[lbo-talk] Re: in which lbo-talk defends 'the sopranos'

[Carl Remick]

>From: BklynMagus <magcomm at ix.netcom.com>
>
>Carl writes:
>
> > One of my favorite scenes . .  Tony very smoothly humiliates
>the doctor and intimidates him to the point that the doctor falls
>back backward into a water hazard.
>
>Funny, when I came out as a sadist some people were aghast that
>such a person had joined their ranks.  But humiliation is fine on
>tv - it is as Carl writes "one of the joys of the show."

Ouch, you really know how to hurt a person ;-)

Actually, the show itself punishes you for getting seduced by Tony's 
primitive worldview (as Joanna notes, Tony's shrink resists this 
temptation).  You start thinking, well, Tony isn't so bad -- he looks out 
for his family, has a sense of honor, helps to deliver justice when the law 
fails, etc., etc.  Then -- shock and horror! -- Tony or one of his crew 
inevitably commits some depraved act of sickening brutality.  The viewer is 
starkly confronted with evil of almost unbearable intensity.  It is a very 
disturbing experience because the viewer has become almost a buddy of ol' 
Tony, an admirer of his worldly ways and sharp intelligence.  In a sense, 
the show tempts and corrupts the viewer, then shows the viewer the hellish 
price of this corruption.  The Sopranos in no way "romanticizes" 
gangsterism, as you allege.

(I will admit that Tony's transgressive ways have lured me into feeling 
completely insouciant about repeat overposting.)

Carl