Do you think The Sopranos would be as popular today as it was when it initially aired?
I’m not talking about in terms of like, cultural relevance, acting, directing, all that good shit. I’m talking about the fact every single character is just so deeply unlikeable. Tony is a literal psychopath. Christopher is abusive. Carmela is a hypocritical enabler and not-so-innocent bystander. I mean I’m currently on the episodes centring around Vito Spatafore’s arc, and if you don’t know how that ends up for poor Vito … We can't have him in our social club anymore that much I do know.
As I’ve been making my journey through The Sopranos, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Perhaps I’m just on Twitter too much [narrator: she is], but we seem to be at a crossroads of sorts with the anti-hero, the morally gray character, the inherently flawed reality of being a person. There seems to be an argument of right and wrong regarding our media that I don’t think is relevant and whether or not the protagonist of a story = good, cool dude. Which it doesn’t. Protagonist simply means the leading character. It’s as if having “pro” leads people to believe good, as opposed to the bad antagonist.
I also noticed this after I watched Succession and dove into the internet forms and fandom spaces. People arguing if Kendall was “good” now that he’s going against his father, that Shiv is actually a Girlboss™, or that Cousin Greg is just a good dude wrapped up in all these Roy-family shenanigans. And it’s like, no. The whole draw is that ALL of these characters are deeply flawed, multi-layered people. Disregarding a character’s layers and flaws and tossing them into GOOD or BAD piles seem like a pretty boring way to engage with media.
And maybe I’m also thinking about this because of the popularity of Ted Lasso who is just such a good dude. Which isn’t a criticism! It’s just really interesting to see what the general public wants from a story and what they reject.
Or maybe The Sopranos would fall (or fall deeper) into the “you’re not getting the message of the movie oh my god you’re going to ruin this for everyone” category with the likes of Fight Club, The Matrix, The Joker, Wolf of Wall Street, and so many more.
I feel like I’m rambling.
I’ve said my piece, Chrissy.
What I’m Listening To:
From the Religion of Sports network (which I just learned was co-founded by Tom Brady?? What??), Crushed is a look at baseball’s steroids era and what it, “tells us about sports culture in America”. I’m not a huge baseball fan, I watch maybe 5 Jays’ games total per season, but I am a huge sports culture fan. I thought this podcast was a really interesting look at how baseball fans approached the steroid controversy, the ethics of cheating, the intersection of fandom and hero-worship, the role race plays in all of this, and really, what this all says about society. The host, Joan Niesen, asks in the last episode, how do we celebrate these memories without celebrating the men? Should we celebrate these men despite their so-called wrongdoings? And honestly, I think that’s a question all sports fans face.
I’m very, very excited for their upcoming series False Idol, covering the story of Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp.
What I’m Reading:
If you want to see what else I’m reading, follow me on The StoryGraph!
Internet Shit:
Have some tweets, I’ve forgotten how to read anything longer than 280 characters.
Till next time!
xoxo, Liz