The sixth and final season of The Sopranos is right in the middle of its thirteen-episode run on HBO. Not like I have to tell you, but The Sopranos is all about mob man Tony Soprano, his incredibly fucked-up family, his \"business associates\", and the toll all of this takes on his psyche.
I hate this show.
I always have. The stories, the way the show is shot, and especially the characters. Everything about it is just appalling.
It’s not that I can’t appreciate what the show creators were trying to do. I can. And an unflinching look at the people behind the American mob is an interesting concept. But this show is grim. Really, really grim.
Every episode I\'ve ever watched-- and I mean every episode-- has made me feel dirty afterwards. And this is the kind of dirty that just doesn’t go away. This is an I-can\'t-believe-people-like-that-exist-let-alone-have-a-show-about-them kind of dirty. Needless to say, you know a show is dour when it makes a person look at the world around them in a different, darker light.
Now I know that not every story is about characters that are empathetic. Or sympathetic, for that matter. But every single character on The Sopranos just turns my stomach.
Yeah, these folks are flawed, and flawed characters are a mainstay of drama. But they\'re flawed to the point of not being relatable. At least not for 90% of the population.
I want to see characters make hard choices. I want to see characters fall and build themselves up again. That is what drama is all about. But I also want to care about the characters I’m watching. I can\'t care about a murderous, self-serving thug like Tony Soprano. I can\'t care about his drug-addicted nephew, Christopher. I can\'t care about all the other people on the show that have obviously lost any and all traces of what made them human. Being that heartless and nihilistic has no appeal for me whatsoever.
Choices or no, the characters on The Sopranos are just horrible people. Horrible people don\'t make for compelling drama. They make for a freak show.