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.

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 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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God forbid we should keep politics out of television criticism. Wait until you hear my Marxian critique of Gilmore Girls. What I was suggesting, inelegantly, was that not everything is about Iraq. Sometimes, a show about the New Jersey mob is a show about the New Jersey mob. Yes, of course, The Sopranos goes deeper, and darker, than any other drama on television (and darker, I'd argue, for argument's sake, than even The Godfather), but I don't see it as a ripped-from-the-headlines metaphoric commentary on whatever is bothering liberal American elites at the moment. And yes, of course, gangland dramas are always about something else as well—usually about the hypocrisy of mainstream American capitalism. The Sopranos is, I think, about the hypocrisy of everything, which is why the Soprano family drama is, if anything, more interesting and original than the Soprano Family drama.

Because—and Jerry, I believe, would agree with me—mobsters are boring. They are among the most boring people I've ever met. They have nothing to say about anything interesting; they're shallow; ill-informed; under-educated; brutal; racist; and only inadvertently humorous. Also, they kill people and sell drugs, both of which are not funny at all. This is why I am still, five seasons later, in awe of the writing on The Sopranos. (I'm in awe of the acting as well, of course, but that barely needs stating.) Any writer who could devise compelling inner lives for such soulless and stupid people is a genius. And these writers are geniuses.

I'm going to bow out of the speculation, here, though I think Dana is on to something: Next season has to be about the son. I'd be surprised if it's not. Tony Soprano has to pay for his sins, and he has to pay in real currency. Also, Finn and Vito will adopt a baby, and the Russian will kill the bear. But that's it—no more speculating.

This has been great fun, almost as fun as actually watching the show. See you in Gang Land, Jerry.

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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