I never watched a single episode of The Sopranos especially since my son said that he was embarrassed to be of Italian descent because Italians were troublemakers and criminals. I reminded him that my Italian-born relatives were upstanding law biding citizens and did not engage in criminal activities.
Let him know the largest and oldest criminal syndicate in the World is Mad Moe's Mafia (Islam). Italy was attacked over and over again by this criminal gang and survived. Not bad when the Godfather you are up against is an evil God!
Had you watched, you would have seen extensive exploration of that concept. Probably the best portrayal of the feelings it can inflict upon Italian descent people ever put on film.
La Mala de Brenta
‘Ndrangheta
La Camorra
Cosa Nostra
Bascillichi
Sacra Corona
La Banda
Societe Foggiana
No question organized crime groups we often collectively call Mafia are endemic to Italy in all but the Germanic and Swiss provinces in the north
An yes it did carry to here and first took off in New Orleans which was our first major Sicilian immigrant concentration much larger than New York area until post WWI immigration era
Fortunately outside of the northeastern big three cities and Chicago it never took off behind outposts and union control
And it some Anglo and German descended areas the pushback against the corrupted influence was harsh and often lethal....even in New Orleans mafia were hunted down and lynched before Carlos Marcelo learned how to be a Coonass and be pals with his host culture....and he mastered it
Our fascination is Hollywood based...its always been there....Coppola and Puzo and later Scorsese elevated that further
For disclose I count a number of made men and one powerful associate as friends in my life
Luchese and Genoese and the former head of the West Virginia rackets
But honestly maybe 5-7000 made guys nationwide and maybe a dozen families of note and all on the wane
It’s incalculable how few Italians are mob here unlike Italy
In New York every Italian family knows a mob guy for sure
Like Miami Cubans or Colombians in the 80s
Every family had a relative in the coke business
I do have a pal here in Nashville whose dad was Camorra in Naples ....his dad tried to kill him when he was 12 .....shot him.....his mob family excommunicated the dad for it...
They do have a code...
Tony’s shrink’s Italian family was embarrassed by being associated with the mob as well. In one scene, Dr Melfi’s effeminate ex husband goes on and on about the achievements of Italian Americans and gripes about how Italians are stereotyped as gangsters.
In one episode, Dr Melfi is raped in the garage beneath her office. She identifies the rapist. The cops totally failed her. The rapist goes free. Her ex husband was impotent because he was too afraid to exact revenge.
Melfi took great satisfaction knowing that if she asked Tony for justice, he would crush the rapist like a bug for her. Like Bonasera asked Godfather I to punish the men who raped his daughter. The mob provided a justice system of its own for the Italian community.
The Series portrayed Italians as mobsters....and as FBI agents....and as upper middle class professionals. The latter two groups having nothing but utter contempt for the former.
It definitely did not portray all people of Italian descent as being mobsters.