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Posted: 4/22/01
The Sopranos (1999 - ?) HBO
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 HBO has found a winner in the popularity wars with network programming, and it's a family show with plenty of sex and violence. The Sopranos is about a New Jersey crime family and the family that runs "The Family." Okay, so many of you have seen the show. In spite of the show's popularity, there are still many people who have never watched a single episode. They don't know about a crime boss who sees a shrink to appease his wife and save their marriage. They have no concept of a mob boss' wife wining and dining and flirting with a young priest because her husband ignores her. They've never heard of mob tough guys like Paulie Gaultieri, Silvio Dante, Big Pussy Bonpensiero, or Uncle Junior. They don't know what living in a home with a nutcase mother like Livia Soprano can do to your head. Or how having a conniving, self-centered, mystic-eyed believing sister like Janice can make you wish you were an orphan.
Ain't families great? Del Harvey, founder of FM, is a veteran of The Directors Guild Of America, The Walt Disney Co., and Lucasfilm.Got a problem? Email Del at filmmonthly@hotmail.com |
These people do not understand the difficulties of running a corporation like the mob and balancing these with the pressures of being a good father to a teenaged son and a college-aged daughter. Especially when the daughter's body is ripening like lush grapes, and she defies you by dating a Jewish/African-American boy. They don't know about the temptations that women will test you with, just because of the mob "mystique." Sure, you're a big tough guy, but you've got a gut on you like a truck tire. You wake up some mornings delirious from whacked-out nightmares of treachery and self-loathing. And it doesn't help that you know the Feds and the cops are watching you like a pimple on the Holy Mother's left tit. You're under so much pressure you swear you can hear your brain boiling.
So you escape to your own nightclub, The Bada-Bing. And for a little while you can make smalltalk with one of your guys or maybe one of the strippers who works for you, or maybe catch a game of cards. But it doesn't last long, because somebody tells you one of your guys may be a rat, or that prick Ralph Cifaretto from one of the New York families has disrespected you, or one of your friends needs some special help, or God knows what. And you know what you do? You deal with it, all the big and little shit that comes in your door or across your phone line or is whispered into your ear. You deal with it. Why? Because you're the Boss and you'd damned well better deal with it or give the whole thing up. Deal with it, because if you ignore it, it'll come back to bite you in the ass. Don't matter that it's every day, this shit, you better deal with it, 'cause you're Tony Soprano, Boss of the New Jersey mob of the same name. And you are one tough bastard or you are dead.