 "I said to myself, this show is about a guy who's turning 40. He's inherited a business from his
dad. He's trying to bring it into the modern age. He's got all the responsibilities that go along
with that. He's got an overbearing mom that he's still trying to get out from under. Although
he loves his wife, he's had an affair. He's got two teenage kids, and he's dealing with the
realities of what that is. He's anxious; he's depressed; he starts to see a therapist because he's
searching for the meaning of his own life. I thought: the only difference between him and
everybody I know is he's the Don of New Jersey."
—Chris Albrecht, president of HBO Original Programming, 1995–2002
The Real Life Sopranos (of David Chase’s childhood in New Jersey) – the Boiardo family (at their peak in the
60s/70s). A number of parallels can be drawn – Richard Boiardo (the inspiration for Tony) had two allies called
Big Pussy and Little Pussy… Both families inhabit the upmarket districts of New Jersey. However, the real
family was much more violent than the fictional one.
Secondary Reading for the Sopranos (yes, it really does exist…)
Alex Schulman, ‘The Sopranos: An American Existentialism?’, The Cambridge Quarterly, 39.1 (March 2010): 23-38.

This article suggests that the cause of the popularity of this television series is not just because of
“America’s long-standing affair with the gangster genre” (23) but also possibly because the nation is
now intrigued by existentialism, a previously “allegedly European affectation” (23).
o
The OED defines existentialism as a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the
existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own
development through acts of the will.
o
Can we apply this to The Sopranos? Why does Schulman claim that existentialism is more of a
European ‘affectation’?

Schulman argues that this existentialism is evident through the “various strains of post-modernism,
which note its playful self-referentiality” and the “residue of psychoanalysis” (23).

He implies that Dr Melfi is the main instrument of this existentialism, as she is seeking “to make her
patient Tony Soprano come to terms with the existential dilemmas facing humans” (24). By extension
Dr Melfi is trying to do the same for the audience, making us accept “the bleak” issues “via its
compromising position of being entertained by, and even identifying with, the gangsters in question”
(24). In this way the show is as much the audience’s therapy as Melfi is Tony’s therapy.

“That The Sopranos is fantastically entertaining does not detract from its fundamental more and
intellectual seriousness: it certainly merits being placed alongside Miller, Albec, and Kushner in the
canon of post-war American dramatic writing” (24)

Schulman claims that the show is both “novelistic” and “modernist” (25) – do we agree with these terms
being applicable to The Sopranos?

He compares Tony to Milton’s Satan – “it is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven” (28) – and
questions whether Tony was really ‘born into’ the Mafia or if it was a conscious decision on his part to be
a gangster.

He further draws comparisons between the Mafia and America as a whole: “its members seem to have a
grand, inflated, even mystical notion of its meaningfulness, of the order and purpose it provides in
what might otherwise be a purposeless world. At Tony’s first therapy sessions he reports feeling ‘like I
came in at the end’ – he means of the Mafia, beset by vigorous prosecutors and widespread disloyalty,
but when Melfi responds that ‘a lot of Americans are feeling that way’, it is not merely a
misrepresentation: her confusion signals that Tony is really talking about both” (29)

He underlines the show’s concerns with Americanisation and Tony’s own concerns about preserving the
nuclear family. He concludes that psychoanalysis does not help Tony because “people do not change”
(34). He draws a parallel with Sartre’s “no exit” (34) from existing with others and equally no exit from
ourselves (which reminds me of the ending of American Psycho, “this is not an exit”). He states that no
one on the show changes very much.

Schulman’s final point is that the show is “Shakespearian in so far as it transmits a philosophy through
mimesis, and through characters that bring philosophy to life more than most philosophers do” “Tony is in many ways an unpleasant person, but there is an inner vastness to him that is unequalled in
the film or literature of our times” (37). He argues that Tony is not the object of a morality tale like
Gatsby but that he is rather like Hamlet in that he is a hero “impossible to love fully, impossibly not to
root for” (37)

“The Sopranos thus should be ‘read’ – both as to the moral universe it creates and the individual it
places within that universe” (37) – the series as a Shakespearian tragedy?
Martha P. Nochimson, ‘Waddaya Lookin’ At? Re-reading the Gangster Genre Through “The Sopranos”’, Film
Quarterly, 56.2 (2002): 2-13.

Hypermasculinity and vulnerability coexisting within the show’s universe#

“an elegiac, self-conscious, tragicomic meditation on America’s lost innocence” (2)

“The gangster subgenre is epic in nature, highly social, and generally paints a panoramic picture of
society and its values” (3)

“In the gangster drama, as in our lives, a strong desire for filiation complicates autonomy and the drive
to succeed in a competitive economic system” (4)

The conflict between Livia and Uncle Junior and Tony is not just a gangland struggle for rule of the mob,
but is also expressed in terms of familial frustration – Livia in the nursing home and Uncle Junior’s anger
at being overlooked for a position of power which his nephew attains. Livia and Uncle Junior give each
other permission to carry out the hit on Tony in such a subtle way it’s not very clear what has actually
happened until the plans gain momentum. Their anger is not just that of a gangster, but that of familial
rage.

The source of Tony’s panic attacks is also linked to familial frustration (the ducks, connections with his
parents, wanting to maintain a solid nuclear family)

The leitmotifs of food and ‘touch’ – business conducted over meals, Tony and AJ with the can of whipped
cream

Nochimson also points out that James Gandolfini (Tony) has become “an unexpected sex symbol” (6)

End of the season: ‘cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this’ says Tony – “exasperation with the
strains modern life has placed on the gangster’s macho code” (7) – male self-indulgence as a leitmotif of
the series, gangsters trying to fit in with a macho image (what examples can we think of?)

The importance of the ducks and Tony’s “seductive ‘innocence’” (8) – almost childlike, especially in Dr
Melfi’s office. He says he has been depressed since the ducks left. His childlike nature is also suggested by
the fact that he spends a lot of time in his bed “like a baby in his crib” (10)

The opening titles – “a maze of evocations of masculine power in America” (8)

Dr Melfi’s moral approach versus Tony’s immediacy and desire for practical action in terms of a survival
instinct

Carmela - “an allegory for the confusion in the general American public about deviance” (10) – she is
both horrified and excited by Tony’s criminal activities, uses religion to try to cope with this conflict. Melfi
is able to fight any subversive interest she may have in Tony, she is not ensnared by his power – the
instance when he declares his love for her and also when he steals and repairs her car for her

All these points drive towards the conclusion that the show incites an unexpected emotional response