Letters to the Editor
Steve1us
Published Letters: 141
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An unexamined life ...
[Read the article: "Sopranos" wrap-up: Uncomfortably numb]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Even though the final episodes may be depressing and disappointing to those want the Sopranos to play “who-gets-whacked-this week” or have a lovable villain ala J.R., I think they are restoring Chase’s reputation that had started to wane a bit. He has always said Tony is a sociopath, and that even Carmela and other peripheral players in the Mafia are not to be admired (example: Brian Williams’ ignorant attempt to get Edie Falco to portray Carmela as a strong woman during a promo; she didn’t bit cuz she knows her character). It was creatively brilliant to kill off Christopher early on (and yes this was brewing despite what one letter said) and then shove the sad, disgusting aftermath in our faces, totally illuminating Tony’s sociopathic narcissism for anyone left who still wants to love the SOB. Then, most brilliantly, he has Tony, the poster boy for an unexamined life, ingest a psychedelic. OMG, I thought, is this guy finally going to get a look inside himself, unfiltered through the layers of self-justification, self-pity, and the rest of his defense mechanisms. Of course not, and it would be wrong to portray it any other way. Yes, we have seen glimpses of Tony’s humanity when it comes to his children and others, even ducks. But one doesn’t get to the point of being a Mafia boss without all the hostility and self-deception that Chase and Gandolfini bring to Tony’s character. The final episodes may not be going where some people want, or others expect, but to me they are proving that chase is again on the right track.
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Missing the overall
[Read the article: "The Sopranos" goes dark]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]People are making so much of the ending, story and character twists and turns they are missing the overall parable about our current culture: the constant sense of impending doom in the final season, reflecting that of our own country. That sense, like our own, is not always justified as Chase's devices lead to nothing (just like our many terror alerts) and when it is, is often a fear brought on by Tony's own actions in the world (blowback for the U.S.) In the end, the series died as it lived: dissatisfying yet intriging and thought-provoking. Narravtive-wise the show ended the way every season ended: the next-to-last episode was the one filled with action (the death by violence of major characters seemingly setting the stage for a grand finale which didn't happen, just many questions left unanswered and storylines petering out.) While Chase is a great writer, I think maybe he's given too much credit sometimes for having an overall narrative vision (as opposed to his thematic one of commenting on American life) which perhaps isn't there. I thought the show sometimes could have used a senior story editor - others say issues like the failure to tie up loose ends is part of Chase's brilliance, but at the start of each new season (especially after the disappearing Russian) brought such an outcry they would make a half-hearted attempt to give closure to plot lines that lasted an entire season, making it seem like an afterthought. The show has always been as much, if not more, of a comment on current American values (consumerism, medicated reality, overwhelming denial in pursuit of the American dream) as it was about the modern Mafia. Every episode wasn't brilliant (for that, see Deadwood), but it will go down as a unique and often insightful commentary on American life for this past decade. Kudos for Chase and crew for that.
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Dig a litle deeper
[Read the article: The Bill Richardson difference]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I wish that before pundits get too ga-ga over Richardson's resume they would do a little bit of digging and ask people in New Mexico about his issues with women. We don't need another Bill Clinton.
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Enough with the faith excuse
[Read the article: War, chaos and Bush's faith]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Oh puhlleazzz!! Our current POTUS, as fine and gilded an example of arrested development as you'll ever witness, plays the faith card like Amarillo Slim at table of Vegas suckers and the MSM and even Salon writers scoop it up. As someone who grew up around the oil patch, Bible thumping version of spoiled trust funders that is Shrub, his faith is a crutch, an enabling force for his own narcissistic, Frat boy, dumbed down brand of elitist hubris. It's not something that guides and inspires him; it is a tool: to gloss over his addictions, and give some delusional sense of justification for his own deep and contradictory feelings of insecurity and entitlement. Think this is just pop psychology? Then tell me why even his harshest critics often are perplexed and struggle to understand and explain his reasons and goals six years into this mess of a Presidency? They can't because it's only explanation is at the level of an emotionally stunted dry drunk with an Oedipus complex who gets away with literal murder because the MSM and even writers like Kamiya are loathe to think he is a bad person - he just CAN'T be because he is a person of FAITH. If he keeps Gonzales, Miers, etc., it's because he is loyal, they say. A saner view is that a personality like his requires sycophants to keep him propped up - doesn't that explain why he won't let Gonzales go (his inner sycophants circle keeps getting every smaller) when it makes no political sense? He needs Gonzales, badly. George Bush is a very, very small man and deep down he knows that. The only way to change things is to remove him from the equation, either by impeachment or stopping funding.