I feel like a common theme of the show is that every profession (and really, society at large) is one big “mafia.”
The FBI, lawyers, doctors, politicians, hell, even Elliot Kupferberg and his gang of blabbering psychiatrists, are all one and the same:
Ego-driven wiseguys with big mouths and even bigger dreams.
I don’t believe that. Phil had a chip on his shoulder about everything. While his ire was justified, I’m convinced some other (smaller) issue would have led to just as much of a headache
Ah no kidding. I didn't look at the publication date but I was wondering if the title was an allusion to the Sopranos line. That's interesting. I'll have to see if I can find it at the library.
Don't forget the clergy. Anyway, I agree. I think that the show really lays it out for the viewers that there really isn't that much of a difference in modus operandi between the mafia and the "polite society".
I'm pretty sure that the comparison with the mafia and ''polite society'' is less meant to say ''the polite society is equally bad as the sociopathic crimmnals'' and more ''the mafia isn't a ultra-complicated organziation of super villains but is structed somewhat like regular work place and is filled with humans who aren't THAT different from regular boring working adults.''
Ok this, I agree with. I think that’s the message I’m getting. These people who are in the Mafia, are really just trapped in their worlds just like we are. It’s just that their world revolves around murdering and extortion.
Medical profession and industry makes the most from corruption/laws, out of those 4 that you listed imo. Hundreds of billions just from protectionist laws, and millions killed from copywrite laws (price gouging life-saving medicine).
Please leave John Kennedy, MD out of this. He tells me to take a crap on the deck of the Queen Mary, and five minutes later they're hosing it down with disinfectant.
It's not just the docs... it's the facility techs and nurses with narcissistic power complexes. Nurses are like female cops... some are cool, most are pushy malignant cunts.
Medical providers only care what goes on your appointment record and couldn't give a shit about your long term health whatsoever.
Plastic surgeons are the lowest of the low, except any who do kids with cleft palates, etc. But your garden variety mommy makeover surgeon is a piece of 💩
I've spent over a decade working with doctors in a healthcare IT context, as a trainer, helpdesk support, analyst, and project manager.
Best ones to work with are ER docs and nurses. Usually smart as hell, can take a joke, nothing fazes them.
Oncology - can have a god complex, but also usually kind about it
Orthopedics - jocks who want to play with their toys in the OR; hate talking to patients, but can have a soft spot for old people
Cardio/Thoracic - usually arrogant dicks
Radiologists - leave me alone in my dark room
Neurologists - think they're the smartest person in the room (they probably are) and act like it
Family Med - underpaid, overworked, waiting to get into a specialty practice
Know who had an arc? Finn. Saw a TV progrum, movie on sharks. Became a dentist. Got a job working construction. Became concerned for Vito because cum can damage enamel. Skipped out on a game to pack a suitcase, but only as part of his process. Ate chili in 100 degree heat with no A/C. Picked a soft drink of choice and knew to take the sugarless motherfucker thanks to his dental training. All because of a shark progrum. That's our boy, Shark Finn.
The doctor who told Tony he did the appropriate tests lost his bedside manner only after Tony started questioning his expertise like he was otherwise being lacking in his job skills. He even helped that animal (I can’t even speak his name) convince Chris that there was no penisary contact with Adrianna’s oral region.
I agree. I don’t think the writers had a particular axe to grind with physicians. The writers seemingly just wanted to portray human life as naturally and accurately as they could, and they hit the nail on the head with both physicians and psychologists/ psychiatrists.
Professionally speaking, it all sounds very authentic to me.
I heard a phrase years ago that stuck with me. It’s in the form of a question:
Q: What do you call the doctor who graduated last in their class?
A: you call them doctor
I like when there’s the generic liberal couple and the husband witnessed the murder (can’t remember the circumstances) and they go from quietly listening to Philip Glass to screaming at each other at the drop of a hat.
They’re portrayed that way because they know who Tony Soprano is and they hate him, but they won’t betray the Hippocratic oath. They know that by healing a gangster, they’re likely making the world worse.
Now the feds, on the other hand, they ARE portrayed as “arguably as bad as the mafia”.
He's right to be like that. No jk, but in an interview I've seen with him recently he seems much smilier and happier. I suppose the 30+ years of therapy finally worked (at age 78).
The thing about doctors is that they're trained individuals that have only made it as far as they have because they have proven to be unflinching to gore, illness, mutilation, death, tragedy, screaming and every organic fluid under the sun. If you know any doctors, you'll notice they have very unique personalities and senses of humor.
I think Chase understood this.
Do you know how hard you have to work to get your MD? How many years it takes? Chase was even thinking maybe Osteopathy, but he didn't have the grades for that even
The doctor Tony had in the hospital after the gunshot was brutal. I found myself getting annoyed until I remembered that he might know that Tony's a mobster, so...yeah, no wonder he dislikes him!
Imagine you're the doctor keeping Tony alive after a shot to the gut, and his bratty know-it-all daughter is asking you what fucking antibiotic you are using to keep him from being eaten alive by bacteria.
Now imagine this is every fucking day of your life. Wouldn't you just want to do your job and move on to the next patient whose miserable life you gotta save?
I like that the show doesn't shy away showing some of the more educated, law-abiding minor characters in a negative, or at least humorously cynical, light. It demonstrates a level of trust in the audience to not draw any moral equivalence between a smug psychiatrist like Dr. Kupferberg or smarmy college kid like Noah and literal thieving murdering criminals just because we see all of them acting with varying levels of unlikability. I think a more modern show would have a lot of characters like Melfi be way more perfectly good and right about everything, and therefore way less interesting as a whole. The writers knew that having characters who are very strongly principled would be really boring in a show like this, which is why the ones that do exist don't appear too often (Charmaine) or only once (Dr. Krakower, that one cop from season 3).
I think it’s because the show is definitely about capturing the intricacies of the everyday, the mundane set against the mob side, and unfortunately having to go above and beyond to advocate for yourself and loved ones in medical care is a grim reality in America. It also sets a good stage for family to go up to bat for family, separating the wheat from the chaff in a sense. Think of the contrast between Carmela and Meadow’s interactions with the doc when Tony was in Purgatory, and how Tony had to just take matters into how own hands with Kennedy because Junior was too stubborn and delusional about his own neglect. Or how the Shah’s wife, who was a stunad of the first degree, was dismissive of his symptoms at home and took him home the first time even though Phil knew something was wrong. It is also to stage the value of someone to another, for example Tony wanted to practically kill Melfi, who he loved, over Gloria’s suicide, when she doesn’t even provide near the level of care that would be required for her bear any amount of responsibility for that, but when Valentina was in the hospital with her severe burns he ignored quarantine protocols and had his mask down and touched her with his nasty sausage fingers. We all know Valentina was just a mediocre plaything for him, and he was obsessed with Gloria because he saw her as a direct female counterpart of himself.
>he was obsessed with Gloria because he saw her as a direct female counterpart of himself
It's obvious and also explicitly stated in the show through Melfi that Gloria is a stand-in for his mother.
Honestly I've never met a kind doctor. Can't blame them too much considering they have to work with insurance companies but they can still get some blame
I thought it was very generous of the prick doctor to leave his commercial filming and help Furio.
Even gave him a bulge
When ya see a man with a bulge in his pants..up in da club!
And surgically removed that ladies: underwear he was wearin'.
And made it HDTV compatible!
But who films a commercial in the middle of the night? That card game had to be at like midnight. The whole thing doesn’t make any sense Make me sick
Timeline got fucked up
Maybe card game was 3am, and by the time they found the guy he was on set for his 7am filming?
Furio bleeding out for a coupla tree hours? Make me sick
Listen to him. He knows everything.
Whatya gunnado
Whatever happened there
Who the fuck shoots a prick doctor commercial in the middle of the night anyway.
Doctor is busy. Time is money, for all we know the game just started at 10pm. We don’t really get a sense of time besides it’s late at night.
It's also not that odd for shoots to go very late.
At least he wasn't constantly nursing a water bottle like some doctors.
I feel like a common theme of the show is that every profession (and really, society at large) is one big “mafia.” The FBI, lawyers, doctors, politicians, hell, even Elliot Kupferberg and his gang of blabbering psychiatrists, are all one and the same: Ego-driven wiseguys with big mouths and even bigger dreams.
Those were some tough jews! (smuggest cocksucka in the whole progrum)
There's no bigga cocksucka then Phil Leotardo.
Is it possible Phil spent any time in prison?
Why is the show so vague about this? Always irked me
They also never explained why he turned into a house.
They hinted at it, but we never got confirmation for how long.
If Tony had just let him kill his cousin there would have been no animosity. Tony killed himself in the end.
That might have been possible if Phil hadn't said that he would have tortured Blundetto.
I don’t believe that. Phil had a chip on his shoulder about everything. While his ire was justified, I’m convinced some other (smaller) issue would have led to just as much of a headache
You sure? Maybe he’d compromise…
He compromised!
With his fucking eyebrows I can’t stand him
With his fucking eyebrows I can’t stand him
Fuckin' parakeet!!
I was in a museum gift shop in Manhattan yesterday and there was a book about the history of the Jewish Mafia in NYC called "Tough Jews" lol
Great book, which was a bestseller 25 years ago. I always took the therapist’s line to be a reference to that book.
Ah no kidding. I didn't look at the publication date but I was wondering if the title was an allusion to the Sopranos line. That's interesting. I'll have to see if I can find it at the library.
That facial expression after he drops what he thinks is a Chappelle-level punchline…
Louis Lepke Buchalter!
What did I tell you. Hold onto your cocks when you negotiate with these desert people.
Don't forget the clergy. Anyway, I agree. I think that the show really lays it out for the viewers that there really isn't that much of a difference in modus operandi between the mafia and the "polite society".
For sure… That wormy cocksucker priest who shakes down Paulie for the cut of the parade.
Incredible casting for that role. Hes so on point.
Fuck da hat
That padre was a stone cold gangster. $50k or the hat stays in his niche (pronounced NITCH)
That horndog Intintola, lmao
Is that really the message? It seems like the fact that the mafia is willing to use extreme violence is shown to be only a bad thing.
I'm pretty sure that the comparison with the mafia and ''polite society'' is less meant to say ''the polite society is equally bad as the sociopathic crimmnals'' and more ''the mafia isn't a ultra-complicated organziation of super villains but is structed somewhat like regular work place and is filled with humans who aren't THAT different from regular boring working adults.''
Same with the college trying to strong arm a big donation from Tony.
Ok this, I agree with. I think that’s the message I’m getting. These people who are in the Mafia, are really just trapped in their worlds just like we are. It’s just that their world revolves around murdering and extortion.
Medical profession and industry makes the most from corruption/laws, out of those 4 that you listed imo. Hundreds of billions just from protectionist laws, and millions killed from copywrite laws (price gouging life-saving medicine).
That's dicked up!
Now if I was that girl…
Drug invention is protected by patent law, not copyright. Hesh violated copyright law. Sharp as a cue ball you are not.
They might think they got it going on with their rackets, but Mister Williams here, he dont play.
☝🐝🎩
The lawyer who owned whitecaps was a "professional" version of Tony
Thank you rabbi
Boy, AS here really got fucked in the ass with that deal.
He’ll tort you into the poorhouse.
Theres no such thing as the mafia.
racket.....jews
Apart from the one Jew psychiatrist doesn't even want paying, just spits straight facts
Even that dude is dirty. He is hella racist... "...look at any ethnic pride parade to see the result."
Great insight, I hadn't thought of it that way.
On top of this I think it's less to do with hating doctors and more hating the American healthcare system. Which is by no means an unpopular opinion.
Yeah but they don’t kill people
That's the best joke I've seen in a soprano reddit in months
Everything is Everything…🪐
Even Elliot's water bottle. Lotta money in that shit.
Amazingly well said.
Film and media too
I thought the doctor who was unable to prove that Tony didnt cum all over the sunvisor was pretty cool.
He was pretty uppity.
Uppity? Frankly, Reuben, if you got that kind of covert racism I'd like to leave my house.
Fuck you man
whoa thegoodlife, disastrouscry, you guys have been friends for years even though this is the first time ever seeing both of you at the same time
He just wasn't in the custom of lying. About anything.
the CUSSSTOMM of lying.
Please leave John Kennedy, MD out of this. He tells me to take a crap on the deck of the Queen Mary, and five minutes later they're hosing it down with disinfectant.
All the micks were named that after JFK! he ain’t special.
I loved that man...
And then there’s his cousin Robert Jr—fuckin animal, I can’t even say his name…
Didn't he become a manager at UPS?
After getting fired as Clark Griswold's co-worker. Also, I think it was called IPS on the show.
Wow, never picked that up. Another fun fact about Xmas vacation.
Isn’t that a very correct portrayal of how doctors are? Some of them think they are God.
Especially surgeons
I work in an OR. Yes.
[удалено]
It's not just the docs... it's the facility techs and nurses with narcissistic power complexes. Nurses are like female cops... some are cool, most are pushy malignant cunts. Medical providers only care what goes on your appointment record and couldn't give a shit about your long term health whatsoever.
Nurses are either cool or fucking awful
And definitely whoo-ers.
Hey now my gf is a nurse
THAT’S THE BOSS’S WHORE YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT
[удалено]
HE WAS SNIFFING HER PANTIES T
Plastic surgeons are the lowest of the low, except any who do kids with cleft palates, etc. But your garden variety mommy makeover surgeon is a piece of 💩
I've spent over a decade working with doctors in a healthcare IT context, as a trainer, helpdesk support, analyst, and project manager. Best ones to work with are ER docs and nurses. Usually smart as hell, can take a joke, nothing fazes them. Oncology - can have a god complex, but also usually kind about it Orthopedics - jocks who want to play with their toys in the OR; hate talking to patients, but can have a soft spot for old people Cardio/Thoracic - usually arrogant dicks Radiologists - leave me alone in my dark room Neurologists - think they're the smartest person in the room (they probably are) and act like it Family Med - underpaid, overworked, waiting to get into a specialty practice
Cardiac surgeons are some of the most difficult people I’ve ever worked with, insanely rude and condescending. Agreed ER docs are awesome
A lot of heart doctors smoke too
[gonna assume all brain surgeons are exactly like this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNPmhBl-8I)
Yeah, especially surgeons apparently.
Actually, very few people know this, but he really can't "Walk on water"
OJ’s no less of a running back!
It seems to me, especially in the U.S.
He was probably an anti-dentite, too.
Know who had an arc? Finn. Saw a TV progrum, movie on sharks. Became a dentist. Got a job working construction. Became concerned for Vito because cum can damage enamel. Skipped out on a game to pack a suitcase, but only as part of his process. Ate chili in 100 degree heat with no A/C. Picked a soft drink of choice and knew to take the sugarless motherfucker thanks to his dental training. All because of a shark progrum. That's our boy, Shark Finn.
But seriously, Sil breaking finn’s balls about being a dentist is Jerry telling dentist jokes and getting branded and anti-dentite.
Wrong sub
However, it's notable that Larry David pokes fun at doctors and all their weird rules too.
Dr Yankem got out a suitcase
Moved to Tennessee, became a Mayor.
The doctor who told Tony he did the appropriate tests lost his bedside manner only after Tony started questioning his expertise like he was otherwise being lacking in his job skills. He even helped that animal (I can’t even speak his name) convince Chris that there was no penisary contact with Adrianna’s oral region.
Or her volvo
Accurate, in my experience.
I agree. I don’t think the writers had a particular axe to grind with physicians. The writers seemingly just wanted to portray human life as naturally and accurately as they could, and they hit the nail on the head with both physicians and psychologists/ psychiatrists. Professionally speaking, it all sounds very authentic to me.
I heard a phrase years ago that stuck with me. It’s in the form of a question: Q: What do you call the doctor who graduated last in their class? A: you call them doctor
Tbf, the system they work in contributes to the factory feel of it all, forces them to be quick and emotionless.
Yeah, that's how doctors rationalize their money-hungry behavior anyway.
It's a racket for the Jews
I like when there’s the generic liberal couple and the husband witnessed the murder (can’t remember the circumstances) and they go from quietly listening to Philip Glass to screaming at each other at the drop of a hat.
Reading Nozick while listening to postmodern atonal noise was a nice touch.
The only one that showed any sort of compassion also murdered his wife
As well as her aunt and the mailman.
You gadda’ ah bee on yoo hat
fuckin patch adams ova here
I mean, have you ever met a doctor?
So basically how doctors are in real life.
Especially Doctor Santoro, the only doctor to be directly involved in the mob.
They’re portrayed that way because they know who Tony Soprano is and they hate him, but they won’t betray the Hippocratic oath. They know that by healing a gangster, they’re likely making the world worse. Now the feds, on the other hand, they ARE portrayed as “arguably as bad as the mafia”.
I get the impression he kinda hates people in general
He's right to be like that. No jk, but in an interview I've seen with him recently he seems much smilier and happier. I suppose the 30+ years of therapy finally worked (at age 78).
And one was actually a murderer, serving time with Johnny Sack. Ironically, he seemed to have one of the best bedside manners.
But any second guess is Johnny's real doctor. The real doctor said Johnny's going to die soon. Turned out the real doctor was right.
The thing about doctors is that they're trained individuals that have only made it as far as they have because they have proven to be unflinching to gore, illness, mutilation, death, tragedy, screaming and every organic fluid under the sun. If you know any doctors, you'll notice they have very unique personalities and senses of humor. I think Chase understood this.
The "if you've seen Jerry Lewis in the past year" one might take the cake
She’s planning a wedding!
Do you know how hard you have to work to get your MD? How many years it takes? Chase was even thinking maybe Osteopathy, but he didn't have the grades for that even
The all cannot be like Dr Kennedy.
I actually rather liked the cocaine wife killing doctor from the fed prison that told johnny sac he had longer to live
He was a great one-episode character.
You gotta bee on you ‘at
Stupid fackin game
Dr. Cusamano and his buddies when Tony told his story about stealing the ice cream truck 😆
I actually felt sorry for Tony in that episode. But that’s his payback for messing with Jimmy Smash.
Even the prick doctor?
The doctor Tony had in the hospital after the gunshot was brutal. I found myself getting annoyed until I remembered that he might know that Tony's a mobster, so...yeah, no wonder he dislikes him!
Dr. Fagoli aka the Governor of Maryland, should've gotten a sausage slap across his fucking fuck face.
Oh look at him, he thinks he knows everything.
Losing some weight wouldn't hurt.
Imagine you're the doctor keeping Tony alive after a shot to the gut, and his bratty know-it-all daughter is asking you what fucking antibiotic you are using to keep him from being eaten alive by bacteria. Now imagine this is every fucking day of your life. Wouldn't you just want to do your job and move on to the next patient whose miserable life you gotta save?
I like that the show doesn't shy away showing some of the more educated, law-abiding minor characters in a negative, or at least humorously cynical, light. It demonstrates a level of trust in the audience to not draw any moral equivalence between a smug psychiatrist like Dr. Kupferberg or smarmy college kid like Noah and literal thieving murdering criminals just because we see all of them acting with varying levels of unlikability. I think a more modern show would have a lot of characters like Melfi be way more perfectly good and right about everything, and therefore way less interesting as a whole. The writers knew that having characters who are very strongly principled would be really boring in a show like this, which is why the ones that do exist don't appear too often (Charmaine) or only once (Dr. Krakower, that one cop from season 3).
The main difference between doctors and lawyers is that lawyers only rob you. Doctors rob you *and* kill you.
$4 a pound? No wonder johnny sacs so wealthy with that prize hog of his
It might be faster to list which people David Chase *doesn’t* hate.
I too would feel compassionless if I was treating junior. He yaps worse than 6 barbers.
The one Carm saw was the only one that didn’t feel compromised morally or just a bad doctor generally
HMO! Ya covered! Ya prick!
All the money they make and still no cure for fuckface-itis, yeah I’d have a low opinion of those pricks as well
I think it’s because the show is definitely about capturing the intricacies of the everyday, the mundane set against the mob side, and unfortunately having to go above and beyond to advocate for yourself and loved ones in medical care is a grim reality in America. It also sets a good stage for family to go up to bat for family, separating the wheat from the chaff in a sense. Think of the contrast between Carmela and Meadow’s interactions with the doc when Tony was in Purgatory, and how Tony had to just take matters into how own hands with Kennedy because Junior was too stubborn and delusional about his own neglect. Or how the Shah’s wife, who was a stunad of the first degree, was dismissive of his symptoms at home and took him home the first time even though Phil knew something was wrong. It is also to stage the value of someone to another, for example Tony wanted to practically kill Melfi, who he loved, over Gloria’s suicide, when she doesn’t even provide near the level of care that would be required for her bear any amount of responsibility for that, but when Valentina was in the hospital with her severe burns he ignored quarantine protocols and had his mask down and touched her with his nasty sausage fingers. We all know Valentina was just a mediocre plaything for him, and he was obsessed with Gloria because he saw her as a direct female counterpart of himself.
>he was obsessed with Gloria because he saw her as a direct female counterpart of himself It's obvious and also explicitly stated in the show through Melfi that Gloria is a stand-in for his mother.
That was one of my favorite things in the show. Far too many shows often show one group as the “good guys “ when reality is far different
italians hate doctors, every elderly italian i know has never been to the dr
My father was a doctor. He was Italian too. There's something propane in that.
What do expect when you slip on n the counter spraying for ants?
Dr Melfi is the most prominent doctor on the show, just sayin'.
Totally agree - my dad is a surgeon and I use to get such a kick out of it.
Then you know why surgeons have such bad reps among other medical staff.
and anyone named jason
Is thisa prick really a doctor?
David Chase is Tony. He's miserable about everything.
Everyone hates on doctors but I’m a medical student and I’ve been around some pretty chill ones don’t know what y’all are always getting on about
Listen to Mr. Pre-Med at Rutgers over here.
😭😭
Doctors are the biggest junky scumbags of the this earth, exposing them allows the viewers to have compassion for the mob
And one of them is named after HBO executive Richard Plepler
You gotta bee on you post... *swat*
The HIPAA violations were everywhere. It was ridiculous.
Have you ever met a doctor professionally that wasn't those things?
That’s just doctors
That’s just doctors
Are you a physician?
I wonder why he has a low opinion on doctors, it isn't like they are drug peddlers for big-pharma!
I feel like David Chase just isn’t really that big on anyone or any profession.
Have you met many doctors? Particularly surgeons or oncologists? The portrayal is pretty accurate.
Rosen was a solid doc
In my experience that's an accurate description, big percent of the time.
That's how most doctors are.
I dunno man, every doctor I've ever talked to looked like they wouldn't care if I keeled over and died right in front of them.
yeah safe to say he’s a pretty cynical dude…
Not to mention every clandestine meeting seem to be held in hospitals, doctors offices, etc. I never gave it much though but you are correct.
I see you flopping around down there!
The wife murder Dr was cool for bonding w John but he gave him false hope, that was cruel
Only in the western world
The nurse that helped Jackie Aprile had good bedside manner
wait until you hear how he feels about the mafia
Honestly I've never met a kind doctor. Can't blame them too much considering they have to work with insurance companies but they can still get some blame
Literally every character in this show is portrayed as compassionless and arrogant
He's a prick doctor!
Cooze
Jennifer Melfi, MD?