'Sopranos' returns with familiar traits, new surprises
By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service
When "The Sopranos" starts its fifth season in March on HBO, it will be unlike any other.
The basics remain constant — people will continue to make love and war. They'll get bitter, get even and get whacked.
"I've always tried to cram the show just full of this humor, suspense, violence, sex (and) great rock 'n' roll," David Chase, the show's creator and producer, said recently at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in California.
However, change is in the New Jersey wind. And that's partly because the fourth season ended with a power punch. Tony and Carmela Soprano separated, loudly and messily.
So when the season begins March 7, viewers won't get the usual view of Tony shuffling out of his New Jersey mansion in his robe, to get the newspaper. "The paper lies untended at the bottom of the driveway," says Carolyn Strauss, executive vice president of original programming at HBO.
Chase likes to keep mum on most details about the new season. But he says one of the biggest changes sprang from a news story he read. In the 1980s, many men were arrested under a new anti-mob law. "Those guys are now getting out of jail," Chase says. "They've served their time and they are hitting the streets again. So the show begins with what we call the Mafia Class of 2004."
One of those newcomers is Tony's cousin. He's played by movie star Steve Buscemi ("Fargo," "Ghost World," "Big Fish").
Buscemi has directed some "Sopranos" episodes (his "Pine Barrens" episode was nominated for an Emmy), so he'll be in familiar turf. But for all the changes, the show will keep many of its steady traits.
Michael Imperioli, who plays Tony's nephew, Christopher, says people keep asking him why the show is so good. "People have said, 'What is it? Is it the mob thing? Is it this?' I think it's because it's really good on every level," says Imperioli.
Christopher will continue to struggle with his fiancée, Adriana (Drea de Matteo).
Mostly, viewers will focus on the tattered world of Tony (James Gandolfini) and Carmela (Edie Falco). Tony continues to be a top mobster, Chase says.
