Mob Experts on The Sopranos, Week 13

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 staff writer for The New Yorker. He covered organized crime for New York magazine and the New York Times Magazine. He is at work on a book about the Middle East. Gerald Shargel has represented many high-profile clients, including John Gotti. He is a practitioner in residence at Brooklyn Law School, where he also teaches. Dana Stevens, aka Liz Penn, is a Slate TV critic. She lives in New York and also writes on film and culture for the High Sign.

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Last year, each new episode of The Sopranos was analyzed by a group of shrinks; this year, each week two mob experts discuss the lives and squabbles of America's favorite gangsters. Today they are joined by Gerald Shargel, an attorney who has represented many high-profile clients, including John Gotti, and Slate TV critic Dana Stevens.

Dear all,

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OK, Jerry Shargel isn't going to get away with two things here: One, his comment, "I see Mafia as metaphor." Hey, Capeci, can you see Shargel in his office, talking to potential clients: "Don't worry, Three-Fingers, they can't touch you. I'm going to tell the jury that the Mafia is merely a metaphor for America's deep longing for the ethos of the untamed West." And the second thing—and this is actually for Dana, especially—could you lay off our president, please? Can't TV columns be sacrosanct? Jerry S. actually has something of a point: Tony's complaint that all his choices were wrong could be construed as a metaphor for the current situation. But really, both of you: Are you equating a well-meant (and if you read Woodward, you'll see this is true) effort to liberate oppressed people (yes, most Iraqis actually wanted to be liberated from Saddam's regime), and to pre-empt a rogue dictator's attempts to re-acquire the sorts of weapons he already used to murder thousands, to Tony Soprano's desire to maintain control over the New Jersey strip-club industry? I'm like most of the rest of the pro-invasion crowd; I can't believe no one thought to plan for the day after, and I find the administration's arrogance disconcerting. But I don't think that George Bush needs to feel morally conflicted about liberating Iraq in the same way that Tony Soprano needs to feel moral doubt over, oh, murdering his cousin, for example.

On everything else, Dana's right. I'm more than a little bummed out over this ending, and while I recognize that the last episode didn't have to end with Johnny Sack dangling Tony Soprano by his see-through socks over the Palisades cliffs, I would have liked something a little bit more interesting than the prospect of Carmela washing said socks until the next season commences.

So Dana, Jerry and I tend to put our guests on the spot: How do you think it all ends? Tony in jail, Tony dead, Tony in charge, Tony marrying Paulie Walnuts in a civil ceremony in Massachusetts? Inquiring minds want to know.

Hawkishly yours,
Jeff

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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. Gerald Shargel has represented many high-profile clients, including John Gotti. He is a practitioner in residence at Brooklyn Law School, where he also teaches. Dana Stevens is Slate's movie critic.

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