ringbearer wrote: ↑Fri Apr 30, 2021 11:46 am
I love S6!
I can certainly see how a lot of people may enjoy it less than the rest of the series; as Tony is 'beyond' redemption. His new perspective on life that happened in 6A clearly never had a chance, and he is now fully committed to his spiral into utter hopelessness - taking his family's emotional growth and wellbeing with him. I think his last real chance as a person was the Vito situation (what a storyline!) After that, i really don't think he thought outside of his five senses, or 1 hour into the future for the remainder of the show.
As far as theories go, I think my main one is that the entire show is actually about Christopher. The real tragedy of the story being that an artist was born into that world, who learned how to fit in while growing up. He learned what to do to appear 'worthy' or how to 'succeed' in his environment; all the while afraid of being found out as being different. As a result, whenever he finally tries to express himself at around 30, his creative attempts are sophomoric at best; having never been able to nurture his thoughts and feelings, or live authentically. This was really the root of Christopher's heroin addiction.
In many ways, Vito was like a rehearsal for Christopher in relation to Tony. Both were very valuable underlings. Both caused hassle to Tony from trying to be themselves. Tony's inaction did no favours for Vito, whereas with Christopher.....you know how that went.
I think that S6 is also the most cinematic of all the seasons.
P.S. you need to delete the middle word in your spoiler!
That's interesting you bring up Christopher, because it was my decade old unsettled feelings about the uh, culmination of his storyline, that really compelled me to re-engage with the series on a deeper level.
In a lot of ways, Tony seems to have something of an anti-redemption arc -- most seasons feature him going through an arc of gradually coming to the decision to whack someone, and all the emotional angst that entails. Whereas with Christopher, he just does it nonchalantly in the 1st 5 minutes of the episode, then spends the next 40 minutes of screen time barely repressing his sense of relief and joy, before going to Vegas to celebrate with some random college student.
Possibly that validates the criticism that Melfi's own therapist relays to her, that talk therapy only helps sociopaths become better sociopaths, and that all she's really done for Tony is help him be a more successful (and more ruthless) mob boss.
Getting back to Christopher though, he might be the most awful character in the whole show. Sure, characters like Ralphie or Phil Leotardo commit cold blooded acts of violence (albeit for different reasons), but Chris starts off as this wide eyed kid with potential. He has dreams, ideas, he longs for other things... but slowly over the course of the series he just becomes more bitter (and the writers begin writing him as being dumber as well) and entitled. I almost feel betrayed by him during certain moments in S4 and up, because I honestly thought he'd be a better person than he ended up being.
And I think on some level it goes back to the ducks in the pilot episode, and the anxiety and panic attacks that they trigger for Tony. Maybe not overtly, but if Chris was Tony's heir apparent, and Tony can just... do that to him, then maybe Tony is no longer afraid of the baby ducklings leaving the nest. There is a quiet moment near the end of the final episode, where Tony is raking some leaves in his backyard, and he looks up into the trees. Maybe he's not thinking about where those ducks are now, but maybe he's aware of the fact that he's not thinking about them anymore.
I do appreciate S6 a lot more after my final re-watch.