Does anyone else feel that Tony's "good guy" and "family man" side was portrayed as being too much? I mean I know the whole point of the show was Tony balancing his two families and lives, but at some points it felt, at least to me, pretty unrealistic.
I had a hard time believing that a character like Tony, who's a sociopath who uses, hurts and murders people and orders them murdered, could just flip on his other side like a switch when he's with family and turn into a normal father who admonishes his children when they swear and cares about if they did their homework and whatnot.
Even when he and Carmela separated, I disliked how caring he was toward her, always reminding AJ to be nice to her and it just seemed contradictory that he would humiliate her by his constant lying and cheating, then care for her after they separate. I also disliked the fact that they made him, Tony Soprano, a mafia boss, actually get kicked out of his own house. That can happen to friggin' Alan Harper or some other wimp, but Tony? Come on. The guy's a psychopath, he's not gonna take that.
Also I hated the fact how everyone was like "poor children" and "this will destroy them" and so "traumatic" and so on. It was like Meadow and AJ were 10 years old and not two young adults, the former of which has already moved out and has a new life.
Thats the point of the show Tony had elements of the audience in his character to make us empathize with him, towards the end of season 2 the Dr Melfi character became a foil as if Tony was talking to us in therapy.
The Sopranos also points to the overriding narrative in America some would call a ideology of one person can make a difference highlighted in films such as Shane, Pale Rider etc it has moved on from the early models to this new narrative of one good flawed person trying to balance the evil in the world done by others and sometimes by themselves in order to get ahead.
The sopranos was so successful not only because it was about OC but it linked in to all the angst of modern western societies and in particular how males view themselves in this.
