The Many Saints of Newark

The Many Saints of Newark, the eagerly anticipated prequel to The Sopranos, will be released on October first. I am looking forward to seeing it. Those who are familiar with my writing, or are friends, may find this surprising. I do not hide my dislike of any glorification of the Mafia, but that is not The Sopranos. I believe that many Italian Americans like me see something about this series that makes it something more, something worth the watching.

Years ago, when The Sopranos was at the peak of its popularity, my medagon wife and I were in a discussion about the series. At one point, she said that the show wasn’t realistic, that she had never met anyone like the people in the series. I gave her my best look of incredulity, one of those you-gotta-be-kidding-me looks. That was all it took. She quickly added, “Before I married you, I didn’t know anyone like that.” I believe I won the point.

This is not to say that I have family members, or even acquaintances, in the Mafia. I find nothing more irritating than to have someone tell me they have some shirttail relative in the Mafia. I am not one of those people, but that is a conversation for another time. When speaking with my wife, I meant that the characters in the show reflect people with whom almost all Italian Americans have grown up, regardless of any criminal history. Who doesn’t have a Christopher, Tony’s nephew, in their family?  Every time I saw Paulie, I thought I was looking at a guy from the old neighborhood who owned a bar around the corner. And then there is Tony himself. What Italian American does not have a friend or relative that talks and acts like Tony, again aside from the involvement in organized crime.

I believe this is one of the main reasons for the popularity of the franchise. When we watch, we see ourselves; we see the people from our childhood, the people who populated our lives. For many of us who have moved out of Italian neighborhoods, watching The Sopranos is like going home. It has a resonance with our life experience. Many Mafia movies are like this. My mother insisted on seeing The Godfather because she heard that they sang Che La Luna during the wedding.

Of course, there is a full spectrum of opinion in the Italian American community concerning movies and television shows that deal with the Mafia. A chief concern is they propagate the myth that Italian Americans are mobbed up while seeming to glorify the life. As I said above, this is not the case with The Sopranos. There is a deeper meaning for those who are willing to see it. From my perspective, The Sopranos is a morality play, presenting reprehensible people leading self-destructive lives, gaining very little in return.

The characters in the show are horrible people. As much as we may see Tony as one of the guys from the old neighborhood, would you want to be like him? Would you even want to be friends with him? Really? He is a man that happily murders friends and family when it serves his purpose. We need not even go into his infidelity or ruthlessness when dealing with strangers to see that he is no Italian American hero. All of the characters I had mentioned above are truly evil people, void of any redeeming qualities. While they may remind us of family and old friends, we can only be grateful they are not. The poster of the fifth season shows Tony with the surviving characters. They are standing above the bodies of the people murdered in the previous four seasons. That is far from glorification.

I don’t want to give anything away here for those who have not watched the show but think of how willing they are to kill one another. Life-long friends. Love interests. Even family members. No relationship is so dear that they would not turn on you in a New York minute – yeah, I know this is Jersey. A real stunad once said to me that Mafia takes care of their own. Take care of their own! Sure, if you what mean by taking care of is that they kill you.

Think of what it would be like to live a life where every business associate, every friend, every family member was willing to put a bullet in your head. Think of a life in which you are continually looking over your shoulder. You never know what is coming at you or from where. Think of the simple act of going out to dinner with your family, not knowing if someone will shoot you while you eat. Is it worth it? How could anyone want to live such a life?

To me, the real irony is that their standard of living is not all that great. Sure, Tony has a beautiful home, almost all the guys at the top do, but the rest don’t. And remember, I said almost. Most live in apartments or homes typical of average lower-middle-class Americans who don’t turn to crime. If I compare their lives to the lives of the people I know, it just doesn’t seem at all worth it. Most of the white-collar professionals I know do a lot better financially than Tony and his crew. You don’t even need a college degree to live as well as the characters on The Sopranos. Electricians, plumbers, even salespeople could easily do better than most of these guys. So, where is the return on investment? Where is the payoff?

Equally important, the show itself takes on the Italian American Mafioso stereotype. Italians Americans on the show discuss the Mafia’s damage to our image and the Italian American community. The show itself presents Italian Americans who are not mobbed up. Law-abiding Italian Americans from all walks of life who have nothing to do with organized crime. One of the non-Mafioso main characters who, at one point, had every reason to take advantage of her relationship with Tony refused to do so. She refused in a situation in which many people would not have faulted her if she chose otherwise. She is an example of several characters who do not turn to organized crime, characters worthy of emulating.

So, do I like the Sopranos? Yeah, I do. It shows the lousy existence of rotten people who end up getting just what they deserve. When you see it from this perspective, it is a good argument for why one would not want to lead such a life. I have not yet seen The Saints of New Work, but I am looking forward to it. I expect it will provide similar lessons.

For more on Italian and Italian-American culture, read my book Italianità, The Essence of Being Italian. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.