The Sopranos broke lots of rules of the gangster genre when it premiered at the end of the 1990s and quickly earned a place among the greatest crime dramas of all time. Known for its brilliant writing, the show explored diverse topics, from politics and psychology, to philosophy and literature. It featured complex relationship dynamics and introduced several iconic characters that are still celebrated today. Of course, the most well-known character of The Sopanos is the New Jersey boss, Tony Soprano. Perfectly portrayed by James Gandolfini, the tough but tortured head of his family remains one of the most famous gangsters to ever appear on-screen. The “skipper” of the Jersey outfit, however, isn’t nearly as smart or skilled as he’s made out to be.
Tony Soprano may have had a pretty good run as boss during the six seasons of the HBO series, but that doesn’t mean he was always making the right decisions. Indeed, throughout The Sopranos, Tony faced numerous crises of his own making and survived more from luck than careful planning. He may be famous, but Tony Soprano was actually horrible at his job.
Tony Soprano Let Business Get Personal
The adage that the affairs of the mafia are “business, not personal,” is a common concept and repeated by Tony himself on more than one occasion. Despite the classic refrain and his insistence on following the maxim, however, the boss of New Jersey rarely, if ever, lived up to the ideal. If anything, Tony was driven more by emotion than anything else.
Over his years as the leader of his family, it became something of an open secret that Tony had a serious anger problem and let it cloud his judgment. He allows his rage at Ralph Cifaretto to escalate until he hits him, leading to conflict with one of his top earners and a loss of respect among many of his subordinates for breaking the rule about striking a made man. The ongoing tension between the two finally ends with Tony murdering his capo with his bare hands. The act places him both in danger with the law and with his own family. Years later, he would again use violence against a made man, Salvatore Cogliano, for speaking disrespectfully to his daughter. This attack would bring his family closer to war with one of the New York families, a conflict that nearly destroyed him and the rest of the New Jersey outfit. These were some of the most explosive and self-destructive cases of Tony allowing his emotions to get the better of him, but they were far from the only instances.
It wasn’t only anger that hurt Tony’s business either. Depression, guilt, and even love also got in the way of his work. For nearly all of Season 2, he willfully ignored the signs that his best friend, Big Pussy, was working for the FBI. He allowed an informant to continue to operate within his family, even committing a murder with the man, because he refused to admit the truth to himself and face its implications. It took food-poisoning induced nightmares to finally force him to come to terms with reality and take action, nearly too late to save himself and his associates. He would later ignore the red flags around his cousin, Tony Blundetto, giving him more authority in his family and failing to prevent a murder that soured his relationship with New York out of similar feelings of love and guilt.
While he sometimes displays some degree of self-awareness regarding his issues with emotional control, expressing frustration to Dr. Melfi, on occasion, he never does what is necessary to fix the problem. He fails to truly work on himself in therapy and blames others for his plight. Despite being the boss of a family, Tony constantly breaks the cardinal rule of his world and makes everything personal.
Tony Soprano’s Decisions Are Guided by Nepotism
The Sopranos presents mafia culture as being heavily influenced by family and blood-relations. Many characters were brought into the criminal underworld by their father’s or other relatives. Tony, himself, worked for his father for a time, Paulie is bringing his nephew into the business, and Little Carmine is a capo in his father’s family. Still, even for a culture that emphasizes loyalty to blood, Tony takes nepotism to dangerous extremes.
From the very first episode of the series, Tony recognizes that his nephew, Christopher, is irresponsible. He complains about him in therapy, claiming he represents a new generation of gangsters that have no respect for how the business is supposed to work. Over time, from taking action without permission, questioning his uncle’s authority, and becoming more dependent on drugs, Christopher shows Tony that he’s a poor soldier and a liability to his business. Yet he continues to rise in the family, from being made to becoming a captain.
Tony’s obsession with family leads him to lean more and more on one of his least reliable men, harming his work and putting himself personally at risk. This same nepotism also influences his decisions regarding Tony B and his uncle Junior. He incurs the wrath of Phil Leotardo and risks a war to protect his cousin and continues to forgive his uncle and support him despite the man’s previous attempt to have him killed. Tony fails one of the most basic tests of a boss in any business, properly delegating tasks and assessing the abilities of subordinates, because of his misguided belief that family can always be trusted.
Tony’s shortcomings as a leader, both in how he manages his workers and his own emotions, are understandable, given his background and upbringing. Still, they constantly create danger for himself and others. Further, these issues are made all the more obvious by the presence of other bosses on The Sopranos who show greater skill at running their families.
There Were Better Mob Bosses on The Sopranos
The Sopranos is full of flawed characters, and it’s clear that none are without personal issues that haunt them and impact their actions. Still, there are some leaders on the show that Tony could have benefited from learning from. From his predecessors to his peers, several gangsters, in many ways, put the New Jersey boss to shame.
Carmine Lupertazzi, in particular, stands out as a successful boss and a leader who knows how to maintain power and security within his organization. The New York patriarch manages to stay in control and out of prison for his entire run on The Sopranos, only being replaced upon his death from natural causes. Known for being clever and subtle, he proved willing to dispatch his second-in-command when he felt it was necessary and even got Tony to take all the risk of setting it up. While the hit was canceled after Johnny Sac ended his feud with Ralph, the incident showed how ruthless and calculating Carmine could be.
Carmine’s successor, John Sacrimoni, certainly had his own flaws and made mistakes, but he also proved to be a capable boss during his short tenure in the position. A great manipulator like his former superior, Johnny Sac managed to coax information out of Paulie for years, using it to counter the Sopranos and benefit his own family. Despite his conflict with Ralph, he also rarely showed the sort of rage or lack of emotional control that Tony suffered from, making him a much more calm and calculating head of his family.
Even Junior Soprano and Phil Leotardo, with all of their shortcomings, often proved more stable than Tony. Junior plainly didn’t let family get in the way of business and Phil only truly let his emotions take over after his younger brother was murdered. Tony may have defeated both of them in the end, but this was as much the result of luck and talented subordinates as it was his own skills. He may have been the last one standing in the series’ final moments and is the most famous gangster on The Sopranos, but the boss of New Jersey certainly wasn’t a model of good leadership.
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