David Chase changed the way TV was made forever. While he may not have killed network TV or the way it operated, he created something entirely else. He birthed ‘Peak TV’—the term coined for the golden age of television. There are still remnants of what was before, but the dominance of serialized, character-driven narrative has really taken over, and a lot of that credit goes to David and HBO.
Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos is a two-part documentary that delves deeper into the story of the guy behind The Sopranos and behind the scenes on some of the most iconic episodes of TV history. The first part very heavily focuses on the creation of the show.
While it’s always been known who Livia Soprano was based on, the documentary goes deeper into understanding why David decided to write The Sopranos.
David Chase sits in a strikingly similar room to Dr. Melfi’s (Lorraine Braco) iconic therapist office as he tells his humble tale. He always dreamed of being a movie director, but it was really hard for him to find a job in the business.
He was writing feature scripts, but none of them were going anywhere so he started working on network television. He crafted a career for himself in that lane, but his dreams were still on the glitz and glamour of making films.
Robin Green, a close friend of David’s who went on to become a critical Sopranos writer, told him to write about him and his relationship with his mother. David thought to himself, “Who would watch that?”. Then it hit him—what if it was about a mobster instead?
And so became the most iconic TV character ever—Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), and the rest is history.
Well not quite history, because there’s more of a story to tell there, which Wise Guy does really well. It’s the strongest asset of the entire documentary. It knows how to tell David’s story.
While it focuses on so much more, what’s tethering it back to the same spot is David at the heart of what’s being told. David, who’s usually very reluctant to talk about the show in recent years feels a lot more willing to share here. Not quite an open book, but willing to share most of the chapters of his life.
What comes with the vulnerability is an interesting experience he shares that humanizes his mother and maybe in essence Livia too. It’s sort of a heartbreaking reveal that really sells what the doc is.
The Sopranos was masterful at combining two genres—comedy and drama. It knew when to be serious, and when to make the audience laugh. Every single scene could go either way, and that was the beauty of the show.
The documentary takes a similar approach. It touches on some very serious issues with fantastic vigor while also sharing fun stories along the way. It’s very insightful to understand what went behind the scenes, and how these writers crafted these stories.
How they took what was happening in their personal lives and translated that into the episodes we know and love.
There’s some fantastic, never-before-seen footage of a speech that David Chase gave that perfectly encapsulates the impact of James Gandolfini. He gave one of the greatest TV performances ever as Tony Soprano, and it ate at him in his personal life.
It focuses a bit on that, and I think that’s the documentary at its best. I wish it went even further than it did, but I think that’s sort of where my issues with it start. There are so many stories out there about David Chase and Gandolfini that would’ve been fascinating to hear from David’s perspective or the cast’s perspective.
I loved the content, the editing was fantastic, and the interviews were great but it felt like it could’ve said more. This easily could’ve been an 8-hour documentary if it covered more between the lines. It felt like there were some cast members missing who could’ve dived in more, some writers missing, and some directors who could’ve been featured in it.
I think there was some great talk about some episodes but it doesn’t quite go deep enough into the iceberg on those, and some crucial episodes that aren’t even mentioned.
I could be wrong here, but it feels like a documentary that was at least 4, maybe 5 episodes that was cut down into what we got. While what we got did really work for me, and told a neat story I really do wish at some point there is that larger story told in a longer format. I respect this documentary for even attempting to tell that story, and it certainly succeeded in large part due to that.
To me, this documentary is like going to a restaurant, ordering a chocolate cupcake, and instead, they give you a big vanilla cake. I wanted chocolate, but how can I complain when I got something better than I initially expected?
I really appreciated that I got to see the explained interpretations of some of these characters and stories, and I loved seeing some of The Sopranos cast, and crew come back and talk about the show. If I look at it through that lens, this is a really great documentary.
The ending of the doc is also magnificently perfect. I watched it and thought to myself, “That is so David Chase.”.
Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos stars David Chase, Robin Green, Alex Gibney, Alik Sakharov, Terrence Winter, Lorraine Bracco, Michael Imperioli, Steven Van Zandt, and Edie Falco.
