The Sopranos: A Hit Is a Hit

"This, as far as I'm concerned, blows away Matchbox Twenty."

My farts blow away Matchbox Twenty.

Let's be clear about this. The Seattle scene of the late '80s and early '90s- Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, Tad, Sub Pop Records, Jack Endino, K Records, Beat Happening- was one of the greatest cultural achievements of my lifetime. Derivative shite like the Goo Goo Dolls, Candlebox and, yes, Matchbox Twenty, is of far less cultural importance than my last poo. Agreed? Good.

This episode, obviously. concerns the music business- in a 1999 without Napster, where the record business calls the shot. But, digging deeper, it's about ethnic and cultural stereotypes. The music business may be negotiated by the comically clueless Christopher and Adriana, trying to big up this bloody awful band she likes; their old demo sounds ok, a bit Terrorvision, but it becomes clear they’re like one of the godawful bands listed above. But they are partly motivated by a desire to bring back Italian-American influence into music. Meanwhile Chris meets Massive Genius, an incredibly rich and powerful gangsta rap star and both the most intelligent and the most savvy character in the episode. His mission is to get Hesh, an unscrupulous record producer of the old style, to compensate a late musician’s mother for stealing her son’s profits, and he does this cleverly, in spite of the intransigence of Hesh, who seems to have far right views on the whole Israel/Palestine thing: there was no question of the peace process as it was then giving away “parts of Israel”, just the West Bank and Gaza. So we have the black man versus the white, and in this case Jewish, record industry.

But we also have Tony trying to make friends with his neighbour Dr Cusamano, who he describes to Dr Melfi as being a “white man”, an “Americano”, something he as an Italian can never be. That Italians should be subject to such racism is bizarre to this Englishman: we may have a Queen down in that London today, but we’ve never forgotten that there was once a governor from Rome. The Italians may flirt with Fascism a little too often for our liking, but the eat better than us, dress better than us, and give us a real sense of cultural cringe. I suppose it’s all subjective and the point is that racism is silly but it exists, and is complicated.

This is probably the most expendable episode yet, with not a lot of arc stuff, and lacking the usual sparkle. But it’s still a cut above most telly.

The Sopranos: Pax Soprana

“If you were a dildo, we wouldn't be fighting".

This episode is fascinating, and a realignment in a couple of contexts as Tony is forced to accept that Dr Melfi is romantically out of bounds, he persuades Junior to act as a benevolent boss, and he and Carmela start to work on their marriage. Of course, it’s all actually much more nuanced than that.

Things come to a proper head with Dr Melfi. Tony not only had erotic dreams about her but can only maintain an erection when thinking of her- even his Ukrainian “goomar” can’t satisfy him. So we have the scene where he slowly, embarrassingly describes his impotence to Dr Melfi, declares his love and kisses her- and she reacts firmly and professionally on stopping him there, explaining that the things he finds attractive about her are just a part of her role. She seems remarkable tolerant of finding out that he had her followed, and stole her car to fix it- but then, she knows what he is agreed to take him as a client, regardless. Dr Melfi, in spite of her role, isn’t quite a blank canvas of a character. It will be fun to find out more about what makes her tick.

Meanwhile Carmela is upset during an awkward anniversary meal and reacts passively aggressively in ways that don’t help Tony’s stress- but she’s right. Tony does see “goomars” despite his protestations. And he has been neglecting her in every way, prioritising everything else. Even worth is that Father Phil, who is supposed to be her friend, is a misogynist arsehole with his advice. He firmly rules out all suggestion of divorce, although it’s clearly immoral to trap people in formal couplings they no longer consent to. And he blames her for tolerating his earlier dalliances, saying that she is “not entirely without sin”. It’s a distressing scene to watch, and leads us to question the foundations of their attempt at reconciliation at the end, where it’s her who persuades him to keep on seeing Dr Melfi.

Also worrying is Junior’s autocratic style as boss, taking and not giving as boss, but it’s Tony who handles this with a little speech about Octavian- I like his penchant for Roman history. But there’s some interesting dialogue in which Tony and other capos admit that Junior is boss because someone has to take the fall if the Feds come calling and it’s better it be an old man without children- and, as we see at the end, the FBI are on to them. Although the board with pinned photos and post-it notes is the most 1999 thing ever...

Superlative as always.