Did you watch the whole show? Tony Soprano is nowhere near as one dimensional a character as you make him out to be. He's regarded as one of the best TV characters of all time for a reason. He's a deeply wounded and fundamentally messed up person, and thats just it...its an individual thing whether you come to the conclusion that he's a terrible person or not. He tries to be a good person within the confines of what his life and situation allow. He just doesn't mentally live in the same world or by the same rules as the rest of society.

Tony Soprano as a character invented the anti-hero. You would never have Walter White if you didn't have Tony Soprano.

It goes much deeper than that. Walter White was always a bad person, jealous, tortured. He hated himself and his life, too meek and weak to do anything about it. The drug business didn't turn him into a bad person, it drew those facets of his personality out that were always there. What got him started was partially providing for his family, but largely his desire to turn his back on his "by the book" way of living that he had decided had betrayed him.

 

both cases are nature vs. nurture. no i didn't watch all of sopranos (just several episodes) - i just found it too distasteful. there's something about mob culture i find utterly disgusting. i hated The Irishman too.

as for the idea that walter white wouldn't have happened without a tony soprano, i disagree. how about dirty harry, charles bronson (mechanic), endless westerns with anti-heroes, heck luke skywalker's father became darth vadar - nature or nurture? lol

anyway, the escalade lives on, and the continental is dead.

 

Perhaps this debate is devolving....but.... One of the underlying themes of Breaking Bad was whether the drug business made Walter White into Heisenberg, or he really was Heisenberg living inside this supposed meek and defeated person, living a life of regret. Contrast Walter White's acceptance of the drug lord life to Jesse Pinkman.

 

Tony isn't stupid like someone suggested, he's actually pretty smart. Always strategizing. Looking 5 steps down the road as Artie said when he tried to kill himself.

But Tony is not genius level like WW.

As for WW being Heisenberg all along, not sure I agree. At first he wanted to just leave his family money, but he got sucked into it. He was great at it and he liked it. Then he just started winning (personally for his own circumstances....like letting Jane die) and that was it, no turning back.

Both Gandolfini and Cranston (and basically all actors from both shows) stun me with their acting. I've seen both shows so many times (but Sopranos a trillion times) and am still always in awe of their talent.

 

That explains it, you have to watch the whole thing to really get deep into the character

Its commonly held among TV historians that Tony Soprano opened the door for anti-heros like Walter White, Don Draper, etc, thats not my concept. Those other characters you mention are movies, not TV dramas.

HOW THE GODFATHER OF TV ANTIHEROES TONY SOPRANO CHANGED TELEVISION FOREVER

https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com...e-tv-antihero/

The Sopranos at 20: Flawed anti-heroes are now everywhere on TV, but they all began with James Gandolfini’s mobster

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...-a8717111.html

Brian Cranston himself actually said Walter White never would have existed without Tony Soprano.


Yep, exactly.