Sopranos Finite

One apparently can't have a blog without some sort of comment on the Sopranos today. And since I've seen them all, I won't shy away from one of my own.

I loved it. Not so much right afterward; the person I watched it with and I laughed out loud at the cut-to-black ending. We knew creator David Chase was not going to go out like anyone expected, we just didn't know how. At first it played like a Bobby Ewing wake-up in terms of jerking around an audience.

But it was one of two things: Chase saying we could end things however we want to (unless a movie is coming down the pike) or, more likely I think, that Tony was killed. I'm not the first to reference Tony's conversation with Bobby where they talk about not seeing death coming, that all of sudden everything would just go black. But I don't want to get too into that.

Don't count Nikki Finke of the L.A. Weekly as a fan. She writes:

The line to cancel HBO starts here. What a ridiculously disappointing end lacking in creativity and filled with cowardice to The Sopranos saga....Chase clearly didn't give a damn about his fans. Instead, he crapped in their faces. This is why America hates Hollywood.

My goodness, get a grip here. Because you didn't get total closure? This show has never provided that. I'm sorry it didn't follow a formula, but the best stuff often doesn't. Even better:

...The Sopranos was not a show that went on inside your head. It was a richly visual series whose most memorable moments were graphic and in your face and damn proud of it.


What have you been watching? More than almost any show that's ever been made The Sopranos goes on in your head. It's continually ambiguous, filled with personality details that have no direct meaning on the plot, but are there for you to do with what you will. Endings of seasons are left vague and unsatisfying. My question is, why did you psyche yourself up to expect anything different at the end?

There are legitimate reasons to not like yesterday's ending, but if nothing else, Chase was consistent with what came before. It worked for me.