The Sopranos (9 p.m. Sundays, HBO; repeats 11 p.m. Tuesdays)   A L S O_.T O D A Y Blue Glow Blondie is still a group: The reunion on "The American Music Awards" ___________________ Read and watch at the same time! Check out barnesandnoble.com's books about your favorite tv shows! ___________________   Y E S T E R D A Y "The Thin Red Line" Reviewed by Charles Taylor What was supposed to be Terrence Malick's long-awaited comeback is instead a clichéd, self-indulgent throwback to the '70s (01/08/99) "Affliction" Reviewed by Charles Taylor Nick Nolte sears as a cop trying desperately not to become his father in Paul Schrader's masterful new film (01/08/99)   R E C E N T_. T E L E V I S I O N TV 1998 By Joyce Millman Smits walks, "Felicity" stalks, Sammo rocks (12/21/98) Fu fighter By Joyce Millman Hong Kong action film vet Sammo Hung kicks some life into prime time in "Martial Law" (12/07/98) Heart of "Blue" By Joyce Millman Can the best cop show on television survive without Jimmy Smits? (11/23/98) Dancing with the Television On By Joyce Millman Forget MTV -- Beck, Elvis Costello, Sugar Ray and the Dylans find their place on TV soundtracks (11/09/98) Praise the Lord and pass the remote By Joyce Millman Christian values collide with big money on Fox Family Channel and PAX TV (10/26/98)   BROWSE THE TV ARCHIVES COLUMNS FEATURES       S A L O N E M P O R I U M FREE! 12-ounce bag of Salon Blend with a purchase of $30 or more. While supplies last.

[ J O Y C E_.M I L L M A N__O N_.T E L E V I S I O N ] married ... _________with_hit men HBO's wily new series "The Sopranos" depicts the midlife anxieties of a devoted husband, father and Family man. HBO's terrific new drama series "The Sopranos" is about a middle-aged New Jersey mobster who starts seeing a shrink after suffering from acute anxiety attacks. I know, it sounds like a "Saturday Night Live" skit. Actually, it was a "Saturday Night Live" skit, a long time ago, with a jowly John Belushi playing Don Corleone in group therapy ("Vito, you're blocking again"). Not that "The Sopranos" isn't meant to be funny -- it is, and darkly, morbidly, devilishly so. But the humorous aspects of a wiseguy in therapy in no way dilute or overshadow the story's dramatic integrity. "The Sopranos" convinces you that it's no more unusual for a made man to suffer from midlife depression, job burnout and stress than it is for any other late '90s husband/father/middle manager. Because, except for his tendency to maim and kill business associates, the paunchy, put-upon Tony Soprano is just like any other late '90s husband/father/middle manager. Family life is a lot more complicated than it used to be, you know. Both kinds of family life. The first episode of "The Sopranos" (which aired Sunday and repeats 10 p.m. Monday and 11 p.m. Tuesday) opens with Tony (the bearish James Gandolfini in an immensely charming performance) sitting uncomfortably in the office of psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco). He was referred to her by his family doctor after he collapsed at a barbecue on his son's 13th birthday. "Nowadays people go to shrinks and counselors ... What ever happened to Gary Cooper? The strong silent type?" grumbles Tony. But when the scrupulously professional Dr. Melfi assures him that their conversations fall under patient-doctor privilege, he begins to open up -- leaving out incriminating details, of course -- and the story moves out of the psychiatrist's office and into Tony's headache-filled, upper-middle-class, suburban baby boomer existence. On the home front, Tony's marriage is so-so; his flinty, wannabe society matron wife Carmela (Edie Falco) knows he has mistresses and isn't afraid to bust his cannolis over it. He's got two sullen kids: daughter Meadow (Jamie Lynn Sigler), a snotty high school senior who can't wait to go to college as far away from Tony and Carmela as possible, and son Anthony Jr. (Robert Iler), a chubby Nintendo-glazed donut who could double as the live-action version of Bobby Hill. Tony's widowed, elderly mother, Livia (Nancy Marchand), is stubborn and impossible to please; she's increasingly unable to live alone, but she lays on the guilt whenever Tony talks about moving her to a retirement community. (Marchand, who usually plays elegant patrician ladies like Mrs. Pynchon from "Lou Grant," is almost unrecognizable here in her housecoat and limp hair; she has a grand time playing a tough old broad with frightened eyes.) Tony's "waste management" business is also giving him grief. His late father's older brother, the whimsically named Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese), is a bitter fool who resents Tony's rise within the family; like the old dons in "The Godfather," he demands reparations (or worse) for the slightest offense. There's a power vacuum at the top of the Jersey mob -- the current capo is serving a life term in the federal pen and the acting boss, Tony's childhood friend, is dying of cancer at 45. Tony has his hands full keeping Uncle Junior from making a power grab while making sure the young stallions in his own crew don't do anything stupid. "I'm not getting any satisfaction from my work," he tells Dr. Melfi. "Lately, I've been feeling that I came in at the end, the best is over." And no wonder -- tenacious government enforcement of the RICO statutes has eaten into profits, as well as seriously undermined loyalty. "Guys today have no room for the penal experience," Tony laments. "Everybody turns government witness." But the biggest reason he has swallowed his pride and come to see her, Tony tells the doc, is that he's been feeling depressed ever since the family of ducks that was nesting in his swimming pool flew away. He may not have been to college, but he's smart enough to know that the ducks mean something. Pleased with their progress after one session, Dr. Melfi prescribes Prozac and tells him to come back next week. N E X T_P A G E _| "Espresso, cappuccino ... How did we miss out on this?" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Become a Salon member. Click here.