By Chris Haberman
America’s “Soprano” Infatuation
By Chris Haberman
Staff Writer
Tony Soprano is regarded by most characters on HBO’s wildly successful series “The Sopranos” as ‘Skipper’, ‘T’, or Mr. Soprano. A serious percentage of America has fallen in love with the hulking wiseguy. Here are a few of the big reasons why. He’s the Boss. Most of us spend our days answering to a boss or aspiring to someday answer to a wealthier, more significant boss. This guy not only does whatever he wants 98% of the time, he’s got 98% of everybody around him doing whatever he wants as well. Tony (James Gandolfini) is the boss of the Soprano crime family. His title alone gives him absolute permission to be pushy, shamelessly offensive, unabashedly expressive, respected, feared, obeyed, and best of all, non-obligated. In short, what we all wish we could be revered as and behave like more than most of the time. Yeah, yeah, I know you’re a good person who doesn’t want to hurt anybody. But watch the show just once and witness the seas of New Jersey part for the man, and then tell me you’re not the slightest bit jealous.
Tony’s irresistible patterns of angrily exploding in therapy, blowing people off, personally insulting whoever he disagrees with (and/or disposing of them), and outrageous self-indulgence of every shape and form makes for magnificent viewing, especially after a long, hard day. This approaching time of year is when I sorely need to see him storming around and barking orders at passersby that get too close to him. I enjoy Christmas as much as the next guy, but there’s a good reason why Tony’s therapist, Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) calls the mother of all holidays ‘Stressmas.’ His families are hilarious. There are plenty of times in any given episode of “The Sopranos” when one would definitely not want to be Tony. The people closest to him are more often than not directly responsible for most of his personal mayhem, which causes him to repeatedly return to his therapist. Tony’s family, a La Cosa Nostra, is filled with a plethora of walking stress factors for the man. He is constantly surrounded by dangerous and violent thugs, impatient and threatening enemies, thoughtless and frustrating idiot henchmen, and the damn FBI closely watching him attempt to corral all of these men into making sense and money.
Tony’s unpredictable family at home doesn’t make things much better at the end of his day. Carmela (Edie Falco) is Tony’s guilt-ridden wife who can never tell whether she’s proud or ashamed of her husband’s lifestyle of crime and brutality. Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) is Tony’s college-bound daughter, who is a fountain of selfishness, snide remarks, disrespect, and general bratty behavior. His son, A.J. or Anthony Jr. (Robert Iler), is a hopeless adolescent who doesn’t have much of a clue about anything. Nor does he seem to want one. He goes about his days listening to Slipknot while endlessly playing video games, ditching and vandalizing his school, and being as lazy as a human being is capable of. Oh yeah, and his mother and uncle tried to have him murdered in the first season. All of these elements combined provide an explosively funny element to the show, as Tony deals with situations we’ve seen presented in gripping films such as “Goodfellas” and “The Godfather” with all the confusion and frustration of Moe, the great self-proclaimed leader of “The Three Stooges.”
“I should have the face of a bulldog,” said Marlon Brando on his makeup for “The Godfather.” His ferocious eyes, pursed lips, and trademark heavy breathing have made Tony Soprano one of the most frightening gangsters to appear in entertainment. Tony’s behavior is extremely unpredictable. One misinterpreted remark from someone could take him from a state of mental serenity to a brimstone-laden pit of anger and violence. The show is worth watching for Tony’s mood swings alone. If he is ever in good spirits, it’s not for long. Soon something will push Tony over his very short ledge and oh, what a sight it is. My father has a horrible temper. When the guy has a bad golf game, he doesn’t return with most of his clubs. It’s too much work to scale the course’s trees to retrieve them all. Even some of my father’s more inexplicable antics can’t compare to Tony Soprano’s tantrums. He breaks things, hits people, screams profanities, and typically loses any control he previously had. What makes it all so pleasurable is that most of Tony’s anger is heightened by narrow scope on reality. His inability to cope with the hazards of his ‘profession’ and his day-to-day home life problems put him in silly and tense situations that often times require him to either be crude and intolerant or downright horrible. Tony’s a gangster. He may be a husband and father as well, but for him, most of his rules apply to most areas of his life. And to see a stone gangster’s principles follow him from his living room to crime scenes can be truly remarkable, even though the more entertaining it is for us, usually it’s all the harder of a time for Tony. That, without a doubt, is why we love him so much. While the bulldog furiously barks at the end of his rusty chain, we get to safely hide out of sight behind the doghouse and laugh to ourselves.
The highly anticipated fourth season of “The Sopranos” begins Sunday, September 15, on HBO.
