Watch Me Watch: The Sopranos 1.5 -- "College"

It seems fitting that the episode I return to after an unspeakably long hiatus is titled "College." Without turning this into a diary entry, I've been struggling with the fact that without college to force me to think critically about the entertainments that I love, I may be losing the ability to do so. Of course, due to that unspeakably long hiatus, I'm probably just out of practice.

So here I am. Living in Thailand and watching copious amounts of television to pass the time in a small town. It's almost... American. But for whatever reason, I chose to watch a number of series I'd already seen before delving into the one I've put off the longest. After Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, and various others, I find myself here, at the series that (arguably) made each and every one of those possible. (See, to follow my assertions with quotes [as I was taught to do in high school, and perfected in... wait for it... college], these quotes from a primary source here and here.)

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Any time a visual medium asks you to read something on-screen, it better be for a good reason. If it's something as relatively trivial as a plot point, then just have the character read it breathily to themselves, as we have all done when pretending we're in a movie and receiving important news via post. If it's thematically related, then you'd be wise to have the characters reading your carefully chosen text talk about it in a way obliquely referencing their personal demons or dilemma. But if you're The Sopranos, you take thematically related text (in this case, a quote from Nathaniel Hawthorne) and trust the audience to read it, get it, and apply it to characters as necessary, like a salve.

First, the plot points (to be read mentally, but breathily, if you're able): Tony and Meadow are scouting colleges, cause Tony is a good pater familias. While filling up the gas tank and puttering around Maine, Tony spots what he thinks might be a former associate-cum-narc, long ago swept away and sheltered by witness protection. Papa Soprano gives chase, all while trying to gently ease his rapidly maturing daughter into the unspoken knowledge that he is a mafioso. Simple, right?

The quote we're asked to read (along with Tony, sitting in a marble-tiled hall of an East Coast University waiting for Meadow) "No man... can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which one may be true." All we're given to chew on after reading is a dopey ADR-line--"Our most famous alumni!"--from some extra who can now say he had a line on The Sopranos despite the fact that he was only in the wide shot and we never see his face. We and Tony both are left with the (fairly obvious) implications of the line.

The central drama of this show has never really been much of a secret. But by emphasizing again and again and again--with ducks and dreams of detachable penises and therapy and lies and Hawthorne quotes--we are all but guaranteed to see a spectacular explosion. Or at least witness the giggle-inducing fun of a balloon plopping around the room as it rapidly deflates. Tony Soprano has some 'splaining to do. You can't be a family man and a Family man and keep the two mutually exclusive.

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While these write-ups have thus far been written without any hint of foreknowledge of what comes next, the allure of serialized TV sometimes cannot be ignored, and thus I've sped ahead, all the way through into season 2 (so far). I'm not sure what voice to take as I proceed, or if I'll stick to individual episodes or more of a "this is the last chunk of story that I watched, and here's what I saw" approach. And while I wouldn't say that the last half of season 1 is boring, I will admit that the simple advent of letterboxed presentation makes me all the more excited to fast-forward to season 2 and the more polished storytelling it has thus-far provided. Of course, there's always the risk that I won't ever come back, and you'll be left here alone, abandoned, waiting to find out to which college Meadow is admitted. I'll try not to leave you out in the cold. But we might be time-traveling a bit when I get back.