One of the things I did during the pandemic was watch The Sopranos in its entirety — I had seen various episodes of it before but had skipped whole seasons, and that is NOT a good way to watch The Sopranos, so this was a very worthwhile undertaking on my part, and it also means that I am EXTREMELY PREPARED to see its prequel here. I am fresh up on The Sopranos! I remember almost everything that happened now! And if you ALSO watched all of The Sopranos over the last 18 months and need someone to talk to you about it, I am here for you.

Anyway, the prequel comes out on HBOMax (and in actual movie theatres) on October 1st — this is not an ad, just information, although if HBO wants to pay us, we’d be delighted — and as you probably know already, James Gandolfini’s son Michael is playing young Tony Soprano. (a) Those are huge shoes to fill, acting-wise, and I’m sure that’s even harder when the actor is your Dad, (b) Gandolfini’s death is still a gut punch, (b) this kid really looks like his Dad and I hope he’s good in this. (PS: I guess David Chase is quite irked that we can watch this on HBOMax, to which I say: Calm down, David.) (Having said that, that’s a very interesting and expansive interview with Deadline. If you have not watched The Sopranos, it is CHOCKABLOCK with spoilers.) Let’s see what all these folks wore to this thing! It was a hot ticket — and it’s fun to see the actors from the series posing with the actors who played their younger selves.

[Photos: Getty Images]