Letters to the Editor
captainlarab
Published Letters: 541 Editor's Choice: 41
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But if we're coming full circle...
[Read the article: "Sopranos" wrap-up: Uncomfortably numb]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]there has to also be some resolution with Dr. Melfi. The series started with this basic gag about a sociopathic mob boss seeking therapy; that loop has to close somehow.
Another major theme that has pervaded this show is the notion of the Italian mob as an anachronism, and I'm wondering if that will also come full circle. That is the source of much of the show's humor--again, starting off with the basic gag about a mob boss in therapy--and has come up repeatedly. After the mobster in therapy, we got the gay mobster, the mobster who goes Hollywood, etc. etc. I love the brief scenes showing the FBI agents showing up, acting cordial and making it apparent that they have bigger fish to fry now, that they're chasing terrorists and can't be trifled with the mob. I also loved that brief sub-plot involving Tony selling out to Jamba Juice. Everyone's going corporate, everything's going global--in many ways, Tony and the whole gang are quickly becoming the small fish in a big pond. It makes me almost wonder if Tony's downfall will occur in a way that is actually demeaning and insignificant, as if to render him irrelevant. Wouldn't that be the ultimate irony?
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For the umpteenth f'in time
[Read the article: "Sopranos" wrap-up: Uncomfortably numb]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He said, "I get it!" Go to this website:
http://www.hbo.com/sopranos/episode/index.shtml
Madonn'!
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Family and business
[Read the article: "Sopranos" wrap-up: Uncomfortably numb]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Again, great discussion--I also follow the Slate.com blogs on the Sopranos, and as far as I'm concerned we're kicking their ass. And they get paid for it!
I'm continuing to think about how Tony could come full circle with regard to his therapy. It seems to me that Tony, from the beginning of his therapy, has proceeded on the erroneous premise that his problems are related to his family and not his business. Tony's sense of morality is guided by the basic notion that he does what he has to do to put food on the table for his family. Moreover, he believes he can and does completely compartmentalize his business life from his family life. He thinks that his problems stem solely from the family side of the house, and that he can compartmentalize these two worlds even in therapy, talking to Melfi about one but not the other.
As we all know, this is ludicrous. His family is in the business, for Chrissakes. His mother and uncle have both tried to whack him, he's whacked his cousin Tony B. and now his nephew, and the wall that he has tried to erect between his world and Carmela's (whose job, in his opinion, if she likes the lifestyle he has afforded her, is to raise the kids and don't ask questions) has been brought perilously close to crumbling, and may yet crumble, by virtue of the murder of Carmela's dear friend Ade, which Carmela still cannot let go of. Ade was, of course, not "in the life," she was just near it, and what Tony still can't quite get through his thick skull is that these worlds are not capable of being compartmentalized. If you want to avoid getting whacked, you not only have to avoid being in the mob, you can't be married to the mob, you can't be a child of the mob, you can't even be a friend to someone who's in the mob (like poor J.T.). Tony still thinks he can keep his wife and children insulated from what he does for a living. He can't, and I suspect that the next few episodes are going to teach him that lesson the hard way.
This is why Tony and Melfi are both getting frustrated with the therapy sessions. Tony is starting to see that the therapy isn't going anywhere--well, as a previous poster has already noted, duh, how was it ever supposed to go anywhere when you can't talk about the elephant in the middle of the living room? And Melfi, to her discredit, continues to go along with this, even though what he really needs to hear are that these two worlds are one and the same and he's never going to be able to resolve his "family issues" while continuing to pursue his current line of work. Melfi lacks the courage to simply level with him the way J.T. leveled with Chris--"Chris, you're in the Mafia"--probably because she knows she'd end up like J.T. It's easier just to continue taking his money and doing what she can to mollify him. She's not being a very good therapist; at the same time, I don't envy her position, and I hope she has good life insurance.