The Sopranos

[ramonaq]

littleediebeale said:

Screw you, David Chase you lazy loser. I didn't create the Sopranos—you did. You needed to end it—not me.

That's a good way to put it. I hadn't been able to articulate my thoughts on the episode -- and now I don't have to (speaking of lazy losers, heh heh)! Seriously, though, that is exactly what bothers me about the episode -- he could have (should have) delivered more to us. No, Tony did not have to go out in a blaze of glory, but there were others things DC could have done.

[bloo]

Chase Speaks

[bklynred]

If Chase wasn't so bloody rich, he would've given us a better ending. Stupid indulgent writers.

[Lisa Miller]

Oh gawd. That interview is so self-indulgent. Asshat.

He had a chance to really give the fans and viewers of this show an awesome ending for one of the best TV series of all time and he completely fucked it up. Way to go, Chase.

[abigail]

Link

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Even the cast of the Sopranos isn't privy to just how the astoundingly popular HBO series will end its eight-year reign.

But the Italian crew plans to celebrate that end, whatever it might be, at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood on Sunday night.

If you want to catch a glimpse of the mob family, be at the Hard Rock at 5 p.m. That's when the red carpet rolls out for the cast.

James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Michael Imperioli, Steve Van Zandt, Tony Sirico, Vincent Curatola, Steven R. Schirripa and John Ventimiglia are expected to attend the party, along with 800 invited guests.

At 6 p.m., the party begins, complete with mob-inspired ice sculptures and chocolate guns and bullets.

The finale airs on HBO at 9 p.m. Creator David Chase reportedly filmed three different endings to keep the finale a secret.

Link

There are some great cast interviews from the after party. Edie F. and Tony S. said they were hoping to have their characters die on set. Steve VZ said that he would like to do a Sopranos movie . Pretty cool stuff. They had the cast party at the Hard Rock ( where Anna Nicole died ) in Ft. Lauderdale Florida .

[BinkyBetsy]

Just have to chime in here as one of the few people who loves this finale. If there are any others here, perhaps we could meet in a phone booth.

I didn't want it to end. And I'd been dreading a "that's all there is, there ain't no more" final scene. I'd been saying all week, "Well, it's not going to end with everyone toasting each other, like on L.A. Law. And it's not going to be 'none of it was ever real,' like Roseanne/St. Elsewhere/Newhart. It'll probably be Tony dead but maybe not, like on Dallas."

But whatever it was, I was not looking forward to a clear-cut ending. I feel let down by those, because they usually have to do with the characters reaching a turning point in their lives, which changes the tone of the episode. In this case, though, it was a fairly typical episode (and a darned good one!). Some sense of closure, with most storylines being resolved, but with a few new ones springing up. Then it ended, at a point where anything could have happened, including nothing.

So the story didn't really come to an end. No one was left in peril, so the people claiming to have been cheated are wrong -- they were promised nothing. It ended when it ended, not when it was truly over. It reminded me of the last line of a novel called "The Killing Doll". "Everything that had happened to them had led to this moment, and as they closed together with the knives between them, each gave an equal cry of fear." That was as much as I needed to know. Not how it played out, not what happened afterwards. And if Tony really is dead, I saw as much as I needed to see of that, too.

[Deleted]

I just watched the last episode.

Well, I'm happy the catsurvived.

bloo said:

More speculation:

So here is what I found out. The guy at the bar is also credited as Nikki Leotardo. The same actor played him in the first part of season 6 during a brief sit down concerning the future of Vito. That wasn't that long ago. Apparently, he is the nephew of Phil. Phil's brother Nikki Senior was killed in 1976 in a car accident. Absolutely Genius!!!! David Chase is truly rewarding the true fans who pay attention to detail.

So the point would have been that life continues and we may never know the end of the Sopranos. But if you pay attention to the history, you will find that all the answers lie in the characters in the restaurant. The trucker was the brother of the guy who was robbed by Christopher in Season 2. Remember the DVD players? The trucker had to identify the body. The boy scouts were in the train store and the black guys at the end were the ones who tried to kill Tony and only clipped him in the ear (was that season 2 or 3?).

This makes sense. Remember on the boat Bobbi and Tony were saying "you'll probably never see it coming?". That guy probably came out of the bathroom and when he was looking up at Meadow coming in, that's when it happened.
Black screen, no sound, nothing.

I vote Tony is dead.

[mixtape]

Count me in as loving the finale, and I also don't think Tony was killed. I'm not sure what it is about the ending (the black-out, specifically) that folks are unhappy about. If it had ended in a 'happier' way, with a pulling-away shot of the family eating together and a fade to black, that doesn't preclude Members Only guy from coming out of the bathroom a minute later and mowing them all down. But the presentation of a more traditional ending would suggest that David Chase wanted us to think that all was well with the Sopranos as the show ended. Instead we have to live with the uncertainty as the Sopranos themselves lived with it every day. It's an uneasy ending but I think a realistic one.

Also, The Sopranos is David Chase's masterpiece. He's following his artistic vision; I don't think he would compromise that in order to give a fuck-you to the fans.

[jettrink]

I also enjoyed the finale. But it took me a second watching to get there. I screamed at the TV the first time I saw it. Then I really thought about it, rewatched the next day and now I'm happy with it.

I don't think Tony died. I honestly think they just tried to show us that no matter what, Tony is always going to live his life not knowing when he is going to get hit. He was paranoid whenever the diner door opened. He has to live with "Is this it? Is this when I get hit?" running through his head.

[jennipoo]

I had not watched the last season of the Sopranos (my husband didn't have satellite when we met and we kept it that way), but I did like the finale. That said, the Sopranos wasn't the show to watch because you "liked" what you were going to see. It's not All My Children where the storylines change depending upon the fan mail. In my opinion, there was an integrity displayed in the writing - that was reason enough for me to watch.