When The Sopranos aired, it gave us an intimate look into the mob life in a way we had never seen before. Looking back on the show, its portrait of an Italian-American crime family is still as riveting as ever. However, as interesting as all of that is, the show has the new appeal of being a time capsule of its era.
As we lived through the 2000s, we may have looked back at the 1980s and giggled at the cultural quirks of that era while feeling as if we reached the end of culture’s evolution, but the fact is that the aughts were as distinctive of a time as any. The Sopranos debuted in 1999 and ran until 2007, capturing a better part of the aughts and the culture of the era, and it makes for a fascinating look back.
Among the elements of the show’s time is the fashion. We see the low-rise jeans the women wore, the long nails they had, and the big hair they rocked. Even the men were seen in tracksuits, a staple of the era. The show also touches on issues of the time, such as environmentalism, which A.J. gets into, and an exploration of LGBTQ issues, which were not present in The Godfather or Goodfellas.
Another sign of gangsters becoming more progressive was the way they sought out help for issues such as addiction and mental health problems. The show even explored gentrification, and we saw how neighborhoods got taken over by big chains. All of these examples show that The Sopranos is so much more than just a show about gangsters, and it is actually an insightful portrait of life in the early days of the new millennium.