Is There Any Main Character In The Sopranos Who Is A "Good Person"?

[Timothy Hunter]

What turned me off about the Sopranos initially was how sociopathic, damaged, and unlikable the cast of characters were. On second viewing, I realized this aspect is what made this show so brilliant in the first place.

Most crime fiction has the trope of the sympathetic criminal. The characters lead a life of crime out of necessity, and have at least one admirable trait that makes you want to root for them, like having a strict moral code or being a loving family man. To paraphrase Wreck-It Ralph, they might be bad guys, but they're not "bad"

However, some works of fiction such as Goodfellas and The Sopranos take a decidedly more honest approach. Nearly all the mobsters on the show exhibit violent, anti social tendencies. While they might talk about family values and mafia code, there is no honor to be found.

The other civilian characters aren't that much better. Dr. Melfi is too enamored with Tony to drop him as a client, and her therapy indirectly validates his actions. Artie is a coward who creeps on his female employees. The FBI are portrayed as incompetent and indifferent to the lives they destroy in attempting to catch criminals. Janice is a machiavel who let her son become homeless. Meadow is a spoiled narcissist who grandstands about social issues, yet is very willing to play the role of the mob boss's daughter. AJ is a frat boy with no moral compass.

No one is born evil and the show explores how nearly everyone became who they are, but this doesn't negate their actions.

The most moral of the main cast are Adriana La Cerva, who is a legitimately kind person who might not entirely be to blame for covering up crimes, Jennifer Melfi who tries to help Tony, but her relationship with him is mainly just a voyeuristic fascination, and Carmella Soprano who is a great mother to her children, but also greatly benefits off of the misfortunes of others caused by Tony's criminal activities.

These might be the characters with the least negative attributes, but does their associations with criminals make them bad people?

[j9ac9k]

These might be the characters with the least negative attributes, but does their associations with criminals make them bad people?

Depends on what you call "bad" I suppose. It may be more accurate to say that finding oneself in that lifestyle (whether through circumstance or intention) tends to accentuate the worst aspects of a person,(as with anyone living a lifestyle where one gets to dictate their own rules - literally "anti-social" in that they don't adhere to societal standards of behavior) which expresses itself differently depending on each individual's tendencies - whether it's violence, narcissism, etc.

As a side note, I think it's why within these kind of crime fictions, we as people in a society still find we respect the "criminal with a code" - it shows an ability to adhere to some sense of morality that's self-imposed rather than through societal pressure or fear of incarceration. (which is why most of us behave ourselves)

[Timothy Hunter]

Depends on what you call "bad" I suppose. It may be more accurate to say that finding oneself in that lifestyle (whether through circumstance or intention) tends to accentuate the worst aspects of a person,(as with anyone living a lifestyle where one gets to dictate their own rules - literally "anti-social" in that they don't adhere to societal standards of behavior) which expresses itself differently depending on each individual's tendencies - whether it's violence, narcissism, etc.

As a side note, I think it's why within these kind of crime fictions, we as people in a society still find we respect the "criminal with a code" - it shows an ability to adhere to some sense of morality that's self-imposed rather than through societal pressure or fear of incarceration. (which is why most of us behave ourselves)

That's really insightful. I hadn't looked at it that way before.

[jetengine]

The "criminal with a code" guff was mostly adopted after Godfather came out anyway tbh.

[Nate Grey]

Furio! They should have gave him a spinoff when he left.

[JBatmanFan05]

What turned me off about the Sopranos initially was how sociopathic, damaged, and unlikable the cast of characters were. On second viewing, I realized this aspect is what made this show so brilliant in the first place.

I'm glad you realized this. What's so (subversively) cool is that Tony gets worse, even more unlikeable and miserable, as the show approaches its end (the opposite arc of most protagonists). Besides this, the added psychological accuracy and honesty of the show (subverting all this romanticism of gangsterism), what greatly appeals to me about The Sopranos is that it did what Godfather and Goodfellas didn't really have much time for: really showing the mafia prey on fellow italians, poor people, addicts, etc.

I love that The Sopranos showed us the day-to-day of loan sharking, numbers rackets, garbage hauling corruption, prositution, drug dealing, etc, etc. Godfather and Goodfellas focused on mobster vs mobster, without enough showing you the mafia vs the community, vs the little man, vs the working class people.

This article directly addresses the "lie" Godfather (and to a lesser extent Goodfellas IMHO) accidentally or intentionally sold us about the mafia:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/for-50...-beautiful-lie
excerpt:

The problem with this vision of good and bad mobsters, of course, is that all the real mobsters were very bad.

To answer the original question: Melfi, in my humble person, seems like a good enough person. Not perfect. But more genuinely mistaken, or genuinely ignorant to her own psychological blind spots or weaknesses, than anything evil or bad. She's not bad.

[Grapeweasel]

Pauley Walnuts always took care of his Ma.

[Coin Biter]

To answer the original question: Melfi, in my humble person, seems like a good enough person. Not perfect. But more genuinely mistaken, or genuinely ignorant to her own psychological blind spots or weaknesses, than anything evil or bad. She's not bad.

Most viewers would also be impressed by her strong moral decision in Employee of the Month.

Apart from Melfi, well, I you also have to have a degree of compassion for Tony’s children, neither of whom are bad people as such, although they are both inured to and in Meadow’s case begin to deliberately overlook and justify her father’s crimes, which shows the corrupting power of his activities even with people who he tries to protect from his lifestyle.

In the supporting cast, Charmaine Bucco is consistently impressive in her strength of character.

The series does make it clear that it is impossible to consider any of the active Mafiosi to be “good”, even Bobby.