The attachment of my feelings towards certain characters has shown me that even though other people may not understand your struggles. You have to find a way through them or you just keep struggling. I think it shaped me to be stronger about myself and give grace to certain struggles.
On Instagram, I follow most of the cast of The Sopranos. I do this because I like to see what the cast is up to nowadays. Some of them even have their podcasts and promote that which I think is cool. To be able to read the comment section under certain posts and see the fans collaborate or leave a comment that’s positive towards maybe their favorite characters is fun for me.
I do not wear any merchandise. I have many times come very close to buying either a shirt or a sweatshirt. I do have a poster in my room that has Tony and his crew on which obviously unless you come into my room you see it. But for me, the poster is for my enjoyment when I come to my room to look at it. Online people have made a lot of funny and cool shirts. They get very creative either based on certain characters or episodes.
I would say I follow a lot of Instagram fan pages where they make memes or make edits of scenes. Tik Tok is where I also follow many fan pages who make very cool edits of the characters. Which for me gets me excited and like if its my favorite character its super cool to see them hyped up. Again reading comments of fans engaging with the memes or edits I can relate to what they have to say.
I believe that my fandom has not constructed an us vs them viewpoint personally. There are many different aspects to The Sopranos and I do not think that has created a divide. During the show, they spoke on a lot of topics that I feel during that time were not normally talked about. Mental health, homosexuality, racism, and so on. I think that if you put on a TV show that talks about non-normal topics and makes them seem normal then mainstream media will start to talk about it too. Just as the fans watch and come to understand as well. It gets people to bring up the topics and talk about them.
I know for myself and the other people I know who have watched the show we sometimes will mock the language. The Italian American language is what I would call it. Not just in Sopranos but in other Italian American shows the langue matches up perfectly. Certain shows or reality TV even have the same vocabulary which I find very interesting. I think the langue is easy to bleed into your own life especially if your friends understand or watch the show as well.
