The Sopranos: Selected Scripts from Three Seasons
by David Chase, Soprano Productions Inc., Home Box Office

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• ISBN13: 9780446679824
• Condition: New
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Book Reviews of The Sopranos: Selected Scripts from Three Seasons

Book Review: GREAT writing...GREAT READING...shows why this show is GREAT
Summary: 5 Stars

David Chase's book of Sopranos scripts is an example of superlative writing -- writing so GREAT that these scripts read like a novel. Even if you've never watched the Sopranos, these scripts will make it hard for you to put this big-sized paperback book down (and not read it AGAIN). And, most interestingly, these scripts show you how multi-layered this program is -- and leave some tantalizing questions open for YOU to decide in a more informed and satisfying way than if you only quickly viewed the final filmed product.

It's just as compelling reading these shows as watching them -- except that here you get the compete stage directions, directions to actors about their characters' motivations,
emotions and expressions. You catch every single hilarious zinger (many of which can't be posted here since it's a family site!) and every single foreshadow or callback symbol (the ducks, symbolic in the pilot, fly overhead in a V formation during the College episode) that you may have missed. This is a SUPERB book for Sopranos fans and non-Sopranos fans alike since it starts with the pilot episode, introducing the characters and the premise of a family man Mafia boss from a dysfunctional family who is in psychiatric analysis.

This book also includes four other all-time most fascinating and gripping Sopranos episodes: College (Tony takes his daughter on a college interview, sees a mob informant and strangles him); The Happy Warrior (Tony tries to keep childhood pal David Scatino away from his gambling operations but his friend insists on sneaking in, gets in debt, and his FIRST payment is his son's SUV, which Tony unsuccessfully gifts to his horrified daughter); The Knight In White Satin Armor (Tony's mistress tries to do herself in while Tony's sister Janice shows a genetic lack of impulse control by murdering her abusive newlywed mob husband); and Pine Barrens (the famous tour de farce with Christopher and Paulie getting stranded out in a cold forest after a botched attempt to kill an agile Russian gangster).

In his introduction, Chase notes how his ideal is that each episode stands alone as a separate film, a goal not always achieved but achieved in each of these selections, especially College. The writing's quality shines through with each line, each description -- even built-in directions on dialogue's timing. Some other highlights:

--PACING: When sister Janet angrily shoots her new hubby the script aims for something fast and furious. It comes across much more jarring on film.
--THE SHOW'S CREATION: Chase explains how each episode has at least three separately written strands that are literally cut and scotch taped into the script so plotlines go back and forth. Noting that The Sopranos was rejected by all four networks, Chase calls its exile to HBO "the best thing that could have happened because there's no way that the show we now see could have wound up on the screen of network television."
--NUANCES: Judge for yourself exactly how even at an early juncture Tony's not-so-Mom-of-the-year Livia wanted to see him bumped off. The scripts also bring out the lust and final-restraint in Tony's wife Carmela's wannabe affair with "schnorer" family priest Father Phil and Tony's suspicions. "What did the two of you do for 12 hours? Play name that Pope?" Tony asks her.

Like a great symphony, the final page of this book's final script (Pine Barrens) has a theme bringing this book full circle when a frustrated Tony asks his psychiatrist: "Why does everything have to be so hard? I'm not sayin' I'm perfect but I do the right...thing for my family. Doesn't that count for anything?"

Read the Sopranos book of scripts...then YOU decide...

Summary of The Sopranos: Selected Scripts from Three Seasons

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