The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 117

The family offer you can't refuse I Brian Courtis Bada Bing roadside strip club. And, frankly, the strain is beginning to tell. There's trusted wife Carmela (Edie Falco), a realist who craves respectability while enjoying the rewards of "this Sicilian 16-year-old Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), a choir-singing, straight-A student who dreams of Aspen and escape from the family; and 13-year-old Anthony (Robert Her), a mildly delinquent TV couch potato. There's also the venomous Uncle "June" (Dominic Chianese), the elderly, cranky and paranoid nominal boss who believes he should be treated with greater respect; the trigger-happy nephew Christopher (Michael Imperioli), who wonders whether he'd be better off playing himself in Hollywood; and Tony's wonderfully toxic mother, Livia (Nancy Marchand). According to Tony, the long-suffering Livia, "the queen of negative wore her husband "down to a nub he was a squeakin' gerbil when he Now, half-senile and half- Peering through her wire-framed glasses, she is clearly intrigued by the lifestyle and thoughts of her suspicious and unpredictable patient.

It is through their sessions that we see his life. The memories are couched in euphemisms for her, though we see the realities. Tony tells her of his fascination for a family of wild ducks from Canada that landed in his swimming pool; he tells her he is not getting satisfaction at work; he tells of a dream in which his penis falls off and "some bird" swoops down and flies off with it. What can it all mean? The Sopranos is deceptive drama. We are amused when Paulie Walnuts (Tony Sirico), visiting a coffee shop where the cafe du jour is New Zealand Peaberry, complains bitterly about the rape of his culture, the international takeover of such "inventions" as calzone, olive oil and cappuccino.

The show seduces us with family charms and then blows this up in our faces with the firebombing of the Vesuvio restaurant, the brutal beating of a debt defaulter, and the "Moe Green special" (a shot through the eye) with which Christopher's psycho pal is executed. Chases's Mafia uses the media as its mirror. There are countless references to The Godfather movies (they're identified in shorthand as 'Two" and and enforcer Silvio Dante (Steve Van Zandt) is highly pleased with his "spittin' image of Pacino" in Scarface. Meanwhile Tony, talking to the shrink, bemoans the loss of Gary Cooper, a "strong, silent type" who "wasn't in touch with his feelings, just did what he had to do." Initially the language (though not the swearing) is difficult to pick up. Be patient, after an hour of The Sopranos you should know your boo-boos from your goomahs.

Who knows, you may even be able to distinguish Big Pussy Bompensiero from Little Pussy Melenda. You'll be one of the family. PUBLISHED BY THE AOE. PRINTED BY HANNAIIPRINT. 2S0 SPENCER STREET.

VICTORIA. SIM PRINCES HIGHWAY. MELBOURNE. VIC. MM.

NOBLE PARK, VIC. ACM 004 H2 702. TMwMon OCTOBER 24, 1999 These are difficult times for a Mafia mobster. Thanks to the Godfather, GoodFellas and an increasing number of friends who "have no stomach for the penal there's a whole world of wiseguys who know the family business. The golden age of la cosa nostra lies back in the '50s and the fun has gone out of it all.

All that protection, extortion, horse-head humor, loan-sharking, murder and mindless savagery just ain't what it used to be. It's enough to drive a middle-aged mob leader Joe Bananas. Which is how we meet Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), business manager for the Kitchen and Restaurant Workers Union, "waste-management consultant" and New Jersey underboss. Tony is a capo in crisis, a dangerously self-questioning middle-management mafioso who has started consulting a psychiatrist after weird dreams, anxiety attacks and fainting spells. Tony is also our introduction to the exhilarating, wickedly humorous and murderous series The Sopranos, a bloodily engrossing drama that the Nine Network, with exquisite timing, is bringing to us just before we all start squeaking about the TV ratings break.

No complaints, capisce? The Sopranos, created by executive producer David Chase for the American cable channel HBO, promises one of the great TV trips of the year. The show, which this year attracted 16 Emmy nominations, tackles family problems with a mischievously amusing blend of terrible villainy and romantic yearning. Here's a series that should explode from your must-see list with all the impact of inventive Mafia bookkeeping. It has action, comedy and the most intriguing set of Latin schemers and plotters since Claudius. Tony Soprano has two families to care for the one at home and the one that hangs around the i rf.

Edkot' MmrtMnQ Co-mdhMtor 8EAMUS BRADLEY KARINA BLACK 03 HOI 2138 03 9249 9902 -i The Sopranos, Sunday, Channel 9, 8.30pm and Thursday, 9.30pm spitting cobra, she resists attempts to put her into a home and looks back on her Mafia husband through rose-colored glasses. But Oedipus, eatapizza, Tony is enraged by the thought that he might hate his mother, particularly when reminded by the "shrink" that he allows "this little old lady an almost mystical power to wreak havoc." The shrink is another wonderful piece of casting. Lorraine Bracco, as Dr Jennifer Melfi, is elegant, coolly professional and, though like Tony's family from southern Italy, fully Americanised. AdvtMWna Mm "iMhMm is inserted ELLENIE GEOROtOU INTO me SUNDAY AGS. 03 9601 25M.