COVID-19, the slow-moving apocalypse, and The Sopranos: investigating new interpretive contexts

ABSTRACT

In 2020, 21 years after its original release, The Sopranos (1999–2007) experienced an unexpected surge in popularity online. Outlets like The Guardian and GQ were quick to label it as “the hottest show of lockdown” suggesting the show’s resurgence was due to its resonance with the unfolding pandemic. This article explores how the Covid-19 pandemic informed distinctive and new understandings of The Sopranos. I provide my own critical/cultural “pandemic reading” to investigate what exactly it was about The Sopranos that resonated so well during lockdown. In particular, this article identifies the precise textual elements of the show that facilitate historically contingent meanings. In the pandemic context, certain elements of The Sopranos take on a more impactful double meaning and the show offered an allegorical pressure valve. This article outlines how resurgent television can help us work through contemporary cultural events and how the temporal position we watch from can transform our understanding of an “old” television text.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• resurgent television
• The Sopranos
• storyworld
• interpretive context

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alexander Hudson Beare

Alexander Hudson Beare (he/him) is an Adjunct fellow at the University of Adelaide. His work explores the contemporary significance of “old” TV shows and how audiences are adapting them to new cultural and televisual contexts. His research interests are streaming platforms, TV audiences, media memory and gender studies. University of Adelaide Profile: https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/alexander.beare.