ESPN.com columnist Jason Whitlock goes after “The Sopranos” for what he calls an underwhelming fifth season, at once employing every unconvincing cliché about the show that we’ve all heard a couple dozen times- not enough violence, too slow, the dream sequence sucked, etc. I won't rebut the arguments one by one, 'cause I've done it all before (search the site if you want to see).
The only original idea in the piece is a tortured metaphor that Thomas Friedman would be proud of: “Sopranos” is having a “losing season”- and what do once-great sports teams do in losing seasons? Fire the coach, of course. Yes, Whitlock says that this year of “The Sopranos” is so bad that its creator, David Chase, should be dismissed and replaced by David Simon, who created the other great HBO crime drama, “The Wire.”
Now I agree that “The Wire” is brilliant- but it’s a totally different kind of show, a streetwise, gritty cop show, whereas “Sopranos” is about family/Family dynamics. Subbing Simon for Chase would be like if the Yankees fired Joe Torre and replaced him with Mike Shanahan.
The metaphor was likely inserted by Whitlock in order to justify putting a “Sopranos” argument in his sports column. But he's apparently unaware that nothing on ESPN.com is ever about sports anymore, i.e. John Kruk’s recent exegesis on Roman Polanski.
The bottom line is this: even if you didn’t like the dream sequence, this hasn’t been a losing season. There have been maybe two not-so-good episodes out of 11, giving the “team” a record of 9-2. So what if they were 13-0 in Season 1… the squad may be aging (especially Reggie Miller-like superstar-turned-benchwarmer Uncle Junior), but one important fact remains: they’re still the best team in the league.
Besides, I met a few of the front office people the other week, and I assure you, they’re very happy with their coach.
A footnote:
As for the “West Wing” finale, that was beneath even comment. It sucked. Suckity, suckity, sucked. One coach already quit; it might now be time for contraction.
That was the finale of the West Wing? In that case, I'll go from reserving judgement to saying that it sucked as hard as a black hole.
Posted by: Bill McCabe at May 21, 2004 03:13 PM