In thinking about the series as a whole, from the very first episode to the last, I must say that I don’t believe I got what I was expecting, and perhaps that was the greatest gift of all. Just when I thought I liked Christopher, he would go do something that got me hating him again (like beating up JT). Just when I felt sorry for Paulie, he would do something horrific (like strangling the old woman) to qualify him as a bad guy underneath it all.
These characters are always complicated and complex. There is depth and surface to deal with for most of them. On the surface, we see the person that the character wants the world to see. Paulie often goaded Christopher, sometimes unmercifully, and yet when Christopher dies Paulie has moments of introspection, realizing that he had been too hard on the kid and maybe pushed him over the edge. This is just one example of many throughout the years, and this is why I couldn’t stop watching. These characterizations are so vivid, so honest in their brutality and ugliness and sometimes brittle but undeniable affection, that I just felt like I knew them all personally.
This is the whole point, isn’t it? We react to a fiction in a personal, almost intimate, way, to glean from the experience something meaningful and thus relate it to our own lives. In this way David Chase has been completely successful, for his characters were not in search of a story: they made the story, and none of them were more important in this achievement than Tony Soprano. He is the central figure, and there is no show without him, just like there could be no 24 without Jack Bauer or The Shield without Vic Mackey.
Tony is the Everyman that we can relate to on our own levels; however, he also is a prince, mob royalty who lives in a castle of his own making. Here Tony spins his webs and runs his “business” with care, trying to match the personalities of his associates with work to make them earn money and generate more business. It’s a classic model, and it makes me think that Tony should have retired and started his own company to coach potential businessmen. He certainly can juggle the many responsibilities that he has, but when there is a wayward fly in his ointment (a Ralph Cifaretto, for instance), Tony reacts ruthlessly and eradicates the problem.
In essence, Tony Soprano is the most evil person that has ever been the protagonist of a television drama. He is an anti-hero, something like Satan in Paradise Lost, who rules his own New Jersey hell without ever worrying about being a servant in heaven. Yet, there are moments of introspection, never more obvious than in his weekly meetings with Dr. Jennifer Melfi. Tony’s therapy was a convenient device for us in that we got to hear the equivalent of a Shakespearean soliloquy every week. Melfi lets him tell the tale and we listen in awe as he justifies everything from adultery to murder.
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1 - Victor Lana
Just some interesting info about Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." Heard a report today that sales of the song online are soaring; people are also buying the Journey album Escape (1981) online as well. I imagine the band must be more than happy with this. I think the song broke the Top Ten in 1981 but never made it to number 1. Now, maybe it has a chance. Strange.