The Thin Red Line

Happy Friday!    Back when I was in the eight grade one of our teachers made our course grade dependent upon a special project in which we would strictly limit the amount of television we watched and keep a journal and report on what things we did when not watching television.

I’m pleased to say that this junior high school experiment largely saved me from being a slave to the boob tube the way so many of my generation are.  So I was initially quite sympathetic in my approach to Living Outside The Box—TV-Free Families Share Their Secrets.  Surprisingly author Barbara Brock managed to quite lose me, in spite of my general and long time support of turn off the tv and DO SOMETHING with your life initatives.

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If you are not a fan of HBO’s hit gangster drama The Sopranos, you’ll probably want to skip this one. Glen Gabbard, M.D. is a psychiatrist and huge Sopranos fan and has written a book about the psychoses of Tony and his gang. With chapter titles like Tony’s Ailment, Tony’s Therapy and Is Tony Treabable Gabbard explores in some detail the psychiatric issues for which Tony Soprano seeks treatment from Dr. Jennifer Melfi in the hit series as well as taking a look at the psychological issues of Tony’s natal and crime families.

It is worth noting that The Psychology of the Sopranos reads less like a shrink dryly analyzing a bunch of fictional characters he could care less about than a rabid fan letter by a writer who happens to be a shrink and can gleefully discuss Just how crazy these characters are and why that makes the show so good. Recommended, for Sopranos fans who need a fix while waiting for the final season to be released on DVD.

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