DVD REVIEW

'Sopranos' box set sure to be a hit with fans

By Jen Chaney
THE WASHINGTON POST
Saturday, November 15, 2008

More than a year has passed since "The Sopranos" bid its rather abrupt adieu to television, cutting to black and prompting one of the most heated reactions to a series finale in TV history. The absence of Tony, Carmela and the "Sopranos" crew has been felt profoundly by fans, critics and, undoubtedly, HBO, which hasn't found a series that strikes a zeitgeist chord the way David Chase's mafia saga did.

Of course, in a world where reruns and DVDs allow every pop culture creation to achieve immortality, "The Sopranos" isn't really gone. In fact, the Emmy-winning drama is back in a really big — really, really big — way with the release this week of "The Sopranos: The Complete Series," a mega-box set that contains 33 discs, including all six, previously released seasons of the show, tucked into a gorgeous, bound book encased in a jet-black linen box.

With a $400 price tag, this DVD set might cost more than most people's wedding albums. To be clear, that's just the list price. Several major retailers of both the bricks-and-mortar and online variety are selling "The Sopranos" for around $300 or less.

Still, with the economy dipping, it's natural to ask whether it makes sense to drop that much cash for a dose of Paulie Walnuts. If you're a serious "Sopranos" fan who doesn't own any of the seasons on DVD, I say go for it. The seven box sets (season six was released in two parts) contain every smartly written, profanity-peppered hour of "The Sopranos," as well as a sprinkling of previously released extras: featurettes, audio commentaries or both.

More than three hours of brand new material also lives on the two bonus DVDs, which deliver 10 deleted scenes; footage from a "Sopranos" seminar at New York's Paley Center for Media; a trio of "Sopranos" spoofs; a conversation between series creator David Chase and Alec Baldwin (a huge "Sopranos" fan and a man who can turn on "Serious Interviewer Face" like no other); and, best of all, a "Supper With the Sopranos" feature that allows viewers to sit in on two dinner-table discussions among cast and crew. That pair of extras stands as the best of the bunch, as both allow the viewer to eavesdrop on chats that careen from conversation about the controversial finale ("They wanted to see (Tony's) brains splattered across the restaurant. They really did," Chase says of his audience) to Edie Falco's realization that she forgot to wear Carmela's wedding rings while filming that final scene.

And just in case you thought that was all — bada bing! — there's more. Three CDs worth of music from the soundtrack round out the mix and guarantee that consumers can complete their full sensory immersion into Tony Soprano's wealthy-yet-seedy suburban New Jersey.