When I first started watching the Sopranos, I had no idea that it was supposed to be funny. It's got violence, sure, but the most interesting parts of the show deal with family, loyalty, and how Tony Soprano interprets his therapist's analysis of his life. Besides Tony, my favorite character is Paulie, one of the Captains in Tony's La Familia. Paulie has always been a loyal mama's boy, taking good care of his mother, giving her cash, gifts, and making sure she was safely enrolled in the best nursing home. This season Paulie found out that his mother was really his aunt, and his aunt (a Catholic Nun) was his mother. Paulie freaked out so much that he threw his mother's flat screen TV out the window of the nursing home. Later, Paulie burst into tears when hearing a story about a mother's love for her son. It makes Paulie realize that the woman loved him as if he were a real son, so he breaks the legs of a business partner to cough up the $4000 per month that he needs to support her.
Last Sunday's episode featured (Live Free or Die) another Captain called Vito Spatafore, who has seen a lot of action this season. Vito was hilariously featured in a series of advertisements for weight loss-while it's true he shed about 60 pounds, he still looks plenty big to me. The Sopranos writing team decided to bring a sub-plot from the previous season and place it hot on the front burner: the fact that Vito is gay. Meadow Soprano's boyfriend saw Vito going down on a cock and got a deadly warning never to tell anyone. But now, after Vito was spotted in a New York gay bar dressed up like the leather cop from the Village People, the word is out. "I hear fat Vito's been ridin' up the Hershey highway," one gangster remarks. Meadow's boyfriend spills the beans to Tony and the Captains, and Paulie remarks: "I feel like I've been stabbed in the heart." Christopher wants to kill Vito in the most horrible of ways by slicing off his cock and feeding it to him. Tony, after a therapy session, feels more lenient: "It's 2006. There's pillow biters in the Special Forces." Not to mention that Vito made Tony enough money to buy a boat. But tough guys like Paulie are going to revolt if Vito isn't sleeping with the fishes soon.
Meanwhile, Vito wisely decided to pack up his cash and get the hell out of New Jersey. You feel his heart breaking as he takes along pictures of his children. After Vito drives in a rainstorm from hell, his car breaks down, and he winds up in a small town in New Hampshire. It's a little bit like Doc Hollywood. Vito finds that life in this idyllic town is a bit of a dream. Small town people who know each other's names, tolerate gay people, and beautiful creeks and trees-not unlike like the town of Cicely in Northern Exposure, a series that David Chase also worked on. It all seems like heaven to Vito. The last scene in an antique store gives him hope of fitting in, but somehow I think the Sopranos won't leave him in peace. Nuff said.
External Link:
Tim Goodman's Bastard Machine on Live Free or Die
