****Contains spoilers for The Many Saints of Newark**** For my money, The Sopranos is still the best show ever made. On its surface a series about life in the mafia, it’s truly one of the best explorations of depression, the mundanity of life and death, and the most accurate representation of late capitalism and the erosion of American empire you’ll find in media. It’s also hilarious, maybe the funniest show ever made. Some of the best jokes on the show were also some of its darkest and most offensive. My personal favorite is when Tony Soprano, ticked off by his daughter Meadow’s new half-black, half-Jewish boyfriend, refers to him as “Jamal Ginsburg the Hasidic homeboy.” Even to this day I laugh at it. Why that is—beyond my own personal demented sense of humor—is largely due to the fact that it is such a nakedly honest moment, capturing Tony’s deep-seated racism and cruelty using comedy.
The Race Problem in Film
The Race Problem in Film
The Race Problem in Film
****Contains spoilers for The Many Saints of Newark**** For my money, The Sopranos is still the best show ever made. On its surface a series about life in the mafia, it’s truly one of the best explorations of depression, the mundanity of life and death, and the most accurate representation of late capitalism and the erosion of American empire you’ll find in media. It’s also hilarious, maybe the funniest show ever made. Some of the best jokes on the show were also some of its darkest and most offensive. My personal favorite is when Tony Soprano, ticked off by his daughter Meadow’s new half-black, half-Jewish boyfriend, refers to him as “Jamal Ginsburg the Hasidic homeboy.” Even to this day I laugh at it. Why that is—beyond my own personal demented sense of humor—is largely due to the fact that it is such a nakedly honest moment, capturing Tony’s deep-seated racism and cruelty using comedy.