With credits like Kolchak The Night Stalker The Rockford Files and Northern Exposure decades of television work gave The Sopranos creator and showrunner David Chase a strong sense of what would and would not work for network TV. Tag teaming with a strong stable of writers the HBO drama surrounding a New Jersey based Italian American mob family took on the shape of an epic text that would appeal to the masses while also commanding critical respect.
In the writers room the nuances of New Jersey mob life were meticulously explored in ways that both nodded to and departed from their gangster movie forebears the show shares over two dozen actors with Martin Scorsese 1990 crime classic Goodfellas for starters. Writers for the show would include Terrence Winter who would go on to helm Boardwalk Empire cast members like Michael Imperioli and Northern Exposure writers Robin Green and Mitch Burgess the latter of whom understood what Chase was going for a crucial part of staying in the writers room after its fifth episode.
Similar to fellow HBO darling The Wire the first season of The Sopranos acts as an enclosed arc but would leave its season finale as open ended as its infamous series finale. Primary baddies Livia Soprano Nancy Marchand and Uncle Junior Dominic Chianese are both put out of commission but new seasons would bring new antagonists a staple of the show where death always hovers and its players are forever doomed to look over their shoulder.
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