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MiraculousMM [he/him, undecided] @hexbear.net

I watched Sopranos for the first time recently (as did the Hextube gang) and I need to discuss this show with people who aren't cringy misogynist redditors

I saw that the Hextube marathon of The Sopranos just finished so I want to discuss with others! Overall, fantastic show, I love the idea that the mafia is a microcosm of white American society as a whole and how selfish and morally bankrupt it is. It's shockingly funny at times too, they really nail the black comedy aspect (the Columbus episode was hilarious from start to finish

). All of the characters are phenomenal too, it's hard to choose favorites, but if I had to I'd probably say Adrianna, Carmella and Junior in that order (honorable mention to
for being a goofy little freak)

I'll probably think of more things to comment on as I contemplate the show more, but I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't. There's a reason it's so highly regarded and memed on. And of course I want to hear others' thoughts as well! There's a lot to unpack in this show and I'm sure I haven't even scratched the surface of its themes and ideas.

20 comments

  • The "is it gay to eat pussy" plotline is peak eyetalian

  • The later seasons got kind of a bad rap at the time, but they're some of the best in hindsight for showing the decline of this world and the characters and how their moral rot just spreads and damns them.

    The show still resonates because it's thesis of the mafia is that it's something the characters are all addicted to for the petty little pleasures it provides, but it's slowly killing or damning all of them to hell. But the addiction is too strong for them to really even want to change, even if their lives would ultimately be better. That's like how everything in America works.

  • I didn't like Livia because it was like they dig up my grandma and put her on a TV show. I like the ending and think it's best when you accept that tony got wacked. One of my favorite episodes was when the gang went to Italy. It shows how this old country they idolize it completely foreign to them, Paulie can't even eat Italian food.

  • I liked how they presented the feds: as mostly asshole, opportunistic careerists who ultimately cozied up to Tony when the way to move up the ladder became about going after people of middle eastern origin / Muslims.

    meadows arc also saddened me to see her turning into a mob lawyer type. probably because it felt too realistic.

    AJ was relatable. not because I was a hooked up little prince, but it was obvious how set up he was to be tragic by a father and a family that can only, effectively turn young boys into sociopathic, violent and completely lazy men.

    except AJ was just too sensitive for all that, so he just became sorta lazy and kinda checked out... wanting to just follow stuff that seemed cool and made him happy.

    I think viewers who shit on AJ think Tony is an antihero they want to be like instead of realizing he is the villain and that his reign over the family was extended by therapy when he should have been left to die and probably saved everyone some grief.

    I liked how Carmella's "soul searching" BS was exposed by the therapist who told her that she was accountable for what she knew and if she wanted to be ethical, she needed to be leave all of the wealth behind as tainted to start a new life. and she was like "nah" because she loved all the finer things, the giant house, and all of it. that's when she stopped trying to find someone who would tell her it was appropriate to play the martyr.

    also, I am 100% subscribed to the theory that Phil Leotardo was repressed sexually about an attraction to men. the scene with the male body builder on TV at the wake and how mad he gets is so fucking funny. also, I think I like the theory most because it infuriates really dumb sopranos fans in YouTube comments when you bring it up. the sort of people who idolize mafia types and claim "he wasn't gay, he was a traditional family man!" I mean, come on, Phil dramatically comes out of the closet he was hiding in to get the drop on his son in law, to violently murder him and sexually tortured him for the "crime" of being gay. that's barely subtext.

    also, subtext is an anagram of buttsex.

  • I've watched the show a few times and I've tried to see it through a different lens each time. The first time, I watched it as-is, taking everything at face value.

    The second time, I tried to find realistic explanations for stuff that happen. For example, in the Pine Barrens episode, the interior decorator managed to hide without Chris and Paulie noticing him in the snow/up a tree/in the brush.

    The third time (and probably the most interesting way to watch the show) I assumed the supernatural in the show was true. Like when Chris has a near-death experience, he really did venture further into Hell where Irish goons terrorized mafiosi. One interpretation of the whole show is they're all in a type of purgatory which is why the Soprano family has this darkness lingering over them, causing their misfortune. It's why Paulie is accosted at the seance. Or why there seems to be ghosts in different scenes. Tony's life as a furniture salesman was his real life, but he's being tested. Another is the lack of consequences. We constantly see these mobsters attack people in broad daylight with zero consequences.

    There's some type of Lovecraftian horror happening, a cosmic and uncaring universe with esoteric old gods who feed on the misery of the characters.

    Other stuff I think about the show: Adrianna and Furio are interesting to me because they were both born into this life and they've never known anything else. Adrianna, especially, has never been outside the mob life.

    People's reaction to Dr. Melfi's sexual assault will tell you all you need to know about a person. People often complain about how it's never resolved or how the episode is "just filler." It's one of the most realistic portrayals of what happens to survivors. They're often ignored, law enforcement is unhelpful, and they have to just bottle it up and "move on." It also illustrates why criminal organizations exist. When the law doesn't help people, justice is sought by other means. Melfi doesn't cross the line because she's trying to get Tony out of her life, but she would have been justified in calling a hit on the employee of the month.

  • One of my favorite aspects of the show is how all the wiseguys are stuck in the same End of History trap as the rest of the US. They sit around the pork store or the club talking about the good ol' days and gangster movies when their thing was really a force to be reckoned with while they barely run their outfits on stuff like gambling, drugs, and opportunistic theft. But then every time someone from "the good ol' days" shows up out of prison, they always immediately start fucking everything up for everyone else to the point where they must be dealt with in order to preserve what little action they have left. It's that veneration and disillusionment of their own mythology that is both darkly funny and poignant about the show and the audience.

  • i like the last scene personally but i do think the show falls off a little in the second half of season 6. remarkably consistent up to that point though and it's still probably my favourite show. i love how all the characters are doing like, hyper-exaggerated gender performance all the time. it's hilarious too, totally different tone than what i expected going in.

    • i love how all the characters are doing like, hyper-exaggerated gender performance all the time.

      YES this really struck me as well. It's all just posturing to the point that most of the characters don't know who they actually are anymore, only the roles they're expected to fill.

  • It's such an amazing show.

    Pretty sure David Chase confirmed that Tony died at the end. That's definitely how I see it too.

    I also feel like people unfairly hate on AJ. Yeah, he was annoying and dumb at times but also dealing with a horrific family. He was clearly trying to disconnect from them and critique them at a point but didn't really have the tools to do it well, so he just comes off like an angsty guy. I think AJ was the only one in the family that genuinely tried to reject the mob lifestyle, going as far as even attempting suicide. Still ended up better than Meadow, in my opinion.

    Does anyone think that Adrianna would've survived if she hadn't said anything to the FBI and immediately told Chris/Tony about it? I think she got used and trapped by both sides, and I'm not white-washing Chris or Tony, but I think they are used to the Feds coming after their people and would know that Adrianna didn't really know enough to have ratted them out so they wouldn't have just killed her. That's how I see it. But the atmosphere that they created and the way the Feds manipulated her, led her to that trap where she couldn't really trust to confide in anyone and eventually led to her death. Moral of the story: Never talk to the Feds. They don't care about your life either even if they say they do or can help you.

    Tony was definitely an irredeemable piece of shit. However, I do read that coma period as Kevin Finnerty as a second chance for him to redeem himself. It's who he would've been if he didn't have his mob life and he could have died as Kevin Finnerty and had his afterlife but he failed by not accepting going through the door at the well-lit house. People read that as hell waiting for Tony, but I think it looks really welcoming and I read it as a peaceful afterlife waiting for Kevin, who he was at that moment. It's been a long time since I watched it so maybe I'm not explaining it well but I've always seen that as Tony's chance, then he wakes up, fucks Chris's ex in Vegas, and laughs off having killed him as a good idea. It's not that Tony seemed redeemable beforehand, but that he rejected the final opportunity to have a redemption as Kevin Finnerty and was now in his truly fucked, irredeemable arc.

20 comments