Product Description

If television programming is normally considered a wasteland, then "The Sopranos" may be thought of as a jungle: richly coloured, teeming with life, dark with mystery. "The Sopranos on the Couch" is a must for all who are already caught up in the excitement, as well as for viewers who are coming to the show for the first time. Yacowar helps us understand exactly why we can't get enough of Tony Soprano and that colourful mafia family that we hate to love and often love to hate! This pop-culture sensation is not only the most controversial series on television, but also the most provocative, thoughtful, and complex. Its language and themes have stretched the norms of commercial television, many characters and phrases having entered our everyday life. "The Sopranos on the Couch" is the first book to provide a compact, lively, and authoritative examination of each episode and season - the themes, inside jokes, and allusions - thereby putting the series into a broader cultural context.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #762595 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780826419224
• Condition: USED - LIKE NEW
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Canadian author Maurice Yacowar takes a more general and less forced approach in his study of the popular show, The Sopranos on the Couch: Analyzing Television's Greatest Series. Yacowar dissects each episode, character and plot line from the show's first three seasons. It's enough to make even an aficionado's head spin. This comprehensive examination also includes a cast of characters, listing all actors from Dominic Chianese (Corrado "Junior" Soprano) to Michele DeCesare (Hunter Scangarelo), and a list of selected Web sites. Casual viewers will easily bore reading Yacowar's book, but die-hard fans will surely want it for their collections.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Millions of viewers tune in each Sunday to see Tony Soprano, Carmela, Dr. Melfi, and their friends and enemies take care of the business of life and death on the cable-TV series The Sopranos. After some intriguing background on the hit drama, Yacowar deconstructs three seasons of the show, episode-by-episode, analyzing everything from thematic connections and similarities with the classic Godfather Trilogy to structure, musical score, violence, language, and stereotyping. Why do we watch the show? How can we feel connected to a man whose moral code falls so drastically outside the norm? Yacowar deals with all the questions and complaints and, like Dr. Melfi, gives us plenty to think about--not just regarding those important production values but also about how the series reflects popular culture. Give Allen Rucker's The Sopranos: A Family History, loaded with pictures, to fans who want the Hollywood version. Give this to those who want some substance. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"comprehensive examination... diehard fans will surely want it for their collections." -- Publishers Weekly, July 1, 2002

"exactly what the show deserves: an immensely readable, tack-sharp episode guide…Yacowar’s structural criticism doesn’t miss a trick" -- FFWD, Nov 28 - Dec 4, 2002

Customer Reviews

They're not really on the couch
Right off the bat, I realized that I would never get what I expected with this book -- a psychoanalytic assessment of the characters of TV's "The Sopranos." Rather, what you have is a light weight paperback with overviews of the episodes containing some interesting insight into character development and dialogue, but never really getting into the characters' heads. Perhaps we need Dr. Melfi to invite the other "family" members onto her couch and ask _her_ to write a book!

One of the few redeeming qualities of this book is Yacowar's comparison of the Sopranos series to Francis Ford Coppola's The
Godfather films, but you have to skip to the back of the book for this.

If you were hoping to really see each of the characters on the couch, you will be disappointed. If you are just a huge fan who wants to reflect on one of the greatest television shows ever created in a 1 hour read, then I would commend this book.

The Sopranos on the couch
We are reading this book episode by episode and then watching the episode. So far it seems to be very interesting and easy to understand.

Couching The Sopranos
Was very skeptic of this publication from the title name. Once I skimmed over the content inside, I KNEW I wanted it.

Inside you will be exposed to the reasoning for actions of the characters. It offers insight to their motivations and their way of thinking.

Very entertaining for those who want exposure that goes beyond the surface of the action you see in the series.