See a shrink, of course. That’s the premise of HBO’s wickedly amusing new drama The Sopranos. In the debut episode, which aired Sunday and will be rerun throughout this week, New Jersey ““waste-management consultant’’ Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) suffers a series of panic attacks that land him, reluctantly, in the office of Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco). He’s got issues, all right–with both of his ““families.’’ His widowed mother (Nancy Marchand) is deteriorating quickly but refuses help. His wife (Edie Falco) is wise to his infidelity and fights constantly with their teen daughter. What’s more, says Soprano, ““I’m not getting any satisfaction from my work.’’ Thanks to his half-cocked nephew (Michael Imperioli) and bitter Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese), the rackets just ain’t what they used to be.
Watching Soprano mercilessly beat a debtor, you figure he deserves to be miserable. But watching him try to reconcile his Old World ethos with the touchy-feely times is alternately affecting and hilarious. He’s an apt ’90s antihero: a paisano on Prozac.
