From the Silvio Dante Fair Isle sweater collection for Target.

Netflix will soon offer a salve for customers bummed that The Sopranos isn't on Netflix Instant. Next month, the company debuts an original series: a “fish out of water” story about a mobster played by Steven Van Zandt (better known as the proprietor of the illustrious Bada Bing strip joint or E Street Band guitarist with a bandana, depending).

The plot sounds like an international version of the Steve Martin flick, My Blue Heaven. Only instead of the suburbs, Van Zandt, playing a mobster called Frank "The Fixer" Tagliano goes into the federal witness protection program in Lillehammer, Norway, a request he makes based on a vague recollection of the 1994 Winter Olympics.

The episode will only be available for streaming and not DVDs by mail, reports TechCrunch. Yes, Netflix, we're aware of your feelings on the American postal system.

Netflix's first deal for original content was brokered back in March, a two-season, 26-episode project called "House of Cards" directed by The Social Network's David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey in a remake of a BBC miniseries from the nineties. At the time, Deadline reported that the deal was "worth more than $100 million and could change the way people consume TV shows." That show is not slated to run until late 2012.

We dug the preview for "Lilyhammer" and all, but with the company's decision in November to bring back cult favorite "Arrested Development," we've got to wonder, why is Netflix bothering to get viewers to invest in new characters when the world (of Betabeat) is already in love with the cancelled classic "Party Down"? I mean, Are we having fun yet??