Analysis

                                     

                                                             Analysis of the Sopranos (Spoilers)

         With the sopranos you never thought to yourself "they're running out of material" you didn't see unnecessary fillers to waste time. It managed to remain interesting and exciting episode after episode. The Sopranos was the winner of award after award in almost every category you can think of. And I personally believe they were very well deserved. Picking favorites is hard for me in any subject, but ask me what my favorite TV show is and I quickly will answer back with the Sopranos. No show I had seen before had such a great mix of interesting and dynamic characters, each of which portrayed by an amazingly talented actor. According to many critics today it is still regarded as the best written show of all time. In my opinion all of those are valid reasons to crown The Sopranos as the best, but for me what truly stood out was Tony's relationships with those around him, In this analysis we will look at a couple of examples.

 The Sopranos mainly focused on the life of Tony Soprano, a married man with two children who is part of criminal group in New Jersey. Tony's life dramatically began to change when he started getting serious panic attacks and passing out. He reluctantly decided to go and give psychotherapy a chance, something that seems to be unheard of and viewed as a great weakness for a man with his status in his community. The writers for this show decided to make this man so very multidimensional you sometimes forgot he's a product of fiction.

 Our protagonist is far from a righteous man. There are plenty of times you see him commit acts of violence, he could be cruel and managed to destroy his relationships with those closest to him, mostly because of his big ego and selfishness. Yet again and again with one act of kindness or generosity from him you forgot about his other faults. Maybe this is because at times he seems to be the least terrible of so many terrible people. The audience felt for him, and had developed a form of relationship with this character. I don't know all the methods the writers used to achieve this, but it couldn't have been an easy task, easily he could have been the antagonist in any other story.

 Tony’s relationship with those around him is one of the most important and entertaining aspects of the show, especially with the women in his life. For him; family, loyalty and friends come first. Even though there are members of his family and crew he can't stand he still manages to show them respect and cares for them, he views it as his responsibility. Carmela, his wife is one of the most important characters on the show, she is a strong woman who seems to want to be more than just a house wife and constantly is trying to get her own projects and dreams going, there’s lack of belief from Tony, but still shows her support. His relationship with Carmela is an odd one, he cheats on her constantly (his wife is aware of this to some point) gets in shouting matches with her again and again yet they make amends and stay together despite what seems to be a broken marriage. They do this because of their shared mutual love for their kids, Meadow and A.J. Carmella’s faith also seems to get in the way of divorce, her priest discourages her from separating from her husband by reminding her of her vow during her wedding day. You wonder if Carmela has any feelings left for Tony. During the course of the show she tell Tony some awful things out of anger but you don’t know if those are her true feelings. But during the episode “Join the Club” when tony is in a coma and she is sitting by his side she lets him know that even after all the wrong he has done to her, she still wants him to recover. She cries for the first time, showing that she is genuinely sad and worried for his wellbeing.

 Another crucial part of the Story is Tony’s relationship with his mother Livia, she is constantly bitter and angry towards life, she enjoys being miserable, and enjoys making those around her miserable as well. Tony does his best to accommodate her, but there’s no pleasing her. She even plots against her son with uncle Junior. She is the only person Tony tolerates disrespect from. When talking to his psychologist the subject of his mother comes up quite frequently and blames himself for the bitter state of his mother, knowing well she has been that way even when his dad was alive.

       Tony’s therapist Dr. Melfi is intrigued by Tony but at times you question if her feelings consist of more than intrigue, but she conducts herself professionally, even though Tony confessed his love for her. Many times Tony decides to quit therapy, and does sp for short periods of time. But he finds himself coming back to her each time.  She even made Carmela suspicious and jealous of her after finding out that Tony's therapist was a woman.  Some more characters include Tony’s Uncle, "Junior", who he has a power struggle with for the first couple seasons of the series.  Later he  begins to develop dementia, and in the first episode of season six he shoots Tony in the stomach when he confuses him for another man in his house. And there’s Christopher who is part of the crew and Tony considers himself a mentor/father figure to. His dream is to make films. He becomes addicted to heroin and the intervention his crew throws for him becomes one of the most memorable parts of the series.

            Despite general consensus about the greatness of the show most people criticized its ending, which was an unexpected and abrupt cut to black during a very tense and crucial scene. During the finale people where left wondering if they're television broke or there was an issue with their cable at the last moment, but there wasn't. Tony was sitting at a diner with his family, waiting for Meadow to arrive while being in the company of a particularly shady character, you heard the door opening expecting to see Meadow come in and then darkness and silence, for over five seconds followed by credits. Viewers where angry and disappointed, what had just happened? The not knowing drove everybody mad. Viewers have been wanting closure since that day, but David Chase the creator and head writer of the show will not tell, and it all has been left for interpretation. Good or bad the ending left people thinking and and coming up with their own conclusions. It’s hard to get so many things right in any form of entertainment, but The Sopranos did so, and will continue to be the show to beat.


"Join the club" The Sopranos : Season 6
 Writ. David Chase. Dir. David Nutter. HBO March 19 2006