For class we had to write a paper based on one of two books. The book I wrote a report about was Everything Bad is Good For You by Steven Johnson. This was a great book because it showed us a different view of pop culture. Johnson makes compelling arguments proving that video games and television aren’t bad for us like we’ve constantly been conditioned but actually stimulate are brains.One thing  he talks about often are the differences between TV shows in the 70′s and 80′s and present-day TV. A show that was touched on a lot was The Sopranos.

The Sopranos is HBO’s hit series that centers around a mob boss and his family. Though the show sounds simple enough it is everything but. The show’s popularity is due to its many intricately woven storylines and multidimensional characters. Viewers must stay completely focused on the show keeping track of the cues, the many characters that come in and out of each episode and return for others as well as the events that predict foreshadowing. An article in Entertainment Weekly states the following about this hit series, “But really, at its sad, wise heart, The Sopranos illuminates the millions of moments of no action that make up the kind of life millions more of us know”.  The final season of The Sopranos, season 6, was all anyone at the time was talking about and the fans who had followed the show since its birth in 1999 had to say goodbye to the italian family.

Sources:

Shwartzbaum, Lisa (2006-2007). The Sopranos Retrieved: 15, Novemeber 2009.

Foodchuck (2007). Sopranos season 6b(part 2) full trailer. Retrieved: 15, November 2009.

Johnson, Steven (2007). Everything Bad is Good for You. Riverhead books, New York.