The Sopranos have been the iconic TV show for the 2000's, the heavy decade. The is the "bad times" decade, the zeitgeist of the 2000's. Heavy things happen this decade, 9/11, Iraq War, Katrina, Corruption, a president with Watergate-like approval ratings, huge federal budget deficits, Enron, pessimism, hopelessness. The Sopranos has crossed into popular culture. We must like it because it is what we are thinking about and interested in.
The last decade, "the nineties", the "good times", federal budgets balances, all that peace and prosperity, the dot com boom and bust, go west young man, everybody's gonna get rich, general happiness, optimism. Seinfeld represented that carefree time. Seinfeld was a show about nothing. Nothing really happened.
Tony Soprano was wealthy and powerful, but had huge problems, and they never seemed to be resolved, or one problem resolved led to another problem unresolved.
Jerry, George, Elain, and Kramer didn't have many bad days. They lived a middle class existance, a small apartment, no huge cars or playthings like a million dollar yacht, but darned if they weren't happy. Even hangdog George was sort of content. He seemed to revel in his "loserhood".
In each season of The Sopranos, (13 episodes), there was several murders, usually including one of Tony's crime family. A big funeral scene. General sadness, business changes and leadership changes.
Nobody ever seemed to get hurt in Seinfeld. George's finacee died of licking cheap envelopes they sent our as wedding invitations. The Seinfeld friends didn't seem to even care about it.
In the Sopranos every mistake could be your last. Things were taken care of, sometimes pretty quickly. Events would lead to other events. Events and issues had momentum. Mistakes were never forgotten.
It Seinfeld mistakes were made all of the time. They just laughed them off. Sure, George or Elain got fired, but that really didn't bother them. They roll with the punches. Kramer was a loser, but could get lucky and end up on top. They hung out and ate at a cheap coffeshop. Went to a nice restaurant once in a while.
The Sopranos was about being committed. "There was no gettin' out" of the family. The bad marriages were forever. Nobody got a divorce. Husbands cheated on their wives, but the wives put up with it.
Seinfeld was about no committment. They never put anything on the line.
They never wanted anything much, maybe a little larger apartment, but it was still a middle class apartment.
The Sopranos was about striving for the brass ring. Getting ahead. Making money. Worrying about getting whacked by your own crew, or the New York Mob, or getting arrested by the FBI and going to jail. BIG THINGS. Troubling thing. "Heavy is the head that wears the crown" Shakespearean things.
Seinfeld was about nothing. About hanging out with friends, sort of like a college dorm room setting, only with thirtysometings. Just happy go lucky kind of things. Let' have some fun. Let's talk about people and gossip. Nothing really bad ever happens. Should be get married and have kids thoughts that last about a minute.
The Catholic Church was big in the Sopranos, as it is in most Italian neighborhood. The mob respects the highly moral Catholic Church very much, but doesn't even thing that killing people is immoral, or cheating on their wives is immoral. The Sopranos was a morality play. Family is great. The church is important. We ignore the lessons of the church, but morality is a big part of the series. An immoral mob in a morally strict setting. This reminds me of Reverend Haggard. He was so anti-gay, so moral, on a conference call with our president each week, but it turned out that he had been a hypocrite for the last several years.
The chuch was almost never mentioned in Seinfeld. Nobody talked about morality much, but they were moral. Nobody really hurt anybody. Nobody got clipped. They didn't do much wrong. They weren't really hypocrites. They didn't think about morality much, they didn't need to, they weren't really immoral.
The family was everything to The Sopranos. The most important thing. But when Bobby, Tony's brother-in-law gets clipped, he asks for something, becasue this is my sister we are talking about. The New York crew guy says just give me a number. Meaning he will make it good with some money.
In Seinfeld the family isn't really that important. There is no self-importance of the family. Oh sure, they respect their parents, but they have angst and reservations, and mild, unresolved conflict with them. They aren't really happy to be around them much. Just like most of the people, they want to stay away from their parents because they drive them nuts.
But the real question is what will replace The Sopranos. Do we want more real life tragedy, or more light-hearted stuff.