‘Puriteens’ are supposedly against flagrant sex and violence on TV shows, and yet the 25-year-old series about mafia life is finding a new, young fanbase
This week, mob drama The Sopranos celebrates its 25th birthday. To mark the anniversary, HBO has created an official TikTok account dedicated to posting condensed, 25-second-long recaps of every episode from the series, prompting Twitter jokes about how Gen Z might actually watch the show now it’s on their favourite app. But in reality, young people have been Sopranos fans for a while now. The show saw a resurgence in popularity over lockdown when people suddenly found themselves with bags of time to spare. Many older viewers turned to the show as an oddly comforting rewatch, while Gen Z and younger millennials (including Charli XCX) got into the show for the first time.
On paper, Gen Z should hate The Sopranos. We’re meant to be puritanical when it comes to gratuitous shows of sex and violence on TV and film. A recent study found that almost half of us believe sex is not needed for the plot in most TV shows, with a general preference for storylines that feature “lives like [our] own”.
In theory, then, The Sopranos should be panned by younger viewers. There’s lots of sex, loads more violence, and it’s fair to say the average Gen Z’s life probably does not resemble Tony Soprano’s, a man who spends most of his time orchestrating elaborate financial scams, murdering people, or swanning around his McMansion in a white dressing gown and eating ziti. I doubt most of us can even relate to the more mundane aspects of the show, where people talk about “going online” and Tony dips in and out of therapy as he pleases. Like, hello, waiting lists are long and going private is expensive!
There’s also the show’s depictions of racism, misogyny, and homophobia to grapple with. Sure, anyone with basic media literacy skills will know that portraying some form of injustice obviously does not equal endorsing said injustice. Take the instance in season three where Tracee, a pregnant 20-year-old stripper, is brutally beaten to death by her mobster boyfriend Ralph Cifaretto. It’s an uncomfortable, terrible scene, but Tracee’s murder serves to demonstrate how unspeakably cruel Ralph is, and it deeply disturbs Tony; it’s hardly an advert for violence. But, still, it’s jarring to watch the series through a 21st-century lens and hear slurs thrown around so casually and witness most of the show’s female characters get killed, assaulted, or harassed (usually by their male partners). And it certainly doesn’t pass the Bechdel test.
One second from every episode of THE SOPRANOS – which debuted on HBO 25yrs ago today.
— Michael Warburton (@MichaelWarbur17) January 10, 2024
But this isn’t to say the show’s female characters are sex objects without any depth. Ella, 25, first watched the show during lockdown, and she says that series’ female characters are a large reason why she was captivated by the programme. “My favourite character is Adriana,” she tells Dazed. “She was very well written. She wasn’t just Christopher’s girlfriend, she was a character who had her own feelings and cared about her family but also, at the same time, wanted better for herself.” Adriana – spoiler alert – comes to meet a sticky end, but arguably the fallibility of female characters like her is precisely what makes them so interesting. “It brought to life the reality that if you are found to be working for the FBI and you’re connected to the mafia, then yeah, you’re going to be killed.”
Take Carmela, too. In a perfect world, Carmela would divorce Tony – or better yet, shoot him! – take his millions, and spend the rest of her days sipping martinis in floaty, silk bathrobes. But no. Though the couple are briefly separated and come perilously close to divorcing due to Tony’s adultery and domestic abuse of Carmela, she goes back to him for good after he nearly dies following a gunshot injury. “Tony did many, many things that warranted divorce, yet she still stayed with him. She always had a lot of faith and was committed to her kids,” Ella says. “But she also really loved Tony, even though Tony was not very good at showing his love for Carmela.” And, really, who amongst us has not had faith in a man who didn’t deserve it? A ‘good’ female character isn’t a level-headed, morally perfect one, after all.
The show’s well-rounded characters also appeal to 24-year-old Simon. “The characters in the show are true to themselves, there are no moments I can think of where a character does something completely out of character just to help the writers,” he says. 24-year-old George agrees. “Very few of the characters are black and white, most of them have good and bad qualities – obviously, some being more extreme than others,” he says. “The stories feel very realistic in the sense that there isn’t always a perfect ending all wrapped up in a bow. That’s how life is as well.”
me to myself in the mirror before i take my prozac pic.twitter.com/aKKYca6kRr
— sopranos out of context (@oocsopranos) October 1, 2021
It also helps that the show’s black comedy chimes with Gen Z’s penchant for deadpan, nihilistic humour. “I think its comedic moments are some of the ones that have stuck with me the longest,” says 24-year-old Alice, another fan. “For some reason, I am obsessed with the scene where Tony is singing along to Steely Dan’s ‘Dirty Work’ cut with the FBI trying to bug their home. It’s kind of a daft, obvious pun but I think that’s what makes it so great.” The show is easily memeable, too, making it extra appealing to younger viewers. One particularly popular Sopranos meme account is ‘sopranos out of context’, run by a 24-year-old girl who posts no context screencaps from the show, like this one which features Tony saying “Here we go, here comes the Prozac”.
Naturally, the show’s darkly comedic – but refreshingly candid – take on issues such as depression and anxiety also strikes a chord with young people, who are experiencing record levels of mental health issues. “I like the therapy sessions with Tony,” George says. “It shows how his issues can be traced back to his family history, and also how that’s reflected in his kids.” Ellie agrees. “The premise of the show is essentially ‘what would happen if a mafia member went to a therapist?’, which is just so interesting,” she says. “I think young people are particularly interested in this idea that you should try to understand your identity [like Tony does].”
Its style is another big draw. “Superficially, I love The Sopranos for the looks,” Alice adds. “Carmela and Adriana’s dedication to slinky tank tops and big hoops is a cause I can truly get behind. It’s simultaneously the antithesis of all things high fashion and still, at points, feels incredibly chic.” Alice isn’t alone in appreciating the show’s blingy, kitsch Y2K looks: ‘mob wife’ style is currently a huge TikTok trend, with the tag #mobwife racking up 38.5 million views. In these videos, photos of Carmela and Adriana decked out in bold animal prints and huge fur coats with French tip nails to match crop up a lot. Plus, if you’ve been to a British university any time recently, it’s likely not been lost on you that most of the men also dress like they’re about to rock up to Satriale’s, with oversized patterned shirts and FILA windbreakers.
Young people’s love for The Sopranos is a foil to the widespread – and largely untrue – belief that we’re all a bunch of sex-negative puriteens. We’re actually OK with sex, violence, and thorny themes – so long as they’re handled with care. I think that, ultimately, that’s the simplest reason behind The Sopranos’ ability to connect with Gen Z: it’s just… good. It’s a great piece of television. “I think that maybe this view of young people as super puritanical is simply overstated. There are still a lot of viewers that just want and enjoy well-made media,” says Alice, adding that the show does a deft job of “interrogating gender dynamics, mental health and generational divides”. Simon agrees. “You don’t watch The Sopranos to see Paulie go and beat someone to death, or to see Tony have sex with his goomah,” he surmises. “You watch it because it has some of the best writing that has ever been seen on TV.”
