Letters to the Editor
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Family Values Sopranos style
Again this show had so many layers that it's hard to dissect all that was touched upon. I think Chase took this whole fascination with a fictional story and made a huge statement about our values and the world in which we live.We as audience members want it to be a show about the mob and criminal justice which was secondary to its central theme : a family in disorder . It was a search for truth and meaning in a life that had been dictated to them through the generations. Sins of the Father. How do we change our lives unless we can admit the truth and take responsibility for the consequences of sin.? The family contract was one of deceit and denial and whenever that was violated chaos reigned. AJ was deemed a mental case for trying to escape that agreement and only when he was brought back into the lie could harmony be restored. His attempt to make sense of this world by actually participating in something outside his own narcissist desires was quickly abandoned with the offer of producing a cheesy horror flick. A rather heavy handed indictment of a culture in which a majority of it's citizens could not find Iraq on a map yet could give you a blow by blow account of Paris Hilton's latest travail. Meadow's quest for social justice looks a lot more attractive attached to a 170k salary. And Carmella's attempts to create the perfect nuclear family is constantly thwarted by the ugly face of reality so she will continue to design spec homes to perpetuate that dream.
As for Tony-I can't stop thinking that there was a sense of peace amid the anxiety of that final scene. As he scoped out that diner and all the possible assassins- I don't believe it was a question of if, but who and when. The palatable lie of the indictment was chosen over the truth of his own death. The illusion of family stability was continued amidst the threat of death which swirled around them. The overall frustration dramatically is that none of the characters significantly changed. They maintained that contract of deceit and denial until the very end. Perhaps Tony knew the outcome and instead of a blaze of glory he chose to die in the comfort of that illusory world. In this culture of 24 hours of news and where complex issues are reduced to 15 second sound bytes, I thought it only fitting that the story ends in black and silence. No resolution, no change. On to the next shiny object.
The Greek dramatists would have been appalled at the lack of climax and a proper denouement. It might not have been the most satisfying end, but it was probably the truest