I watched The Sopranos season premiere last night, and was disappointed, but I have been disappointed in that show for a while so it's no suprise.

For those of you who haven't read my resume (what? you haven't read my resume?) I ran all the original web content for The Sopranos and Six Feet Under for the HBO website for a couple of years. The process for this job was fairly intense: read scripts in advance of production, mine scripts for ideas that would translate to the web, pitch ideas to HBO production executives, revise, pitch ideas to show producers, revise, wring hands, smoke cigarettes, drink, gain weight, do drugs, lose weight, wonder where your late twenties went, get approval, produce web content, produce video content, fight with internal tech guys, drink some more, seek approval of content from show producers, seek legal approval, revise some more, beg to see final episodes of show before launching content because actual episodes and scripts often did not match, make FINAL final last minute changes, hold breath, cross fingers, launch.

And that's the short version. Seriously. This job completely took over my life for years. It was amazing because I learned a lot and gained great experience. (Unfortunately I will never use that experience again because they just don't make websites like those anymore and probably never will.) It sucked though because I was completely caught up in someone else's artistic vision for a long time, and I am only now beginning to work my way out again. I'm a sensitive flower. What can I say?

One of the side effects of working so intensely with this subject matter was that my television viewing preferences were altered forever. See, one of the main points of these two shows is to subvert the traditional television hour-long drama. They do this in a number of ways, through more obvious routes like using violence, profanity and nudity and discussing subversive topics. And then there is the fact that there are no commercials which gives the show a more cinematic feel. There are no scene ends, no neat teasers to keep you coming back after a commercial break.

Finally there are the themes and plotlines, the way these shows explore the dark side of life. Six wants you to know that people fuck up over and over again and sometimes never figure it out, that in fact, sometimes they even die before they have resolution. The Sopranos wants you to know that there's a lot of violent, angry, mean motherfuckers out there, and sometimes they kill people. The world is a violent place. Get it? Obviously the shows are about more than just these ideas, but that's how they get you, that's how they make you feel like you're watching something new and different.

So now I just want to watch something light and fluffy and easy when I watch tv. Or, at the very least, I want some sort of positive emotional reward. Reality television is great for that sort of instant gratification. You will never get that from The Sopranos. Ever. If you think you have gotten it, you have been fooled, because David Chase will take that reward right back. Because someone is going to fucking die in the next scene or at the very least, by the end of the episode.

Of course if you get your emotional rewards by seeing a major character beheaded then you probably are doing just fine with The Sopranos.

Anyway so it was with great dread that I watched the season premiere of The Sopranos last night. As it turned out, it was good and smart and funny, as per usual, but it didn't take me anywhere new, it felt just like any other episode. Then of course someone got killed for no reason, and I shook my head, because I feel like, at this point, I have gotten the point so many times that the point has turned itself inside out again, and now I'm just watching it deteriorate before my eyes. Now we're all just watching to see what happens to these characters. Will Carmela and Tony get divorced? Will Chris figure out that Adriana is now a snitch? Are Chris and Paulie going to finally kill each other this season? This is not groundbreaking television. Take away the old tricks and it's just a soap opera. It always has been, I suppose. But now there's no distraction from it.

Still -- it's better than almost everything else out there, so yes, I will probably watch it again this season. God help me.

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