The Sopranos

It's every bit as addictive as the first year (based on the three episodes given to critics). Though the first installment is a bit choppy, the second and third are filled with the kind of surprising stories, nuanced acting and hard-won redemption that make the show feel more like a mini-movie than a mere hour of TV. [17 Jan 2000]

Befitting its title, "The Sopranos" plays out like an opera; sweeping, subtle currents change directions gradually but powerfully. [16 Jan 2000]

As fine as these opening episodes are, they're not quite as good as last season's final run. [14 Jan 2000]

The story's a good one, all right, and beautifully related--but there's a lot more going on in "The Sopranos" than good storytelling. This is one of the most unpretentiously profound and troubling dramas in the history of American television. [16 Jan 2000]

[It] could be the best TV series of our times. Not for everyone, no. But for what it is, The Sopranos is near magical. [16 Jan 2000]

As unpredictably thrilling as ever. [15 Jan 2000]

Arguably the best reason to own a TV set.

Watching the first couple of episodes once again I am marveling at how good the show really is. [16 Jan 2000]

Even this early 'The Sopranos' has displayed the depth that is its most stunning quality.

"The Sopranos" remains a showcase for ferociously distinctive writing, inventive direction and brilliant portrayals of surprisingly, even disturbingly, sympathetic multilayered characters by a perfectly cast group of actors who hold back nothing. [14 Jan 2000]

Jammed with characters and story lines, it has a Dickensian quality in its ability to capture time and place with precision. It is almost never predictable, avoiding the cliches of the Mafia genre even while it revels in them. Just when you think a story line is going in a particular direction, the show will suddenly shift gears and veer off into unfamiliar terrain without stretching plausibility to the breaking point. [16 Jan 2000]

It's difficult to single out any particular aspect of the show: It's just plain brilliant. [13 Jan 2000]

Can the second season possibly be as good as the first? Judging from the first three new episodes, the answer isn't just "yes." The answer is that it might be even better. [16 Jan 2000]

Chase has kept his vision unspoiled despite the torrents of praise, hyperbole, and Emmy nomination that have rained down on his show. Yes, the exhilarating sense of discovery that electrified the first season of "The Sopranos" is gone; the first cut is always the deepest. But last season's revelatory buzz is replaced by a certainty that this show has got legs, that the writing is as comic and edgy as ever, and that Chase has a few new monsters up his sleeve. [14 Jan 2000]

The new episodes are brilliant, proving the first season wasn't a fantastic fluke. [14 Jan 2000]

"The Sopranos" ... continues to shock, stun and amaze. It is why you get HBO, why you get cable, why you get a television. [12 Jan 2000]

"The Sopranos," with 13 hours a year to work with instead of a feature film's 2 1/2, tops, has the time to show the way human communication really works: Matters of the greatest consequence stem from misunderstandings and misinterpretations. It insinuates viewers so thoroughly and convincingly into the soul of a man like Tony Soprano that the result becomes universal. [14 Jan 2000]

Critics justly extolled The Sopranos for its brilliant blend of compelling drama and mordant humor, and the first three episodes of 2000 contain no signs of slippage.

Miraculous ... One of the myriad greatnesses of The Sopranos is that, to paraphrase the Godfather paraphrase that Steven Van Zandt's Silvio frequently quotes, it keeps pulling you back in — back in on yourself, appealing to your basest instincts, to your fundamental urge to hear a bloody story well told.

Viewers should expect a bit of exposition before the series shifts into high gear. By the third episode, bada bing, it's off and running. [13 Jan 2000]

As outstanding as The Sopranos has been, and as terrific as it could be in the long run, it will never have the reach or pop-culture impact of Seinfeld or ER, much less M*A*S*H or even Saturday Night Live - all true TV icons of the last quarter century. [22 Jan 2000]

The second season is as good as the first -- just different. [13 Jan 2000]