But it’s that scene between AJ and Livia that might be one of the centerpieces of the whole series. I’ve been saying here and there throughout the run of this series that one of the big themes of The Sopranos is the idea that people don’t change. And while I do think the show is tilted toward that viewpoint, many of you are right when you say that that’s not exactly right. It might be more accurate to say that the series believes this: All people have the capacity for change, but real change is so hard and involves so much trenchant self-examination that few people ever even attempt to do it. This scene might as well be the natural outgrowth of that idea, a marked contrast to what is, ultimately, a pretty funny episode.
As AJ tries to tell his grandma about what he’s learned from reading Nietzsche, she abruptly hijacks the conversation. That’s right, she says. Life is meaningless. You end up alone. You “die in your own arms.” It’s a fantastically grim view of what’s to come, of the life that stretches in front of AJ, and I love the way that the show presents this as if it’s basically true but also presents it as if Livia is completely wrong about how to approach this conundrum. The Sopranos, of course, is a very Catholic series, and it has something like a sense that faith and hope matter in some ways, but it also concludes that a lot of life is essentially empty and meaningless (and seen in that light, the Hollywood scenes take on deeper meanings). But rather than embrace Livia’s approach, the series seems to suggest that Melfi’s approach - one of connection and self-examination - is a better way to approach a meaningless life that inevitably ends in the cold embrace of the grave.
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