So long to The Sopranos
-
- June
- 11
If you didn’t watch The Sopranos, skip this post …
This will be an episode people will complain about, I suspect. But the point of the show was that it was about Tony Soprano and his family, not the mob. That’s why it ended the way it ended.
Plus, to be cynical, they had to leave the door open for something down the road. Tony chose “Don’t Stop Believing” for a reason. David Chase does great things with music.
In the end, Tony is us. His job just happens to be mob boss. We all have family members who drive us crazy, co-workers like Paulie Walnuts we can’t count on and worries that it could all come to an end. We’re all selfish to some degree yet try to do right in the end.
What a great show. If not the best drama in the last 25 years, it’s on the short list with Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, ER and West Wing. Those last few minutes were engrossing.
I’m glad Tony lived. A.J., not so much.
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Peter Abraham
Bingo. I’m already irritated at all the folks complaining that they wanted “closure,” everything neatly tied up in a bow. Bull.
(Pete, you’ve got to add The Wire to that list of great dramas. For my money better even than the Sopranos)
On the whole the show was great, but it felt like suck a let down at the end. I was expecting a great shootout, something big to happen, and to end on them munching on onion rings kinda left me feeling empty.
Its clear, that they are setting up a movie with this ending, as to pretty much end the series with the movie. Something like where, in the movie, they give us the ending we were all looking for here, which ensures all the audience who watched this show to watch the movie, instead of some losing interest because half the cast is dead in the final episode. To me watching it, it felt like they were setting up the real ending in a movie instead of just the series.
But what a wonderfull series though, I’m not old enough to have watched the ones you mentioned (except the latter parts of ER) and I wasn’t too interested in the West Wing, as I was more into the Friends and Seinfeld series.
I wonder when the movie is coming out.
The ending was very weak to me then again its regular… .Carlo turned rat because his son was pinched and he decided to talk to the feds so his son’s charges will be dropped… Tony is very paranoid at the end and the whole crew will get locked up…. Its very silly because when your in that buissness your always paranoid about death… Chase didnt have to show that TONY NOW IS PARANOID after all this time… It makes no sense…. I’ve known men in this line of work they are regular people, but are killers… Most of them get what is coming to them which is death or jail time… Chase didnt have to show that Tony is finally paranoid it made no sense that didnt need to be explained or shown…. Janice continues to be a piece of garbage…. Carmela once again gets jelouse because Hunter or whatever Meadows friend is in Med School…. AJ is the worst character on the show…. Tony is ok, but needed a good killing if you ask me to put him on the level of the great created mob characters…. The only problem I got with the Sopranos is first they make a mochary of Italian people and second Richie Aprile was killed…... Richie took no junk from anyone.. .That was a great season…. Bobby and Silvio were favs, but at least they got great deaths…. Its amazing that Frank Vincent always has to die…. GET YA SHOE BOX!!!!!
Peter:
Silvio has to live.
It’s “Get Your Shine Box!” that Billy Batts said.
I loved the ending. Just loved it. David Chase is a genius.
Tony DIDNT live according to one interpretation.
“As tony was looking at his daughter comeing in it
went black from behind he was killed. The reason I
know he was killed was because it was a foreshadow
when Bobby said when you die everything goes black
and you dont hear anything. Most people didnt get
that.”
We The People understand that interpretation. That doesn’t stop it from being a bullsh*t episode though.
it isnt that Tony was killed , the whole show was killed, that was the fade to black..In essence the show got wacked not Tony
One thing they achieved was making us feel what Tony must feel every day. They couldn’t achieve it before because nobody would have thought Tony was going to die. Now, we got the suspense he must always feel…anyone who walked in could have been the one to kill him.
A couple things that baffled me
1) Some have said that in the east coast HBO feed, just as Meadow enters the restaurant, Tony looks up and the screen cuts to black for a time before the credits are shown. In the west coast HBO feed, the final shot is of Meadow entering the restaurant before the final credits are shown.
2) Tony appears to be wearing different clothing when he enters the restaurant, and when he is sitting down.
3) Meadow can’t park and the family ordered greasy onion rings.
Overall, I thought the episode symbolized what The series and David Chase have been about—They never are going to give you a clear answer as to what happens, and they aren’t going to follow popular culture. MSNBC ran an article tonight that sums up the final episode, and the series as w hole perfectly:
“One thing’s for sure: “The Sopranos” rarely gave viewers exactly what they wanted—the show had its own path, and always trod it without nodding to popular pressure. The series ended the same way.”
Overall, i think Chase did exactly what we have come to expect from the show and he did it masterfully. The final scene brought the viewer into a smaller more intense version of what we have enjoyed for the last six seasons, an ultra-paranoid, edge of our seat final moment, or series of moments. With the expectation of Tony’s death, we lived in this sweet final scene expecting the worst and thats how we all felt.
The ability of Chase and cast to bring about that feeling of doom and fear with an extremely innocent scene is the entire series playing itself out in our emotions and the fact that we ended up looking over Tony’s shoulder for him is what (i believe) Chase would have wanted.
Forget opening doors for movies and continuation, Tony’s paranoid life goes on(or as some feel, doesnt with the bathroom guy) and we are left with the bittersweet Soprano story where it has always been, in flux.
The ending either symbolized 1 of 2 things that Tony had just been killed not seeing it coming the darkness enveloping him before he even heard the bullet or that this was Tony’s life and he wasn’t too on guard but in reality anytime anywhere someone was going to punch his ticket and for us such a life would be tension filled and frightening. Well never know unless David Chase and Gandolfini change their mind make a movie.
hey don’t leave “six feet under” out of your top shows ever…as much as i loved the sopranos ( and i thought tonight was great)...i still will miss six feet more.
I read a theory on another website and I found it to be the most probable. I read a theory on another website and I found it to be the most probable. That we the audience was killed. The Sopranos story goes on, but we are no longer a part of it. The foreshadowing of Bobby saying “you don’t even hear or feel it� was about us.
We didn’t even see it coming.
Oh I forgot,and then obviously what happens next to the Soparanos is up to you. Like Peter said, “Chase is a genius”.
Sopranos.
“Tony IS DEAD and WAS CLIPPED by someone. We the audience have always seen the episodes from Tony’s point of view, and the blackened silence is what Tony sees and hears when he finally gets clipped. Remember the conversation with Bobby at the lake? “I wonder if you hear the one that gets you” – the final episode answers that question. That is why they flashed back to it at the end of last weeks episode. He never heard the one that killed him.
The show is about Tony. If he got shot and died that instant, he wouldn’t experiance Carmella’s horrified shriek, Meadow weeping, or AJ blubbering like the 3-year-old he is. Just nothing. That’s why it wasn’t included. The show ended the instant Tony ceased to exist.”
There is no way Tony is dead. Im sure that the movie is already in production
It is an HBO show purely designed for entertainment. Therefore, no ending should be so in flux. Just say what happened.
What a terrible episode…to end the series anyway. If it was just an episode in the middle of the season, it would have been fine, but to end the series that way?
Pete,
Completely agree. The ending was spectacular. It went full circle. Began with the family and ended with the family.
Chase really is a genius.
The finale, like the past two seasons, was awful. The Sopranos stopped being a good show when it stopped being about a Mobster who also had a “real family”, and became a poor schlep who also happened to be a Mobster.
hack ending
By far the best show of the past 2 decades. And a great ending.
They would have been stupid not to end it like this. Now they can shoot a movie every 4 years and collect 20 million from the HBO bank.
Just finished my treadmill – Peter, you have it. Chase wove many different levels and interpretations – just like life.
Those above got it right. At the end of last week’s show, Tony thinks back to the conversation with Bobby at the lake, and that you don’t hear the one that gets you. In that diner, there were several characters who nervously glanced about, including one who went to the bathroom behind where Tony was sitting, and who glanced at him as he passed by. Is he the one who whacked Tony? That’s the point. We don’t know for sure.
i’m glad it’s over . 2-3 years between episodes blows and i dont like the way they strung me along . i watched the first episode so i had to finish . what a dissappointment . this is why i’ll never watch another hbo series .
No ending pleases everyone. If he died in a hail of bullets 50% of people would be bitching. If he ended up in the clink, the same thing.
What more could people want from a finale? Tied up the NY-NJ war with Phil being shot and his head run over. Kept the future alive with the threat of indictments hanging over the heads. AJ got some direction and a hot gf. Meadows getting hitched. Sils alive. Janice is a scumbag. Paulie is nuttier than ever.
Greatness.
Giambi Please don’t comeback
We don’t need you clogging up the bases or taking up the DH spot
now we can use the DH spot to rest players
I like have damon, jeter, abrue, arod, ciaro, cano, melky they can all run and they advance on the bases very well and take risks
The Yankees have started winning since Giambi was placed on DL. Jason. Go away foerver.
The show is awesome. That episode will go down as one of the worst season finale’s ever. 55 minutes of boring, pointless filler with Phil’s death being an after thought at best
I meant series finale
Everyone is fixated on the ending. I have no problem with the show’s last five minutes. It had my heart beating a little and left things open to interpretation…kind of like a choose your own adventure.
What I had a problem with was the first 55 minutes. Who cares about AJ’s existential crisis…it was bad enough they wasted the whole season expanding on his character, but why did he have to be one the main themes of the finale? Also, I found it hard to believe that a big New York crime family would be so disorganized as to completely flip in support of a small-time New Jersey gangster. In the whole scheme of things, Tony is small-time (which is what made the Sopranos unique and interesting), but this scenario made him look like a kingpin. I also thought the whole Paulie storyline was disappointing. Over the past few seasons, that character had descended into a bumbling buffoon, and the finale was the final nail in his mental coffin. The Sopranos long ago abandoned what made it a great show for the first 3-4 seasons. The fact that it was able to turn out a subtly suspenseful last few minutes doesn’t redeem what has been a horrible last two seasons.
I guess the genius of the ending is that it could be anything for anyone. There are no incorrect interpretations. All I know is that during that last scene my heart was pounding and I felt such an overwhelming dread of what could happen. It was riveting. The most effective scene on television I can ever remember watching.
What happens after the black is not important. Did anyone else think that something had happened to their cable??????
My own opinion is in agreement with jj, above. We, the audience are cut off. Tony’s life goes on, nothing really changes, and he will always be looking over his shoulder. I actually thought the diner would be blown up while Meadow was parking (or trying to park) her car, and one of the reasons I thought so was they kept showing other innocent people just living their lives who would have been “collateral damage.”
The ending was both satisfying yet unsatisfying. Very fitting.
Hack ending, as Chris said. Right on. Chase, like the rest of Hollywood, don’t think very highly about the plebian morons that consume their product.
Genius: By far the most abused word in the English language. Einstein was a genius. Michelangelo was a genius. Shakespeare and Beethoven were geniuses.
David Chase is not a genius, he just wrote/conceived a good show.
The ending was a bit unsatisfying, but it did not mean that Tony was killed nor did it mean they are planning a movie. How can they wrap up a 7 year show in a two hour movie? It would just seem contrived. There will be no movie in my estimation.
Glad AJ and Meadow got their lives together. Great show, now I catch up on the 26 episodes on my DVR from previous seasons.
Jeff, I’d assume they’d run a two hour movie that focussed almost exclusively on AJ Soprano’s whining and crying, much like they did in the Series Finale.
And maybe occasionally mention that Tony is in the mob, much like in the series finale.
no episode that focused so much on AJ (Iler is the worst actor on the show) can be called great.
Sorry, but any episode that focused so much on the worst charactter on the show (AJ) played by the worst actor on the show (Iler) is far from acceptable, imo.
And as someone who has watched every single show, I knew that final scene was so telegraphed with fake “tension” that nothing would come of it in the end. Chase just likes to dick around with the audience, but he’s done it so much that it’s become totally predictable.
It was a cop-out in case of a movie being made. But it is funny to read comments from those that suck at the tit of Chase and worship at his altar saying how great and meaningful everything he does is.
You absolutely can’t mention “best shows of the last twenty-five years” and not give a nod to The Wire.
The show will me missed. Thought the ending was classic (and original). Guess life just goes on, even if you are Tony Soprano.
The ending will be talked about for a long time. They strongly imply that something could’ve happened to Tony…
The guy was suspiciously looking at Tony, and then he goes to the bathroom and then everything abruptly cuts to black immediately after Tony sees Meadow – possibly because he was shot by the guy coming back from the bathroom – like Michael Corleone shooting the guy in The Godfather.
There was also foreshadowing of the idea of everything cutting to black when you are killed.
When fans say this is a cop out ending .. they have a right to that opinion. I also have the right to state the opinion that you guys do not understand what the sopranos are truly about.
Throughout the show’s entire tenure, Chase rewrote the rules of traditional television story writing. So anyone who says the ending sucks because the story didn’t have closure, are the most likely the same people who reveled in Chase’s brilliance for the last 10 years. But the second his style doesn’t mesh with someone’s molded perspective on how stories should end .. you see the outrage that we have today. But my guess is that David Chase has a big smile on his face today.
And please don’t give me that “I invested so many years for that ending” crap. We all got huge returns on that investment by getting endless episodes of superb entertainment, humor, action, violence and drama.
grabsomebench,
I totally agree with you about the AJ thing – they focused too much on him.
I did like the ending though – more so than the episode as a whole.
I thought the ending was incredibly self-indulgent. It’s not that Chase had to “tie up all the loose ends in a nice package,” so let’s please dispense with that straw man. His job as storyteller was to provide the viewers with the ending to his story. He didn’t end the story; he simply discontinued it. Sorry, but that’s not genius, any more than “modern art” consisting of nothing more than a blank canvass can be called genius. It may be audacious, and it may defy convention, but it’s not art. What Chase did is the storytelling equivalent of the painter who leaves a portion of the canvass blank or the musician who stops playing before the song is over. He’s indulging his sense of power over the audience. He’s saying, in effect, I have drawn you into this thing, and now, just like that, I’m shutting you out. In other words, in the end, he’s chosen to make it about himself rather than the fate of his characters. I don’t respect that.
From what I have heard about the ending so far, boy, am I glad I stopped watching the show three years ago. Why people showed so much loyalty to a show that really only had two good seasons is beyond me. Sopranos doesn’t begin to crack the top 10 dramas of the last 25 years in my opinion. You have to do better than two good seasons. Six Feet Under, on the other hand, was much better and I believe that to be the greatest TV drama ever. I’m glad those writers, unlike the Sopranos’ writers, decided to end the show when they felt they were running out of good ideas.
right after the episode, i was sitting with my mouth open and my hand up thinking WTF… but the more i get to think about it and reflect on the episode, i feel alot better about the way it finished.
the show was never really about the mob; it was about tony’s life as a regular guy with family issues who just happened to be a mob boss.
and AJ’s storyline was moreso about Chase’s moral commentary on life in America moreso than specifically about AJ’s character.
and i heard Frank Vincent on a radio interview this morning, and he said a coupleof years ago there was just a brief mention of a possible sopranos movie, but a prequel… he hadnt heard anything about it since, but he said it wouldnt surprise him to see something say 3-4 years from now… and when you think back to what Tony said to Uncle Joon, about how him and tony’s father used to run North Jersey, and it makes a whole lot of sense.
I agree with Anthony…the Sopranos could have gone down as one of the better dramas in history, but the last 2 (and maybe even three) seasons forfeited that honor. I think the reason I kept watching through the bad last two years was because the first three seasons were so good that I was hoping it would revert (kind of like playing an old veteran who has clearly lost his bat speed). Also, what else is on Sunday night at 9PM? Thanks to Joe Morgan, watching Sunday night baseball isn’t much of an option.
Finally, I’m a little tired of people eluding to Chase’s genius? What exactly was ever so cutting edge about the Sopranos? It was great early on because it took a tried and true topic (the mafia) and added the twist of Tony being in therapy and taking a closer look at his other “family life”, but that isn’t exactly ground breaking. It was simply an original plot with interesting characters played by great actors. While the Sopranos WAS brilliant, I don’t think it was ever groundbreaking (as the Godfather was).
I thought Meadow was going to end up taking the bullet for Tony. Not intentionally, but she just would have happened to get in the way as the hit man took his shot.
MR. Vegas,
I’m not saying the ending itself was an aristic masterpiece. I’m saying that personally, I am satisfied with the show as a whole.
But I will take issue with this sentence
“His job as storyteller was to provide the viewers with the ending to his story.”
Why???
That is how you see it. It’s his story and he can end it any way he wants. You can like it or not like it .. but its not his job to end the show in a certain fashion.
Did he make the show more about himself than the actual show?
Yeah .. maybe he did.
But honestly .. it has been about him for a long time.
He has always flipped the bird to tradtional methods of story telling. And we have eaten it up .. continued to watch … kept our hbo subscriptions going even after last season.
For a guy .. that has done nothing but throw us curveballs throughout the entire series .. i expected nothing less.
pete… I see you read my email
You really cannot say unequivocally that Tony lived. Its up to interpretation. The cutting to black could signify that Tony had been killed and, as Bacala stated early-”you’ll never hear it coming”. Or, maybe its nothing…by not showing it and cutting to black its really suspended in a state of uncertainty…at least until Chase decides to bring it back or retire it FOREVER and reveal its “true” intention.
“Self-indulgent”? “Owe the audience”? Give it a rest.
Chase can do whatever he wants. I thought it sucked initially, but it was original, and it has everyone talking.
No way does the guy going to the bathroom kill Tony. He was there too long. They usually simply walk up to the guy and do it, then walk out. No time to let anyone get a good description of them. Think of how Phil Leotardo got hit.
Same thing with the black guys. Chase is simply playing with our stereotypes.
I’m with the people who said its the audience who gets whacked. You don’t see it coming.
Personally, I would have kept the Bush/Iraq stuff out of it. 10 years from now that stuff will seem dated.
You want endings and closure? Wait until Yankee Stadium around October 28th, 2007.
I thought the episode as a whole was uneven, but the final scene was brilliant.
The final scene, with its comforting setting, upbeat music, and the whole family coming together (each member having something to celebrate) was like the final scene of a conventional drama. Here are The Sopranos, still together and going strong after all the trouble they’ve gone through.
Except that, instead of instilling a warm, happy feeling, the scene is of unbearable tension. And instead of the camera pulling back with a slow fadeout as the family laughs over their onion rings, we get a paralyzing sudden blackout. Like a panic attack.
I don’t think the blackout is supposed to be Tony dying. The show isn’t always told from Tony’s perspective. I think it’s just Chase’s way of saying, this is what it feels like to be Tony Soprano.
Some nits:
I would have liked a scene where Tony shared a laugh over Phil’s gruesome demise.
I think I know who Carlo is, but he was not exactly an integral character. He should have had a moment of screen time so I’d at least be able to think, oh yeah, that guy.
One other question for those of you on the West Coast…
There was a different ending? Meadow walked in during the closing credits?
Comparing a classic show like Sopranos to dregs like West Wing and LA Law?
Ouch.
Another “greatest ever” show: Homicide: Life on the Street.
I don’t need closure or a bow, but the “non-ending,” or “let the audience draw their own conclusions” ending is BS, a total cop-out and lack of creativity at this point (it’s been done ten times too many). Wooooooo, they created some shot with their “did my DVR cut out, AGAIN??” ending… big freakin deal when the shock was anger…
I’m not intrigued, I’m not wondering what happened…. I’m angry at the decline this show has taken it’s last few seasons. This season was better than the previous couple years, at least they started killing people again, but this ending and AJ’s whining all-season were terrible (his only shining moment came in that car, but then he blew his chance with a model because he’s an idiot).
You could say they left the door open for the movie, for whatever… but unless there’s a surprise bonus episode coming to finish the thought in that diner, I’m not watching any movie, not in the theatre anyway. For anyone who thinks this ending was brilliant, it really wasn’t that original and it was weak, IMO.
I’m glad they got the better of Phil, the show somehow made us pull for a Jersey mobster over NY, well done…. and they did raise anticipation with the ending, the 5th time’s a charm parking (thought she was going to walk in to see them all gunned down), but the non-ending was just a cheap attempt to create intrigue.
Pete,
What did you think of Six Feet Under? I thought it was an equally compelling show, and handled the whole ‘wrapping up the series’ thing well in a long montage.
I did like how a little money and a hot girl snapped AJ right out of his little “crisis” that he used as an excuse for being a whiny little ….........
suddenly an M3 is fuel efficient and environmentally friendly (“it gets 23 MPG, that’s not that bad…....”).
I also want to add that any ending would have created discussion today, kill him, don’t kill him, intimate that you may have killed him, or may not have…..... everyone would be talking about it regardless.
I don’t understand how people watch this crap
I watched maybe 1 episode of the Soprano’s since it started. Decided to catch a little bit of the final episode last night and I have to say – I liked the way it ended. Very nice job.
Chris NY,
No show is going to be perfect. Geez!!
It ended the way it should have—all the Sopranos safe and alive. They were the center of the series, and are the only ones who truly mattered. Everyone else was disposable. The ending was one big tease, keeping the tension high, putting us in Tony’s shoes. Who is a danger to my family? That guy? Or that guy? Or that guy who just walked in. This is the way Tony lives his life on a daily basis.
Anyone think the cat was a re-incarnation of Adriana or Christopher?
Jeff wrote: “But I will take issue with this sentence
‘His job as storyteller was to provide the viewers with the ending to his story.’
Why???”
Because that’s what storytelling is. If there’s no ending, it’s not a complete story. What Chase did is like a comic who gives the setup to his jokes but never says the punchlines. You could defend the absence of punchlines as some kind of artistic choice, but nobody would find it very entertaining.
“It’s his story and he can end it any way he wants. You can like it or not like it .. but its not his job to end the show in a certain fashion.”
But he didn’t end it at all. That’s all anyone is complaining about. Whether he chose to end it one way versus another way is not the issue. I’m not saying literally ANY ending would have been okay, but simply building up the audience’s anticipation and then pulling the plug doesn’t say anything except, “Ha Ha, I’m David Chase and you’re not!”
“He has always flipped the bird to tradtional methods of story telling.”
I think you give him way too much credit here. Most of the storylines have been told in pretty conventional fashion. Think of Adrianna’s story, or Christopher’s, or Big Pussy’s, or Vito’s, or Artie’s. What made the show exceptional was not the defiance of traditional methods of storytelling, but the well-conceived characters, the writing, and the acting. If you want examples of great stories unfolding in unconventional fashion, consider what Tarantino did with Pulp Fiction or the first season of Lost. Chase used certain somewhat unconventional devices (dream sequences, the occasional flashback, Tony’s interludes with Dr. Melfi), but with decidely mixed results. I would hardly call the series groundbreaking based on the method of storytelling per se.
Andre Brugher in Homicide: Life on the Street was amazing. He should play Chris Darden in the eventual OJ movie made by Oliver Stone.
A commenter on Deadspin pointed out that it’s easy to see that Tony died. The screen went black. Guy went into the bathroom to get the gun ala Godfather… its done. There was closure. Period.
Justin, I’d go with now that I think about it, Adrianna maybe? But who knows why would she adore someone who sold her up to Tony even though he regretted it? But then again… she most likely went to a better place (in the sense of reincarnation.. had the chance to come back as something better than Christopher since she wasn’t a murderer like him)
The stranger going into the bathroom made me think of the Godfather as well, but the idea of a planted gun doesn’t make sense in the Sopranos scene. The whole point of planting a gun in the Godfather was because Michael needed to get a gun after being frisked. Why wouldn’t a stranger simpy approach and shoot Tony, like the men who killed Bobby?
Holsten’s, by the way, is a blast. I still remember a birthday party I had there over 15 years ago. Here are some stunning pictures of Holsten’s food, including some Tony-sized portions.
http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2007/06/11/nj-dining-holstens/
Pete, I couldn’t agree more. People who wanted a big shoot up missed the point of the entire series—it was about deconstructing mob mythology, not playing up to the fantasy. It was about a guy who is trying to manage everyday family problems while also trying to manage Family problems. If anyone’s ever seen the movie Bugsy, you’ll know what I mean when I say the birthday party scene from that movie sums up the entire run of the Sopranos.
Deadwood beats ‘em all.
I loved it.
Sure, it would have been nice to have some closure with the Russian in the woods, hot-for-Carmela Furio hiding in Sicily, and to know how the Carlo/indictments/FBI thing worked out. Also, why did agent Harris suddenly start rooting for Tony Soprano?
But the sheer drama, tension and pure horror of that final restaurant scene, with each patron being a possible assasin was brilliant.
Plus, it leaves the door open for a movie or another mini (3 or 5?) episode season. I read somewhere that Chase wrote and shot multiple endings for the final show to throw off any wayward actor/tech hand/PA that may leak the series outcome to the press/ media. This could also open the door for some cool ‘deleted scenes’ or ‘multiple endings’ features when the DVD collection for the final season are released (in time for X-Mas I hope!).
Just a few things.
1. People who expected a big shootout to end it, I have to agree with Jeff that I don’t know if you got what the Sopranos was all about. I’d also add that the “mob stuff” essentially ended last week. Of course there was a little bit this episode, but it was mostly about Tony and his family.
2. There are multiple interpretations of the ending. It could have been Tony dying, but I’d really question the person who claimed we saw everything through Tony’s eyes the whole series. We saw everything from a third person view. Tony was the main character but we rarely looked through his eyes. The sudden blackness and silence COULD have been Tony dying…it also could have been the show’s “death” as it went off the air, suddenly, unexpectedly (at that moment, of course).
3. As far as the cat, I got that it was a “reincarnation” of Christopher. Adrianna was a possibility from the whole staring at the picture thing, but everything with Paulie and the Cat was classic Paulie/Christopher.
4. One more thing on the ending. To those who think this ending left too much up in the air, I have to disagree (unless you think Tony died). If Tony didn’t die, then I don’t think that there are no immediate questions, not major ones (except perhaps “Does Sil survive?”). We know where everyone stands right now. If Tony had died, we’d have tons of questions. Who did it, who ordered it, why, who takes over, do Carmela/AJ/Meadow get shot too, how do they react if not, etc. Same thing if Tony had gotten indicted…we’d be wondering if he goes to prison, gets out of it, has a very long process ala Junior, gets Carlo killed before he can testify, etc. Tons and tons of questions either way. This way mostly wraps things up. Life goes on for Tony beyond this (again, unless you think he was clipped in the ending), but we know where everyone stands for the most part.
the ending leaves the door open for the eventual spinoff staring paulie and the cat. his old friend tony stops by occasionally just to check in.
I don’t buy the “Tony was shot” theory. For starters, if the guy in the Members Only jacket was a hitter, he would not need to go to the bathroom for a gun. He wasn’t being frisked like Michael Corleone was by McClusky.
I think that was just Chase giving a nod to Coppolla.
The cat was clearly supposed to be Christopher. Hilarious stuff.
People like their shows to get all wrapped in a nice bow. Doesn’t happen with Chase. He leaves you hanging and makes you think. What happened to the Russian? Where is Furio? Did Tony die?
Up to you to decide. There is no right or wrong. It’s like life. It’s not always pretty but it goes on every day.
“If you didn’t watch The Sopranos, skip this post …”
perfect. too bad dude in the bar last night didn’t have the same courtesy after i said “don’t say anything. i have it on tivo at home”
rocket science, i know.
the whole series was a dream. tony really isnt a mobster, he is a hotel clerk who fell asleep and was awakened by the ringing bell.
Mr Vegas wrote:”Because that’s what storytelling is. If there’s no ending, it’s not a complete story. What Chase did is like a comic who gives the setup to his jokes but never says the punchlines. You could defend the absence of punchlines as some kind of artistic choice, but nobody would find it very entertaining.”
That is the whole point vegas. Life goes on. He treated this as the last episode in an ongoing life as opposed to a grand finale. And Speak for yourself. I found last night’s episode te be very entertaining. I don’t think he ended the story like that just to be jerk .. I think that is just how he wanted to end it.
A “life goes on” type ending. Because that is how life usually ends up. No epic hollywood endings or grand bows .. it just goes on and on .. just like the lyrics of that journey tune playing in the background. I truly think he was trying to get that message across, as opposed to being a spiteful jerk (or maybe a little bit of both).
that episode was awful. I feel like a sucker for sticking with it for so long. The story arc died years ago.
I thought it was the perfect. perfect ending. I thought it was brilliant.
We’re left with what the show has always been—it
shows the combination of the mundane and the constant terror (the piano hanging
over their heads) that has been there from Day 1. Tony and his family eating
onion rings, while at every second there lurks someone who might kill them.
David Chase played up all that we’ve learned from movies and TV in the past to
make that scene so tense—Oh no, Meadow’s going to walk in 30 seconds late
because of her parking, which will be the only reason she wasn’t gunned down by
the guy who went to the bathroom!—but that’s just what these guys all live
with every day, which makes their mundane stuff (panic attacks, mother issues,
malaprops) so absurd in context.
Plus, the quick cut to black allows the viewers to imagine what happened—Tony
was killed (and never saw the bullet coming, which is why it went to black),
they all ate delicious fried food, the Feds were coming, etc.—and no one
ending is the only option. We have to live with the ambiguity and terror that
these guys live with all the time. They’re like everyone else—they eat onion
rings, their kids whine, etc., but in the meantime every person who walks into
the restaurant is a potential threat to kill them. This combination is The
Sopranos.
It’s exactly what we should have expected from David Chase. If you expected
everything to tie up neatly, you haven’t been paying attention to David Chase.
That the show was about family, er, Tony and HIS family, is indisputable. That one should not expect Chase to tie up everything in a neat bow is also fair enough. But the last five minutes were a monumental tease, wholly out of kilter with most of what went before it, and largely designed to call attention to the man who wrote and directed them.
Hey. Call a guy a genius for eight years and this is what you get. But the show—and those who watched it—deserved better. That’s not to argue for a shootout or unexpected death or anything else. In fact the idea behind the ending would have worked just fine. Tony back where he belongs more than anywhere else. With his wife, daughter, and son. And if Chase had the courage of his convictions, that’s what you would have got. Rather than the fake-tension vaudeville routine we ended up with.
david chase thinks he is stanley kubrick and lets face it he is far from that. hes no genius thats for sure.
Coincidentally, I watched an old episode of the Rockford Files tonight that was written by David Chase. The two mafia thugs who beat up Jim were named Tony (also Anthony-Boy) and Syl! Hmm…sounds familiar! Chase was a writer/producer for the last few seasons of Rockford.
there are good people on this site. this is the one place I came today where the majority of people aren’t whining about the ending!
i feel like i said goodbye to family, I will miss this show so much. could truly be Top 3 of all time shows.
Pete, couldn’t agree more with your interpretation, well put. thanks for acknowledging it.
p.s. does anyone know what was up with the cat?!?!? why was it staring at Chris?
It reminded me of Ed Whitson as a Yankee
Chase has now emerged (from hiding) in France to insist the ending was not meant to “mess with anyone’s minds.”
He protests, of course, too much.
Anyone know the viewing demographics for this show? I’ve got a bet that many more men watched the Sopranos than women.