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I watched The Sopranos episode by weekly episode as it came out. I’ve rewatched it at least twice since. All of it. I still marvel that Melfi only figured out Tony was a psychopath in the next to last episode. After the first viewing I’d thought it was much earlier. But the joke was on all of us, wasn’t it? That we watched, enthralled, as this evil man committed murders and so many other crimes. It was definitely foreshadowing for our current state of affairs where we have over 700,000 dead and yet we watch as ‘influencers’, themselves vaccinated, question the vaccine to their followers so they can gain profit and influence. The power of the psychopath should never be under-estimated.
Prequels are harder than sequels. Because in a prequel, we know what’s ahead. I enjoyed the Deadwood sequel. It tied up a lot of loose ends, particularly giving the antagonist his come-uppance. But a prequel? It has to reveal some truly insightful and shocking things. Unfortunately, The Many Saints of Newark reveals little we didn’t already know.
In fact, watching actors imitate their future characters was irritating. It must be difficult for an actor to act an actor rather than a character. You could really see them trying to pull it off, which made it very, very uncomfortable to watch as you remember the original.
