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The Sopranos

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from: Jeffrey Goldberg

Wise Guys; Annoying Gals

Posted Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2000, at 4:51 PM ET

Dear Biggie,

Wait a frigging second--could you please explain to me the phallic symbolism of herring? Herring in cream sauce, maybe, but regular old herring?

Again, Judith, too many thoughts. I don't know where to begin with you. Oh, I know where--by telling you I finally get your Judith "De Man" Shulevitz joke. Like, De Man the Nazi-symp deconstructionist. You're pretty funny, for an intellectual. Let me repeat that last part--for an intellectual. (Dept. of Mortifying Amplification: I finally got the joke because someone explained it to me. OK, you explained it to me. Let's never talk about this again. I hate you comp-lit people).

May I make one observation? There is way too much hype now about this show. Did you see the cover of TV Guide? The cast is all there, and they're on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, and they're in Vanity Fair, and the newsweeklies, ad infinitum. This is crazy already. I feel the backlash beginning.

OK. I don't like Richie Aprile, the new thug on the block, precisely because he's such a malevolent thug, at least so far (yeah, he's a bit New Agey, but his whole yoga shtick feels forced, as if the writers decided that each and every character had to be a member of the sensitive, slightly feminized postmodern mob). I think it's dangerous for The Sopranos to introduce an ongoing character who's flat-out bad. (Though I guess that Mikey Palmice, Junior's now-dead henchman, filled that role last season.) All malevolence, all the time, as you put it, is fine for Casino--think Joe Pesci--but in The Sopranos? The joy of The Sopranos is that all these bad-ass gangsters are possessed of some complicating goodness, or at least some kind of benign dream of a better life.

But don't get me wrong: I much prefer the addition of a flat-out gangster to the cast than yet another annoying woman (uh oh, am I in trouble now?).

By annoying, I am referring to Tony's sister, who is with us for the entire season, apparently. Talk about a drag on the show. It's funny--in advance of today's discussion, I wanted to watch Episodes 2 and 3 again, but I couldn't bring myself to do it: They bored me, and I realized that it was Tony's sister who bored me the most. Man, they should have killed off Livia when they had the chance, and that way they wouldn't have to saddle us with her dreary daughter.

Don't get wrong, I do enjoy the story lines that don't deal directly with people getting whacked, and I could watch Edie Falco, who plays Tony's wife, spend 10 hours reading the phone book. To herself. I could even watch her in the execrable Oz, in which she plays a prison guard. (How could HBO simultaneously make a show as good as The Sopranos and as bad as Oz?)

Here's the thing: Generally speaking, I like my mob movies straight-up male: I still don't understand what Diane Keaton is doing in The Godfather (not to mention Sofia Coppola in III). I love Tony's crew, and I love mob intrigue. But David Chase has made Tony's relationship with his wife so interesting--and, at least in the first season, made Tony's relationship with his mother so appalling--that I don't generally fall asleep when the Soprano women are on screen. (I know you think I'm some kind of misogynist now, yes?).

As for Melfi, I've always had mixed feelings about her. She is at the center of the story, of course; without her, Tony would be unredeemed, and dead. Maybe I don't like the character because Lorraine Bracco is a bit of a stiff. I don't know. I'm a simple guy. I'd rather watch Silvo and Paulie Walnuts and Pussy and Tony shoot pool and gripe and plot to kill people, and I'd rather watch Hesh scheme and Christopher explode, than watch Lorraine Bracco act.

On the subject of Italian-Americans and their gripes about The Sopranos, et al., I'm with you (thought I must admit Merchant of Venice ain't my all-time favorite. Who wrote that piece of shit, anyway? Your friend de Man?). I grew up in a Spike Lee movie: Italians needled the Irish who beat-up the Jews who harassed the blacks (well, not really) and so on. I like ethnic humor. Besides, I have a theory about America's fascination with Italian criminals: said fascination is merely an extension of the world's love for everything Italian--culture, opera, food, art, architecture. It's all of a piece. At least, this is what I tell Italian-Americans who write me incredibly nasty letters when my mob stories appear.

By the way, since when do I have Hasidic friends? God, what do you think of me?

Oh--A mook is kind of like a gavone, which is kind of like an Italian schmuck.

Jeff

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from: Jeffrey Goldberg

Wise Guys; Annoying Gals

Posted Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2000, at 4:51 PM ET

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This week, a discussion of the new season of The Sopranos, which premieres Jan. 16 on HBO. Jeffrey Goldberg, a regular contributor to Slate, is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine. Judith Shulevitz is the New York editor of Slate and writes the "Culturebox" column.

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