As with all things pop cultural in Israel, the Sopranos has recently come to an end slightly later than it did in America. Israel seems to work on a permanent two or three month delay (sometimes more) than the rest of the TV watching world, and there are no exceptions even for pop cultural phenomena as intense as David Chase’s mafia black comedy/social satire. In the interests of full disclosure, I must confess that I have not seen the controversial final episode of the Sopranos. In fact, I haven’t watched it for over three years or more. I must also, and with greater trepidation, confess the reason why: I don’t like it.
As perhaps the only person in the known universe who doesn’t like the Sopranos, I feel an obligation to explain myself before being stoned to death by a mob of outraged New Jerseyites hell-bent on revenge. The reason I don’t like the Sopranos is not because of the excessive violence, sex or foul language, it is not because of the show’s interminable self-consciousness and orgiastic love of self-reference, and it isn’t because the show is unnecessarily convoluted and obscure. The reason I don’t like the Sopranos is that the Sopranos is and was bad.
Benjamin Kerstein
Bostonian by birth, Israeli by choice, soon to be graduate of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, writer, blogger, aspiring novelist, student of Jewish and Israeli history and Assistant Editor of Azure.
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