The pilot episode must be the hardest hurdle to overcome in the production of a television series as a whole. Not only are you having to firmly establish your characters and setting, but you're having to keep your audience engaged with budding plotlines that will keep them watching while not giving the game away too soon. In a time when television was still seen as a subpar form of media, The Sopranos had a lot of work to do to prove that it was going to be something that people would care about. Indeed, the pilot for this show is not exactly perfect, but it functions in a way that a pilot definitely should and has certainly acted as a blueprint for television series that have come afterwards. In this way, I can appreciate the pilot episode, even if it feels slightly incongruous to the show as a whole.
I think what the pilot episode does flawlessly is that it subtly convinces us to go along with Tony Soprano, who, after all, is a ruthless criminal. A lot of this comes through James Gandolfini's excellent acting, but the premise of the ducks is just such a good yet simple way to convey that Tony has actual depth and empathy, even if it is shoved down the audience's throat a LITTLE too much. Not only that, but the glimpses we get into the horrible and narcissistic people who surround him (namely Junior and Livia) are so well written that even if you hadn't come around to the character of Tony, you would still almost certainly have an incentive to watch.
As I mentioned, the pilot for The Sopranos, while good, is far from perfect. When I mentioned that this episode felt incongruous, I meant that mostly in a stylistic sense. While the pilot is not entirely devoid of unique charm (the dynamic between Tony and Dr. Melfi is established remarkably in this episode), a lot of the episode feels very cinematic in a kitschy kind of way. Due to the omnipresent narration from Tony, cannot help but make comparisons to Goodfellas, a film which is actually directly referenced at one point during the episode. Of course, the narration itself is not particularly a problem, but one almost cannot help comparing the rather cartoonish portrayal of the mafia world (especially with regard to violence) very unfavourably with that from Goodfellas. Nevertheless, the show would soon define its own path within the canon of mafia media, and because the character writing and plot development are so intriguing that I don't find this to be too much of a detractor in the first place.
This episode does have other distractions that are only really noticeable on rewatching the show, such as Tony supposedly being the boss of New Jersey when the boss is actually Jackie Aprile from episode 2 onwards. As well as this, the misguided scene where Tony and Christopher beat up the gambler is made even more distracting upon rewatch by the fact that it feels totally out of place for Tony's character. Other than that, I did really enjoy this episode and still consider it to be a strong first episode. One final point; that opening shot has got to be one the most striking and foreboding of any television series ever made.
I think what the pilot episode does flawlessly is that it subtly convinces us to go along with Tony Soprano, who, after all, is a ruthless criminal. A lot of this comes through James Gandolfini's excellent acting, but the premise of the ducks is just such a good yet simple way to convey that Tony has actual depth and empathy, even if it is shoved down the audience's throat a LITTLE too much. Not only that, but the glimpses we get into the horrible and narcissistic people who surround him (namely Junior and Livia) are so well written that even if you hadn't come around to the character of Tony, you would still almost certainly have an incentive to watch.
As I mentioned, the pilot for The Sopranos, while good, is far from perfect. When I mentioned that this episode felt incongruous, I meant that mostly in a stylistic sense. While the pilot is not entirely devoid of unique charm (the dynamic between Tony and Dr. Melfi is established remarkably in this episode), a lot of the episode feels very cinematic in a kitschy kind of way. Due to the omnipresent narration from Tony, cannot help but make comparisons to Goodfellas, a film which is actually directly referenced at one point during the episode. Of course, the narration itself is not particularly a problem, but one almost cannot help comparing the rather cartoonish portrayal of the mafia world (especially with regard to violence) very unfavourably with that from Goodfellas. Nevertheless, the show would soon define its own path within the canon of mafia media, and because the character writing and plot development are so intriguing that I don't find this to be too much of a detractor in the first place.
This episode does have other distractions that are only really noticeable on rewatching the show, such as Tony supposedly being the boss of New Jersey when the boss is actually Jackie Aprile from episode 2 onwards. As well as this, the misguided scene where Tony and Christopher beat up the gambler is made even more distracting upon rewatch by the fact that it feels totally out of place for Tony's character. Other than that, I did really enjoy this episode and still consider it to be a strong first episode. One final point; that opening shot has got to be one the most striking and foreboding of any television series ever made.