The Sopranos

Jarett Figlin discusses depravity & the American dream.

- JARETT FIGLIN

The media we consume can be a means to vicariously experience emotions through fictional characters. The anger and hostility we so often bottle up in our daily lives can rear their ugly heads without consequence as we watch fictional characters enacting violence and hatred upon one another. This is part of the surface level draw of films, books and TV series centered around the mafia. It can be deeply cathartic to watch people so far from our social expectations engage with each other according to their own very different rules. Real mafia figures such as John Gotti and Al Capone gained near-heroic status not simply because they organised what people viewed as benefits to the community, but also because those who did behave within societal constraints wished at some level they could be like these figures. If the ideal of the mafioso can seem liberating to those stuck in mundane lives, it is no surprise that media centered around the mafia has become so popular.

David Chase’s acclaimed TV series The Sopranos (HBO, 1999-2007) could reasonably be lumped in with this trend, but that would be to miss what elevated the series above other such works. Alongside its style, dialogue, and characters, The Sopranos was willing to be about something – often several somethings. Nearly every facet of the series necessitated contemplation about the wider world of which the Soprano crime family was a microcosm. It did this primarily through creating a certain affection for characters the show would simultaneously depict as immoral. While the characters of The Sopranos are fictional, the world they inhabit is not, and if the depraved members of the Soprano and Lupertazzi families seem farfetched, they may have more of a connection with the landscape of modern America than one might realize at first glance.