Sopranos, The - Shades of SatC! HBO Goes The 'Split-Final-Season' Route With Sopranos - S6 DVDs!
When HBO's Sex and the City series came to an end, the final season was somewhat "split" in that there was an almost 4-month-long gap between the airing of the 12th and 13th episodes during that season. Fans were generally displeased that HBO decided to similary split up the DVD release of the 6th season into "Part 1" and "Part 2" releases. It wasn't the splitting up itself that upset consumers, it was that the separate, smaller-episode-count sets cost the same suggested retail price as the previous "complete" season sets!
Well, fans of The Sopranos will probably be initially upset to learn that HBO is going a similar route with the final season of the popular mobster show. But when you sit back and look at it, you'll see it's really an offer you can't refuse...and probably wouldn't want to!
Every season of The Sopranos from the 1st through 5th seasons have been 13 episodes long. The 6th and final season of the program will total out at 20 episodes in the end, though: 12 episodes that have already aired, plus 8 more to be filmed once star James Gandolfini recovers from knee surgery.
This morning, Home Media Retailing reports that The Sopranos - Season 6, Part 1 will arrive on November 7th, with the 12 already-aired episodes of the sixth season on board for the same $99.98 SRP that a 13-episode season set usually runs for. We agree that this is quite pricey to begin with, but that's what HBO has been doing, and they haven't exactly been hurting for sales on these sets. On top of the episodes, the trade magazine story reports that there will be some interesting extras on this 4-DVD package:
The set includes the first-ever commentary from Emmy-winning star Edie Falco as well as commentaries from stars Michael Imperioli, Tony Sirico, Robert Iler and Jamie-Lyn Sigler, creator David Chase and writers Terence Winter and Matthew Weiner. Also included is a making-of featurette on The Sopranos: Road to Respect video game.
So the "Part 1" set's pricing vs. content turns out to be roughly in line with previous season sets of The Sopranos, and fans shouldn't be too upset by that! On the other hand, it remains to be seen how HBO will handle the pricing vs. content of the eventual "Part 2" set, which is fated to only contain 8 episodes. Stay tuned!