The Many Saints of Newark

🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿

🎙️ EPISODE 616: 12.09.22 This movie never really stood a chance. Any effort to expand on the world of The Sopranos is probably a bad idea. You can't improve on perfection and whatever you make (and however you make it) is always going to be unfairly stacked against the greatest television show ever created. That being said, I was actually very impressed with the effort here. The Many Saints of Newark is both a standalone thing you can enjoy without having seen a second of the series, and an intriguing footnote to the show full of overt fan service, deep cut references and answers to questions posed during the run of the program you probably didn't expect to be answered.

Stylistically, it's a vast departure, featuring a look (especially in its color-grading) unlike anything in The Sopranos. It's also pretty different from a tonal perspective. Using the backdrop of the late 60s Newark race riots as a jumping off point, it's more explicitly political than anything they did during the TV run. (This is not to say that the show wasn't political; of course it was. But it never focused on a race in America to this extent.) So the connection the series lies mostly in these characters' names and their mannerisms. And while that's fun — hell, maybe it's the only reason a majority of viewers even tuned in — it's also a little distracting. Ultimately, centering the action around a character we never saw (Christopher's father, played by Alessandro Nivola, who's great in the role) was the smartest possible move. Another (completely) new character — Leslie Odom Jr.'s Harold — is also meant to serve this purpose. But with so many threads and existing subjects needing air-time to appease the masses and connect the dots, his arc feels half-baked.

I still really enjoyed this on multiple levels, but it did leave me feeling like that this enough. There were episodes of The Sopranos and nearly all of them are flawless. It's not that going back to the well feels like a money grab or a nostalgia trip. It just feels completely unnecessary.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 615 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 617 ⫸

---

The Many Saints of Newark (marketed with the subtitle A Sopranos Story) is a 2021 American crime drama film directed by Alan Taylor and written by David Chase and Lawrence Konner. A prequel to Chase's HBO crime drama series The Sopranos, it takes place during the 1960s and 1970s in Newark, New Jersey. The film follows a violent gang war from the perspectives of mobster Dickie Moltisanti and his teenage nephew, Tony Soprano, in the midst of the city's 1967 riots. It stars Alessandro Nivola as Dickie and Michael Gandolfini as Tony, the character originated by his father in the series, with Leslie Odom Jr., Jon Bernthal, Corey Stoll, Billy Magnussen, Michela De Rossi, John Magaro, Ray Liotta, and Vera Farmiga in supporting roles. It was released on September 22, 2021.