What's it with the Sopranos?
by Tibor R. Machan
Art and entertainment, especially, are a bit like fashion - some of it is really awful in any case but a lot of it is quite suitable for some, now and then, here and there. Ever since the Sopranos made it big on HBO, I've been wondering how this applies to them. Are they truly awful, in any case, or could they be bona fide entertainment for some decent folks, perhaps?
Sure, there are some elements of this show, judging by the very few I've checked out, that are quaint. Even those, however, are rather pedestrian - adulterous love affairs, family bickering, etc.
Yet, the mob is, after all, a criminal gang that specializes in murder, extortion, and similar unsavory activities. It is one thing to accept these as features of stories where the mob is under assault by the good guys, quite another where they are, well, the heroes. Do I really care about the home lives of such folks? Should I?
After having found myself several times explaining my dislike of this program to some acquaintances who appear to find nothing odd about their enjoyment of this show, I began wondering whether I am doggedly, unjustly insisting that others share my idiosyncratic tastes.
In time, however, I determined that I would stand my ground. For me to be fascinated by this program is tantamount to being a fan of a drama about a Ku Klux Klan or Nazi family, or perhaps the home lives of the some really brutal guards at one of the Soviet gulags. Am I overreacting?
What exactly is so interesting about the Mob, anyway? Sure, some of its "business" is, in fact, harmless, except in a derivative way that being a boor or a bad dresser can be harmful. So the Mob runs prostitution in various parts of the world. That's a trade involving mostly consenting adults, so I would legalize it anyway, in which case the Mob would simply become something akin to certain Nevada establishments, more a pathetic than a fascinating element of society, I believe.
But a good deal of what the mob does involves out and out murder or the routine extortion of large sums of money from innocent vendors who simply wish to remain in business but aren't allowed this because the Mob threatens them with fire-bombing unless they pay up. Or with murder! What could be so entertaining about such people? I admit to being tone deaf to their music, never mind the catchy allusion of the title of this program.
Why, furthermore, is it OK to show these guys in various sympathetic ways but not Nazis or members of the KKK? After all, as we all know by now, Nazis - even Hitler himself - could be warm and fuzzy in some realms of their lives. I am sure some otherwise hooded members of the KKK have messy affairs, squabbling families, buddies with whom they engage in regular guy banter and so forth. So, why not shows about these people?
There is so much talk these days about the bad influence of television on the minds of the young, supposedly coming from sex and violence. I am doubtful that shows with nifty sex in them are really all that bad for anyone. Nor are those that dish out violence the proper way, against folks who deserve it good and hard, need to teach bad lessons. What may have a far more negative impact on viewers is a show like the Sopranos in which violent thugs are depicted as in large measure just like the folks next door. Indeed, there is a suggestion lurking here that the rest of us aren't really so much better than these hoods, after all, despite restraining ourselves whenever we may be inclined to beat up anyone, to slash someone's tires, to make a neighbor's life miserable.
I protest this. Those of us who have cultivated civilized habits are not like the hooligans who are featured on this sometimes warm and fuzzy program about some of the most miserable examples of humanity. We may not provide the rest of the world with bits and pieces of excitement comparable to what the Mob does. But that excitement, so far as I can tell, is no different from what a lynching or genocidal extermination provides and deserves not curiosity but disgust from everyone.
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