The Sopranos’ 2-Hour Successor Is Better Than You Remember

The two-hour successor to The Sopranos deserves more love than it got, though it certainly wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t received as such, but years later, the ending of The Sopranos ranks among TV’s best. It was a shocking, wildly untraditional period on one of the greatest TV shows to ever air.

The series dominated television for so many years that there wasn’t really a question of what creator David Chase would do next. He had earned whatever future he wanted in the industry. Maybe predictably, Chase didn’t work at the same rate required to make a hit HBO show, directing only two movies since.

The first was Not Fade Away in 2012, but it was the second that got people’s attention. The Many Saints of Newark premiered in 2021, promising an unexpected return to the world of The Sopranos. The trailer was a heart-pounding flashback to the series, set years before the show, with a young Tony Soprano (played by the late James Gandolfini’s son, Michael) becoming acquainted with the life that would subsume his.

With old characters played by a slew of notable actors like Leslie Odom Jr., Jon Bernthal, Leslie Odom Jr., Corey Stoll, and Vera Farmiga, and a story about one of the oft-talked-about, but never depicted, figures in Christopher Moltisanti’s (Michael Imperioli) father, Dickie (Alessandro Nivola), The Many Saints of Newark was set up to be a hit.

Despite everything going for it, The Many Saints of Newark was a big box office bomb, though coming out at the very height of the COVID-19 pandemic certainly didn’t help. Reviews were middling, with a 72% on Rotten Tomatoes. Chase’s film was picked and pulled apart, with the general consensus being, “It’s fine”. However, The Many Saints of Newark is better than fine, and deserves a reevaluation.

The Many Saints Of Newark’s Biggest Crime? Not Being As Good As The Sopranos

The Many Saints of Newark had one of the most unenviable jobs in the last 26 years of moviemaking: following up one of the greatest shows in television history. If anyone but Chase had suggested it, they probably would have been laughed out of the production studio. With Chase attached, however, there was some hope.

It’s with The Sopranos that many of the film’s problems lie, in that it just wasn’t The Sopranos. The Many Saints of Newark could never be The Sopranos, not without the pieces that made it tick. The series is an exploration of America through the lens of rotten gangsterism and the unnerving similarities the “lawful” world has to the unlawful.

The Many Saints of Newark does have a lot of what made The Sopranos so great, fantastic performances, sharp wit and humor, and an understanding of the dark aspects of humanity, but it doesn’t have the modern insights of the show. Without it, The Many Saints of Newark is a somewhat more standard gangster drama, and on those merits, it’s quite good.

The Many Saints Of Newark Shouldn’t Have Been A Movie

Via MovieStillsDB

The other issue with The Many Saints of Newark is that it’s about three movies stuffed into one. One third is the story of Dickie Moltisanti, the other is the origins of Tony Soprano, and another is a retelling of the 1967 Newark riots. Each one of these stories is compelling, but 40 minutes of a 120-minute movie is not enough time to do any of those storylines justice.

A miniseries would have been the perfect way to tackle this tale, and Chase’s emeritus status with HBO probably meant he could have gotten it done. Even a small miniseries, of 4–6 episodes, would have been incredibly helpful in digging deeper into the storylines in The Many Saints of Newark that have clearly been ruminating in Chase’s mind in the 19 years after The Sopranos ended.

Release Date

September 22, 2021

Runtime

120 minutes

Director

Alan Taylor

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  Alessandro Nivola

  Dickie Moltisanti

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  Leslie Odom Jr.

  Harold McBrayer

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