Sopranos Prequel trailer— Anyone else fired up?

[outofplace]

Watched last night with wife. The problem with assessing is that you've already got the "Sopranos is fantastic" soundtrack in your head so expectations are humungous right? I thought Nivola was a nice add as Dickie Jr. and young Tony was fine in conveying the hidden talents of Tony beneath the student facade. The best part was Vera doing Tony's mom, that was dead on to what we saw in Sopranos. (As for Liotta, he was really good in stuff leading up to Goodfellas, can't name them but that's my recollection.)

Field of Dreams, which was released one year before Goodfellas, is the only thing on his resume before the latter film that really stands out.

 

[Regan MacNeil]

If Ray Liotta were such a good actor, he would have learned how to hit left-handed.

 

[Alma]

Has Ray Liotta ever made anything better? I mean has anyone ever said, "oh this will be fantastic. Ray Liotta is in it."

Narc.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

These guys do this mafia podcast and are producing a true crime show for STARZ. They give it mixed reviews. Pretty good breakdown here.

‎Original Gangsters, a True Crime Talk Podcast: The Many Saints of Newark: Our Reviews are In on Apple Podcasts

 

[Driftwood]

A huge letdown.
The easter eggs were main thing it had going for it.
The positives: the aforementioned easter eggs, the acting of young Silvio and Paulie, young Liv, Michael Gandolfini, the writing of young Junior's character (poorly cast, though), the narration from the grave.
The negatives: there were many, and I'm not a complainer.
Needless to say, if I wasn't a Sopranos geek from way back, I might not have finished it.

 

[Starman]

I thought the young Silvio guy was awful, plus he appears to be a good 20 years older than Tony -- I always figured Silvio to be roughly Tony's age, just a couple years older.
They also screwed up Tony's timeline: in the original series, his birth year was established in 1959. In the opening scenes of "Many Saints," Tony is shown as being about 8 during the 1967 Newark riots -- fine.
But then in the next chapter of the storyline, it's supposed to be 4-5 years later which would make it 1971-72. But the problem is, Tony (now played by 20ish Michael Gandolfini) appears late teens -- 16-18 years old -- which he wouldn't be until 1976-78.

 

[Driftwood]

I thought the young Silvio guy was awful, plus he appears to be a good 20 years older than Tony -- I always figured Silvio to be roughly Tony's age, just a couple years older.
They also screwed up Tony's timeline: in the original series, his birth year was established in 1959. In the opening scenes of "Many Saints," Tony is shown as being about 8 during the 1967 Newark riots -- fine.
But then in the next chapter of the storyline, it's supposed to be 4-5 years later which would make it 1971-72. But the problem is, Tony (now played by 20ish Michael Gandolfini) appears late teens -- 16-18 years old -- which he wouldn't be until 1976-78.

One of my initial beefs was the age thing, too, about Tony and Silvio. I thought they were closer in age. I agree they got the timeline out of whack.
I just thought the actor playing Silvio did a good job of mimicking Steven Van Zandt.

 

[Starman]

Well, it seemed like he was doing an over-the-top caricature of Silvio (ie Little Steven) in his mid 50s; I thought if anything they should have based the look on VanZandt's Miami Steve look of his early ESB days. (Although probably not with long Gypsy hair.)

It was just kind of irritating they let kinda major continuity flaws slip through.

Chase supposedly had been thinking about the project for 5-6 years; the Sopranos is one of the most meticulously documented series in teevee history, with a huge rabid fanbase who could proofread the storyline for this kind of stuff.

I still liked it ok; none of this stuff was really story altering. It just would have been cooler if all the nitpicky details fit just right.

 

[Driftwood]

I think they missed a real opportunity by making Dickie Moltisanti the focus instead of Johnny and Junior Soprano. Dickie was dead before the series and only mentioned a few times outside one episode. The Many Saints of Newark, as done, could have been told with different character names, and it would have been the same story.
We know what happened to Johnny, Liv, and Junior, so getting their back story would have been better to me.

 

[Webster]

I liked making Dickie the focus and keeping Johnny Boy as a peripheral figure. Tony's lack of direction from his father was important in his life.

The problem is that they felt the need to do fan service with so many characters that it felt inorganic and check the boxes. Paulie was definitely older than Sylvio — remember he bragged to him about the fact that he went all the way back with Johnny Boy.

I thought that Dickie's explosions of violence felt a little unearned. My take away from the movie was that it should have been a 6-10 hour TV show.