“I’m no mental midget”
“I got caught up in domestic violence. you think it won’t happen to you, but it do.”
This is Tony Soprano’s interpretation of his gunshot. I find this particular line, among others, indelible. Throughout the show, we witness Tony’s relentless justification for his criminality and his assholery. Dr. Melfi once identifies Tony’s relationship with his family as “high sentimentality mode.”
The fact is, Junior, Tony’s uncle, shot Tony. Twice. Junior has been demented for a while. He mistakes Tony as Pussy Malango, his nemesis. Technically, Junior thinks the person he has shot is Malango. As Junior screams at Tony, “Casa Malango!” Whereas Junior’s cognitive disability may account for his gun violence, he does, in the past, under presence of mind, scheme to kill Tony.
There are a lot of online analysis on the characters of this show, such as “why on earth would Ade end up with Chrissy” or “why does Chrissy side with Tony instead of Ade.”
Uncle Junior would say, “all good questions. Who says there will be an answer?”
I am also often curious and baffled by the theme of trauma. Obviously compassion is key to understanding the character. What is beyond the urge to reconcile, then? We make trauma look almost like art.
Mama Livia: the woman who never has anything good to say about anybody and who constantly adds to the quotient of sorrow in the world.
I used Jamboard as a form of destressor.
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I’ve collected some of the inimitable quotes from the Sopranos:
gary cooper, or anyone names cooper, never suffers like the italians.
—silvio dante adamantly and relentlessly supporting the italian anti-defamation
Because of his experiences in prison, Richie has a sensitivity to the plight of women!
—Janice defending Richie
i’m a grown man. you think i live in a freezer before i met you??
—tony in response to one of his goomars
You left me unprotected. You’re not getting another dime from me.
—Paulie being angry at Father
See, out there, it’s 1999. Here it’s 1958.
1958. 1999.
—Tony on if sex should be a punishable offense
In this house, Christopher Columbus is a hero. End of story!
—Tony on colonization of Native Americans
In the future, I'd ask that you extend to me the same courtesy that you would a crack addict.
—Melfi’s response to Tony’s impulsiveness and violence
Tony: I doubled my dosage
Melfi: I don’t want you taking 80 mg of Prozac!
Tony: You kick it up to 80 for a week to ten days just to pull back on the stick a little, get the nose up. Then you duck back down to 40 before the limp dick thing sets in.
—Tony on the right approach to Prozac
and then what?! he _ dies. I couldn’t even wear his shoes.
—uncle junior on richie aprile’s attempted coup
even with the captions you can’t tell what is what. they have jesus hanging by a helicopter. but you can tell that’s a dummy.
—uncle junior the film critic (object of criticism: fellini’s la dolce vita)
They say, there are no two people on Earth exactly the same. No two faces, no two sets of fingerprints. But do they know that for sure? cuz they would have to get everybody together in one huge space and obviously that's impossible, even with computers. Not only that, they would have to get all the people who ever lived, not just the ones now. So they got no proof. They got nothin'… Mrs Soprano may have passed but who is to say there isn't another Mrs Soprano just like her? Or will be? Maybe not with the same fears and paranoia, but... the same. Uhm, what I am saying is...
—chrissy at livia’s wake