The Sopranos: What Was Tony Blundetto’s Problem?

I’ve defended a lot of controversial Sopranos characters on this channel. Carmela, AJ, and even Janice Soprano. Someone actually commented and said that I’m a glass half-full person, and that I can see the good in even the most vile characters. But the one character I will never ever defend, is that piece of shit Tony Sopranos cousin, I can’t even say his name.

Alright memes aside, there is a sizable portion of the fandom that hates Tony Blundetto. And unlike other characters like Janice or AJ, there’s no obvious reason why. On the surface, he’s another funny mobster like Paulie or Ralphie, and he’s played by the popular actor Steve Buscemi. He should be a fan favorite, but he’s actually one of the reasons why Season 5 is looked down on as one of the weakest seasons.

Tony B is one of the rare examples on the show of failed writing. He had the potential to be one of the strongest characters in the show, being tied to several very thematic storylines and conflicts. But in this video we are going to explore how mistakes on the part of the writers ruined this otherwise great character, and made him one of the few characters that people hated.

Real quick before we get into the video, I just want to thank everyone who is subscribed to this channel. I am so close to 100 thousand subscribers, and I can’t wait to celebrate that milestone with all of you. At 50k we did a gabagool mukbang, so we’re going to have to top that this time around. If you’re not subscribed, I’d really appreciate it if you could hit that subscribe button and help us get to 100K. Either way though thanks for the support, and let's get back to the video.

Tony Blundetto is introduced in Season 5 as a cousin of Tony Soprano. The two Tony’s grew up together as brothers, being close to the same age. He’s been serving a 16 year prison sentence, and is released as part of the wave of gangsters getting out of prison like Phil Leotardo and Feech La Manna.

Now here is where we get into the first problem that fans have with Tony Blundetto. He’s said to have been one of Tony’s closest family members, being more like a brother to him than even Christopher was. However this is the first we have ever heard about the character, and he feels like he came out of nowhere.

Now while I think that’s a fair criticism and I wish they had referenced the character in earlier seasons like they did with Feech, we have to acknowledge that this is not the first time they’ve done that. Both Richie Aprile and Ralph Cifaretto are introduced out of nowhere, despite their long relationships with Tony. It’s just the nature of television writing where not everything is planned out from the beginning. And for what it’s worth, Tony B’s mother Quintina is introduced in Season 2, so there is that.

After Tony B gets out of prison, Tony wants to bring him into the family. However Tony wants to go straight, and has decided to become a massage therapist. He gets a job at a laundry service while he studies for his exam, not only earning his certification but also a business opportunity with his boss Kim. It seems like his life is going perfect, and he even has a loving and supportive girlfriend on top of it.

However after finding some money in the street, Tony B starts to give into the temptations of the mob life. He starts gambling and partying, and loses interest in working hard. This culminates with him getting into a fight with Kim out of nowhere, ruining his chance at running a massage business. He then joins Tony as a part of their crime family.

Here is the second problem that people have with Tony B. He seems to turn on a dime, going from being passionate and hard working to being explosive and reckless in the course of a single episode. I could totally see a storyline where Tony B slowly devolves from his principles and gives into the allure of mob life. Afterall we see other characters like Tony and Christopher do the same thing. The problem is how fast the transformation is in the show, which is why I feel like fans did not believe in this turn of events.

By the way, since people are going to ask, there is a theory that Tony was behind the money that fell into Tony B’s lap. The idea is that Tony lured him back into the mob by tempting him with the mob lifestyle. While I think this would be a great way to explain this sudden turn of events, there is no evidence for this theory and some commentary from episode director Peter Bogdanovich seems to confirm that it was meant to be an act of fate. But again this deus ex machina moment just contributes to the feelings of randomness that the audience has when it comes to Tony B, and I think it hurts his character even more.

After joining the family, Tony B starts to resent his cousin. While he was in prison, his daughter became a drug addict and ran away from home. His wife divorced him, and he has to take care of his twin sons while living in his mother’s house. He sees the extravagance that Tony lives in and how lucky he is to have his family intact, and wants more because of it.

He decides to take a job from Little Carmine’s faction of the Lupertazzi family and whack Joey Peeps, one of Johnny Sack’s men. Though this goes against Tony’s orders to stay neutral in the conflict, Tony feels guilty over the fact that Tony B went to prison and he didn’t. Instead of punishing him he rewards him with control of their casino, though he knows in his heart that this is going to lead to trouble.

And it does when Johnny Sack has Angelo Garepe whacked. Angelo was one of Tony B’s closest friends in prison, and his murder sends him into a rage. He goes off on his own and gets revenge by shooting Phil Leotardo and killing his brother Billy. This action proves that Tony was lying to Johnny Sack, putting him in a precarious position with the Lupertazzi’s when John takes over as boss.

The murder of Billy Leotardo has fuelled a million memes, but it also reveals another hole in the writing. Tony says that his cousin has a problem with rage, and that’s why he did what he did. But we don’t see that consistently with his character. Yes he flips out at Kim out of nowhere, but he’s also the voice of reason when Tony is debating on killing Christopher.

The reason he did the Joey Peeps job wasn’t rage, but jealousy over Tony’s family and wealth. And before that he showed no signs of acting crazy. Even in the scene before he attacks the Leotardo’s, he’s more annoyed than anything else. Overall Tony B’s characterization is all over the place, which is why he feels so strange to the audience.

And that’s not the only strange thing about Tony Blundetto. The show makes a point of talking about his genius level IQ, which really doesn’t go anywhere. I mean I guess we see hints of his intelligence when he’s talking with Meadow about prison reform, but ultimately it just feels like an extraneous detail. And that along with his interest in massage therapy just makes him come off as random and less believable as a mobster.

Again, I think that all these character ideas could have worked if it had played out in a more natural way over more episodes. We could have seen Tony Blundetto slowly slide into the toxicity of the mob world, going from an idealistic and controlled person to a wild animal, just like we saw with Tony Soprano over the course of the show. The episode title “Two Tony’s” even draws attention to this, and the parallels between Tony Uncle Johnny and Tony Uncle Al were obviously an intentional part of the season.

However the writers wrote themselves into a corner when it came to Tony B. Steve Buscemi was originally signed on for two seasons, and the character was clearly meant to be involved with both Seasons 5 and 6. However, Terence Winter confirmed that after they had Tony B kill Billy and put the families on the brink of war, they had no choice but to scrap their original plans and have Tony kill his own cousin.

Now this is not the first time they had to change their plans midway through a story. Actor Nancy Marshand’s death at the beginning of Season 3 forced them to scrap a storyline they had about Livia and the airline tickets. However in that instance I think it worked out fine, as Livia’s sudden death was actually a plot point they had for Season 1 that they never ended up doing. Thus the sudden change serves its original purpose, to deny Tony the confrontation with his mother that has been building his whole life.

However in the case of Tony Blundetto, the scrapping of his two season story arc only hurt the character and the season as a whole. I really think that if Tony B’s storyline played out naturally over 2 seasons, I would have been the best the show had to offer. Tony B was so connected to Tony’s feelings of guilt and regret over the job he missed, it would have been an incredible device to explore his feelings over how his life turned out. Not to mention it was also the origin of his panic attacks, the central premise of the series.

Tony B’s slow and steady decline into the mafia life would have also shown us how the life lures people in and then destroys them. With other characters like Christopher, we saw how people intentionally ruin their lives by joining organized crime. It would have been cool to see someone trying to go straight but inevitably fail through both external sabotage and their own personal flaws, similar to what we see with Janice and anger management.

Ultimately Tony Blundetto’s problem wasn’t one of his own. He was a victim of writing mistakes, one of the few the show ever made. And he was one of the biggest missed opportunities for me, as I think he really could have been a wonderful addition to the show. But let me know your thoughts on Tony Blundetto in the comments, and stay tuned for more content, coming soon.