Backlash

Why people hate the HBO show with low ratings and huge buzz

What have you learned? Where do you go from here? Tom Flanagan takes questions from Anne Kingston

Myles McNutt is polling his readers on which show he should watch to fill a gap in his TV viewing experience. The unsurprising things about the poll are that a) Buffy/Angel is way out in front, and b) I voted for NewsRadio. What is surprising is that The Sopranos is dead last in the poll. Or maybe it shouldn’t be surprising: since the show went off the air, its reputation has not been in the best shape, or it seems that way from the many TV fans I encounter online — including big fans of the HBO approach that it helped popularize — who don’t care for it or feel it burned out early. That’s not a scientific poll of opinion or anything, but its cultural influence seems to have evaporated rather quickly.

Why it’s never been great and is probably as good as it’s ever going to be