The Sopranos - Season 1 Finale
Sep. 19th, 2021 03:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerWe finished up watching season 1 of The Sopranos this morning. (It would've been last night but Hawk was falling asleep so we paused the finale.) We plowed through the 13 episodes in less than a week— faster than the one-a-day I estimated when we started. Are we bingeing? Enh, not really. My one-a-day estimate was long term. There will be days when we watch no TV, such as when we're traveling. I think over a few months it will even out toward 1/day. But anyway: the finale! Here are Five Things.
Spoilers for Season 1 throughout, so keep reading after the jump if you're good.
1) Tony learns the plotters & gets revenge. In the 12th episode two hitmen try to kill Tony Soprano. He narrowly escapes. All along we've known the hit was decided by his uncle, Uncle Junior, with his mother, Livia, whispering in Junior's ear. Early in the finale Tony learns the truth from federal investigators. They play him a recording from a listening device in his Livia's nursing home room where she goads Junior to do it and he says he will. The feds argue Tony is in such jeopardy that he should accept an immunity and protection deal in exchange for full testimony. Tony spurns their offer and plots to kill Junior and his crew. Two of Junior's soldiers get whacked but Junior survives— because the feds arrest him (and several other bosses and associates) before Tony's crew gets to him. Tony and his guys are not part of this round of arrests.
2) Livia's a monster. We've seen all season that Livia, Tony's mom, is a horrible person. Early on it seemed maybe she was just hard to get along with. It was possible to sympathize with her somewhat, taking into account her circumstances: old age and infirmity, loneliness as an elderly widow with only 1/3 children still talking to her, fear of going to a nursing home, and dissatisfaction with Tony's criminal life. But as the season developed it became clear that she was playing people against each other for her own morbid satisfaction. Tony's psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi, opined that she seemed to have Borderline Personality Disorder. One major symptoms is seeing the world only through your own fears. Livia saw Tony's visits to Dr. Melfi as an attack on her— saying all he'd be doing is complaining about his mother— and as a threat to Junior— because he'd also be telling her all about "the business". Another major symptom is splitting: the practice of see people as all good or all bad. She repeatedly called her deceased husband "a saint"— even though in flashbacks we saw that she fought with him constantly and blocked his aspirations; treats Tony with deep suspicion and contempt for everything he tries to do for her; and lavishes kindness and praise on Junior for doing less than Tony does. This is spooky-insightful to me because it resembles something a close relative does. Thankfully we're not a family of killers!
3) Where are the feds? Throughout the season we've heard that the feds are closing in on Tony and his associates. It's bothered me as a matter of believability that we we're only seen them surveilling members of the organization in a few scenes. Why don't we see agents tailing Tony and other capos? At times I've wondered if this is the writers and directors taking the cheap way out— say there's a problem but don't show it in the story. During the finale it's stated that the feds were focusing on a criminal activity Tony and his crew weren't involved it. Okay, that creates room to develop Tony's story. I also started to consider there may be a subtle message conveyed here. Even after the feds tell Tony his mother and uncle plotted to have him killed, they don't follow him or his guys. When he spurned their offer for immunity and protection they knew— unless they were fucking stupid, they knew— that he would kill several people in revenge. They basically let it happen. I think there's a deliberate message here that law enforcement is content to let the crime gangs kill their own and wait to mop up the pieces.
4) Uncle Junior, a clown with a huge ego. Junior's a bit of a tragic figure in this story. He's striven for leadership his whole life, but by the time he gets it he's played for a fool. Early in the season Tony learns, with the guidance from Dr. Melfi, how to influence difficult people. He makes only slight progress with his mother (she's psychotic) but disarms his tense relationship with Uncle Junior by brokering a deal for him to become caporegime, the head of several crime gangs in New Jersey. But the agreement Tony struck with the other gang leaders is that he'd really be puling the strings while Junior would be something of a puppet. Livia, too, pulls Junior's strings, goading him to kill Tony. In one of the scenes of the finale, federal investigators offer Junior immunity in exchange for testimony. But Junior is so blinded by foolish pride that he can't acknowledge it even to save himself.
5) About that priest....After a dangling plot hook with Father Phil is presented in the first episode (it's one of the 5 Things I wrote about the pilot) he disappeared for most of the season. He played a major role again in one of the later episodes when he stayed over at the Sopranos' house after getting drunk with Carmella and making a pass at her. Well, that shot my initial theory about him being an innocent red herring. In later episodes Carmella sees him making nice with other married women for companionship— and food— the same way he did with her. In the season finale she confronts him, accusing him of taking advantage of "spiritually thirsty women" because he enjoys the sexual tension— and food. This reminds me a bit of what one friend of mine years ago said about dating. He said enjoyed the tension aspect of dating— the "thrill of the chase" as it's often called— as much as dating turning into long-term romantic relationships. But he wasn't a Catholic priest. Or a food hound.
Spoilers for Season 1 throughout, so keep reading after the jump if you're good.
1) Tony learns the plotters & gets revenge. In the 12th episode two hitmen try to kill Tony Soprano. He narrowly escapes. All along we've known the hit was decided by his uncle, Uncle Junior, with his mother, Livia, whispering in Junior's ear. Early in the finale Tony learns the truth from federal investigators. They play him a recording from a listening device in his Livia's nursing home room where she goads Junior to do it and he says he will. The feds argue Tony is in such jeopardy that he should accept an immunity and protection deal in exchange for full testimony. Tony spurns their offer and plots to kill Junior and his crew. Two of Junior's soldiers get whacked but Junior survives— because the feds arrest him (and several other bosses and associates) before Tony's crew gets to him. Tony and his guys are not part of this round of arrests.
2) Livia's a monster. We've seen all season that Livia, Tony's mom, is a horrible person. Early on it seemed maybe she was just hard to get along with. It was possible to sympathize with her somewhat, taking into account her circumstances: old age and infirmity, loneliness as an elderly widow with only 1/3 children still talking to her, fear of going to a nursing home, and dissatisfaction with Tony's criminal life. But as the season developed it became clear that she was playing people against each other for her own morbid satisfaction. Tony's psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi, opined that she seemed to have Borderline Personality Disorder. One major symptoms is seeing the world only through your own fears. Livia saw Tony's visits to Dr. Melfi as an attack on her— saying all he'd be doing is complaining about his mother— and as a threat to Junior— because he'd also be telling her all about "the business". Another major symptom is splitting: the practice of see people as all good or all bad. She repeatedly called her deceased husband "a saint"— even though in flashbacks we saw that she fought with him constantly and blocked his aspirations; treats Tony with deep suspicion and contempt for everything he tries to do for her; and lavishes kindness and praise on Junior for doing less than Tony does. This is spooky-insightful to me because it resembles something a close relative does. Thankfully we're not a family of killers!
3) Where are the feds? Throughout the season we've heard that the feds are closing in on Tony and his associates. It's bothered me as a matter of believability that we we're only seen them surveilling members of the organization in a few scenes. Why don't we see agents tailing Tony and other capos? At times I've wondered if this is the writers and directors taking the cheap way out— say there's a problem but don't show it in the story. During the finale it's stated that the feds were focusing on a criminal activity Tony and his crew weren't involved it. Okay, that creates room to develop Tony's story. I also started to consider there may be a subtle message conveyed here. Even after the feds tell Tony his mother and uncle plotted to have him killed, they don't follow him or his guys. When he spurned their offer for immunity and protection they knew— unless they were fucking stupid, they knew— that he would kill several people in revenge. They basically let it happen. I think there's a deliberate message here that law enforcement is content to let the crime gangs kill their own and wait to mop up the pieces.
4) Uncle Junior, a clown with a huge ego. Junior's a bit of a tragic figure in this story. He's striven for leadership his whole life, but by the time he gets it he's played for a fool. Early in the season Tony learns, with the guidance from Dr. Melfi, how to influence difficult people. He makes only slight progress with his mother (she's psychotic) but disarms his tense relationship with Uncle Junior by brokering a deal for him to become caporegime, the head of several crime gangs in New Jersey. But the agreement Tony struck with the other gang leaders is that he'd really be puling the strings while Junior would be something of a puppet. Livia, too, pulls Junior's strings, goading him to kill Tony. In one of the scenes of the finale, federal investigators offer Junior immunity in exchange for testimony. But Junior is so blinded by foolish pride that he can't acknowledge it even to save himself.
5) About that priest....After a dangling plot hook with Father Phil is presented in the first episode (it's one of the 5 Things I wrote about the pilot) he disappeared for most of the season. He played a major role again in one of the later episodes when he stayed over at the Sopranos' house after getting drunk with Carmella and making a pass at her. Well, that shot my initial theory about him being an innocent red herring. In later episodes Carmella sees him making nice with other married women for companionship— and food— the same way he did with her. In the season finale she confronts him, accusing him of taking advantage of "spiritually thirsty women" because he enjoys the sexual tension— and food. This reminds me a bit of what one friend of mine years ago said about dating. He said enjoyed the tension aspect of dating— the "thrill of the chase" as it's often called— as much as dating turning into long-term romantic relationships. But he wasn't a Catholic priest. Or a food hound.
