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Mob Experts on The Sopranos, Week 2

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from: Jerry Capeci
to: Jeffrey Goldberg

The Sopranos Women Steal the Show

Posted Monday, March 15, 2004, at 5:54 PM ET

Who are these people?

Last year, each new episode of The Sopranos was analyzed by a group of shrinks; this year, each week two mob experts will discuss the lives and squabbles of America's favorite gangsters.

Jeff,

To get to your last query right at the top: You'd think—or at least I thought—that if John Gotti or Joe Massino or Al Capone or any other Mafia boss were visiting a mob-run strip club anywhere, even in New Jersey, he would have access to the CEO's private john, if he had to take a dump. As Tony Soprano said last night to his cousin, "You gotta show a little respect."

No question that life imitates art when it comes to wiseguys, as well as, it can be fairly stated, when it comes to a certain former federal prosecutor and New York City mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, who's said to do a sterling imitation of Marlon Brando as the Godfather. I never heard Giuliani demonstrate this up close and personal, but I have heard wiseguys imitate Brando's throaty rendition and repeat some of his phrases for decades. Years earlier, mobster Crazy Joe Gallo was said to have mimicked the mannerisms and voice inflections of Richard Widmark in Kiss of Death.

As for Feech, I think he's showing more common sense (or respect) than Aprile in his efforts to "hit the ground running." Even if his plotline is somewhat repetitive, it's more realistic, so far, than the actions of Tony B.

Speaking of action, the female cast members saw plenty of it last night. We had the continuing saga of Adrianna as informant—including her near confession of her "Judas" role—and we had Carmela's movie club, complete with her newly estranged sister-in-law Janice as a card-carrying member. We saw Adrianna's maid of honor Tina Franceso coming on to Chris right in front of Adrianna. Adrianna, the vacillating snitch, then recounted Tina's illegal activities to an FBI agent—the super-serious woman you mentioned whose FBI agent hubby crawled over her to get a promotion. And we saw two woman agents watching a video of mobsters' cars moving in and out of parking spaces. (By the way, I thought it was weird that one called Paulie Walnuts by his given name: Is it Gualtieri? In my experience, cops, agents, and prosecutors, just like reporters, use nicknames when discussing wiseguys.)

My guess is that with all those women filling up so much air time, there was none left for a Tony Soprano visit with Dr. Melfi, but I envision one sometime soon.

All in all, it wasn't a bad watch, even though I still think the episode was somewhat disjointed.

Get back to me next week,

Jerry

tv club
entries

1 2 3 4 5

from: Jerry Capeci
to: Jeffrey Goldberg

The Sopranos Women Steal the Show

Posted Monday, March 15, 2004, at 5:54 PM ET

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Jerry Capeci is author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia and Jerry Capeci's Gang Land: Fifteen Years of Covering the Mafia. His weekly column about organized crime, "Gang Land," appears in the New York Sun and at www.ganglandnews.com. Jeffrey Goldberg is a national correspondent for the Atlantic and the author of Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror.

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