Review Detail

Confession time.... I have never watched a full episode of The Sopranos.

I seen bits and pieces over the years, but I always seemed to miss it during it's original run. So while I am aware of the general characters, but I am pretty much oblivious to all the intricacies of the character relationships and arcs. Even after watching Adabisi's work print, I went out and bought season one to gain greater insight but it still sits on my shelf unopened.

So I pretty much went into this fan edit cold and open minded. And I was rewarded with a very rich and complex story about family. And when I say "family", I do not mean THE FAMILY i.e. The Mafia, for this is not Goodfellas or the Godfather. This is the story of a son, a mother and an uncle and how grief, greed and misunderstanding is their undoing. As Neglify commented, it has a very Shakespearean feel.

And this element of the edit I enjoyed. However, at times I found the story to be very dense, dozens of character's names and incidents are mentioned without always seeing them or getting a full explanation; particularly the subplot about the New York mob. The edit is very plot driven, almost at the expense of developing some of the supporting characters. For me, the character of Pussy felt underdeveloped. I never got the sense he was Tony's best friend, only just another member of his crew. Thus I just could not entirely accept Tony's anguish and spiral downwards when he believes he may have had Pussy mistakenly whacked.

But with that said, I still found the edit completely captivating from start to finish.
Thumbs Up. :)