My rating of the show went from 9 to 7 after the third season. The first two years were gripping, compelling and intriguing, even if few of the actual gangsters were portrayed with even remote accuracy. The third season, while watchable and while filled with isolated interesting moments, doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
One minute, Mayme Johnson is Michelle Obama, working with grace, passion and diligence to bring everything positive to her Harlem community. The next minute, she's Carmela Soprano, standing by and enabling her husband's efforts to saturate the streets with heroin. The differences between Mayme and Carmela were, Tony didn't confide in Carmela about most of his ventures and Tony's primary business wasn't bringing lethal drugs to teenagers on the street where he lived. Ditto Bumpy. Is he a savior, working with his friends Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell to advance the rights and improve the lives of his people, or is he the direct cause of massive death and violent crime among his own?
Stella is also all over the place. One minute, she hates Joe Colombo enough to essentially put a hit on him. The next minute, she's Colombo's savior and ultimately, in a storyline that takes eight episodes to slowly play out, his lover. One minute, Stella hates her father and the next minute, she loves him. One minute, Chin is Colombo's mentor and benefactor and the next minute, they too are bitter enemies. Colombo is of course, a slick, smart top level gangster who makes Stella his most trusted business confidante, after she almost gets him killed and after she rats on her father. Wasn't he even slightly concerned that he might one day upset her and she might report his activities to the authorities or try to have him killed again?
One creature that we know is a villain, as clearly defined and as ludicrous as the Joker or the Green Goblin, is Wild Bill Harvey. Except he's a head honcho in the CIA. His job is to keep our country safe from menaces who are trying to make positive changes, like John Kennedy and Malcolm X. And if he has to supply gangsters with cocaine, kidnap women and stick needles in the arms of reformed junkies in order to do it, it's all for the greater good. Why would this man, who considered himself brilliant and indestructible, put his weapon down and take the hands of two dangerous gangsters whose daughters he just threatened, while standing at the edge of a building's roof?
Why did Bumpy turn down a rather generous and lucrative offer from the five families and instead set himself up as a relatively lone wolf who had to fight to get his product and who likely had a target on his back? And why didn't the Italians kill Bumpy, after he told all of the family heads to go f-ck themselves? And when did Chin become Bumpy's most loyal and faithful friend? Why would either or both of them turn down the five families and then readily partner with each other?
And then there's Malcolm X. Yes, if we know anything about the history of the civil rights movement, and the assumption is that anyone watching this show probably does, we know Malcom's fate. But did we need to spend ten episodes talking about it, warning him about it and slowly building up to it?
Again, I highly recommend the first two seasons of this show. I think the creative team needs to revamp, if they're going to go forward from this point.
One minute, Mayme Johnson is Michelle Obama, working with grace, passion and diligence to bring everything positive to her Harlem community. The next minute, she's Carmela Soprano, standing by and enabling her husband's efforts to saturate the streets with heroin. The differences between Mayme and Carmela were, Tony didn't confide in Carmela about most of his ventures and Tony's primary business wasn't bringing lethal drugs to teenagers on the street where he lived. Ditto Bumpy. Is he a savior, working with his friends Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell to advance the rights and improve the lives of his people, or is he the direct cause of massive death and violent crime among his own?
Stella is also all over the place. One minute, she hates Joe Colombo enough to essentially put a hit on him. The next minute, she's Colombo's savior and ultimately, in a storyline that takes eight episodes to slowly play out, his lover. One minute, Stella hates her father and the next minute, she loves him. One minute, Chin is Colombo's mentor and benefactor and the next minute, they too are bitter enemies. Colombo is of course, a slick, smart top level gangster who makes Stella his most trusted business confidante, after she almost gets him killed and after she rats on her father. Wasn't he even slightly concerned that he might one day upset her and she might report his activities to the authorities or try to have him killed again?
One creature that we know is a villain, as clearly defined and as ludicrous as the Joker or the Green Goblin, is Wild Bill Harvey. Except he's a head honcho in the CIA. His job is to keep our country safe from menaces who are trying to make positive changes, like John Kennedy and Malcolm X. And if he has to supply gangsters with cocaine, kidnap women and stick needles in the arms of reformed junkies in order to do it, it's all for the greater good. Why would this man, who considered himself brilliant and indestructible, put his weapon down and take the hands of two dangerous gangsters whose daughters he just threatened, while standing at the edge of a building's roof?
Why did Bumpy turn down a rather generous and lucrative offer from the five families and instead set himself up as a relatively lone wolf who had to fight to get his product and who likely had a target on his back? And why didn't the Italians kill Bumpy, after he told all of the family heads to go f-ck themselves? And when did Chin become Bumpy's most loyal and faithful friend? Why would either or both of them turn down the five families and then readily partner with each other?
And then there's Malcolm X. Yes, if we know anything about the history of the civil rights movement, and the assumption is that anyone watching this show probably does, we know Malcom's fate. But did we need to spend ten episodes talking about it, warning him about it and slowly building up to it?
Again, I highly recommend the first two seasons of this show. I think the creative team needs to revamp, if they're going to go forward from this point.