Jun 10 2007
Sopranos Series Final - Sheer Brilliance
So this day has finally arrived. If you are a Sopranos junkie like me, it has been a day that you’ve been dreading for years now. The day of the Sopranos’ Last Episode!
So the polls were out all week speculating different possible ending scenarios. Was Tony going to be killed? Was he going to kill Phil Leotardo? Was Tony going to flip and become an informant for the feds? All possible and all predictable endings.
So knowing that an inevitable ending was inevitable, I wasn’t expecting to be suprised this evening. This was also based on the fact that I thought the shooting of Bobby Baccaliere and of Silvio last week was anti-climatic, and that the ending of the Sopranos, or the possible ending of Tony’s life, would also be anti-climatic.
The writers, in sheer brilliance, gave me more than I could have hoped for. For the last few minutes show, I felt fear and anticipation as they were masterfully building up to Tony’s demise. By filming everything from Tony’s perspective, including the trucker entering the diner; the obivous italian entering and sitting at the bar while looking over his shoulder at Tony as if acknowledging Tony as his mark; Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” playing in the background; AJ quoting Tony to “focus on the good times”; a couple of street kids entering the diner; having to watch Meadow’s failed attempts to parallel park a couple of times before she finally gets it right to head into the diner. It was the most dramatic build up that I can remember experiencing. I felt like I was Tony about to get shot.
So the final sequence of events in the final seconds, the suspicious italian looking gentlemen sitting at the counter, heads into bathroom. Then Tony looks up and sees Meadow outside the window heading into the diner, and then - at that very moment - the screen goes black.
After momentary confusion and thinking that my cable went dead, as I’m sure millions of people nationwide thought, the credits start to roll, and then it dawned on me immediately and I recognized the genius of the ending.
Wow, is all I can say. I was left speechless, and pondering my own ending of the show, as David Chase intended. Did the blackness mean that Tony was shot? An obvious reference to a conversation between Tony and Bobby Baccaliere, aired earlier in the show, that when you die you don’t hear it? Or did the whole family get shot? Did Meadow see something and warn Tony in time? Did nothing happen and did life just continue? I guess it is up to the viewer to decide what happened?
I’m going assume that Tony was shot and the black screen insinuates that he is dead. It will help me bring closure and accept that there is no more Sopranos.
The Sopronos is the best television series of all time. It is my hope that there is no movie in the future, that there is no continuation in the future, that it remains, as it is at this very moment, a perfect series with a perfect ending.
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4 responses so far
That ending was absolutely sucked. It was horrible. No guts
Hmmm…I gotta tell ya, I was COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY feeling like the writers screwed us OUT OF AN ENDING! We had the same reaction when the screen went black - “WTF!! THE CABLE WENT OUT!! NOOOoOoooOoo NOT NOW!” After reading your insight here, I gotta say, I am looking at it in a completely different light. I didn’t really THINK about the whole reference to “when you die, you don’t hear it”….actually pretty obvious tell there too if ya stop and think about it for just one second! DUH! With the conversation at the table….with Meadow having a hard time getting her car parked…..with the glances from the Italian “would be” perfect hitman eyeing the Tony….with Don’t Stop Believing” playing… every single aspect of that scene had you totally on the “edge of your seat” just waiting for the BANG-he’s dead. IT’S OVA! We even thought that maybe the whole family was gonna get popped because of the fact that Meadow wasn’t there and nothing was happening. Thanks for opening my eyes to what the writers MEANT with all that happened! I think I too, for sake of closure, will imagine that the black screen meant THE END of Tony Soprano! HOWEVER, maybe they wanted the door left open JUST INCASE they decide to do that movie or even better, RESURRECT THE SHOW at a later date!
BTW……you said “It is my hope that there is no movie in the future, that there is no continuation in the future, that it remains, as it is at this very moment, a perfect series with a perfect ending.”
IF there was a movie,
IF there was a continuation of the series
Are you saying you wouldn’t watch?
FUGETTABOUTIT!
You got me! I’d watch it! I’m a junkie. I’d still be there opening night if there was a movie in the future. Yes, I’m a walking contradiction!