CARLTON FLETCHER: A vivid reminder of what HBO — and TV in general — used to be

“Woke up this morning, got myself a gun.”

— Alabama Three

Damn you, HBO!

Just when I, after years of grief therapy during which I mourned the fact that “The Sopranos” were no longer going to be visiting my house on Sunday nights, after I finally recovered enough to move on with my life, you start showing the acclaimed show in several-hourlong-blocks each day, and in the afternoon no less. Don’t you people know some of us have to work for a living, that we can’t sit around, glued all over again to our TV sets, as we rewatch the adventures of that most sensitive of mob bosses, Tony Soprano (the late, and yes, great James Gandolfini) and his usually bungling mafia family?

I feel like that other mob guy — Al Pacino in “The Godfather” — when he said, “Every time I think I’m out, they drag me back in.”

I know, I know. You’re starting (can we truly hope?) a series of Sopranos sequels that tells of the early life of the characters from the series, kind of like DeNiro playing the young Don Corleone in “Godfather II,” and rerunning “The Sopranos” is the best way to promote the series. Great idea — especially if David Chase is involved. But given the pitiful fare that you’re putting on the air now in primetime (there’s not one original HBO show I’m even remotely interested in watching … your competition at Showtime has it all over you on original programming now), you could run blocks of “The Sopranos” between 8 and 12 at night, when most of us don’t have to work.

Watching (instead of working, often) Tony, Paulie Walnuts (my favorite character on the show), Silvio Dante (played by Bruce Springsteen’s guitarist, little Steven Van Zandt), Tony’s longsuffering wife Carmela, Tony’s nephew Christopher Moltisanti and his lamented fiance Adriana (make that “late fiance,” she just got whacked by Silvio for wearing a wire … the other family comes first, Chris), Big P, Tony and Carmella’s obnoxiously annoying kids A.J. and Meadow, and the wonderfully named Uncle Junior has made me realize all over again how great this show is and how well it holds up all these years later.

(SIDE NOTE: Everyone who watched “The Sopranos” has deep feelings about the final scene of the series finale when, with Tony’s entire family gathered at a local diner for a meal, the camera keeps cutting to different characters in the restaurant — Is that the Russian guy that Chris and Paulie shot that got away? Are those delivery guys what they seem? Is that a hit man for one of the other families? Is there about to be a mass shooting in the crowded diner? — while Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” played on the juke box. Just as the suspense built to peak level, the screen went white and … that was it. Fans say they were cheated out of a true ending, but I say it was brilliant TV. What happened to Tony and his family? You get to decide that. I think they just had a meal and went about their everyday lives, but that’s me …)

Now that I’ve got all that out of my system, I can finally take a deep breath and say thanks to HBO for repeating the series. It remains one of the Top 5 TV shows ever, and I can’t imaging a more perfect cast. And the move by the network is actually brilliant: I know that, after watching as many episodes as possible between bits of work (I’m kidding, I only watch during breaks or after deadline), I am now primed to watch the sequel(s). The actors in those shows must know, though, that they’ve got an almost impossible act to follow.

Oh, and while we’re talking about Tony and his misfit TV mobster family, I wish they were around to take requests. I’d put out a hit on every person responsible for that damned “I’m a woman pooping on TV” ad. And here I was thinking there were some things still off limits in this crazy world. I’d pay to see Paulie and Silvio handle this bunch.