Sopranos on the Couch: Analyzing Television's Greatest Series [Paperback]

Maurice Yacowar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 18, 2002

The Sopranos has proved a pop-culture sensation. It is not only the most controversial series on television, it is also the most provocative, thoughtful, and complex. Its characters and phrases have entered our everyday life, well beyond HBO's many millions of subscribers. The language and themes of The Sopranos have stretched the norms of commercial television. Sales of the video and DVD releases of Season 2, as we now move into Season 4, have likewise broken all records for similar film-and-television series. The Sopranos on the Couch is the first book to provide a compact, lively, and authoritative examination of each episode and season - the themes, inside jokes, and allusions - thereby putting the series into a broader cultural context. If television programming is normally considered a wasteland, then The Sopranos may be thought of as a jungle: richly colored, teeming with life, dark with mystery. The Sopranos on the Couch is a must for all who are already caught up in the excitement, as well as for viewers who are coming to the show for the first time. Yacowar helps us understand exactly why we can't get enough of Tony Soprano and that colorful mafia family that we hate to love and often love to hate!>

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Canadian author Maurice Yacowar takes a more general and less forced approach in his study of the popular show, The Sopranos on the Couch: Analyzing Television's Greatest Series. Yacowar dissects each episode, character and plot line from the show's first three seasons. It's enough to make even an aficionado's head spin. This comprehensive examination also includes a cast of characters, listing all actors from Dominic Chianese (Corrado "Junior" Soprano) to Michele DeCesare (Hunter Scangarelo), and a list of selected Web sites. Casual viewers will easily bore reading Yacowar's book, but die-hard fans will surely want it for their collections.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Millions of viewers tune in each Sunday to see Tony Soprano, Carmela, Dr. Melfi, and their friends and enemies take care of the business of life and death on the cable-TV series The Sopranos. After some intriguing background on the hit drama, Yacowar deconstructs three seasons of the show, episode-by-episode, analyzing everything from thematic connections and similarities with the classic Godfather Trilogy to structure, musical score, violence, language, and stereotyping. Why do we watch the show? How can we feel connected to a man whose moral code falls so drastically outside the norm? Yacowar deals with all the questions and complaints and, like Dr. Melfi, gives us plenty to think about--not just regarding those important production values but also about how the series reflects popular culture. Give Allen Rucker's The Sopranos: A Family History, loaded with pictures, to fans who want the Hollywood version. Give this to those who want some substance. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Continuum; 4th edition (June 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082641401X
• ISBN-13: 978-0826414014
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,726,869 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars They're not really on the couch, February 18, 2003

By 

Jason A. Miller "Rabbi Jason Miller" (rabbijason.com) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sopranos on the Couch: Analyzing Television's Greatest Series (Hardcover)

Right off the bat, I realized that I would never get what I expected with this book -- a psychoanalytic assessment of the characters of TV's "The Sopranos." Rather, what you have is a light weight paperback with overviews of the episodes containing some interesting insight into character development and dialogue, but never really getting into the characters' heads. Perhaps we need Dr. Melfi to invite the other "family" members onto her couch and ask _her_ to write a book!

One of the few redeeming qualities of this book is Yacowar's comparison of the Sopranos series to Francis Ford Coppola's The
Godfather films, but you have to skip to the back of the book for this.

If you were hoping to really see each of the characters on the couch, you will be disappointed. If you are just a huge fan who wants to reflect on one of the greatest television shows ever created in a 1 hour read, then I would commend this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sopranos on the couch, January 8, 2009

By 

Susan Joy Forsling - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sopranos on the Couch: The Ultimate Guide (Paperback)

We are reading this book episode by episode and then watching the episode. So far it seems to be very interesting and easy to understand.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couching The Sopranos, August 28, 2007

By 

D. Scott Ayler - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sopranos on the Couch: The Ultimate Guide (Paperback)

Was very skeptic of this publication from the title name. Once I skimmed over the content inside, I KNEW I wanted it.

Inside you will be exposed to the reasoning for actions of the characters. It offers insight to their motivations and their way of thinking.

Very entertaining for those who want exposure that goes beyond the surface of the action you see in the series.