fakenews

I'm in the camp that see the sopranos as primarily a dark comedy. there are so many of those physical comedy cuts, while the overall context is just dark as hell. also, it seems like all of the characters fall into a range of self delusion, which would be so much more dark and depressing subtext without the comedic beats.

at the same time, the inclusion of those gags to lighten the mood and the text itself, if taken at face value, create this space where the sort of people the show lampoons are fans of it, because they don't analyze anything and are just watching these gangsters live it up and command respect.

I think one of my favorite conflicts to see in the fandom is between the camp that insists Phil is a repressed gay man whose violent homophobia some inversion of that, and the fan who insist Phil is a respectable, traditional family man whose violent homophobia is just standard 90s Italian-American machismo.

ultimately, I think the way commerce (large audience seeking) affects art (story telling), especially for a dark story like the sopranos, sands down some of its sensitive edges and makes it so multiple people can watch the same episode and see two different stories.