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canyonwalkerAfter finishing off season 1 of The Sopranos on Sunday we dove into the first few episodes of season 2. One of the story arcs across this season, or at least the first few episodes of it, is Tony's estranged older sister, Janice, coming back to town to reconcile with their mother, Livia. Janice is a skilled manipulator. She may not be psychotic like her mother but she's effective at it. She irritates Tony, who at a gut level recognizes she's a manipulator but doesn't really know how to counteract it, and seems to completely fool Carmella.
A blow-up happens between Janice and Tony and Carmella in episode 3. Cops find their 16ish daughter, Meadow, drunk at a party where there is heavy drug use. At least one fellow teen is seen wheeled out in a gurney to an ambulance. Tony and Carmella struggle over how to punish her. After they settle on a ridiculously weaksauce punishment— it's worth a separate blog just to talk about that, BTW— Janice (who's been living in their house for several weeks) ridicules Tony and Carmella for even wanting to punish her.
"She made a decision that you don't like, and you want to control her," she chides them. Nevermind that the ``decision'' was to have a party with underage drinking and illegal drug use, where at least one person was injured and property was damaged. In Janice's relativistic world those factors are irrelevant.
...They're irrelevant only until Janice discovers that the property that was damaged was her mother's house— which Janice is scheming to move into. All of a sudden, when it's property she covets, Janice treats Meadow's "kids will be kids" misbehavior as the crime of the century. She rushes into the house to confront Carmella, screaming at her that her punishment of Meadow was too light. ...Yes, the same light-slap-on-the-wrist punishment she ludicrously said a day or two earlier was excessive and driven solely by parental egos.
Carmella insists that Janice needs to butt out of their parenting, but her argument for that is as weak as her punishment of Meadow. It's basically, "Butt out because you're not her parent." If I were in Carmella's position I first would have confronted Janice with her raving hypocrisy. Then, having established that, I would have told her to butt out— not only because she's not the parent but because she's acting in crass self-interest
Unfortunately Carmella doesn't get that Janice is acting in crass self-interest, that's she's a manipulator. That fact is reemphasized in a later scene where Carmella comes to ask Janice to turn down the loud music in her room late at night. ...Yes, after numerous fights with Tony and Carmella she's still living for free at their house. But that's not even the proof that Carmella's being played for a fool over and over. Janice states that she needs to apologize for interfering in their parenting, but literally only a few words into her supposed apology she reframes it as a pity party about her difficult life. Carmella apologizes to her and welcomes her to stay in the house as long as she wants.
By the way, in my house? Bullshit people like this would be thrown out. Yes, even family. Hawk and I have agreed we have no patience for people who insult us or are harmful to anyone in our household.
A blow-up happens between Janice and Tony and Carmella in episode 3. Cops find their 16ish daughter, Meadow, drunk at a party where there is heavy drug use. At least one fellow teen is seen wheeled out in a gurney to an ambulance. Tony and Carmella struggle over how to punish her. After they settle on a ridiculously weaksauce punishment— it's worth a separate blog just to talk about that, BTW— Janice (who's been living in their house for several weeks) ridicules Tony and Carmella for even wanting to punish her.
"She made a decision that you don't like, and you want to control her," she chides them. Nevermind that the ``decision'' was to have a party with underage drinking and illegal drug use, where at least one person was injured and property was damaged. In Janice's relativistic world those factors are irrelevant.
...They're irrelevant only until Janice discovers that the property that was damaged was her mother's house— which Janice is scheming to move into. All of a sudden, when it's property she covets, Janice treats Meadow's "kids will be kids" misbehavior as the crime of the century. She rushes into the house to confront Carmella, screaming at her that her punishment of Meadow was too light. ...Yes, the same light-slap-on-the-wrist punishment she ludicrously said a day or two earlier was excessive and driven solely by parental egos.
Carmella insists that Janice needs to butt out of their parenting, but her argument for that is as weak as her punishment of Meadow. It's basically, "Butt out because you're not her parent." If I were in Carmella's position I first would have confronted Janice with her raving hypocrisy. Then, having established that, I would have told her to butt out— not only because she's not the parent but because she's acting in crass self-interest
Unfortunately Carmella doesn't get that Janice is acting in crass self-interest, that's she's a manipulator. That fact is reemphasized in a later scene where Carmella comes to ask Janice to turn down the loud music in her room late at night. ...Yes, after numerous fights with Tony and Carmella she's still living for free at their house. But that's not even the proof that Carmella's being played for a fool over and over. Janice states that she needs to apologize for interfering in their parenting, but literally only a few words into her supposed apology she reframes it as a pity party about her difficult life. Carmella apologizes to her and welcomes her to stay in the house as long as she wants.
By the way, in my house? Bullshit people like this would be thrown out. Yes, even family. Hawk and I have agreed we have no patience for people who insult us or are harmful to anyone in our household.
