Show Bada Bing The Sopranos Return Daniel Peck Contributing Writer The brilliance of The Sopranos is that it shows mobsters as real men Sure it portrays them as the thieving thugs they are or slapping guys around who owe them money But the HBO super hit also reveals them as loving fathers and as adulterous unforgiving husbands The brilliance extends to the producing the execution in acting and can be shown in inthe inthe inthe the costumes the sets and the backdrop locations There is never a false note on this show and what would be considered awesome awesome awesome awe awe- some on any other television television I sion program is simply business as usual at HBO productions It seems a little arrogant to crown a show the best but something has to be and so far nothing else has come close Granted it features features features fea fea- fea- fea tures violence and sex and it offends some Italian- Italian Americans But the gangsters gangsters gangsters gang gang- it portrays are not supposed supposed supposed sup sup- posed to be super heroes and no one has ever touted this gritty production as family hour One indication of how these characters have imprinted into the audiences audience's audiences audience's audiences audience's audi audi- ence's consciousness is that in the 15 months since the fourth season ended viewers viewers viewers view view- ers continue to talk about what will happen on the next season Will crime boss Tony Soprano James Gandolfini and I his longA long long- A suffering wife Carmela Edie Elie Falco Fako remain separated separated separated sepa sepa- rated Is he in control of himself or is he going to suffer from his anxiety attacks Can his confidante Christopher Michael Imperioli stay off drugs Will the mob find out that Christopher's fiancee e Adriana Drea de Matteo is cooperating with the FBI And will the FBI finally nab the big guy According to two of the stars of the first seasons give some insight to the upcoming season Without spoiling it it is fair to say that at least for the first part of the new season Tony and Carmela are separated separated separated sep sep- sep sep- and the huge house housein in West Caldwell NJ ismore ismore is ismore more a war zone than a home They have all undergone all kinds of stuff during the course of shooting this thing Falco says Its very organic The story lines are about people changing according to their internal lives and external lives As for Carmelas Carmela's changes Falco says Iguess Iguess I Iguess guess she has maybe like everybody else living inthis inthis in inthis this time gotten a little less confident about all the things that she thought were forever the stability of her country walking inthe inthe in inthe the streets family The Sopranos series returned to HBO on Sunday March 7 2004 with 13 new episodes Reruns air ah several times during the week Check for show sho times 10 U t i uI CR r |