Posted on 05/06/2006 12:03:25 PM PDT by Chi-townChief
I see by the papers, as Mr. Dooley would have said, that Crazy Uncle Junior tried to put Tony Soprano down. The paper was in fact what Jimmy Breslin is pleased to call New York Times Newspaper. Since there apparently are no serious national or world problems about which the wise men and women of the Times could pontificate, they decided to discuss Tony's apparent downfall. Surely, they would not use the space to admit how drastically they have reversed (waffled) their stance of three years ago on the war in Iraq -- just as their predecessors had never admitted they were wrong in their early support for the Vietnam War.
The editorial reinforced the image of "The Sopranos" series as a thoughtful story of mob mayhem for those who think they are sophisticated academics and/or intellectuals -- the people who, like me, read the Times editorials. After all, Tony has his own psychoanalyst, doesn't he? When you make it into the Times editorials, you have become official. There are a number of unprintable words that are used in every other sentence that Tony and his thugs utter that are appropriate to describe such a supercilious reaction to the series. Its basic appeal is to sex and violence -- and violent sex, at that. The underlying suspense is always who's going to get whacked in this episode. (Add your own unprintables.)
In fact, despite the excellent scripts, acting and direction, the series is trivial, infantile, male chauvinist trash that glorifies vicious, nasty, evil, ugly criminals. It is "The Godfather" all over again, with more explicit sex and more foul words.
Moreover, it stereotypes Italian Americans, bigotry which many Americans seem to enjoy. The Soprano family, it is implied, is a typical Italian American with high regard for the virtue of their wives and daughters and no hesitation about wanton murder.
I'm exaggerating, you say?
Yeah, well, just imagine a similar series about African-American or Jewish criminals. Fuhgeddaboudit!
When the infamous Dillingham Commission in the first decade of the last century tried to justify the restrictive immigration laws Congress would enthusiastically enact, it reported that Italians are innately criminal types. This stereotype has lurked for 100 years at the limen of American consciousness.
Hence, many Americans believe that former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo decided not to run for president because there was some mysterious link between him and the Outfit (as we call it in Chicago). It was also said that an Italian wouldn't do well in the South. Nativist stereotypes are not limited in American culture just to Mexican-American illegals. The bigots are still among us.
The latest conflict among the Sopranos is about poor Vito, who turns out to be gay. Will Tony become politically correct, as he seems inclined to do, and say that Vito may be a fag, but he's our fag? Or will he remember that he is a "very strict Catholic" and assign someone to whack poor Vito? I don't think I'd want to hold Vito's life insurance policy. Tony, after all, has to think about his family's reputation and his strict Catholic morality.
Part of the phony myth surrounding the series is that ''The Sopranos'' is "edgy" or even "transgressive." In the world of New York culture, a gay Mafioso is supposed to be "edgy." I suppose the series is better than most of the so-called reality shows. There is perhaps some comedy in a group of overweight, filthy, foul-mouthed Italian killers agonizing about the morality of sexual orientation in the appropriate obscene language.
Just when one thinks that the vulgarity of American TV has reached an all-time low, it shows amazing resilience. Maybe if Tony has to retire, he could apply for a role as an apprentice to Donald Trump. However, I think someone will whack Tony in the last episode of the series (not so definitively that he can't live again next year). The killer will be his daughter Meadow at her wedding. Such a conclusion should be edgy enough for the folks who market the series.
Bigots are everywhere. Italians, I am told, who watch ''The Sopranos'' say that the series is not about Italians but about Sicilians who are Arabs, descendants of the Saracens who once occupied the island.
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Actually the script writer is trying to establish how uncivilized Deadwood was at that point in history and how rapidly it changed. If HBO gives him enough seasons the intention of the show is to DRAMATICALLY clean up the language and look.
It could be worse. Greeley could be in Congress like that 60s Irish-American left-wing priest whose name, like Greeley's characters, is unrecallable.
I like your sense of humor.
Just quoting the producer of the show. That's why he picked that town and that time in that town's history. Civilation came to Deadwood fast and hard. If you want to show an area getting civilized the first thing you have to do is show it as very uncivilized, basic dramatic techniques.
Andrew needs to get wacked.
Was he ever priest?
The Sopranos isn't as good this year as past years, IMO, but over time it's been innovative and quite brilliant. It also paved the way for the whole current slew of "gritty" more true-to-life TV dramas on the free networks, a welcome change from the pablum of yesteryear.
Tony Soprano would say that any self respecting journalist who used an AOL email address was an effin' pansy.
And he'd be right.
LOL!! Do you mean Kennedy?
The funny thing is that Mary Jo Buttafucco has been back in the news lately, and she is so like Carmela Soprano in style and attitude it's uncanny.
There should be a HBO series centered around the Lavindar Mafia in a Catholic seminary including an episode of Cardinal McCarrick, another modernist POS, sleeping with young seminarians. The perverts.
Greeley's own mystery novels are full of sex and violence.
What a hypocrite!
He claims to know who killed a Milwaukee priest and that it was a "hit" ordered by an Italian cardinal.
But he never went to the police or the FBI with his information.
Silly old woman, he is!
(There is something perverse about the show. It makes us -- or a lot of us anyway -- cheer on the evil characters, and that's disturbing.)
I can't speak for others but I have a theory that the reason this show is so popular because these 'people' live by a very strict code of honor which is missing in everyday life and when it is broken, there is swift justice, which is something else that is missing. They also put a lot of stock in loyalty and family, something else which is in decline in this country.
They believe a man's word should never be taken lightly and if it is broken, there is a price to be paid, just ask the kennedy's.
Also no commercials. That alone makes it far more watchable than network crap. But I think Rome has replaced it as my favorite HBO drama series.
Really! .. "glorifies violence" .. since when were the liberals upset about glorifying violence - WE SEE IT ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE PAPER EVERY DAY - and that's all we see - violence in Iraq - but then "Iraq is a quagmire and is about to descend into civil war" .. isn't that the mantra ..??
Fat, unnattractive middle-aged people leading lives filled with danger, power and sex?
No wonder the Sopranos is like crack for baby boomers.
As far as I know it still exists, and is still led-to the best of my recollection-by Umberto Bossi.
Best thing about the Sopranos are the promotional posters. Photos by Annie Leibovitz
He is kidding, right? Hasn't he seen most of the "gangsta" movies, videos, and hip hop style around us? Does this guy live on a farm in northern Siberia?
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