TV Club

Twilight of the Godfathers

Dear Joel, Phil, and Peggy,

It is indeed the twilight of the godfathers. When Silvio and Christopher visit the Old Folks’ Home for Blind and Emphysematous Former Hit Men, we learn that the mob isn’t what it used to be. In the good old days, an insult directed at a made-man’s wife would lead to decapitation with a hacksaw. Now this mode of justice is considered “overstated.” Standards have gone to hell in a hand basket. Uncle Jun notes that jokes about large moles on large asses would not have been tolerated in the halcyon days of his youth. Morality isn’t what it used to be. Now they “bend more rules than the Catholic Church.” It’s really gotten bad, my fellow Bada Bingers.

Fortunately, the writing has gotten good again. The fourth episode recaptures that unmistakable blend of pathos, tragedy, farce, wit, and action to which we have grown accustomed. There is the wonderful running gag that no one understands the mole joke. And there is the marvelous moralizing about the appropriate response to the joke. Nothing is more amusing than placing moral dilemmas in the mouths of sleazeballs. Terence Winter (the writer of last night’s episode) is even more adept than Quentin Tarantino at this specialty. And we also learn a lesson to apply to our own lives from Johnny Sack—namely, that weight jokes are hurtful and destructive. Thank you, Dr. Phil.

And Elliot’s countertransference towards Jennifer is getting out of hand. He breaks confidentiality by telling his gender-ambiguous offspring that Jason is struggling in college (Note to Slate readers: What you hear in the consulting room STAYS in the consulting room). And was it only me—or did he follow Tony in the parking lot at a menacingly close distance? Did he really not know that “Bluto” was Tony Soprano? Isn’t Tony’s photo in the papers and on television? Elliot says that Jason and Richard felt powerless. As a trained observer of human behavior, methinks he too is feeling powerless to help Jennifer with her rape trauma.

Glen