The Sopranos: Difference between revisions

[[File:the-sopranos-2_7524.jpg|thumb|400px|Wouldn't you need therapy?]]

 

 

 

The show focuses on Tony's dual families: his biological family -- long-suffering wife Carmela, his straight-A student daughter Meadow, underachiever son AJ, and his equally morally bankrupt sister Janice -- and the organized crime family he is involved in, who include his bitter uncle Junior, his 'nephew' (actually his wife's cousin) Christopher, [[Loads and Loads of Characters|and more.]]

* [[Ain't Too Proud to Beg]]: Christopher in Season 1 when he suffers a [[It Works Better with Bullets|mock execution]] : [[Defiant to the End|Totally reversed]] later in Season 5 when Tony is about to kill him and Chris doesn't back down from an accusation.

* [[Alas, Poor Yorick]]: Christopher holds a skull this way when he is relocating the bones of an old murder.

* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: Played straight for almost all the female characters. Arguably averted for Melfi, but even she feels an unhealthy attraction to Tony.

* [[All Psychology Is Freudian]]: Averted. Tony Soprano cites Freud (whom he learned about in his "semester and a half" of college) to explain to Melfi that he understands therapy "as a concept", but the show deals with psychology a lot, and it really isn't here. Often called the most accurate fictional depiction of what ''actually'' happens in therapy. Freud, however, is the [[Trope Codifier]] of the [[Oedipus Complex]], one of the [[Mommy Issues]] mentioned often by Melfi despite Tony's repulsion.

* [[Automobile Opening]]: Tony driving from New York to his home in New Jersey. His route is deliberately inefficient to provide more interesting visuals.

{{quote|'''Junior:''' My nephew running things? Not that strunz. Not in this life.}}

* [[Bad Guy Bar]]: The Bing.

* [[Bad Guys Play Pool]]: The Bing's back room.

** A.J. too, though this is only in the later seasons. He's one of the dumbest characters on the show, but lacks the ruthless spirit that a mobster needs, so he has no real place in the world.

* [[Can You Hear Me Now?]]: Poor telecommunication service is the source of problems in the episode Pine Barrens when [[Hilarity Ensues|Paulie and Chris get lost in a frozen forest]]. Tony gets gradually more and more agitated and has to give them orders [[No Indoor Voice|very loudly and full of profanity]] while his parents-in-law are in his house.

* [[Celebrity Paradox]]:

** In one episode, Tony watches ''[[The Fugitive (film)|The Fugitive]]'' -- oddly, he doesn't notice that Ralphie has a minor role in it.

** Paulie Walnuts. And how. His love is fickle, though, as seen in "The Fleshy Part of the Thigh": {{spoiler|turns out he only loves his mama as long as she really is his ''biological'' mama}}. He gets over it eventually, though.

** Tony. He literally goes berserk when Dr. Melfi diagnoses Livia with Borderline Personality Disorder and reads the symptoms to him.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]:

** Tony and the crew are appropriately horrified and disgusted when Ralph beats to death a stripper pregnant with his child.

** The mobsters all express disapproval at Christopher's drug habits.

** Richie Aprile, who condones the beating of a woman if, and only if the man is her husband.

* [[Everything Is Racist]]:

** The Coalition of Italian-American Associations issued a joint statement in 2002 condemning the show for perpetuating negative Italian-American stereotypes.

* [[Evil Matriarch]]: [[Meaningful Name|Livia]]. '''[[I, Claudius|LIVIA.]]'''

* [[Evil Parents Want Good Kids]]: Tony is adamant that A.J. doesn't go into the life like him, partly because he's simply not cut out for it. Jackie Aprile also felt this way towards his own son, and arranged with Tony to make sure this wouldn't happen before {{spoiler|he himself died in the fourth episode. Tony doesn't succeed and Jackie Jr. ends up dead later on, further strengthening his decision to keep A.J. out of it}}.

* [[Expy]]: Done in-universe, the nasty boss from [[Show Within a Show|Cleaver]] is modeled almost verbatim after Tony who fails to realize this at first but then {{spoiler|it's a major and definitive wedge between him and Chris}}. Chris, terrified by the implications strong-arms the nominal writer into taking credit for the character. He claims that [[Sincerest Form of Flattery|he stole the character from another movie]] but Tony who was on the fence about the thing easily sees past the lie, checks the original movie [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|and takes serious offense on the whole issue]].

* [[Eye Scream]]:

'''Tony:'''

I was prostate with grief.

'''Boby:''' : Quasimodo predicted all of this.}}

* [[Meaningful Background Event]]: The FBI approaching Johnny Sack from behind when he is talking with Tony, who reacts in time.

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: Often masterfully done. Scenes of deep introspection or lighthearted comedy will sometimes, without warning, erupt into frantic violence.

* [[Mother Russia Makes You Strong]]: One-legged and determined Svetlana remarks that Americans don't know what a real problem is, live an easy existence compared to the average miserable life in Russia/USSR and yet they are wimpy complainers. And then there is VALERY, the Russian Rambo who outfights Chris and Paulie in a frozen forest when he was suppressed and about to be executed. In the meantime, he shouts proudly that harsh weather is warm to him. His uncertain fate lead to [[The Sopranos/WMG|WMG]] that David Chase deliberately [[Hand Wave|HandWaved]] in Season 5 opener.

* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Adriana. If she's not parading around in her undies for Chris, she's bending over a trash can wearing very tight pants. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in the third season opener when the FBI agent keeping tabs on her prays to God that he not be reassigned.

* [[Mugging the Monster]]: Bobby goes to make his pickups from an inner-city Newark "client" late at night, and winds up getting robbed by some street kids. Because he didn't bring any backup, they get away with it, and the rest of Tony's crew mock Bobby for quite some time.

* [[Music Video Syndrome]]: Averted. Almost all music has a source or reason.

 

== N-S ==

* [[Naive Newcomer]]: The FBI sends a younger agent to "turn" Adrianna because they think she'll respond better to a young woman. When {{spoiler|Adrianna is discovered and murdered by Silvio, Chris plants her car at the airport long-term parking to suggest that she ran away. Only the new FBI agent believes it, and the other agents' laughter at her gullibility is a serious [[Tear Jerker]]}}.

* [[Naked in Mink]]

** Also subverted. Tony and his son have the same first name, but the latter is always called A.J. to prevent confusion.

* [[Overly Long Gag]]: Paulie's habit of repeating his jokes is a funnier quirk on its own.

* [[Passed Over Promotion]]

** One of the factors that triggers a [[Mob War|power struggle]] between Tony and Junior, acting boss and [[Authority in Name Only|nominal boss]] respectively.

** Averted by A.J., who befriends some gangster wannabees who idolize him for being the son of the big man and make him accessory to some violent extortions, but he is unaffected.

* [[Pet the Dog]]: Literally. One of Tony's few virtues is a love of animals. It was was used against him via Melfi's fellow shrink friends, who point out that Tony's empathy for animals is also a sign of being a cold-blooded monster, since animals often mean more to such people than humans.

* [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything]]: The mobsters all have "legitimate" jobs, which they never show up for, and don't actually work when they do.

** Christopher is the only one seen regularly earning, but then again he is a rookie while the rest of the characters we mostly see are bosses and spend most of their time hanging around Bada Bing or Satriales. Explained by the hierarchical system; senior mobsters have their own crews and do mostly managerial work or collections yet they perform delicate tasks or street jobs from time to time, Paulie assaults Columbian drug dealers in Season 6.

* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Connections]]: Paulie resents Chris for playing [[Nepotism|the blood relation card]] too many times, but he is not above enforcing the trope, shamelessly; [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3d_mqQzsxE his attitude towards Finn takes a radical turn once he learns he is Meadow's boyfriend.]

* [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]: Matush when he hears a gunshot during Jackie Jr.'s card game heist. And then later, Jackie himself, who steals a car and leaves his friend Dino to get slaughtered.

* [[Sexy Priest]]: Father Intintola, who also develops feelings for Carmela and needs to beat a hasty retreat out of town.

* [[Shout-Out]]: [[Up to Eleven]] [http://davidlavery.net/Sopranos/intertexts_&_allusions.htm Loads and loads of them, and then more].

** ''[[Game of Thrones]]'' has been [[Word of God|described by a series producer as]] ''The Sopranos [[Standard Fantasy Setting|in Middle-Earth]]''.

* [[The Starscream]]: Just about everyone. One of the episodes lampshades this ''completely''.

* [[Stealth Pun]]: Phil coming out of the closet when he is handling the resolution of Vito's situation.

* [[Stiff Upper Lip]]:

* [[The Stoic]]: This is what Tony would like to be and sometimes laments the Americans -including him- have gone soft, always whining, complaining and dominated by their emotions. His role model is Gary Cooper; the strong, silent type.

* [[Stolen Good, Returned Better]]: Dr. Melfi is having trouble with her car, and with the mechanics who are fixing it. When Tony learns this during one of his therapy sessions, he has her car stolen, fixed, and returned that night. She's grateful, but not happy about it.

* [[Surrounded by Idiots]]: Tony, near the end of the show's run, because all of his smart, capable underlings had died, fled, or turned witness.

* [[Surveillance as the Plot Demands]]:

** Christopher and Tony. Subverted in the Season 4 finale, when Tony stops himself from hitting Carmela and punches the wall.

** Ralphie takes this to the extreme and not only punches a ''pregnant'' woman, but beats her to death.

** Hot-headed Richie Aprile hits Janice. She hits him back. {{spoiler|[[Boom! Headshot!|With a gun]]}}.

* [[X Meets Y]]: Chris summarizes his movie as "''[[Saw]]'' meets ''[[The Godfather]]''".

{{reflist}}

{{TV Guide's 50 Greatest}}

[[Category:American Series]]

[[Category:Dramedy]]

[[Category:HBO]]

[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 1990s]]

[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 2000s]]