The Sopranos: Complete Series Collection - BD

Was soll ich sagen? The Sopranos – entweder man feiert es oder man feiert es.

Terrific quality, excellent packaging, delivery from England to Canada in two and a half days. I have not had time to view all of the discs but the few that I have worked perfectly with exceptional Blu-ray quality. Two thumbs up!

Enjoying watching The Sopranos. Normally I do not like programmes with lots of bad language, sex and violence. This is not too bad, I have seen much worse....

The Sopranos is the greatest piece of work in any moving image medium that I know of. Quite a statement I know, but hear me out... and I will take you through the [obvious] facts of the case, as well as my own feelings on the matter. First of all without doubt. The writing is brilliant: pared to the bone realism interspersed with heart-wrenching drama, gut-wrenching violence, and heart-breaking emotion. Secondly. The acting is both superbly realistic, and yet highly characterised and supercharged with emotion. Thirdly. The cinematography [and it is a truly Cinematic TV series] is both beautiful and unflinching. It looks as fresh - and feels as gripping - watching the first series again now, as it did when I saw it 15 yrs ago. But for obvious reasons, I will mainly talk about the acting.... After last week's tragic news about the death of James Gandolfini i've been watching clips, scouring the web for his [often bit-part] movie performances, and reading about his life. If you want to see something of James Gandolfini the man, I would recommend his two documentaries for HBO about US soldiers experiences of PTSD - " Wartorn 1861-2010 [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC ]" and " Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq [DVD] [2007] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC ]." If you want to know about James Gandolfini the actor then purchase this DVD box set. He took a character who in baser hands would just be a 260lb New Jersey-Italian version of Godzilla, and together with David Chase and a bunch of genius writers, turned him into an Everyman for our dystopian times. We see the look of pain and childlike shame and helplessness when he tries to confront his mother, and then minutes later the cold eyed rage as he pistol-whips a junior goon with a telephone handset. Every episode is a roller-coaster of adrenalin, laughter, and seriously heavy themes. It says as much about the conflictedness of modern fatherhood and the hypocrisy of the modern Catholic church as it does about globalisation, and the amount that contemporary Governments and Corporations have ingested, and even added to, the ethics of Gangster-Capitalism. And not just Tony - every one of the leading actors give performances of incredible versatility and power. But every one of them benefits hugely every time they share the screen with Gandolfini. In his film roles he is a great character actor, even when his characters don't get as much screen time as they deserve [see Night Falls On Manhattan [1996] [DVD] [2001 ], or The Mexican [DVD ] - where the film noticeably loses pace, or any sense of realism after he is killed off with almost three quarters of an hour to go!]. But in The Sopranos he seems to both dominate every scene he is in, while bringing out the very best in his colleagues. It's hard to equate the Alpha Male who is Tony Soprano with the mortified, mumbling, man who speaks about his acting career on "In The Actors Studio: James Gandolfini" [available on youtube]. If you've never seen The Sopranos before, but have noticed the outpourings of grief over the death of James Gandolfini - from ordinary fans and from many, much more famous collaborators and fellow actors: then I beg you to buy this box set. You will not have spent a wiser £45 quid in many a long year. I am very jealous of the experience that is about to unfold in front of your eyes and ears [did I mention how good the music is?] for the first time over the coming days and weeks: until you too, are haunted by the sound of Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. No, really... you will. Tell me about it - I radically reviewed my opinion of Steely Dan's early career after listening to one episode of The Sopranos [can't remember which but it involves Tony's sister - another amazing performance]. For the rest of us who watched this series live, and countless times later on the tapes we made of it: get this and watch the beauty of the cinematography, the exquisite staging and settings - and most of all those magnificent faces - on a new TV or monitor and prepare to be amazed and touched again by this magnificent piece of art. 6/5! And God bless James Gandolfini. As an actor, and as a man, he had as much of an affect on me - in my late 30s - as Humphrey Bogart had when I was 11 or 12. I learned more about parenting from James Gandolfini than I ever did from any of the books I bloody read. Pity my children if you wish, but watch this box-set and you will understand.

"What, no f-ing ziti?" I clearly remember watching the Sopranos on opening night January 10, 1999. I was immediately hooked. I was equally excited for HBO to release the complete series on Blu Ray. When I heard the complete series was being released on BR, I cheered. This review is focused on the packaging and HD quality of this new Sopranos Complete Series released on Blu Ray. I am both a fan and a collector. The complete Blu Ray series was released on September 8, 2014, in the UK. The series is "all regions." I paid $145.00 US which included shipping. I choose the cheapest shipping, which I regret because of the time it took to have the package arrive to the States. I purchased the series on 9/8/14, and the package arrived 9/24/14 - 16 days. This is standard. I am impressed that Amazon UK sent a shipping feedback email. Unfortunately, the packaging of the box set was compromised in a few places, primarily on the corners of the outer sleeve. It is too bad that other groups don't take clues from Criterion, in particular, with special box sets (meaning, the quality of the paper weight of the outer sleeve). As a collector, it is noticed when these special box sets reflect better packaging (meaning, heavier card stock on the outer sleeve, in particular). That being said, the inner packing was not damaged. My box set is also having a encoding issue. The disc loads well and displays the menu. But after pushing the "play" button it takes several attempts for the episode to eventually load play. I use a OPPO BDP-83SE and it is up to date with firmware. I am noticing a small ripple effect that others are having the same issue. Last evening it took almost 20 to 30 minutes for the episode to eventually play. It is not a region issue because the complete series is listed as "all regions" and my player has been modified to be region free. Lastly, on the downside of the new box set is you are not able to select scenes for each episode. I was surprised this was the case. Here comes the good news. For me, loading that first Blu Ray disc was as exciting as watching the premiere. For Blu Ray geeks like myself, I am always disappointed when a Blu Ray disc is not truly full 1080p and is "letter-boxed, cut-back crud."Or, selected scenes have been restored to 1080p followed by other scenes that have not been restored to HD, which is an obvious method of cutting corners. I am glad to report that the HD quality of this Blu Ray box set is truly incredible! Every scene is breathtaking. It's much better than the first-generation intermediate Sopranos Blu Ray series released a few years ago. I feel like I am watching the series for the first time. It is spectacular! The quality of HD draws out details that were quietly hiding. This allows the viewer to be deeply immersed into the scenes. For example, being inside the HD "Bada Bing," I felt compelled to place dollar bills on my coffee table. Amazing! Lastly, the high level of HD also highlights the incredible acting. Well done, HBO! Fans will be happy with the special features as well. I am truly impressed that this series was released in true HD fashion. If you are a fan of the series, this is a MUST-HAVE purchase. The complete series will be released in the US on 10/4/14. I am curious if HBO will release a limited edition Blu Ray box set with a few cool bells and whistles. As of this moment, I am more than happy. "Here comes the Prozac!" I use an OPPO BDP-83SE Blu Ray player. OPPO players are bare none the best BR players on the planet!!