The creators of the iconic mob series “The Sopranos” don’t come right out and say it.
Still, the voices heard in “Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos,” suggest what we all know about the series.
You probably couldn’t make it today.
The two-part docuseries, now playing on Max, lets the show’s creators explore the roots of the HBO drama, the thinking that led to so many memorable moments and how it changed TV forever.
That’s not hyperbole.
For Edie Falco, who won three Emmys playing mob wife Carmela Soprano, the show forced audiences to process some uncomfortable truths about human nature.
That’s why it became a TV classic, a series that transformed HBO into a content powerhouse.
Now, in an age of woke storytelling and “trigger warnings,” the show’s seedy side might not be possible. The main characters could be charming, funny and sweet. They also killed without mercy, giving rise to pop culture’s anti-hero movement.
Sugar coating their immoral behavior would be a mistake, Falco and fellow “Sopranos” members say. Deploying trigger warnings before the show would be even worse, the actress added.
“You can push the envelope and let people be uncomfortable. Forgive me, but without a trigger warning,” Falco said, alluding specifically to a “Sopranos” sequence involving a woman’s murder.
She then spoke about both the show and art in general. Her comments couldn’t be less woke.
“The whole point is you want to surprise people and give them feelings that may be uncomfortable and have them learn to deal with them. That, my friend, is life. You’re not gonna be given trigger warnings when terrible things happen,” Falco said.
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Veteran “Sopranos” scribe Robin Green leaned into that sentiment, saying the show had the creative freedom to depict mobsters as they truly are. Mean. Vicious. Inhuman at times.
“We said things that nowadays would be frowned upon. We could have been mistaken for being racist, sexist, you name it-ist,” Green said.
Falco isn’t the only creative voice decrying trigger warnings. Several prominent British stars, including Dame Judi Dench, have criticized the warnings as an affront to art.
American actors have been more reticent to speak out, even those whose work has been directly impacted by them. Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese said nothing, for example, when his 1989 mob classic “Goodfellas” earned an AMC trigger warning.
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