Paulie Walnuts scare/disturbs me the most. I find him a cold cookie and highly unpredictable.


I'm not nutz over either of his kids, His sister, Janice reminds me of mine (...sister, 'Janice' )
It's their mother Livia who I find more than a little "unhinged".


Tony's smart, and calculating.
IMO I recognize the same trait in our governor.

I can never quite put my finger on Carmela.......



I liked the Buccos

Carmela was complex. When she wanted the divorce, went to the black counselor, who told her to just take the children and walk away and leave the life style and money. She couldn't do it. She wanted the money and position that Tony gave her but didn't want him.

She loved being the top wife.

When AJ had Devon over and she mentioned how much the statue cost. At first wouldn't tell but in same breath bragged it cost $3000.

AJ with that pseudo concern about his being so rich and so many others note having much. Then just after that his friend and him going over to Devon's to discover what it is to be really rich, with Picasso's hanging all over the walls. Discovering he is still just a Shiite .

Dave

Oh, that's the intent. I still didnt like his character. A product of how he was raised with parents that fixed every scrap he got into. Or just the fact of who he was.

Like the time he was to have the fight after school over a shirt that was torn during a previous scrap in school. The boy came to the fight with the money. AJ thought it was because of how tough he was but another friend said it certainly wasn't because of him but who his dad was.

So he had both issues working against him. Being somewhat rich and having a mob boss as father.

Dave

Tony's mother, Livia. The more I watched the series the more I understood her. They had her cast perfectly. And Marchand played her superbly. Not over done. So well, it has taken me several viewings to understand her.

Like the situation, where she was in the hospital and wanted Janice to take her home so she mentioned to her she might have money hidden. Then the ways she manipulated Junior.

I also haven't decided if junior and her didn't have a sexual component in their relationship.

And, Janice , her daughter in the way she used Bobby became a lot like her.

Also liked how when Janice had shown some progress in controlling her anger, that Tony couldn't have that so he knew which buttons to push to throw her off the wagon.

Dave

During the whole series we never knew much about Tonys younger sister . Barbara . She and her family seemed normal, though Tony had helped their business in the early years by greasing some wheels.

How did she come out of that same family with psychotic mother and brutish father in addition to Janice and Tony being mobsters with out being affected.


Dave

Livia reminds me of Livia
the matriarch from "I, Claudius"

...like that family wasn't a piece o' work!
(Tiberius, Caligula, Nero... )