Must See TV Sunday Night on HBO
May 27th, 2007 by alyoung
Everyone has a must TV night where they clear their evening to make sure they don’t miss the new episode of their favorite show. For my wife, its Thursday nights with Grey’s Anatomy. My evening of tv is Sunday night, and I have 2 can’t miss shows back to back. They are The Sopranos and Entourage on HBO.
This series remains one of the best shows on tv even after 6 seasons. It is reason alone to subscribe to HBO. I have an affinity for maffia type shows and movies with The Godfather, and Goodfellas among my favorite movies. The Sopranos however is not your typical maffia, gangster show. Sure, it is very violent and graphic at times, but the excellent writing and the development of the characters is masterful. Beyond the violence, there is a great deal of subtle humor and irony. David Chase the creator of The Sopranos is the best writer on television. I often watch an episode of The Sopranos several times in a week to catch some of the subtle things in the dialogue, or cleaver irony that may yield a clue to what will happen next week. Still, there is always an element of surpise, and a lot of times someone is “wacked”. The Sopranos is truly a thinking maffia show. It is much more than just the violence.
The sad thing is that the series will conclude this season with just 2 episodes left. Some shows stay on too long and lose its edge in quality, but The Sopranos are going out with the same level of excellence as it did the first season. Its hard to see how everything will wrap it in the next few weeks, or if there will be a logical conclusion. We can see it building to a violent ending, and a likely demise of several main characters. We have already seen the death of one main character this year, and nearly another. It won’t be the last. Just a matter of who and by whom. I will miss The Sopranos, but will enjoy the last two episodes. If you are not already addicted to The Sopranos, check it out on DVD or on reruns on HBO. It is destined to be a classic. Its that good.
Immediately following the Sopranos on Sunday night is Entourage, my other favorite show, also on HBO. My wife and I love reading US magazine which we subscribe to. It is a guilty pleasure, and fun to see the surreal life of the “stars”. Entourage is like looking into US magazine thru the eyes of a young successful actor in Hollywood. After an hour of watching The Sopranos, Entourage is a nice change of pace. The Sopranos is a lot of drama, and violence. Sometimes disturbing images are still in your mind, and you are still trying to make sense of where David Chase is going with all this.
Entourage is the opposite of The Sopranos. Not a lot of thinking required. It is light and fluff, and sometimes over the top, but I think an accurate portrayal of the superfical nature of show business. Entourage is a totally different genre than the Sopranos, but the writing and the development of the characters is no less superb. Entourage is a story of a young successful actor Vinnie Chase in Hollywood and the adventures of his entourage which is his struggling actor brother Drama and his 2 childhood friends. One of the friends Eric is his manager, and the other is Turtle which is employed as Vince’s driver. Their real job is hanging out with Vince. They do what any young, successful guys with a lot of money would do. They party. Each of the characters has their own unique eccentric qualities, but their existence is always centered around what is best for Vince as what is best for Vince is best for them. It is just a fun show to watch, very funny writing, and a lot of celebrities appear. With the Sopranos ending, I hope Entourage will be around for awhile to fill the Sunday night void.
