Crime, Mystery, & Thriller Movies & Series

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Barbara is seen as a pointless character and the for the most part she is…

However, I think her presence (or absence) teaches us something about Tony’s true nature:

Anyone who interacts with Tony on a daily basis and more importantly needs something from him, is subject to ridicule and outright disdain from him.

We see this routinely but more commonly in the later seasons, as Tony devolves into the worst version of himself and fully embraces the mob boss lifestyle.

Examples:

• Tony eggs on Janice about Harpo because she is acting like the All American Mom all of the sudden, when Tony knows she is a selfish, greedy murdering crook like himself.

• Tony makes Bobby whack someone after Bobby beats him up/embarrasses him, because a part of him resents Bobby for claiming some morality by not killing people while also being a full-blown gangster.

• Tony tortures Carm over the spec house because she needed his money to build it and him to lean on the building inspector.

• A more subtle one, but Tony slowly induces Cousin Brian to a life of debauchary (cheating, gambling, corruption) after Brian tries to get a life insurance policy out of him or whatever he was pitching.

• Tony teases Hesh over the vig.

• Tony makes fun of Chris’ sobriety .

These people are all involved in Tony’s day to day life and more importantly, benefit from his lifestyle choice as a gangster…

Then there’s Barbara, the sister you mostly forget exists except for very routine family functions.

On the one hand it seems like an odd choice to have Tony have a sister that it seems like the writers even forget about, but on the other hand, it’s the perfect choice to show us how Tony treats people that are important to him but have nothing to do with him or his livelihood…

Tony treats Barbara exactly as he should… By having absolutely nothing to do with her.

Tony knows he is a piece of shit (“just a fat crook from New Jersey”) and he hates everyone around him who is either involved in the life or worse, act like they are better than him but still want his money.

Not that he wants to change; he has ample opportunity to do that and doesn’t; but his general complaint and the reason he is in therapy, is because his parents never demanded the best from him.

Mostly his mom, but as Melfi points out, his dad, too.

They completely and utterly failed him.

Barbara is Tony’s younger sister and I think this is a key distinction, because Janice as Tony’s older sister treated him horribly and contributed to his life trajectory by blowing Richie on the couch or roadies instead of looking out for him like an older sister should...

Barbara’s existence shows us that Tony has the capacity for self-awareness and selflessness, but mostly refuses to act on it because he is surrounded by degenerates and enablers, and perhaps, if someone had treated him like he treats Barb and how he treats Meadows (“I want her to live close, but far), he would have had a chance and turned out a respectable human being.

I find Carm hilarious sometimes. Some of my favourites include “was that last nights reading assignment?” to Meadow and “I might just kill myself” to Tony. Also “I didn’t marry a cartoon character” is an honourable mention.

This might seem like a dumb question, but seriously... he's an IT guy who works for a company that works for E-Corp, which would be the equivalent of all FAANG combined. He is also shown to very skillful at his job and it seemed like Gideon respected him a lot purely as an employee, maybe not from a social perspective. In addition he lives in NYC, which could only contribute to his salary being higher.

Nevertheless, he appears to live a pretty miserable life. He lives in a small studio not in the best neighbourhood. We also see in one episode that he still hasn't paid his student debt. For anyone who wants to say that the place where he lives is already expensive etc., just take a look at his colleagues, like Angela for example.

It seems pretty logical to me to ask this question. How come he is living so miserably?