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The Sopranos: Season 4 Analyzed; Week 1

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from: Glen Gabbard
to: Margaret Crastnopol, Philip Ringstrom, and Joel Whitebook

What Lies Beneath

Posted Monday, Sept. 16, 2002, at 11:31 AM ET

Who are these people?

Dear Peggy, Phil, and Joel,

Carmela ominously informs Tony that "Everything comes to an end." Ever the henpecked husband, Tony reflects a bit on this axiom. He decides that there is an alternative to being whacked or ending up in the "can." One can decide to trust only "blood." That way you preserve your freedom, knowing that your "blood" will not squeal on you. Oh really? Come again, Tony? Didn't you just con your old Uncle Junior out of a prime piece of real estate under the guise of helping him with his legal bills? One of the recurring themes throughout the series is that festering beneath the oaths of loyalty and pledges of devotion are intense rivalries that threaten the entire edifice. In an interview, James Gandolfini, who plays Tony, once said that The Sopranos is about how we lie to ourselves. In keeping with his vertical split that we discussed last year, Tony manages to believe in family loyalty on the one hand while screwing over his uncle on the other.

Dr. Melfi makes a late appearance with new glasses, new do, and higher hemline. She looks composed, but she can't help asking the question that the audience wants to ask Tony: "Why don't you give it up?" Jennifer speaks for us. We sit there year after year wanting Tony to go straight and give up his life of crime. Maybe therapy will transform a bad man into a good man. Her hopes are dashed when Tony ignores her question. We, too, have trouble sustaining hope for the guy. This season opener shows us a tormented Tony with a shorter fuse and a darker pessimism. Don't expect any happy endings.

Glen

tv club
entries
1234
from: Glen Gabbard
to: Margaret Crastnopol, Philip Ringstrom, and Joel Whitebook

What Lies Beneath

Posted Monday, Sept. 16, 2002, at 11:31 AM ET
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Glen O. Gabbard, M.D., is a professor of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and author of The Psychology of The Sopranos, inspired by this discussion. Philip A. Ringstrom, Ph.D., Psy.D., is a senior faculty member at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles. Joel Whitebook, Ph.D., is on the faculty of the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Margaret Crastnopol, Ph.D., is on the faculty of the Northwest Center for Psychoanalysis. All are practicing therapists as well.
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Notes From The Fray Editor:

What makes a family? Blood? Love? An annoying need to tuck the label back in the collar of your robe? Whichever, the Sopranos are part of many Fraysters' families. (To be fair, there was a great deal of Sopranos-hating early in the Fray, and only flashes of obsessed fandom.) Only a few can manage the critical distance of J Gayles or Mitch.

Remarks From The Fray:

I love the tie-in with the ducks. I, too, wish they would make a reappearance. Alas, it was only a squirrel. And the one question that still rings in my head: In the opening shot when Tony walked out of the house in his bathrobe to get the newspaper, what was that black thing against the back of his neck? My mother-in-law overanalyzed it(of course) and said that first it was a tail of his hair, then she said it was a microphone(but he didn't say anything). I am convinced it's the tag to his robe flipped up, no more, no less. And Tony thought he had it tough in his family.

-- Angelique Arnold

(To reply, click here.)

Seems like the writers for these highbrow series weary of their success even before the audiences; remember St. Elsewhere's cheesy descent into Twilight Zone mystico-weird in their last season. The season opener suggests a more post-modern fate for Tony, as the Family deconstructs into a garden-variety NYC/NJ business struggling to turn a profit in the post-9-11 environment, and the CEO struggles with the age-old difficulties of estate planning for the cash-basis (non)taxpayer. Tony's losing the last mythic Godfather overtones, as the musical underpinnings shift from operatic to techno-punk. I suppose this all makes sense in the post-modern Stop Making Sense sense; but narratively, the stream gets pretty thin, nothing but (by definition) meaningless sex and violence to hold the viewer's attention. Maybe Junior last season was singing the fat lady's song.

-- Mitch

(To reply, click here.)

I'm surprised all of you failed to mention the most obvious. The show was not trying to show the darker side of that life style, it's been there and showed that many times in the past, hardly an intriguing message for the season opener.
Guys, notice the extremely different use of camera angles and distances? How everybody seemed darker, a little on the edge? Good, now you no what a day in the life of Christopher M. consists of. Notice that after he shot up how things went normal for a bit. What the show was trying to do was show you how Chris is seeing things. Starting to catch on?

-- J Gayles

(To reply, click here.)

(9/16)

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