Product Details

• Actors: James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Dominic Chianese
• Directors: Alan Taylor, Allen Coulter, Andy Wolk, Daniel Attias, David Chase
• Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 12
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Hbo Home Video
• DVD Release Date: April 1, 2003
• Run Time: 2156 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00008WQ9M
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #92,761 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #25 in

  Movies & TV > Drama > Television > The Sopranos

• For more information about "The Sopranos - The Complete First, Second, and Third Seasons" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Sopranos, writer-producer-director David Chase's extraordinary television series, is nominally an urban gangster drama, but its true impact strikes closer to home, chronicling a dysfunctional, suburban American family in bold relief. And for protagonist Tony Soprano, there's the added complexity posed by heading twin families, his collegial mob clan and his own, nouveau riche brood. The series' brilliant first season 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 recognizable 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.

Alternately seductive, exasperated, fearful, and murderous, James Gandolfini's Tony is utterly convincing even when executing brutal shifts between domestic comedy and dramatic violence. The first season'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.

In its second season, The Sopranos repeatedly defies formula to let the narrative turn as a direct consequence of the characters' behavior, letting everyone in this rogue's gallery of Mafiosi, friends, and family evolve and deepen. That gamble is most apparent in the rupture of the relationship that formed the spine of the first season, the tangled ties between Tony and Livia, whose betrayal makes Tony's estrangement a logical response. Filling that vacuum, however, is prodigal sister Janice (Aida Turturro), whose New Age flakiness never successfully conceals her underlying calculation and opportunism. Soprano's relationship with therapist Melfi also frays during early episodes, as she struggles with escalating doubts about her mobbed-up patient. At home, Tony contends with wife Carmela's ruthless ambitions on behalf of college-bound Meadow (Jamie Lynn Sigler), as well as son Anthony Jr.'s (Robert Iler) sullen adolescent flirtation with existentialism--the sort of touch that the show handles with a smart mix of sympathy and amusement.

In the brutal and controversial third season, The Sopranos justified its 11-month hiatus with some of its best, and most hotly debated, episodes. It continued to upend convention and defy audience expectations with a deliberately paced, calm-before-the-storm season opener that revolves around the FBI's attempts to bug the Soprano household, and a season finale that (for some) frustratingly leaves several plot lines unresolved. "Employee of the Month," in which Dr. Melfi is raped and considers whether to exact revenge by telling Tony of her attack, earned Emmys for its writers, and is perhaps Emmy nominee Lorraine Bracco's finest hour. Other story arcs concern the rise of the seriously unstable Ralph Cifaretto (Joe Pantoliano) and Tony's affair with "full-blown loop-de-loo" Gloria (Emmy nominee Annabella Sciorra). Plus, there is Tony's estrangement from daughter Meadow, his wayward delinquent son Anthony, Jr., Carmela's crisis of conscience, bad seed Jackie Jr., and the FBI--which, as the season ends, assigns an undercover agent to befriend an unwitting figure in the Soprano family's orbit. Stay tuned for Season Four.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Series Ever - Not The Best Buy, April 28, 2003

By	Zaved Ahmed (Dhaka, Bangladesh) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Usually if one buys by the bulk, one gets a preferrential rate - sort of a retailer's discount. This dvd set successfully breaks the norm. One can pick up the the three seasons separately for [price] from Amazon.com. Better still, pick up the first two seasons together and buy the third one separate, and it will cost less (this is a special price offered by Amazon, to purchase at this price, go to the product description page for 'the Sopranos - the complete first and second seasons' and select the great buy link on the page).

As for the series, there is but one thing to say - buy it!! You will not regret the purchase.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best TV has to offer!!, April 28, 2003

By	Jason W Rost (Montgomery, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews

The Sopranos is by far the most developed and cinematic show ever to be seen on television. The characters are incredibly in-depth and the plot is beyond that of any TV show and majority of movies. The world of the mobster is highly intriguing. The most fascinating aspect of it is that we can all still relate to many areas of that world. And, we can easily relate to the family life of Tony Soprano. The Sopranos is a masterpiece, and the chance to pick up these timeless works of art on DVD should not be passed by.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Television Work of Art, February 7, 2004

By	J. Rondon "151sheridan" (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I originally bought the 1st Season DVD set of the Sopranos as a Xmas gift for my Stepfather, but never had seen the show myself. When my parents got through the whole season in a week, I figured I'd check it out and rent it off Netflix. Within 2 weeks, I had bought all 4 seasons! It is completely engrossing and is probably one of the top 5 works of entertainment I've ever seen. It's a bit violent and risque, but the storylines, acting, and especially the production, are so good that the liberal language and nudity is almost secondary (but it's definitely for the over 16 crowd). The casting is brilliant, and the DVD sets themselves are attractive and well-presented, though a little light on special features. I am actually considering getting HBO just to be able to see the 5th season, which starts in March 2004. The New York Times has hailed the Sopranos as the greatest achievement in American pop culture in the last quarter-century, so if you haven't seen it yet, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

Don't put off the show thinking it's another mob/crime drama. This truly lives up to the hype. It's extremely rich entertainment.