Character Development - The Children of the Sopranos

The Sopranos boasts possibly one of the best ensemble casts in the history of television. Almost all of the characters exist as they relate to Tony Soprano. The cast begins with his immediate family, runs through some of his extended family, including in-laws, and continues to his work family and all of the people that answer to him. In addition to his immediate work associates, there are also "friends of the family," and representatives of other Mafia families. The list still does go on, but one character that seems primed to be developed much further than in the past is his daughter; Meadow.

Now at school at NYU and living alone Meadow will have the opportunity to see how people who are not involved with the Mafia live. She may see this as a case of the "grass always being greener." She may take to the "normal" lifestyle and completely denounce and remove herself from her family. There is also the possibility that Meadow has a tough time fitting in with her new surroundings and has to fall back on being a Soprano to turn heads. Maybe her popularity starts to rise as she spills family secrets and other things that she had overheard while living with New Jersey's acting Capo. This would make investigations much easier for the FBI. At which point Tony and Carm would have no choice but to have a long-needed sit-down conversation with Meadow. Possibly they would have his conversation in the basement so as to avoid AJ and his friends upstairs.

Now, David Chase has given this show an incredible reputation as being one of the most realistic Mafia-oriented television shows or films. As someone who has spent time as a screenwriter and an investigative journalist I have interviewed high-ranking officials on both sides of the law as far as the Mafia is concerned. As far as the Mafia is concerned the roles that women have in the Mafia are very limited; wife, mistress/girlfriend, stripper, prostitute, [drug] buyer. Women are not allowed in the Mafia in America (they did a good job in explaining the differences between "families" in Italy and Italian "families" in America during the second season). Also, other ethnic groups are also not allowed in Italian Mafia "families." People of other ethnicity's can be associates, but they can never be "made."

In a long about way, the point is that Meadow would never be directly involved with the Mafia even if she wanted to be, which I doubt she ever would. She's spent too much time being humiliated by her father being arrested and having her computer confiscated due to FBI searches.