All Due Respect was a great finish to a great season, but I want to talk about some of the things going around in my head while watching it. So far, while I know what Tony is, he's still a character that we do sympathize with, we do feel for him. And while we may have seen some of his most sensitive moments in Season 5, it also brought me to realizing just how despicable this man is. There aren't any specific moments that I can pinpoint as evidence, but just the whole structure of the season, and series, thus far.
The one point in the finale that reminded me of this was in the one scene where Tony and Christopher mentioned Adriana. Christopher mentions how she was willing to throw him to the wolves as long as she was guaranteed safety. This is wrong of course, and it's sad how Christopher will only think of her this way, especially after all of the things she went through in the two years, and how unwilling she was to do anything to put Chris in the line of fire. But as bad as Christopher acts at times, as horrible as he can be, there's no underlying sense of hatred towards him. No resentment. After Christopher mentions that, we get Tony, willing to agree, calling her a "cu*t". His one word response is what got me thinking of the progress of the series and everything that has happened. It has all revolved around Tony. Yes, it's his series, but what's incredibly frustrating, and completely sad, is his dismissal of Adriana. Can't he see WHY these people do what they do? With Adriana it's not even a matter of forgiving her. He needs to deal with the problem, and he did by having her killed. That's what needed to be done. But the complete lack of awareness from him, and him unable to see her perspective and why she did what she did, is what's wrong here. No, she wasn't simply a "cunt". Tony will now see her as one of his many rats, just some rat who betrayed him and deserved to die. She needed to die, yes, for Tony's sake, but his reaction is perhaps what's most unsettling. He tries to, but he mostly fails to have empathy for others, and observe their situations. If he had in this case, he would have replied much differently to Christopher. He wouldn't have dismissed her as just some "cu*t". But that whole ignorance doesn't just come from him, but by many of the same Mafia family. Adriana won't be regarded as the victim by them, she will be regarded as that bitch who wanted to destroy them. THAT'S what has stuck with me, and what makes the whole ordeal even more painful. Will Tony even acknowledge how much Christopher gave up to save, in reality, just him? How in the end, he proved to be more faithful to Tony than Adriana? Probably not, and as Silvio said, he is buried in his own self pride.
Okay, end of long rant. Fantastic season though. It started off strong and ended strong, my only complaint is that during the middle section it loses some steam. But we have Carmela and Tony back together, and although one could also say a million things about Carmela, we have to understand this. She's not a monster, but she's certainly someone who also tries to cloud her better judgement, and many times she does it purposely. She knows, oh yes, she knows that her new reunion with Tony won't end well, but throughout the series we have seen that she also has a lot of the same problems. Like Tony said in Whitecaps and this season, she isn't a victim, even though she acts like it. Oh, and although Melfi wasn't in this season as much as in the first three, at least she was in it a lot more than in 4, and at least a lot of her scenes were really great material.
The one point in the finale that reminded me of this was in the one scene where Tony and Christopher mentioned Adriana. Christopher mentions how she was willing to throw him to the wolves as long as she was guaranteed safety. This is wrong of course, and it's sad how Christopher will only think of her this way, especially after all of the things she went through in the two years, and how unwilling she was to do anything to put Chris in the line of fire. But as bad as Christopher acts at times, as horrible as he can be, there's no underlying sense of hatred towards him. No resentment. After Christopher mentions that, we get Tony, willing to agree, calling her a "cu*t". His one word response is what got me thinking of the progress of the series and everything that has happened. It has all revolved around Tony. Yes, it's his series, but what's incredibly frustrating, and completely sad, is his dismissal of Adriana. Can't he see WHY these people do what they do? With Adriana it's not even a matter of forgiving her. He needs to deal with the problem, and he did by having her killed. That's what needed to be done. But the complete lack of awareness from him, and him unable to see her perspective and why she did what she did, is what's wrong here. No, she wasn't simply a "cunt". Tony will now see her as one of his many rats, just some rat who betrayed him and deserved to die. She needed to die, yes, for Tony's sake, but his reaction is perhaps what's most unsettling. He tries to, but he mostly fails to have empathy for others, and observe their situations. If he had in this case, he would have replied much differently to Christopher. He wouldn't have dismissed her as just some "cu*t". But that whole ignorance doesn't just come from him, but by many of the same Mafia family. Adriana won't be regarded as the victim by them, she will be regarded as that bitch who wanted to destroy them. THAT'S what has stuck with me, and what makes the whole ordeal even more painful. Will Tony even acknowledge how much Christopher gave up to save, in reality, just him? How in the end, he proved to be more faithful to Tony than Adriana? Probably not, and as Silvio said, he is buried in his own self pride.
Okay, end of long rant. Fantastic season though. It started off strong and ended strong, my only complaint is that during the middle section it loses some steam. But we have Carmela and Tony back together, and although one could also say a million things about Carmela, we have to understand this. She's not a monster, but she's certainly someone who also tries to cloud her better judgement, and many times she does it purposely. She knows, oh yes, she knows that her new reunion with Tony won't end well, but throughout the series we have seen that she also has a lot of the same problems. Like Tony said in Whitecaps and this season, she isn't a victim, even though she acts like it. Oh, and although Melfi wasn't in this season as much as in the first three, at least she was in it a lot more than in 4, and at least a lot of her scenes were really great material.