is how dated this show is now. It was so fresh back in the early 00's along with that other (in)famous HBO rag--SATC. The Soprano home today would be in need of a makeover, no more brass fixtures, light pink-beige cupboards and puffy valances. It's stylized like Mad Men. Millenium style. Except it was actually the time period it features.
And it got me thinking about the days pre September 11, 2001. How those days now live in my memory as such a hopeful time, a brief moment of a new century, then dashed to what???
A Post-post-modern tale of fear, anxiety, war, recession and who knows or even cares...
How The Sopranos caught that pre-moment then the disillusionment following...and maybe that is exactly what made it such a good show...or the writing/acting. Maybe it is New Jersey a diverse and insane state, full of multiple paradoxes, Tony Soprano could be a representative of the state itself.
So bring over the antipast and be a real Jersey girl wid me, I'll do my best to whip up some gabagool!(I don't even know what that is, had to GABAgoogle it!) HA.
RIP Mr. Gandolfini
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