Name: How 'The Sopranos' Became the Hottest Show of 2020
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How 'The Sopranos' Became the Hottest Show of 2020

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In the last month, , about Michael Jordan and the 1998 Chicago Bulls, has and dominated the cultural conversation (it surely helps to have no other sports to talk about right now). But it’s not the only show starring an ornery, megalomaniacal and larger-than-life figure and his colorful turn-of-the-millennium supporting cast that you probably can’t seem to get away from if you’re spending any (all) of your time on social media during social distancing.The Sopranos, the James Gandolfini-starring crime family drama that took HBO to new heights of relevance and jump-started the Prestige TV era upon its 1999 debut, is “back,” and being binged by seemingly everyone. We’re talking older fans on their sixth rewatch, as well as millennial and Gen Z fans immersing themselves in it for the first time—27-year-old pop star Charli XCX mentioned that she was briefly pausing work on her new album to burn through three episodes—and .The numbers support the anecdotal evidence. According to stats provided by HBO, viewership of The Sopranos has skyrocketed 179% through the network’s on-demand HBO NOW service in the weeks since stay-at-home restrictions went into effect, from the four-week period before. The only shows that have outpaced it on HBO NOW during this period are the (which just finished airing its third season) and the stratospherically popular , which has been off the air for a year now.“I’ve definitely seen a lot of people pinging me since the quarantine started, saying, ‘Well, now is finally the time! I’m gonna watch The Sopranos,’” says Alan Sepinwall, co-writer of The Sopranos Sessions and chief television critic for Rolling Stone. “A lot of people [are] using the quarantine as an opportunity to finally watch or rewatch different shows they’ve had on their list for a while. But this is definitely one of the high ones, just because of its importance in TV and pop cultural history.”One such viewer seizing on that opportunity is culture writer and journalist , who started on his Sopranos odyssey in April. “I haven't owned a TV since college and the prospect of watching 83 hours of a single Prestige Drama always seemed daunting in a way that watching every 30 Rock episode three times somehow didn't,” he says. “It became an Easter egg that I wanted to save for later in life... A biblical plague seemed to really be the [appropriate] time.”He’s certainly not alone in feeling that way. Socially distancing has given countless viewers who’d put off committing to the show’s six seasons and 86 episodes the proper setting, timeframe and motivation to dig in. HBO also provided a push by making several of their most popular current and older titles, including The Sopranos, for non-subscribers via HBO Now for most of April—with the show ranking as the most-watched series overall among all free series, and the series premiere the most-watched episode, according to the channel.“I tried watching it when I first bought it but I was in a more chaotic living situation where I couldn't commit,” says Laura Snapes, deputy music editor for The Guardian, who started the show just before the pandemic hit the U.K. “I think the first season requires immersion to get into the pace. I really had to concentrate for the first six episodes.”Viewers might also find the show’s ultimately cynical perspective resonating especially loudly during a pandemic. The Sopranos is, at its core, a show about the feeling of being a part of the final days of something that used to be great—and about men doing whatever it takes to maintain whatever power they have left, with no regard for who else gets hurt in the process. The parallels to our country’s current situation shouldn’t be hard to spot.“I think its belief that the world is sort of hopelessly ruined, and American is hopelessly ruined… really apply quite well to this [moment],” Sepinwall says. “The idea of us being at the end of something feels very applicable to right now, in terms of you just look at how badly we f--ked this up.” (Similarly, Weiss sees obvious comparisons between the Soprano family and the “dim dynastic clan obsessed with loyalty, omerta, and artery-clogging smoked meats” currently occupying the White House.)The timing also worked out well for The Sopranos to be one of the official marathon-watch shows of the pandemic—joining the likes of The Wire and Tiger King—because two of the show’s most beloved alums are joining in the binging. Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirippa, who portrayed protagonist Tony Soprano’s hot-headed heir apparent Christopher Moltesanti and Tony’s long-suffering brother-in-law Bobby Baccalieri, launched in April. Each installment features the two real-life friends watching an old episode, and discussing both their memories of making it, and their new impressions while bracing it for the first time in two decades.At first, concerns surrounding the growing pandemic had the duo planning to delay the pod’s previously announced April 2020 debut. “We were depressed. We figured, ‘Who the hell needs a podcast?’” Imperioli says. But the response from the Sopranos faithful to the podcast’s announcement inspired them to give it a try anyway: “We got a lot of fans saying, ‘Hey, we’re in quarantine, binge-watching The Sopranos, where’s the podcast?’ A lot of people… so, we figured out a way to do it remotely.” (Imperioli is also bowled over by the number of Gen Z fans broadcasting their love of the show through Instagram memes: “The audience who watched it with us grew older with us, and we’ve always had them—but this whole new generation was a big surprise.”)Sepinwall thinks one of the big reasons for the show’s high level of modern-day discovery is simply a question of increased access. “There was a long period where if a show did not exist on Netflix, it did not exist to a lot of the binge-viewing audience,” he explains. “And now because of [HBO’s] Amazon Prime deal, and the fact that there’s now HBO Now and HBO Go and all these other different ways to [watch], that barrier has gone down a lot.” (Schirippa also asserts that only about 11 million viewers were subscribed to HBO during the show’s original run: “I mean, that’s nothing; there’s probably more people watching it now than did back then!”)Most PopularAs for the show’s appeal to younger viewers, Sepinwall thinks the show’s hands-on nature may be giving a more plugged-in generation something they feel they’re missing out on. “They’re out in the world, at a time when people were not as buried in their phones, buried in their devices as they are now,” he explains. “And everyone’s hugging and kissing on the cheek and shaking hands… it’s a very physical kind of thing.”That sense of physical intimacy, even the most PG-rated kind, obviously holds a special appeal in the age of COVID-19, when just watching the Sopranos crime family drinking and gossiping together outdoors seems impossibly decadent. “I would give anything to sit outside Satriale's and eat a gigantic deli sandwich, or go to Artie Bucco's and be served the chef's special pasta,” Snapes says.Ultimately, the biggest explanation for The Sopranos’ enduring and rebounding popularity might be the simplest. Imperioli recalls a conversation with Chase before the podcast’s debut where the show’s creator asked him why he thought it had made the jump to Gen Z. “I said, ‘You know, I don’t really mean to be flippant, but I think it’s just ‘cause it’s really, really good,’” the actor recalls.Sepinwall is particularly pleased to see that the new audience for The Sopranos—the ones who grew up on later Prestige TV dramas that he says “only exist because of The Sopranos”—is receiving it much the same way he did 20 years ago as a critic for the Newark-based Star Ledger: “The most gratifying thing [is those younger viewers] looking at this and saying, ‘No, it does hold up.’ They’re actually saying, ‘This is still one of the greatest—if not the greatest—shows ever made.’”The Sopranos actors discuss their new podcast, life in isolation, and how their characters would react to the coronavirus crisis.

In the last month, , about Michael Jordan and the 1998 Chicago Bulls, has and dominated the cultural conversation (it surely helps to have no other sports to talk about right now). But it’s not the only show starring an ornery, megalomaniacal and larger-than-life figure and his colorful turn-of-the-millennium supporting cast that you probably can’t seem to get away from if you’re spending any (all) of your time on social media during social distancing.The Sopranos, the James Gandolfini-starring crime family drama that took HBO to new heights of relevance and jump-started the Prestige TV era...

How 'The Sopranos' Became the Hottest Show of 2020

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