December Talking Meme: Favorite Sopranos Season for Pocochina
I might write more in another post. However, I wanted to get my thoughts out here.
My favorite Sopranos seasons is Season 2.
IMO, if Season 1 was about Tony as a "son", S2 was about Tony as a brother. As rich as Season 1 in characterizing Tony as the son, Season 2 provided more opportunities to explore Tony as a "brother" in his relationships with Pussy, Richie, his "band of brothers" i.e. his crew and most obviously, Janice. The Sopranos is all about the blending of Tony's real family with his mob "family" and how they intersect. This was particularly richly explored through the lens of "brothers" since that's the essence of Tony's crew applied to a real familial relationship.
Season 2 really delved into the conflicts to be a "good brother" in Tony's lifestyle. Loyalty to Tony's "band of brothers" requires murdering Pussy who Tony claimed to "love like a brother." Loyalty to Janice required that Tony help Janice cover up Richie O'Prio's body even though Richie almost acts as a metaphorical brother of Tony's. Accordingly, Pussy's story is tragic and one of the best stories entirely from the POV of one of Tony's guys in this season exploring Tony as a "brother". From here on out, Christopher got pretty much all of the best stories of a person on Tony's crew.
Even putting aside The Sopranos's criminal hyper-masculinized culture, "brotherhood" is one of the most dangerous familial concepts in popular culture. Popular culture says being a good "brother" means "covering" for your own, being a fighting "band of brothers". People just accept that brothers fight and it's a part of being a brother of someone. Brotherhood is much more keyed into violence and considerably less sentimentalized than the parent/child bond or a sister bond or certainly a more distant familial relationship. Brotherhood has been coopted by the military and gangs to be perverted. Moreover, individual families and people embrace danger and violence as part of being a "brother" to foster masculinity in their sons.
Indeed The Sopranos violent culture where Tony's crew fancies themselves as soldiers, the "brother" label particularly embodies its most dangerous aspects in Tony's "band of brothers". I understand that pocochina hasn't seen the second half of the final season. Suffice to say that thus far, lll of the people that Tony directly killed on screen were part of Tony's "band of brothers". Pussy, Tony B, Ralphie, even the rat that Tony strangles on Meadow's college trip. All of these character resonate as "brothers" of Tony and Tony even proudly claimed a brotherly relationship frequently with Tony B and Pussy.
Tony and Janice then show how Tony is a brother to his sister- the women in this picture and Tony's actual sibling. Brotherhood is also defined in being covetous of your possessions against the sibling that might take them. Tony and Janice fight constantly in S2 over Livia's likely meager inheritance, especially to rich man Tony.
This is also where the show starts stretching its artsy muscles. Right from the montage of "It was a very good year" in the premier to the end of the season in Tony's dream sequence where he realizes that Big Pussy is the rat. Christopher's near death experience where he realizes that he's heading to hell but doesn't take a beat to alter his imagined course is incredibly meaningful and guides a lot of my perspective of his character.
The best villain in the whole show was Livia Soprano. The show really required her physical presence as a constant reminder on how Tony was born in darkness and some of the childhood reasons for why Tony never clawed his way out of the darkness despite the opportunities to do so.
My favorite Sopranos seasons is Season 2.
IMO, if Season 1 was about Tony as a "son", S2 was about Tony as a brother. As rich as Season 1 in characterizing Tony as the son, Season 2 provided more opportunities to explore Tony as a "brother" in his relationships with Pussy, Richie, his "band of brothers" i.e. his crew and most obviously, Janice. The Sopranos is all about the blending of Tony's real family with his mob "family" and how they intersect. This was particularly richly explored through the lens of "brothers" since that's the essence of Tony's crew applied to a real familial relationship.
Season 2 really delved into the conflicts to be a "good brother" in Tony's lifestyle. Loyalty to Tony's "band of brothers" requires murdering Pussy who Tony claimed to "love like a brother." Loyalty to Janice required that Tony help Janice cover up Richie O'Prio's body even though Richie almost acts as a metaphorical brother of Tony's. Accordingly, Pussy's story is tragic and one of the best stories entirely from the POV of one of Tony's guys in this season exploring Tony as a "brother". From here on out, Christopher got pretty much all of the best stories of a person on Tony's crew.
Even putting aside The Sopranos's criminal hyper-masculinized culture, "brotherhood" is one of the most dangerous familial concepts in popular culture. Popular culture says being a good "brother" means "covering" for your own, being a fighting "band of brothers". People just accept that brothers fight and it's a part of being a brother of someone. Brotherhood is much more keyed into violence and considerably less sentimentalized than the parent/child bond or a sister bond or certainly a more distant familial relationship. Brotherhood has been coopted by the military and gangs to be perverted. Moreover, individual families and people embrace danger and violence as part of being a "brother" to foster masculinity in their sons.
Indeed The Sopranos violent culture where Tony's crew fancies themselves as soldiers, the "brother" label particularly embodies its most dangerous aspects in Tony's "band of brothers". I understand that pocochina hasn't seen the second half of the final season. Suffice to say that thus far, lll of the people that Tony directly killed on screen were part of Tony's "band of brothers". Pussy, Tony B, Ralphie, even the rat that Tony strangles on Meadow's college trip. All of these character resonate as "brothers" of Tony and Tony even proudly claimed a brotherly relationship frequently with Tony B and Pussy.
Tony and Janice then show how Tony is a brother to his sister- the women in this picture and Tony's actual sibling. Brotherhood is also defined in being covetous of your possessions against the sibling that might take them. Tony and Janice fight constantly in S2 over Livia's likely meager inheritance, especially to rich man Tony.
This is also where the show starts stretching its artsy muscles. Right from the montage of "It was a very good year" in the premier to the end of the season in Tony's dream sequence where he realizes that Big Pussy is the rat. Christopher's near death experience where he realizes that he's heading to hell but doesn't take a beat to alter his imagined course is incredibly meaningful and guides a lot of my perspective of his character.
The best villain in the whole show was Livia Soprano. The show really required her physical presence as a constant reminder on how Tony was born in darkness and some of the childhood reasons for why Tony never clawed his way out of the darkness despite the opportunities to do so.