Friday, January 12, 2007

What The F*&#? "Sopranos" Scores On A&E

The cleaned-up version of "The Sopranos" debuted on A&E with the most-watched premiere of an off-net series in cable history. It barely edged past the off-net debut of "Sex and the City" by scoring an average of 3.86 million viewers for the first two episodes. Ba-da-bing, baby. I never thought I'd see "Sopranos" debut on basic cable, but then, I never thought I'd see "Sex and the City" do so as well. Both have been successes, but I still strongly feel that if you don't want to watch them in their original versions, you shouldn't watch them at all. You're getting a diluted, distorted impression of what the show is about. I can understand people not enjoying the foul language, brutal violence and casual nudity. I CAN'T understand why anyone would want to watch a censored version of a show they couldn't bring themselves to watch in the first place. What's the point?

2 comments:

priv8pete said...

I think it's wanting to know the story, but not being subjected to the lurid details. I understand that those same details are the fabric of the characters, but I can do without the language, violence and nudity. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't fully enjoy watching the show in its original entirety (as opposed to my wife who wouldn't), but if I had the choice I'd choose the cleaned up version.

Michael in New York said...

I still don't get it. If you don't want to see a movie in its original version (and I can fully understand that), why would you want to glimpse at it through a peephole that muddies the sound and cuts off half the image? I don't like gorefests, but if I feel obliged to watch a horror film because it's gotten such good reviews, I'm not gonna watch the airplane version where all the stuff that makes it great has been cut or changed. I guess it comes down to this: if you don't like violence and foul language and rough storylines, why in heaven's name would you want to watch The Sopranos?