Tumblr is flooded right now with memories of James Gandolfini, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t post one of my favorite things about The Sopranos: The show’s opening montage, which I would argue is among the most iconic in television.
I was a late arrival to the show. Everybody I knew was raving about it, but I didn’t have HBO. So I did what has become normal for television viewing: I binge watched it on Netflix a year after it was on air. And then afterwards, I kicked myself for not watching it sooner.
Yes, the opening montage isn’t the most comprehensive display of the great acting that we saw from Gandolfini over the show’s six seasons. He’s just driving down the Jersey Turnpike and past many of the locations we would come to know intimately through the show’s run. But the way he inhabited Tony Soprano, it’s hard not to think of Gandolfini when I hear the opening bass riff of “Woke Up This Morning.” I suspect it will be that way forever.