The Junior Sopranos | www.splicetoday.com

25 years have passed since then The sopranos debuted on HBO and changed the television landscape. It wasn’t necessarily the first “prestige” TV series, like the stylization of MiamiVice landed with great success in the 1980s and David Lynch created the first modern “water cooler” effect at that time Twin Peaks revolutionized crime fiction with the death of Sheryl Lee’s Laura Palmer. The sopranoshowever, had the same impact on television as the New Hollywood movement in the 1970s; David Chase’s show was cool, edgy, and delved into the darker aspects of anti-hero stories.

The sopranos established a standard of excellence for HBO, which quickly became the network of choice for adult entertainment. At a time when Hollywood films emphasized summer action films over true artistry, HBO produced challenging storytelling in the form of The wire, Dead wood, Band of brothers, Boardwalk EmpireAnd The leftovers. However, times have changed and HBO now competes with services like Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+. Under the domain of the recently formed conglomerate Warner Brothers Discovery, the network manages the previously established intellectual property within the Warner Brothers library.

The conclusion of Consequence Spring 2023 may have been the last of HBO’s “big dramas,” at least those conceived entirely in-house. HBO’s most recent efforts include a video game adaptation The Last of UsThe Games of Thrones Prequel House of the Dragonthe ever-expanding one True detective Franchises and upcoming spin-offs in It And Harry Potter Universes. Independent dramas, such as The Gilded Age And The White Lotusare now the exception rather than the norm.

A spin-off show based on a recent hit superhero movie might have been considered just a supplement to HBO’s supervillain series a few years ago The penguin is tasked with meeting the requirements of continuing a cinematic universe and filling the coveted “Sunday night slot” over which the channel has always had a monopoly. The series takes place shortly after the events of 2022 The Batmanand follows Colin Farrell’s criminal mastermind Oswald Cobb as he fills the power vacuum in crime-ridden Gotham City.

While The penguin seems ready to organize events that will pay off in the upcoming sequel The BatmanThe series foregoes the specifics that have plagued many comic spinoff shows in recent years. The majority of Marvel Cinematic Universe shows have aired on Disney+, e.g WandaVision And Secret invasionrequire the viewer to have extensive knowledge of the dozens of previous films. Although the aforementioned shows were ostensibly marketed as standalone miniseries, they ended with cliffhangers that had to be resolved by another project in the indeterminate future.

The penguin is radical in its aversion to these defects; apart from a few sparse references to the final act of The Batman included in the pilot episode, The penguin is almost free of connections to the superhero genre. That’s not to say there isn’t an interesting rogues gallery of villains, but the series doesn’t feature old favorites like the Joker, Mr. Freeze, or Poison Ivy. Rather, the central conflict revolves around Oz attempting to usurp drug trafficker Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown) by entering into a tense alliance with former Arkham Asylum inmate Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti).

The Batman was a harsher PG-13, but The penguin went even further by examining the rotting underbelly of America’s infrastructure. Gotham City is an easy replacement for Chicago or New York, as the series wants to pay attention to how dominant crime families are when law enforcement is bought and sold by the highest bidder. It’s hard to imagine that kids would get excited about Batman action figures The penguinAnd it’s not just because of the frequent disturbing content, including the standout flashback episode “Cent’Anni,” which discusses Sofia’s abuse at the hands of a mental institution. The series is as much about the demise of the American dream as it is about a supervillain. In monologues that James Gandolfini might have delivered two decades earlier, Oz raves about the rise of his empire.

The similarities with The sopranos Don’t stop there; Oz’s most important relationship is with his troubled mother Francis (Deirdre O’Connell), whose uncompromising mockery is almost certainly due to Nancy Marchand’s performance as Livia Soprano. Francis is portrayed as a more tragic figure than Livia ever was, but the concept of a tough, ambitious gangster who is actually a “mama’s boy” isn’t much different. Oz’s young protégé Vic (Rhenzy Feliz) feels derived from both the wide-eyed innocence of Tony’s son AJ (Robert Iler) and a bit of the ruthless fanaticism that characterized Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli).

If there is any error found in it The penguinit’s that if it had simply been an original mafia series, it might have been just as successful as the trappings of The Batman universe are more of a value-added element than an attraction factor. The question is whether you like a series The sopranos would be a green light in today’s entertainment landscape; Would a network as concerned about its bottom line as HBO take a chance on an inexperienced writer like Chase or a rising star like Gandolfini? The idea that a series can last six seasons seems absurd. The penguin is not “next The sopranos“But it points to a future in which HBO can turn studio-given briefs into inventive projects.