{"product_id":"this-thing-of-ours","title":"This Thing of Ours","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn a first-season episode of The Sopranos  Tony Soprano is once again in conflict with his uncle Carrado \"Junior\" Soprano. Tony is in no mood for conciliation  but neither is Junior  who warns his nephew not to return unless he is armed: \"Come heavy \" he insists  \"or not at all.\"  As a work of popular culture  a ground-breaking television series  and a cultural phenomenon  The Sopranos always \"comes heavy \" not just with weaponry but with significance. The cultures of the United States  Great Britain and Canada  Australia  and even Italy (where it premiered in the spring of 2001) have come under its influence and contributed to the cultural conversation about it. Talk  discourse  about The Sopranos has migrated far beyond the water cooler  and not all of it has been praise.  David Chases The Sopranos has also received starkly contradictory critical assessments. In the eyes of Ellen Willis (whose seminal essay in The Nation is reprinted in this volume)  for example  the HBO series is \"the richest and most compelling piece of televisionno  of popular culturethat Ive encountered in the past twenty years... a meditation on the nature of morality  the possibility of redemption  and the legacy of Freud.\" Others have condemned it for racial and sexist stereotypes  excessive violence  and profanity. These eighteen essays consider many facets of The Sopranos: its creation and reception  the conflicting roles of men and women  the inner lives of the characters  obesity  North Jersey  the role of music  and even how food contributes to the story.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44987015233589,"sku":"ByrdShop_0231127812","price":27.97,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780231127813_0a5f044d-c481-41ca-9a6e-bdcf9316849a.jpg?v=1772686748","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/this-thing-of-ours","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}