A theme i noticed in the series was the way people, i cant find a good way to put this so i hope yall understand, were put off-ish towards talk of the mafia. Two examples come to my mind, first when Johnny Sac is in the hospital ward of whatever federal prison he was in, a janitor comes into the room and starts some small talk and asks Johnny whats he is here for? The first thought Johnny has is the mafia so he says that he is accused of being a member of a certain Italian criminal element, or something like that atleast, and the janitor basically says who cares about that, how sick are you? I know this isnt easy to follow cause im not finding the right words to use right now for some reason, but do yall get what im saying? Another time that i remember is when Melfi and her family is at the Jewish doctor's office and talk of Tony comes up, so mafia is the first thing that pops into the doctor's head cause if thinks it will make him seem cool. The doctor states abnout having a relitive that was Lepke's driver "ya know murder inc", at this point the theme i am describing deepens to show another aspect of the put off-ish nature of Italians when it came to organized crime and the mafia. Who speaks up, Melfi's son who basically says who cares? Italians in general in the series showed how much they do not like the mafia and the image the media projects of them because of it. On top of that in this scene and in the next im going to talk about young men in particular, show they neither are educated about the mafia or care about it at all. When Jackie Jr. is having a "sit down" over a friend of a friend wanting to sell drug at the Crazy Horse, at the end he asks do you know who my father was? The guy has no clue whatever so ever. Are there any other scenes you guys remember that showed this theme?


Daniel Perrygin

I'm not sure if I'm completely following you, but another scene where people were put-offish by talk of the Mafia was in Season 4, at the luncheon that had the guest speaker. The speaker brought up Italian stereotypes, and specifically how people associate Italians with the Mafia. Carmella kept getting dirty looks from other women and this really angered her, Gabriella, Rose, etc.

Not sure if that's kind of what you were talking about.

Exactly what i was talking about, this scene in particular is probably the most direct that the theme i am talking about is shown.

Goodfellas, good movie, good movie to eat pizza with.

Thata all i remember from Melfis son's conversation.

I think Melfi's shrink under the surface was a mob fan.

You got that right, he wanted to talk about Tony every chance he got.

Her shrink absolutely was. He bragged in one episode about how a relative of his was part of Murder Inc. He commented that they were: "some tough Jews."

he made a reference to Lepke if I remember right.