"What would you suggest?" I hadn't watched American TV in ten years.
"A good place to start would be THE SOPRANOS." The cable series about a New Jersey mafia family had been a success for HBO. Wikipedia called it the greatest TV series of all time.
"I don't know." I had seen a few episodes in Thailand. It wasn't STAR TREK.
"Believe me. You'll love it." AP and I had similar tastes in most everything.
That evening I signed into HBO and started a two week blitz on THE SOPRANOS. I fast-forwarded through Tony Soprano's panic attack and any relationship with his dysfunctional family in which his mother and uncle plot his death. The internecine struggles and cold-blooded murders came a little too slow for my tastes and my finger pushed through any scenes dealing with Tony's manic-depressive behavior.
Richie Aprile is killed by his sister. His best friend "Big Pussy" is shot for being a snitch. Christopher kills his longtime girlfriend. She's a snitch. The deaths and madness never stop and the Ides of March arrived with my succumbing to a recurrent touch of depression.
I wanted to die.
Same as Tony.
He was getting fatter.
And I was girthing a little.
He fucked women who meant nothing.
I was faithful to my wife.
He betrayed everyone for money and power.
I took care of my family. There was something wrong and I hadn't recognize the effect of THE SOPRANOS on my fragile psyche.
More people die in the show.
More madness.
My depression deepened through season 4 and 5 and finally 6.
THE SOPRANOS ended with a black scene.
I recovered from the long slog through the series.
I feel better now.
I'm no Tony Soprano.
He is only a TV persona.
We are real.
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