The Sopranos Season 1, Episode 7 - Down Neck

What determines who we are - nature or nurture?  This is the question that eats at Tony Soprano after his son gets into trouble for stealing sacramental wine.  Is his son acting out because he's a 13 year old boy, or because he's a 13 year old boy who has learned that his father is in the Mafia?   Tony tries to feel his son out to see what he knows, but he does very little to reassure him that he's not involved.  Meanwhile he's digging through his own memories and we get to see his recollections of 1967 Newark acted out.  We see his father beat up some guy on the block and we see a young Tony stow himself away in his dad's trunk to find out where his father and sister went every Sunday.  Tony claims he was proud of how tough his father was when he learned of his Mafia affiliation when he was a child, but he's aware that things have gotten more complicated since his childhood.  One thing that's decidedly missing from his childhood recollections is how exactly Tony got involved in the business.  We learn how much of a troublemaker he was, and how his mother would threaten him with very specific violence, but how that particular choice took place isn't mentioned.  Tony seems to have accepted this choice as an inevitability and projects his feelings on to Carmela that he's responsible for his son's bad behavior.  Livia and Junior seem to regard this theft with odd pride - both of them enjoy recounting what a scoundrel Tony was at that age.  After all, to them, Tony is a huge success.

One thing that's illuminating about Tony's feelings on the range of livelihoods a successful person can have are the other potential life paths he mentions during the episode - he claims he could've been selling patio furniture in San Diego, he mentions Rocco Altieri (sp?) moving to Reno and becoming a billionaire ostensibly in the casino business, and a classmate who invented 'the twist ties that go on the ends of salamis, he sits on his ass making millions'.  Capitalism produces some unusual outcomes - I'm inclined to see Tony's view on these lifepaths as being reflections of his upbringing as a man's livelihood demands some sort of grift - he is equally skeptical of psychiatry as some sort of long con (and indeed his mother tells her grandson it's all a scam for Jews) - but I'm not fully willing to wed that idea to the Sopranos writers.

Anthony Jr, meanwhile, has to undergo a battery of tests to make sure he isn't ADD.  When Tony and Carmela are told the results, that he manifested 5 out of the 9 possible signs of ADD, they both voice their frustration with this process.  They will handle things themselves.  Nature, nurture - whatever the case, with Anthony Jr., doctors will not be involved.

Random Observations

So much of this series is informed by Goodfellas - I had Henry Hill's line about school, 'how can I listen to my teachers talk about good government bullshit' running through my head this whole episode.  Both Johnny and Tony seem to think their sons should listen to their teachers.

I don't usually do this, but the contrivance of Tony and Anthony having a flat tire on the way to the dentist (and the dentist is apparently in Kearny?) is a bit much.

Absolutely love Young Janice giving Young Tony the finger.

Also love this actor who plays Anthony Jr.'s psychologist.  He has three scenes and nails them all.

Is Melfi entertained by Tony's stories?  She laughs in the right places, she's shocked in other places - I know at some level she's supposed to be a viewer surrogate, and Lorraine Bracco has to make a lot of choices with how she reacts to what her character is being told.  Maybe it's trying to demonstrate Melfi's empathy.

When Livia goes into her performance about how upset she is when she learns her son is seeing a psychiatrist, Anthony Jr. has no reaction.  I think upon previous viewings I took this as adolescent indifference to his surroundings, but now I think it's that even he at 13 is wise to his grandmother's bullshit.

It's 1997 alert:  Anthony Jr. mentions the first season of South Park.  It feels like every male in my freshman high school gym class knew those first 6 episodes almost by heart.