Tuesday, May 15, 2007

More Vulgar Charm

I liked Sly B's post about Deadwood (and Jorge's, and her name) a lot. She and I watched the latest episode of The Sopranos last night, and whooo boy. Her post has resonated with me all day as I've replayed the episode over and over again.

**Spoiler Alert** If you haven't watched the latest episode yet, and don't want to know, stop reading.

I think The Sopranos was unique when it premiered because it gave us a main character that was morally reprehensible, but also was someone that we could grow to care about and sympathize with. After all these years, I love Tony. I identify with him, and I hope he finds happiness. The writers set me up 100% for the HUGE slap right in the kisser from the episode we watched last night. It's almost like David Chase sat back and said, "Keep on watching, suckers. Keep on loving him. You're forgetting that he's criminally insane."

Tony is a sociopath. A lovable, overweight, boxer-short wearing sociopath. His near death experience last season, along with his reconnection with Carmella made me almost totally forget that he is a despicable guy. Then he goes and smothers Chris. Oh yeah! He is a murderer, he was irreparably damaged by his parents (particularly his mother), and he's growing very paranoid. Holy shit, this is a great show.

Sly B said:

One of the things that makes Deadwood so incredible is its sudden, surprising moments of gentleness and sweetness. In the midst of all the profanity, violence, and vulgarity are shining moments of humanity.

I could say that with Sopranos we have the opposite. We have had lots and lots of sweet moments with Tony, and now WHAMMO!!, we have the real Tony back.

3 comments:

IronicPink said...

I think part of the eeriness of this episode was how much it reminded me of Tony's life/death experience and his time in the coma as Kevin Finnerty. After he killed Chrissy, and the car drove by the road, it's headlights swept the sky just like Tony saw while in the hotel of purgatory.

Did you notice that while he was on Peyote, the sound was all tweaked?

Completely disturbing episode!

Do you guys like or hate Phil Leotardo?

EssBee said...

I hate Phil! Remember what he had done to Vito?

He's gotta go.

Sly B said...

I've kind of went back and forth with Phil. One of the funniest (and perhaps most touching) things I remember about him was when he was trying to give his young relatives a lesson about why they should be proud of their family - Leotardo was originally Leonardo (until it was bastardized by Ellis Island) and that's proof they were related to Leonardo Da Vinci. he he