I’ve Never Watched The Sopranos (Until Now!)

When I take breaks I always end up spending more time watching a riveting show or genre of movies than writing and this hiatus was not different. I devoted 10 days of my life, almost exclusively to watching the popular early 00s show, The Sopranos. Airing from 1999 to 2007, it fell when I was too young to be aware and then in Highschool when I did not watch TV. My parents don’t really watch TV either and they certainly weren’t going to shell out for HBO of all things. I wasn’t really aware of the show beyond a passive cultural awareness of it that came later. I’m one of those weird people that never saw the Sopranos until a few weeks ago. My parents think paying for non-rugby premium channels is a sin and I didn’t grow up with much TV anyway. Not only do I understand why a host of shows exist, like my personal favorites Weeds and Sons of Anarchy, but I understand a great deal more about why crime exists at all. I had no idea that a show like the Sopranos was going to change my life or that I would become so sucked in that I spent almost 2 weeks doing nothing else but watching the Sopranos. This show made me suicidal, a little crazy but left me forever changed.

1. I get why so many other shows were made and followed the format including personal favorites Weeds and Sons of Anarchy.
2. The conversation about gay people has changed so much in 8-10 years!
3. The technology…oh the technology.
4. The analysis of therapy and the therapeutic relationship
5. The End was completely disappointing
6. Carmela‘s story line tells us a lot about women, even in the 21st century.
7. Even crime bosses have depression
8. The future of organized crime and the death of a certain way of doing things

For me, this show became my life for 10 days. I was sucked into a world and I could never leave. I can only imagine waiting week by week when the show was originally on the air.

I think The Sopranos real contribution to culture is its exposition of the proletariat and class struggle. We see these men, often sons of gangsters rising up from the streets in eclectic situations to making a name for themselves and taking over a certain part of their destiny in a way normally only reserved for white, wealthy, protestant people; a tension that is replete througout the show. The ability to make money in any way possible like short-term loans, protection, fake contracts, and other schemes not only lined their pockets but also was a economic protest against the wealthy who they saw as taking advantage of them and the system. The poor treatment of italians and their culture and their contributions to the country infused the show and the cultural attitudes at a deep level. As the show progressed, the show exposed proletarian attitudes towards family, relationships, and even money. For the guys, “our thing” wasn’t just a recession proof business or a way to make a living, it was a way to get what they felt they deserved. That sentiment runs deep in the Proletariat.

The show, especially in Jackie Jr’s storyline with this own drug use shows us how drugs affects the working class and how the illegal drug culture has infused almost every area of life in the United States. Although Jackie Jr.’s story line ended in a more traditional mafia tragedy thanks to his shoot from the hip attitude, Chris Moltisanti’s constant on again, off again struggle with drugs showed our modern drug problem in a new way. Even after rehab, he found out something that many people don’t realize about addiction. Sometimes, your life and your desire to not be an addict don’t always coordinate. Part of the reason Chris fell off the bandwagon was because of the very people that insisted he get sober in the first place. The only pathway out was to leave the mafia and seeing as the only way to leave the mob was death, in short, Chris had to die.

My My, How Times Have Changed

Carmela

I thought her story line was the real asset in the series especially by season 5 during their separation. Many people forget that many women find themselves in the same situation women have found themselves over the millennia: economically dependent on a man. Carmela had been content to be the good housewife. But as she had to suffer mistress (gumar) after mistress and deal with the departure of her daughter to college made her seek out new attention. However, she had to struggle with being faithful to her husband, being a good catholic, and her own repressed sexual desires. The significance of her life and her eventual break out on her own is an interesting part of the end of the show; especially because of her early dependency and the fact that her kids are leaving. The struggle with the life of crime ultimately  resolves itself in her beginning to use the resources for her own solvency and financing her own independence which would save her in any RICO investigation.

AJ

The final episode showed something quite interesting and that was that it seemed that AJ, by being the son of Tony Soprano, was unable to escape the grasp of an underground life. His final moments on the show showed us a modern version of what Tony and Carmela looked like. Aj driving a new BMW, courtesy of his father, working in the nightlife industry, and picking up his high school aged girlfriend. The real tragedy about AJ wasn’t his depression or bad behavior but that he couldn’t escape his own destiny.

The thrilling conclusion of the on-going therapy sessions for Tony’s fainting spells was rather anti-climactic. The fact that she just fired him after reading one psychological study, resolving her years long struggle with keeping him as a patient, was rather disappointing. This story line kept the showing plenty interesting. What I thought was merely a season 1 gimmick became a significant part of the overall compelling push of the show. Not only did it show the nuanced relationship that is patient therapist in a new and modern light but also gave us a modern version of how a man simply cannot live a double life. Eventually, the lives will conflict and crash into each other. Ultimately, Dr. Melfi and Tony Soprano had to realize that neither of them could serve two masters. Life makes us balance our accounts and when things get too far out of balance, the reckoning day can be tough.

This review was probably too long for a show that is no longer on the air but I tried to bring you some of the flavor or how it changed my life. I hope I brought that to you. I can say this, the finale left me wanting more and I felt empty for about a week. This was a show with a recovery process like a drug. Here’s to TV that good.