The Sopranos continues to trouble fans for its lack of a redemption arc for its central anti-hero. In a world where the most morally complex crime dramas dominate the TV landscape, The Sopranos is brutally uncompromising in its refusal to soften, absolve, or redeem Tony Soprano. Tony never changes for the better. In fact, he gets worse.
After watching other prestige series, modern viewers cannot help but notice how heavy the show’s themes are. The show came out before Breaking Bad, The Wire, and Better Call Saul, but it is singled out for its philosophical position. While others have some bright, clear, or even accountable moments, The Sopranos is adamant about something much less agreeable: moral decay endures.
Tony Soprano Never Has Real Growth
Tony Soprano stands on the street in front of his car in The Sopranos Season 2, Ep. 8Image via HBO
From the pilot episode, viewers see Tony Soprano as a man in serious trouble and realize he needs therapy. Since his panic attacks seem to destroy the power he has over others and even himself, he is forced to ask for help.
As a result, The Sopranos started with nothing but an expectation of confrontation followed by personal growth, a very traditional pattern of drama. However, the TV series quickly refutes this assumption. Tony does not decide to undergo therapy to improve.
On the contrary, he uses it to more effectively carry out his illegal activities. Instead of deepening his awareness, his encounters with Dr. Melfi become occasions for him to justify his actions, allowing him to dissociate and engage in his worst dreams without ever actually facing them.
Tony is aware of his situation. He admits the influence of his mother on his personality, is conscious of the double standards in his moral code, and sometimes even admits his guilt. Still, he never unlocked any real development. At most, these moments become tools for trickery in his hand. After every insight, there is no follow-up of control, but rather an increase in the severity of his deeds.
By the final seasons, Tony’s progress is no longer just stagnant; he is actually regressing. His brutality gets more severe, his paranoia becomes more intense, and his sympathy towards others becomes almost non-existent. The killing of Christopher was depicted as deeply sad yet necessary. However, it turns out to be an act of cold and indifferent convenience.
Tony no longer pretends to care when people suffer because of his decisions. He has not improved through therapy. The facade of change is being removed, revealing that Tony Soprano was not going to be the one to rescue himself.
The Sopranos Show the Importance of Redemption Arcs
Tony Soprano comforts Dr. Melfi in The Sopranos
“Employee of the Month”
Image via HBO
Redemption arcs have become a hallmark of modern crime television and are expected by viewers. Walter White in Breaking Bad admits the real reason behind his actions and eventually dies in a way that tries to undo some of the havoc he brought.
Also, The Wire’s characters like Bubbles and Cutty offer comfort, as their survival is depicted as going against the odds, making it credible. Jimmy McGill in Better Call Saul ultimately takes the blame, saves himself at the last moment, and gives up his freedom to regain his moral agency.
Nevertheless, these features are not removed from the characters’ histories. In such stories, redemption is acknowledgment. It is quite comforting for viewers to see that insight into oneself can be rewarding and that the freedom to choose remains. However, The Sopranos refuses that relief.
The Sopranos is one of the few prestige crime series that greatly rejects the idea of redemption. It is a show that enforces the idea that certain systems and people are inherently, structurally, extremely difficult to change. The world that Tony inhabits relies on killings, lying, and disregarding human emotions.
Tony Soprano’s Behaviour is Encouraged By those Around Him
From Where to EternityImage via HBO
Tony isn’t an isolated villain. He is a product of a system that benefits from exploitation. The Sopranos reveal that the mafia is not a loving and caring group but a corporate structure quite similar to any other one, driven by greed and fear. Loyalty is exchanged. Pretending is a tradition.
Whenever Tony finds himself in a situation where he has to choose, he always opts for the most selfish course of action. This move, however, gets the loudest backing from the people around him. As a result, his subordinates encourage his ruthlessness with their loyalty.
Conversely, the family members enjoy his illegal activities while, at the same time, abstractly condemning them. Even Dr. Melfi, who is battling with her moral side, keeps on treating him long after realizing that therapy is an agent that makes his violence stronger. The system feeds on Tony’s worst impulses, so there is no room left for change to be either necessary or possible.
Tony clearly acknowledges nihilism, as he, in a sarcastic way, refers to concepts like fairness or justice as made up by people. His crulety towards Janice, Carmela, and A.J. not only signifies his disenchantment but also indicates his deeply ingrained conviction. The show neither discusses these matters in terms of justice nor in terms of moral rectification. It simply accepts their presence.
The Final Season of The Sopranos Failed to Give Closure
The Soprano family wait in a diner in The Sopranos series finaleImage via HBO
By the final season, Tony has the tools for his hero’s transformation. However, they are rendered useless. Tony resists an assassination attempt that sends him into a coma; this is some manner of spiritual awakening. Tony escapes the gathering storm of the law; this is the reckoning that heroes of the crime drama series face.
His personal life unravels before he chooses crime and cruelty. None of these things mark a turning point, however. Instead, Tony integrates them to confirm his superiority. Survival was always a kind of self-vindication. The consequences of failing to manifest and Tony continuing to live mean only that his ideology must be true.
Every escape simply reinforces his view that ethics are nonsense spun by those who lack real power. Even the coma dream indicates that life and death are at a crossroads, but it leads him exactly nowhere. Tony awakens exactly as he was before, simply more convinced than ever that analysis is self-indulgent and that compassion is simply a manifestation of weakness.
Additionally, the fade-to-black finale offers no resolution regarding Tony’s fate, because any resolution would give meaning to his existence. Whether Tony dies in this diner or just continues living doesn’t actually matter. What actually matters is the condition he is in towards the end.
Tony is not concerned about his salvation. He sits with his family, ordering onion rings, and taking a look around the room for possible dangers, because vigilance has become instilled in his nature, more out of habit than a need to be so. Not even in the comfort of his home does Tony find tranquility; he knows it does not exist.
There is no confession lurking beneath the surface of this final scene; there is no realization, at the last minute, of the destruction he has wrought. Tony neither chooses to shield his family by distancing himself from them. He neither forsakes the power for the sake of understanding. Nor does he state a truth at a cost to himself.
Instead, the series permits him to remain exactly as he was before, which is much more condemnatory than any form of punishment could be. The fact of his moral stagnation becomes the message here. In this way, The Sopranos throws this truth of reality at the viewer to subvert the traditional storytelling mode.
But this refusal of closure is the most daring and disturbing element of the series. It rejects catharsis on grounds of moral convenience. The Sopranos offers its viewers neither justice nor the satisfaction of tragedy transformed into meaningfulness, but instead offers them the truth of exposure. The Sopranos affirms that not all lives lead to closure.
The Sopranos remains relevant 18 years after its finale because Tony Soprano will never redeem himself. After all, the world in which he exists does not demand it of him. The show refuses to be like later cable dramas that weave complex ideas about crime into satisfying conclusions. Instead, it offers a portrayal in which its protagonist understands, changes, and survives but does not grow.
Release Date
1999 – 2007
Network
HBO
Showrunner
David Chase
Directors
Tim Van Patten, John Patterson, Alan Taylor, Jack Bender, Steve Buscemi, Daniel Attias, David Chase, Andy Wolk, Danny Leiner, David Nutter, James Hayman, Lee Tamahori, Lorraine Senna, Matthew Penn, Mike Figgis, Nick Gomez, Peter Bogdanovich, Phil Abraham, Rodrigo García
Writers
Michael Imperioli, Jason Cahill, Lawrence Konner, David Flebotte, James Manos, Jr., Salvatore Stabile, Toni Kalem, Mark Saraceni, Nick Santora
-
James Gandolfini
Tony Soprano
-
Edie Falco
Carmela Soprano
