Stars: James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Nancy Marchand, Lorraine Bracco, John Heard, David Proval, Jerry Adler, Al Sapienza, Michael Imperioli, Aida Turturro, Tony Darrow, John Ventimiglia, Dominic Chianese, Michael Rispoli, Tony Sirico, Anthony DeSando, Katherine Narducci, Vincent Pastore, Steven Van Zandt

Summary: Waste management consultant, Tony Soprano, struggles to cope with his Mafia responsibilities and his problems at home, leading him to experience anxiety attacks. So, breaking the rules, Tony seeks the help of a shrink.

This set includes the first 13 episodes of HBO's outstanding Emmy-winning series THE SOPRANOS, created by David Chase. Join Tony Soprano and both of his families--the wife and kids, and his fellow wiseguys--as they deal with balancing their work with their lives. The episodes include "The Sopranos" (series premiere); "46 Long;" "Denial, Anger, Acceptance;" "Meadowlands;" "College;" "Pax Soprana;" "Down Neck;" "The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti;" "Boca;" "A Hit Is a Hit," "Nobody Knows Anything;" "Isabella;" and "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano."
The series stars James Gandolfini in a career-making performance as Tony Soprano, a Mafia leader who is having trouble dealing with his family and starts to see a shrink. The terrific supporting cast features Edie Falco as Tony's beleaguered wife, Carmela; Lorraine Bracco as Tony's put-upon psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi; Michael Imperioli as loose cannon Christopher Moltisanti; Steven Van Zandt as Silvio, owner of the Bada-Bing; and the incomparable Nancy Marchand, in one of the great television performances, as Livia Soprano, Tony's conniving, controlling mother. The writing, directing, and acting are impeccable, making for one of the most enjoyable viewing events in TV history.

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Writer-producer-director David Chase's extraordinary television seriesThe Sopranosis nominally an urban gangster drama, but its true impact strikes closer to home. This ambitious TV series chronicles a dysfunctional, suburban American family in bold relief. And for protagonist Tony Soprano, there's the added complexity posed by heading twin families, his collegiate mob clan and his own nouveau-riche brood.

The brilliant first series is built around what Tony learns when, whipsawed between those two worlds, he finds himself plunged into depression and seeks psychotherapy--a gesture at odds with his midlevel capo's machismo, yet instantly recognisable as a modern emotional test. With analysis built into the very spine of the show's elaborate episodic structure, creator Chase and his formidable corps of directors, writers and actors weave an unpredictable series of parallel and intersecting plot arcs that twist from tragedy to farce to social realism. While creating for a smaller screen, they enjoy a far larger canvas than a single movie would afford and the results, like the very best episodic television, attain a richness and scope far closer to a novel than movies normally get.

Unlike Francis Coppola's operatic dramatisation of Mario Puzo's Godfatherepic, The Sopranossustains a poignant, even mundane intimacy in its focus on Tony, brought to vivid life by James Gandolfini's mercurial performance. Alternately seductive, exasperated, fearful and murderous, Gandolfini is utterly convincing even when executing brutal shifts between domestic comedy and dramatic violence. Both he and the superb team of Italian-American actors recruited as his loyal (and, sometimes, not-so-loyal) henchman and their various "associates" make this mob as credible as the evocative Bronx and New Jersey locations where the episodes were filmed.

The first year's other life force is Livia Soprano, Tony's monstrous, meddlesome mother. As Livia, the late Nancy Marchand eclipses her long career of patrician performances to create an indelibly earthy, calculating matriarch who shakes up both families; Livia also serves as foil and rival to Tony's loyal, usually level-headed wife, Carmela (Edie Falco). Lorraine Bracco makes Tony's therapist, Dr Melfi, a convincing confidante, by turns "professional", perceptive and sexy; the duo's therapeutic relationship is also depicted with uncommon accuracy. Such grace notes only enrich what's not merely an aesthetic high point for commercial television, but an absorbing film masterwork that deepens with subsequent screenings. --Sam Sutherland

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Sopranos Creator David Chase, Behind The Scenes Featurettes, Audio Commentaries, Animated Menus
Year:	1999
Release Date:	November 24, 2003
Runtime:	696 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 025180
Label:	H B O
Keywords:	Box, General, Four, Series, Set, Tv, Drama, Sopranos, Discs
Genre:	Drama