Movies Mad Men & Sopranos - the rundown

[LZA]

I just started my 4th season of Mad Men. It's just like the Sopranos where it kinda started slow but really picked up.


I see a lot of similarities between the 2 shows. I was wondering if anyone else noticed to...

2 businesses - One legal and one not

2 complex main characters who are well off but have different issues...

The 2 characters are also known as/referred to by different names

BOTH are womanizers (I never thought I'd see anyone get more woman as a married man than Tony...Until I met Don).

Both have a diverse crew of diverse personalities

Both showed dream sequences to tell the story...

It even looked like they were in the same place with the hotel scenes: Check it out

  Show   Hide

Both have children. an older daughter who seems really smart, and the younger son who gets into more trouble (granted Don's children are young)

I'm looking forward to watching more Mad Men... Maybe this list will change in later seasons...

There are obvious differences though or parallels to other shows. Like the casting of actresses and actors of mad men can come out of a modeling agency, like the TV Series Smallville; Sopranos has some good looking people, not not as much as mad men...

Is there anything anyone notices in these shows, or other shows that can be considered the same as or completely different from their other favorite shows?

@Stella 1977 , @wildcard , What do you guys think? You've just recently watched both of these particular shows.

(This post was last modified: 07-19-2019, 05:30 PM by LZA.)

[Stella 1977]

@LZA Tony's "job" allows him to kill people which Don cant do. But Don can use his privileged position in legit life to cause all kinds of damage and get away with it. But I think the fact that Tony was exposed to criminal activity as a child and decided to join in whereas equally exposed young Dick Whitman ran away means Tony is more evil.

Look at it this way, Dick Whitman stole Don Draper's identity to get ahead in life after accidentally killing him. Tony would have done it deliberately. Tony Soprano and Don Draper
are complex characters, each with their own conflicts, neuroses, and supporting
characters.

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@LZA The Sopranos is about a gangster attempting to
stave off attempts on his life, and Mad Men concerns an advertising executive in 1960s New York City. But the showrunner of Mad Men, Matthew Weiner, worked on The Sopranos for its final two seasons, and through interviews and the texts themselves, it is clear that David Chase, who ran The Sopranos, had great influence on Weiner and his show.

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@LZA

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq3OI9zpvEY

(This post was last modified: 07-20-2019, 05:22 AM by Stella 1977.)

[LZA]

@Stella 1977 I KNEW I saw that name somewhere else... That makes more sense that he worked on The Sopranos

I'm not saying he stole ideas, or that they are completely parallel, but there are interesting similarities in the 2 series... Part of this "rundown" can also be the differences within the similarities...

For instance: If ANYONE has the right to become a cold-blooded killer it would be Don... Asshole father, prostitute mom who died and a bitch stepmom... I'm going to venture a guess and say Don grew up with LESS love than Tony... Tony at least had his dad... Don had no one. The fact he became a success is amazing...

A similarity is both had to worry that their facade would crumble... Don with his secret, tony with the feds finally arresting him. It's almost like neither can have a peaceful life...

Don proves you don't need to follow what is set as far as family life, while Tony followed in the family footsteps since it appeared there was no other choice. It was probably easier for Don to turn like Tony than Tony to live a law-abiding life like Don, giving their upbringing... But anything is possible I guess.

Your video says Tony had Melfi as a confidant, and Don was closed... Was Melfi a true confidant or more of a sounding board for Tony to practice his manipulation... keeping his darkest stuff inside?

As you said, Tony and Don are 2 completely different people, but I can see how much they have in common in some areas. They both are motivated by their pasts moreso than normal.

To me it proves good and evil are not polar opposites, but really different sides of the same thin line.

[LZA]

PS: I hated Pete Campbell at first, but the more I watch him, the more he's growing on me...

I guess I can say the same for Christopher Moltisanti. Took me a while to take him seriously.

[wildcard]

@LZA, I never got around to replying to this, but you are right. They are similar in a few ways.

They are rarely ever going to give us a tough male lead that is faithful to his wife and treats everyone fairly. It just isn't interesting enough. There are only so many vices, and Tony and Don pretty much had one in each category.

If I have to pick, I am partial to Tony, but thankfully, I dont