PSA: Sopranos on tonight

[dixiecupdrinker]

huh, i really liked that ending. things don't all end at once in real life, why does a tv show have to? no matter what they did, at least some things would be left hanging. i thought it was a good picture of who the family is and where they've ended up. how would tony getting killed or being in the slammer in the last scene have made it any better? no complaints from me.

 

I concur.

 

 

dcd

[Kalle]

By the end I was so nervous. But, I really think they wrapped up the key things and it's disappointing from a pure entertainment value but I feel it left us to speculate but still give us closure.

[oatmealblizzard]

huh, i really liked that ending. things don't all end at once in real life, why does a tv show have to? no matter what they did, at least some things would be left hanging. i thought it was a good picture of who the family is and where they've ended up. how would tony getting killed or being in the slammer in the last scene have made it any better? no complaints from me.

I agree. I really liked the rather ambiguous ending.

 

I thought this was a strong episode and a nice way to go out. This, overall, was a really great season of the show, in my opinion. Quite possibly the strongest season of all. I'll miss this show...

[embiggen]

umm, personally, I expect some kind of resolution at the end of a show. I don't get it. maybe something is wrong with me, but I thought this last episode was boring.

[aricandover]

umm, personally, I expect some kind of resolution at the end of a show. I don't get it. maybe something is wrong with me, but I thought this last episode was boring.

 

maybe you should watch it again

[MattZ]

They can't blow our minds too heavily without simultaneously ruining their ability to make:

 

SOPRANOS: THE MOVIE

 

(you know its coming)

 

I liked the ending. Tony in jail or Tony dead wouldn't have made me happier. But that being said, the hardest part about the ending is what I had feared all along. See above.

 

That last scene will live for the ages. I heard my heart beating as I watched it. One of the most powerful scenes on TV that I can remember.

 

A great run. I loved this episode.

[alison the wilca]

i really liked the cat as well. paulie and the cat... spin-off maybe?

[Kalle]

You could also think of the black in Tony's point of view. The whole looking at the door and everything and then Meadow comes in and then that's when he gets killed. It's just a thought.

[cryptique]

I thought it was a brilliant ending. This last run of episodes was fantastic. I don't get all the negative reactions ... I mean, you're entitled to them, but are you looking beyond the superficial "who got whacked" angle?

 

I'm really going to miss this show.

 

i really liked the cat as well. paulie and the cat... spin-off maybe?

[SquashedFrog]

I knew Paulie would have Tony whacked eventually. Tony should have got him on that boat earlier this season.

[Mr. Heartbreak]

I liked the ambiguous ending too. It could be interpreted as Kalle mentioned, Tony's last moments, or it could be just an abrupt halt. Either way, I felt like it was a great ending to a great season.

 

I'm gonna miss this show.

[Moltisanti]

The important thing is that Phil died.

 

What a piece of shit he was.

[Smokestack Joe]

i didnt see it. darn.

[Elixir Sue]

I can understand what Alison (and others) are saying, and there's no GOOD way to end such a great series in a satisfactory way. It just felt a little anticlimactic, after weeks of speculation like: is Tony going to die? Is Paulie going to flip? is Tony going to prison? etc. I know the show's about more than just people getting whacked and other fireworks...I guess I just wanted a little more resolution.

[SquashedFrog]

I was half joking about Paulie because I can't think of anyone else that would hit Tony in that restaurant...

 

remember last week, Tony had that flashback from being in the boat with Bobby from the first episode this season?

 

to paraphrase... "when it happens, you won't even know...it will just go black"

[aricandover]

what a sellout! no balls AT ALL!!!

 

 

I think it took more balls to make this episode, than to do what everyone wanted/expected. I applaud them, I thought it was great.

[ction]

I think it took more balls to make this episode, than to do what everyone wanted/expected. I applaud them, I thought it was great.

 

Yup.

[MattZ]

to paraphrase... "when it happens, you won't even know...it will just go black"

 

Is that right? I don't remember that. Huh.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

I think it took more balls to make this episode, than to do what everyone wanted/expected. I applaud them, I thought it was great.

 

The ending scene was simply classic...tension builds with each passing minute. Is somebody going to shoot him? The guy at the counter? The two black guys coming in?

 

This is Tony's life. Even in the most mundane of family moments there is an element of fear, of dread. And then it all simply goes to black.

 

This isn't/wasn't your dad's gangster series.

[aricandover]

The ending scene was simply classic...tension builds with each passing minute. Is somebody going to shoot him? The guy at the counter? The two black guys coming in?

 

This is Tony's life. Even in the most mundane of family moments there is an element of fear, of dread. And then it all simply goes to black.

 

This isn't/wasn't your dad's gangster series.

 

 

"Focus on the good times."

[cryptique]

Pretty good post-mortem from Salon.com...

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

"The Sopranos" goes dark

 

David Chase gives fans the finale they deserve -- one they can argue about for years to come.

 

By Heather Havrilesky

 

Jun. 11, 2007 | For his final trick, "Sopranos" writer/creator David Chase made Tony Soprano disappear without fanfare. In what may go down as the most heart-stopping final scene of a drama series in the history of television, Tony walked into a restaurant, sat down at a booth, ate a few onion rings, and . . . that was it. Roll credits.

 

As the screen went black in the middle of a line from the song "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey, it was hard not to wonder, Is Chase brilliant for so thoroughly subverting our expectations, or... is he just an asshole?

 

Reading the predictions leading up to this final episode, it was easy enough to see why Chase might want to mess with our heads. There were the expected ones: Tony would get killed, go to prison, go into witness protection and rat out the New York family. But then there were the theories that tied together every loose end from every episode into one big tangled mess: The Russian mobster from Pine Barrens was going to return, finally, seeking revenge! AJ was going to kill his own father! Adriana secretly survived and was going to come out of hiding! Dr. Melfi's shrink and colleague, Elliott Kupferberg, would be revealed as the secret boss of Phil Leotardo! Everyone would die in a massive terrorist explosion!

 

If we got sick of hearing about other people's speculations on how "The Sopranos" would end in just one week, imagine how Chase has been feeling for the past three or four years. Creating a cultural phenomenon this huge is an experience that can change a sensitive soul, after all, and make him act out against his fans. Look at J.D. Salinger. His books were obscenely popular, but no one understood! They were all jackasses, as far as he was concerned. Was Sunday night's finale Chase's way of telling us all to fuck right off?

 

If so, it was fitting that the big F.U. should come from the mouth of the show's least respectable character, self-pitying, idiot-savant A.J., who explodes in an angry outburst after Bobby's funeral. Disgusted with the idle Oscar-related small talk at his table, he rages, "You people are fucked. You're living in a fucking dream!" Then he snipes that Americans distract themselves from their country's atrocious acts by "watching these jack-off fantasies on TV."

 

Later, after A.J. has been coaxed out of following his convictions into the military and to Afghanistan, and led into temptation by his parents with a new BMW and the promise of a cushy job working on -- what else? -- some crappy film cobbled together by a bunch of halfwits, he sits on the couch with his high school girlfriend, snickering at viral videos of rappin' Karl Rove and Bush dancing. There we are, America! Sending each other YouTube videos, chuckling at "The Daily Show," instead of rioting in the streets. Crisis of conscience narrowly averted!

 

Even so, Tony may not have eaten lead, but he didn't exactly get off easy in his final days onscreen. Chase turned up the flame on his boiling pot until we were all sweating, showing us how nasty Tony could be, making us hate ourselves for ever caring about him, and demonstrating how miserable things could get for Tony if his luck didn't hold. In these last few hours, Chase crafted each episode into a dense, claustrophobic, melancholy work of art, each one more solemn and heartbreaking than the last.

 

But on Sunday night, he returned to the show's original twisted tragicomic roots: A.J. watches in awe and disbelief as his car goes up in flames because he parked too close to a patch of dry leaves; Phil Leotardo is shot, his head then crushed under the wheel of his own car (Grandbabbies waving bye-bye from the backseat! Bystanders vomiting!) in a scene so rich and silly it felt like "The Sopranos" parodying itself; Tony and Carmela speak to A.J.'s shrink and Tony slips easily into a discussion of how incredibly cruel his mother was to him. We can see the next few decades flash before Carmela's eyes: This is Tony's never-ending sob story, and it doesn't matter who's listening.

 

As we've been reminded all season, Tony is all about Tony, no matter whom he pretends to be protecting. He's not necessarily a complete sociopath. He's just your average self-interested, smug American. What was Steve Perry singing in that final scene?

 

Working hard to get my fill,

Everybody wants a thrill

Payin' anything to roll the dice,

Just one more time

Some will win, some will lose

Some were born to sing the blues

Oh, the movie never ends

It goes on and on and on and on

 

(Chase really does have the last laugh, here, making us pick apart lyrics to a Journey song, for Christsakes.)

 

The comedy didn't begin and end with Tony, though. One of the best lines of the night came from darling daughter Meadow, explaining to Tony why she decided to give up on med school in order to pursue a career in law instead:

 

Meadow: You know what really turned me? Seeing the way Italians are treated. It's like Mom says. And if we can have our rights trampled like that, imagine what it's like for recent arrivals.

 

Tony: Well...

 

Meadow: If I hadn't seen you dragged away all those times by the FBI, then I'd probably be a boring suburban doctor.

 

Of course we know that Tony wishes Meadow were a boring suburban doctor, but the look of suppressed disbelief on his face goes beyond that. It's almost like he wants to say, "Med, let's get real, here. I am a criminal."

 

He says nothing, but it's official: Meadow's denial is as complete as her mother's -- and her fate matches her mother's fate as well.

 

And speaking of matching fates, Detective Harris is made out to look like Tony's long lost twin, working long hours, yelling at his wife, then sleeping with a coworker, presumably the agent in Brooklyn who told him where Leotardo was hiding. When Harris hears that Leotardo has been shot, he cheers. The home team pulls off another win! There is no moral high ground here - not among FBI agents, or among therapists. Everyone is out for themselves.

 

Of course, some of these are scenes we've seen before: Tony sits next to an unconscious Sil in the hospital, silently, just as he's done with so many of his guys. Paulie is reluctant to take a top job because he's superstitious, since the others who've filled that post have died before him. But Tony wants him to do it, so he agrees, a grim look darkening his face after he's surrendered to Tony's wishes. It's not just Tony who's trapped in this life for good.

 

And then, we see where it all leads: Tony finally takes a trip to see Uncle Junior, who doesn't even recognize him. When Tony reminds June that he once ran the North Jersey mob with Tony's father, the old man replies apathetically, "That's nice." As Tony strides away, like he can't get out fast enough, we recognize that look on his face: It's all a big nothing. June may as well have told him, "This thing of ours, it doesn't amount to shit in the end, so you'd better enjoy yourself while you can."

 

Afterwards, as Carmela and A.J. settle into the booth with him, we can see that Tony once again feels his luck is changing. In response to A.J.'s premature complaints about his new job, Tony tries to joke around to keep from busting his jaw.

 

Tony: It's an entry-level job. Now buck up!

 

A.J.: Focus on the good times.

 

Tony: Don't be sarcastic.

 

A.J.: Isn't that what you said one time? Try to remember the times that were good?

 

Tony: I did?

 

A.J.: Yeah.

 

Tony: Well, it's true, I guess.

 

Even as Tony agrees, once again, that each day is a gift, this last scene may have been a gag gift sent special delivery to the loyal Sopranos audience. Chase played us like a grand piano, dragging out every suspenseful trick and visual reference in the book. Of course we thought Tony and his family were going to die in a hail of gunfire. There was the surly-looking guy, glancing at Tony, slipping into the bathroom, sure to emerge seconds later with a gun, "Godfather"-style. There was the blasting music, the close-up on Meadow's clutch as she tried in vain to parallel park her stupid car, over and over again, and then almost got run over crossing the street. This was it! Something big was going to happen!

 

But does Chase really want to go out like that, subverting a few decades of mob clich

[embiggen]

maybe you should watch it again

 

why bother. it was boring.

[aricandover]

why bother. it was boring.

 

you're not watching it right, you need to watch it again. it's a grower.

[tongue-tied lightning]

that final scene was full of tention, was Tony going to get it ? were they all going to get machine gunned ? great ending, imo.

 

My only faughlt was the AJ stuff. Here's a charactor that through the years didn't really add much to the show. these last weeks he was getting all the attention. Having him want to go into the army was just showing us that AJ will always be nothing more than a dumb kid. I didn't see why the focus was on him.

 

I loved the Paulie scene, when he sits down at the table and un-zippers his pants.

Paulie had some great lines too, a good send off for him.

 

not much of a finale for Carm.

 

Sil is alive, and we can hope he recovers.

 

A farewell to Uncle June.

 

I will miss the crew, Sundays will never be the same.

 

the only good part of that Cincinnati show was the Joe Strummer song at the start.

[cryptique]

why bother. it was boring.

With all due respect, Jess, it boggles my mind that you could have found that boring.