So It Goes

The Sopranos: Just Hanging On

IN 1987, ON ASSIGNMENT FROM AN ITALIAN-AMERICAN MONTHLY newspaper, I had the chance to interview then-U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani in his Lower Manhattan offices. Giuliani's tenure there was distinguished in many ways by his aggressive efforts to prosecute organized crime. He also drew criticism from Italian Americans for using the term "Mafia" to describe the Italian mobs, which his own community felt unfairly stereotyped them.

In that interview, Giuliani predicted that predominantly Italian-American crime mobs would eventually fade away in a generation or two, though they might be replaced by organized crime groups of other, newer immigrant communities. I don't have my notes from then, so I can't quote him directly. But he said that as Italian-Americans moved farther  from the immigrant experience and subscribed more to the importance of higher education and the professions (something that, many Italian Americans, even in 1987, would say was only just becoming the norm), the crime mobs would slowly be starved of the new blood they would need to sustain themselves from one generation to the next.

I have been thinking about Giuliani's prediction about the Mafia for much of the time I've been watching The Sopranos, and David Chase, the creator of the show, seemed to be agreeing with the former U.S. Attorney, New York Mayor, current candidate for President and longtime observer of organized crime.

Not that the Soprano family business is going under anytime soon. If anything, the show ended happily, at least for Tony, Paulie, Patsy and the other captains and their foot soldiers, who keep their New Jersey rackets running.

Tony's still alive. His chief opponent, Phil, who was not only trying to take over his livelihood but his life, too, is, in more ways than one, decapitated from running the operation on the New York side of the river. And Phil's second, Butch, made peace with Tony, so they appeared by the end of the show to be willing to live and work side by side peacefully with one another -- for now.

Not all of Tony's problems are gone. He's likely to face an indictment. He lost his closest inside allies and likely heirs apparent -- Silvio and Bobby. And he's stuck now with Paulie, who, despite his intense loyalty could drive a person crazy with all his mishegoss. Tony's facing purgatory going to work every day with this guy.

But perhaps his greatest dream, whether he realizes it or not, has come true. For most of the life of the series, and certainly for the last couple of seasons, Tony has seemed determined to keep his children from getting into the family business. And one of the great unknowns (at least to me), even leading up to the very last episode, was whether he would succeed in this quest.

Meadow, turning over to the dark side? Well, I always felt it could happen, and there's no saying that, once she becomes a lawyer, she may not actually take that step. She told Tony in the final episode about her desire to become an immigration lawyer, in large part because of how Italian-Americans were mistreated. "If I hadn't seen you dragged away all those times by the FBI, then I'd probably be a boring suburban doctor," she told him. Either she's become painfully naive, like her mother, about the real business of the family, or she has been charmed by it in some way.

Still, for now, she seems to be stepping away from Tony's path, and Tony seems relieved and proud of her choice, as well as of her romance with fellow lawyer Patrick Parisi, Patsy's son, who, too, has chosen a different path than his father. (Throughout this season, we learn of a number of mobster children who have gone to into law, medicine or other professions, making their parents proud, and Tony and Carmella a little jealous.)

Of course, the prospects that AJ might embrace the family business were always greater than they were for Meadow, as he couldn't get through school, a bad sign, according to Professor Giuliani. Even  until the very end of the show, we really didn't know which way he was heading. He seemed repulsed by violence and never really showed any interest in joining his father, and he seemed as if he would be more of a liability to Tony than an asset: resented by the others as annointed only by birth and never trusted because of suspected mental instability.

The job he ended up with -- movie producer on the make -- might fit him and pull him out of his funk, and it may prove to be successful for him. And, who knows, it might also be enough to keep him far away from having to drop off stuffed envelopes of money at the back room of the Bing.

Tony's mob -- or crew, as it might be called now -- will survive, but it doesn't sound like it will thrive and grow. Like Junior Soprano, who is living in a dank state institution because, we learn in the final episode (in a brilliantly acted scene between him and Tony), Junior doesn't even realize that he has a hidden private stash of money somewhere, there seems to be no new source of nourishment for the Soprano crime enterprise either.

The crew will surely outlive Junior, whose mind and body are failing rapidly. But the crew, too, is aging, putting on weight, sagging at the biceps and even losing some of the vim it once had to muscle the others out of the way. (Christafuh would have been the only one from the younger generation to keep it aloft for awhile longer, but, even if he hadn't died, it's not clear he had the stuff to lead.) Another fight like the one they had with Phil Leotardo's crew -- or, worse yet, some younger, tougher Russian gang -- or with the federal prosecutor and that could be it for the Sopranos.

But, for now, they're just hanging on.

Jeff

Christafuh!

WHAT IS IT WITH YOU, Christafuh? You're a made and married man, and you're falling into that burning ring of fire. Maybe Julianna is the soulmate you haven't found in your current wife or even in Adrianna, but surely you see that you and she are enabling one another. Not only that, you're committing a deadly sin: chasing the object of the boss's affection. I know you said you would "walk through hell for that man," Tony Soprano. But didn't you see "The Godfather?" It's all about loyalty in your world. Why do you think Michael Corleone made it to the top and Fredo was cast aside (in addition to the fact that Fredo was an idiot)?  You're going down, down, down and the flame's getting higher....

And Julianna, what would your mother say? "Okay, so you met him in AA, it could be worse. At least he has money (such a nice car), so he can take care of you. What does he do for a living, by the way? It's not for me to ask, but is he legit? Never mind. Other than all that, bubbeleh, I do have one problem: couldn't you have found someone Jewish?"

A.J., you've become such a mensch. You're holding down a real job, getting up before dawn to work in the cold. And you're going you're own way, buying jewelry at the mall (instead of through your dad, who "knows a guy") and handling a conflict by giving the hoods hanging out below your girlfriend's window your Gary Fisher bike (can I get one, by the way?). You should be formulating U.S. foreign policy: Win your enemies over with a hug instead of hot lead. And you're taking such a fatherly approach to your girlfriend's son. At least, as Tony said, she's Catholic.

Carmela, you're at it again, conveniently turning a blind eye to what happens in your husband's world. You can see, can't you, that Tony's just a little too laid back about the alarming two-year absense of Christafuh's ex-fiance. You can see, can't you, that something's not right here. But your independence from Tony is a greater priority. With it you do not have to turn a blind eye. And the spec house is the ticket to your independence. But something tells me that Tony will keep the spec house and you on a short leash. You can get him to wear a beret you bought him in Paris (at least inside the house; something tells me we won't see him driving around town with it on). But that's about as far as you will control him.

And what about you, Tony? All you want right now is for everyone to get along. Phil's going to survive the heart attack scare (what will happen, one wonders, to that doctor who sent him home with antacid? He'll need more than malpractice insurance). Your bedside words to him were sweet, if a bit manipulative, but you're dealing with even more than an animal than you. And, besides, there's no way producers of your show won't give us viewers the spectacle of a mob war when you return to the screen next year. How will you fare? If Phil and his boys don't kill you, will the Feds catch up to you?

Paulie, why do I get the feeling that guys like you will always come out okay? You have your problems, not the least of which is prostate cancer. But something tells me you will be one of the survivors when the shooting stops at the end of next season. It doesn't seem right, but, hey, it's a tough world.

Junior, I don't how, but I predict you'll beat this rap and get out of the asylum. And you and Tony will make up. Again, don't ask me how, but until all this happens, it's probably a good idea to keep tipping the orderly as you did last night. For now, you have to depend upon the kindness of strangers.

Finally, Vito, you're showing us all that there is truly life after death.

See you next year.

Jeff

Who Am I, and Where Am I Going?

Many of us can identify with Tony Soprano, even though few of us share his terrifying brutality, disregard for the rule of law and insensitivity to the environment (the Escalade gets about 12 mpg in the city and 16 mpg on the highway, which, now that I think of it, is not much worse than my Chrysler minivan).  Other than that, he seems like just one of us, dealing with life's vexing questions: who am I, and where am I going? -- the words Carmella said he blurted out when he temporarily regained consciousness following his shooting. As we learn through his sessions with Dr. Melfi, Tony's been struggling with variations on these questions for years, and the great thing about this show (as in life, if I may be so ponderous to say), is that we have no idea what the answers will be.

That's what makes these last few episodes of the show so great to watch. How will it end? Will justice prevail? If so, they all should be behind bars and all of Carmella's worldly goods -- including the Porsche Cayenne (14 mpg city; 18 mpg highway) and the booty she picked up in Paris during last night's episode -- should be returned to their rightful owners, assuming they are still around to collect.

But that will not do for fans of the Sopranos. We hate to admit it, but we have all developed some sympathy for Tony, and even for many of the other characters who practice "family values" (as the show's tagline reminds us), and who work hard and loyally.

For example, if you or I were to meet A.J., circa 2006, we would pronounce him a detestable, spoiled punk who deserves nothing from us. But we knew him when he was young, and we feel his parents' angst. We want him to turn out right because we know that, deep down, there is a core of decency and vulnerability in that boy. He is just lost. We worry that Tony's tough love solution of ordering him to work construction could go wrong. He may learn the tricks of Tony's trade, not of the building trades, and now with Vito out of the scene, it appears there may be room for A.J. to fill a void in the construction rackets. (In 1987, when I was an editor of an Italian American newspaper, I interviewed Rudolph Giuliani when he was the U.S. Attorney and known for relentless pursuit of the mob. He said then that the biggest threat to the Mafia was that many younger family members were going to college and grad school in increasing numbers, eventually heading into legitimate professions where you can make a good living without the occupational hazards of jail or bullets. That's not to say that Meadow might not get sucked into the family business, but the odds are that A.J., seeing no other alternatives and with a seat waiting for him in the back of the Bada-Bing, will get into it.)

As for Tony himself, we worry that his choices are grim. As he told his associate Eugene Pontecorvo earlier this season, this isn't a job you can retire from. (Eugene's answer to that was to hang himself.) It's clear Tony's tired of holding the weight of the world on his shoulders, but he can't just walk away or drift indefinitely offshore in his boat the Stugots. At some point he has to come in to refuel.  He can't even take a week to visit Paris with Carmella (or maybe he doesn't want to). On the other hand, he could very well end up dead or in prison in a few years if he cannot find a way out.

Compared to that, I guess the rest of us of Tony's age (he and Gandolfini are almost exactly mine) have relatively good choices, though we may not always see it that way. We can't very well walk away from our work. Our identities, sense of worth and mortgages depend on it too much. But wouldn't it be nice, as Tony fantasizes, to try a new direction, to pursue our other passions? I don't mean to sound pathetic. Life is very good, especially when you consider the alternatives.

Tony serves as that foil to us. Makes us feel happy about ourselves, I suppose, and demonstrates how one can, if sometimes by accident, navigate the shoals. Also, as we're having fun speculating about who he is and where he's going, we can forget, at least for about 57 minutes a week, what those questions mean for us.

Jeff

Is Vito Toast?

It's a couple of days before the "Soprano's" episode where Vito returns from his self-imposed (well,  not really voluntary) exile from New Hampshire. Johnny Sack has just pleaded out. Pauly's fretting about his prostate cancer. Tony just swiped Johnny's house for his sister and her family, and Carmella's trying to figure out what to do with the spec house. Some friends and I have been e-mailing today our predictions about the show, so here's where I am:

• Tony will be Vito's savior. Tony's a lot more sensitive and progressive than the other goombas. And he may not want to be saddled with providing more support to the family of yet another fallen comrade.
• Now that Tony has evicted Johnny Sack's lovely wife from her house, and Johnny has pleaded out, I say Tony's extremely vulnerable. Or is he? Will Johnny rat him out both in retaliation for what happened to his petite fleur and to trim a few years off his jail time, or will omertà, the Mafia code of silence, prevail?
• I think Meadow will become a white collar criminal defense attorney who will eventually represent her own father and his friends. She will not marry Finn.
• A.J. will go into the family business, much to the dismay of his own parents, but somehow, Tony will find it hard to stop him.
• Christopher will die an early, violent death. My friends insist it will be a drug overdose. Could be.
• Bobby will frequently consider killing Janice, but they will live out the rest of their miserable lives together. (By the way, something's going on with their kid; where is he stealing away to, missing Giants games? Drugs? A girlfriend? His own extortion ring?)
• Carmella will host a spin-off home decorating show on the Home and Garden Channel called "Garish and Tacky."
• Sylvio will become the lead guitarist in a top-of-the-charts rock band that sings wistfully of life on the Jersey shore. 

Stay tuned.

Jeff