We know that David Chase writes each season of the Sopranos as an arc, with every episode linked together as part of an overrall theme.
Season 1-- Tony as a son-- Tony fails as a son, his mother ends up ordering a hit on him
Season 2: Tony as a brother, tony as a friend-- Tony fails as a brother, ends up sending his sister away; Tony fails as a friend, has to whack best friend Big Pussy
Season 3-- Tony as a father-- Tony fails as a father, ends up having Jackie Jr. whacked
Season 4: Tony as a husband-- Tony finally fails as a husband, Carmela throws him out and asks for a divorce
This brings us to Season Five, and after the first few episodes I think we are starting to see this season's arc pretty clearly
Season 5: Tony as head of the family-- We are seeing Tony starting to fail now both as head of his family and of his "family" We see an almost sad scene at the end of this last episode, where the whole family is dressed up and going out to eat, and Tony's trying to make it appear that everything is fine. But we know it isn't.
Given that each of the arcs of the first four seasons saw Tony Soprano pretty much totally fail at the various roles he's playing in his life, I think it likely that this season Tony fails again.
Each season Tony loses another aspect of his life. This season he probably loses his families. I'm expecting that this season will end with both Tony's "family" and family in pieces and Tony finally tossed in jail.
Next season, the logical conclusion of the series, would then be when Tony gets out of jail, and has to come terms with the havoc caused during the first five seasons, and he tries to put the pieces back together. Think of Seasons 1-5 as the tragedy, and Season 6 the redemption. Or at least thats how I sense things going
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Also keep in mind what Chase said
2Also keep in mind that David Chase said in an interview that he hadn't intended to do six seasons, that the series was supposed to end after five seasons and then there was a movie being talked about that would function as an epilogue to the series. Chase specifically says that the ten episodes to be shot next year, comprising "season six", were taking the place of the proposed movie. Chase now says that if there is any movie, it will be a prequel.
So I look at the situation with Buscemi's character, who got out of jail out of a long stretch and annoyed Tony by deciding to stay straight, and I think it might be a sign of whats to come. Right now, Tony can't understand why Buscemi's character wants to stay straight and feels betrayed. But what if next season, its a couple of years later and Tony finds himself in that situation. He's been in jail for a couple of years, and finds himself estranged from everyone and from the life he knew. Does he go straight like Buscemi's character did, or tries to, and try to pick up the pieces of his shattered family life? Or does he go back into the business and try to get back his power?
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So I look at the situation with Buscemi's character, who got out of jail out of a long stretch and annoyed Tony by deciding to stay straight, and I think it might be a sign of whats to come. Right now, Tony can't understand why Buscemi's character wants to stay straight and feels betrayed. But what if next season, its a couple of years later and Tony finds himself in that situation. He's been in jail for a couple of years, and finds himself estranged from everyone and from the life he knew. Does he go straight like Buscemi's character did, or tries to, and try to pick up the pieces of his shattered family life? Or does he go back into the business and try to get back his power?
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Re: Also keep in mind what Chase said
3If tony went to jail for a "couple of years" he couldn't walk away. If it was 15, that's one thing...
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Tony didn't fail in the first 3 seasons!
4I must object strenuously to the claim that Tony "failed as a son", "failed as brother", and "failed as a father" in the first 3 seasons.
1) Tony did everything he could for his mother. He only put her in the nursing home when it became clear and undeniable that she couldn't take care of herself and that she would inveitably drive away any caretaker who came to take care of her (she set fire to the stove and ran over her friend with her car, for God's sake!). Even then, he continued to make sure she got the best care. It was his two sisters who fled New Jersey to escape Livia's poisonous influence. Tony was the one who stayed and "tried to make it work", as Carmela put it.
Remember that Livia told Janice she actually rather liked it at Green Grove, early in the second season? If Livia tried to whack Tony, it's because she herself was a "depressive personality", as Dr. Melfi diagnosed her--or, as Tony described her, a "demented old bat . . . that selfish, miserable c-nt".
2) Tony didn't fail Janice! Janice was there playing Lady Macbeth, egging on Richie to try and make a move on Tony! What's more, apart from that, she was there at every turn, making life more difficult for Tony and not respecting him. Tony didn't "send her out of New Jersey" out of spite; he did it to PROTECT her from prosecution. Janice is the one who whacked Richie, remember? And that didn't have anything to do with Tony!
3) Similarly, how can you say Tony failed as a father to Jackie Jr.?!? He struggled all through the 3rd season to get the kid back on the straight and narrow! He even smacked the kid around, as he told Meadow in the 4th season, to keep him from "f---king himself up"! The problem was, Jackie Jr. was a grown man, responsible for his own destiny and beyond parenting. That wasn't Tony's fault in the least. Jackie Jr. made his own bed, and ultimately slept in it. Or should I say he dug his own grave, and ultimately slept in that?
While it COULD conceivably be argued that Tony failed as a friend to Pussy, even that's a pretty long shot, if you ask me. Jackie Aprile Sr. told Pussy in the flashback in "To Save Us All from Satan's Power", "Puss, you need money, you come to me." Furthermore, in that same flashback, Tony warned Pussy to stop pushing heroin. Pussy was by then already paying the price for his decisions. While Tony might have been able to do more to forestall any possibility of an associate that personally close to him flipping (assuring Puss that if he ever got pinched, the "family" would look after his wife and kids, etc.), in the end it makes little sense to say Tony failed Pussy as a friend.
OK, so Tony totally failed Carmela as a husband, in terms of marital fidelity at any rate. I'll be the last one to deny that.
But Tony did NOT fail as a son; Livia failed him as a mother. He did NOT fail as a brother; Janice failed him as a sister. He did NOT fail as a father figure; Jackie Jr. failed him as a surrogate son.
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1) Tony did everything he could for his mother. He only put her in the nursing home when it became clear and undeniable that she couldn't take care of herself and that she would inveitably drive away any caretaker who came to take care of her (she set fire to the stove and ran over her friend with her car, for God's sake!). Even then, he continued to make sure she got the best care. It was his two sisters who fled New Jersey to escape Livia's poisonous influence. Tony was the one who stayed and "tried to make it work", as Carmela put it.
Remember that Livia told Janice she actually rather liked it at Green Grove, early in the second season? If Livia tried to whack Tony, it's because she herself was a "depressive personality", as Dr. Melfi diagnosed her--or, as Tony described her, a "demented old bat . . . that selfish, miserable c-nt".
2) Tony didn't fail Janice! Janice was there playing Lady Macbeth, egging on Richie to try and make a move on Tony! What's more, apart from that, she was there at every turn, making life more difficult for Tony and not respecting him. Tony didn't "send her out of New Jersey" out of spite; he did it to PROTECT her from prosecution. Janice is the one who whacked Richie, remember? And that didn't have anything to do with Tony!
3) Similarly, how can you say Tony failed as a father to Jackie Jr.?!? He struggled all through the 3rd season to get the kid back on the straight and narrow! He even smacked the kid around, as he told Meadow in the 4th season, to keep him from "f---king himself up"! The problem was, Jackie Jr. was a grown man, responsible for his own destiny and beyond parenting. That wasn't Tony's fault in the least. Jackie Jr. made his own bed, and ultimately slept in it. Or should I say he dug his own grave, and ultimately slept in that?
While it COULD conceivably be argued that Tony failed as a friend to Pussy, even that's a pretty long shot, if you ask me. Jackie Aprile Sr. told Pussy in the flashback in "To Save Us All from Satan's Power", "Puss, you need money, you come to me." Furthermore, in that same flashback, Tony warned Pussy to stop pushing heroin. Pussy was by then already paying the price for his decisions. While Tony might have been able to do more to forestall any possibility of an associate that personally close to him flipping (assuring Puss that if he ever got pinched, the "family" would look after his wife and kids, etc.), in the end it makes little sense to say Tony failed Pussy as a friend.
OK, so Tony totally failed Carmela as a husband, in terms of marital fidelity at any rate. I'll be the last one to deny that.
But Tony did NOT fail as a son; Livia failed him as a mother. He did NOT fail as a brother; Janice failed him as a sister. He did NOT fail as a father figure; Jackie Jr. failed him as a surrogate son.
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Re: Tony didn't fail in the first 3 seasons!
5good points, I think it less that Tony "failed' in those roles, as that Tony THINKS he failed. Tony suffers from low self esteem and Melfi may well bring this out in future sessions that he deep down he thinks he's failed everyone. He thinks he's failed his mother (even if he really didn't, she made him feel like he did), he thinks he's failed his family and friends.
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