The Sopranos: Season Six – Part Two (DVD-Video)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C+ Episodes: B
*With
Italian Accent* Hey, forget about it! Well, that statement pretty much sums up the
end of The Sopranos. Season
Six- Part One (reviewed elsewhere on this site) brought us the killing of
many main contributors to the series and Season
Six-Part Two just added a dash more of that constant paranoia of ‘who’s
next?’ The final nine episodes of the
hit series are not the mob inspired drama’s best, but definitely deliver in one
way, shape, or form. Many are upset that
the ‘series ended so abruptly,’ but truly the series had developed so much over
the past 6 Seasons that there was not much left for the writers and/or actors
to do with the plot. In a manner of
speaking the series to fans was like eating a delicious pasta meal and now you
are sad that it is all gone, because you would have liked just one last
serving; when in truth it is for the best you did not have anymore.
David
Chase’s 86-episode run with The Sopranos
was strong and admirable, bringing back to television a level of grit, truth,
and depth that had not been seen for a long time. Chase managed to create a serendipitous
series in which our main character Tony Soprano attempted to balance his family
life with his crime life, all at the same time as trying to figure out the
meaning of life. The family dynamics are
so flawless at times that it makes the viewer think it could be anyone’s family
sitting there fighting, laughing, crying, or whatever. After six seasons with this mob (pun
intended) it is sad to see them go, but know that they will be around forever
in pop-culture, merchandise, and especially syndication land.
The
series was grounding braking for an array of reasons, even down to the music
that was used throughout the series.
Apparently David Chase and few select others pick out all of the
episodes’ music in postproduction, only on occasion actually filming an
episodic sequence with predetermined music.
The show is interesting that it does not stick to just one genre of
music but utilized everything including Britney Spears, classical, rap, and
even Journey (music spoiler). It is also
interesting to note that it seems that since music was not chosen to be in
scenes ahead of time the most dramatic and gripping sequences stand on their
own two feet (i.e. - tension and acting ability) for the realism and drama,
rather than using music as a crutch to tell the audience THIS IS THE
DRAMA. The couple of soundtracks that
were released from the series even did fairly well on the Billboard Charts.
In the
end, the series ended where it began, in New Jersey.
On a more
serious note this viewer has to say that The
Sopranos is one of the best series to ever grace our television sets
(whether that set fell off a truck or not…we won’t talk about). Critics across the board agree that The Sopranos added something to
television that had been missing for a long time, heart and soul. We may never know where these (surviving)
characters lives may take them, but we do know we enjoyed watching their
Journey up to this point.
The
technical features on this HBO, 4 Disc, box set are like most HBO releases with
nothing that stands out too much, but just slides by as adequate. The picture is presented in a 1.78 X 1
Widescreen aspect ratio that is clean for the most part, but does still have
some noticeable light/dark issues and does at times lean towards a more gritty
appearance. The sound is nice in its
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surrounds and does highlight the music to a fair degree, yet
leaves the characters’ dialogues sounding a bit distant or muffled at
times. The extras are nothing too
special and leave this reviewer wishing the creators had added more. Extras include a featurette entitled ‘Making Cleaver’ that looks into the
‘making of’ of Christopher’s horror film that slightly amused this reviewer, an
in depth look into ‘The Music of The
Sopranos’ that is probably the best extra in the set, and finally some
audio commentaries by actors Dominic Chianese, Robert Ller, Arthur Nascarella,
Steven R Schirripa, and Stevie Van Zandt on about four episodes. The commentaries were nice and showed the
love and devotion these people had to their character, craft, and the series
but in the end the commentaries were forgettable.
We loved
this people in their darkest hours and laughed through the brighter
moments. Though Tony is a sociopath, we
somehow understand his struggle on a deeper level. ‘Try to remember the times that were good.’
- Michael P. Dougherty II
