Meadow was probably pregnant. That guy at the counter was all spooOooOoOoky. Life goes on. Shitty ending. I almost wonder if the point of this whole mini season was to make people not miss the show.

The guy at the counter whacks the small ‘f’ family? Paulie Walnuts goes on to become boss of Phil’s crew? (Jeez, if they thought Phil was nutz …) Did Tony’s shirt change after he walked into the restaurant? Is Sil going Schiavo on us? Will Uncle Junior remember where his money is and give it to Bobby’s kids?

So many questions, but the ending’s kind of growing on me.

The questions that mattered were answered.

Was Tony redeemable? No. Could tony save his family from The Family? No (Carm is ripping off people with her houses, AJ is now working under Little Carmine at the Innefectual Sons of Mob Bosses Pron and Direct to DVD Slasher Flick Factory, and Meadow looks to become a mob attorney and mary into The Family. Does Tony have anybody left that he can rely on? No. (Pauly a Capo, sheesh). Will indictments and whackings lurking around the always be a part of Tony’s life? Yes.

How about the Little Carmine script … a private eye who gets pulled into the Internet (!) to solve crimes involving virtual hookers.

The scary thing is, there’s probably three scripts that follow that basic plotline in production right now.

The ending to the Sopranos was so ambiguous…..

That Ace and Gary went ahead and came out.

And with that I have sinuses full of mucous and I’m going to try and sleep.

I never got a chance to watch Sopranos, as I do not have the cable, but people who have seemed to be of the opinion that this season sucked.

Shortly after realizing that my cable hadn’t suddenly cut out (apparently a common reaction), I decided that I’m in the “love it” camp. This was the exact opposite of the final sequence of Six Feet Under, which for all its relentless cleverness was too neat, too revealing, and too deterministic.

The ending to the Sopranos was so ambiguous…..

Never mind that, anyone notice how hard JG has jumped the shark? Try’n get the guy and his helper to write letters exposing more leftist racism and get that vile despicable bigot fired, or spanked by his professor or thrown out of his mother’s basement or whatever… and you get banned from commenting.

I thought he was all about fighting the good fight. Guess this is what happens when you lose your sense of humour and start hanging out in Second Life.

What the fuck? It snipped my link to the vile and hateful leftist racism.
I see, yet another leftist page that wants to supress the truth.

tinyurl.com/2qdzf8

I’m still too bitter about Rome and Deadwood. At least Sopranos got to come to some kind of reasonable conclusion.

I just wish they’d bring “The Comeback” back. Lisa Kudrow was wonderful.

The last two seasons of “The Sopranos” have left me going “huh?” at the end of almost every episode. I thought it was just cuz I’m old.

I liked it, at least in that it surprised me. I want to go back and watch the whole thing over, though; after nine years I can’t keep track of all the details.

Also, Sil in a coma looks a lot like my grandfather did when he was napping.

OT….

Randall Byrd’s entirely cryptic posts about Jesus’ General actually concern something pretty important and, if I’m reading RB correctly, constitute an attempt to take a pretty awful situation caused by a handful of people (including, it must be said, JG himself) and turn it into an unwarranted attack on Teh Left.

At any rate, the place you actually want to start to figure this mess out is probably here.

It was fantastic. The episode was titled “Made in America” and it lived up to it perfectly. Everyone has a price, Tony was able to find it for Paulie, AJ, and Phil’s crew. The scene in the diner, a composite of this country, was just great. For years now, the show has been exposing the true complicated nature of the characters, and last night was no exception. Revealing that even the FBI agent gets a vicarious thrill through Tony and his exploits was just perfectly fitting. Did he sleep with his fellow agent to get Phil’s whereabouts to Tony? You’d have thought the Devils had won the Stanley Cup the way he cheered Leotardo’s death.

I like it now that I’ve had time to reflect. Initially, I was all “WTF!!!11on31!” But that was because I thought my cable went out. But the beauty of the ending is that everyone is correct; whatever YOU think will happen in the future is entirely plausible. This is the perfect ending to this type of show because Tony’s story does. Not. “End.” However, the big questions that have followed the show since its inception are whether or not Tony is possible of redemption, whether or not he can save Carm, AJ, and Meadow from “this thing of theirs,” and whether or not Pussy could be replaced. And of course the answers are “maybe,” or “probably not.”

That’s life.

I think it is pretty funny that AJ is going to work for Little Carmine; that must be the place where the “special” mobsters go if they can’t cut it on the street. Although, even thought Carmine Jr. is a dumbass, he’s managed to stay above the fray all these years. He had the sense to back off when his father died.

Tony totally spotted the guy in the Members Only Jacket at the end.

I am satisfied with the “end” of the story, and very satisfied with Phil’s fate.

As someone who lives where the final season hasn’t started yet I would like to thank all of you bloody septics for ruining this for me!

The ending was a giant ‘WTF?’ but what ending wouldn’t have been? If Chase had tied it all up with a little bow in some montage of mob hits or FBI raids we’d all be rolling our eyes about how he cheesed out at the last minute.

In a lot of ways, that last scene in the diner was a restatement of the entire series. The family’s pretense to a Typical Suburban Lifestyle juxtaposed against the brutal realities and consequences of what they do to afford that lifestyle. Walking into that diner, Tony, Carm and the kids look just like everyone else. Just another family out for onion rings, same as the rest. But, knowing what we know, we sit on the edge of our seat. Did the guy at the counter go to the bathroom for a gun? Who’s that coming through the door? Is it a hit? Is it the cops?

Yeah, the ending kinda pissed me off, but anyone expecting a tidy neo-Classical denouement for Tony’s character was neck deep in wishful thinking. As Paulie quipped to Christopher when the latter was droning on about ‘character arcs’ and other artificial writerly devices: “You know who had an arc? Noah.”

It was a brilliant ending!! The last scene was from Tony’s perspective, he was whacked from behind and the last thing he sees is Meadow rushing into the diner.

“It was a brilliant ending!! The last scene was from Tony’s perspective, he was whacked from behind and the last thing he sees is Meadow rushing into the diner.”

Or not. I do think it was all from Tony’s POV. However, I also think that all of the shady characters we spot in the diner are just a reflection of Tony’s everyday experience; he is always on the lookout for individuals who could potentially be the end of him – even while having a seeminly “normal” family dinner. This is what I think Tony is doomed to experience. Rather than ending up burning in hell, he will end up forever a part of “this thing of theirs,” looking over his shoulder at potential hit-men, wondering when the Feds will finally take him away, disappointment in his kids and their decisions, etc.

It’s pergatory – which is where he has ALWAYS been.

OR, maybe you’re right; he gets wacked in the back of the head with Meadow his last vision on earth (kinda like how she was his FIRST vision when he came out of his coma).

As someone who lives where the final season hasn’t started yet I would like to thank all of you bloody septics for ruining this for me!

Payback for all the times I read about an ‘Are You Being Served’ episode on the Brit blogs, before it airs on PBS over here.

I agree completely with Dushay. Tony never knew what hit him.

I loved seeing Phil get it. Great scene.

Actually, I thought the ending was pretty solid. Except for the final seconds where I thought the cable had gone out.

David Chase isn’t about resolution — just ask the Russian in the Pine Barrens — so it made sense that he’d leave things on edge. With the indictments hanging over Tony and the suspicious Members Only guy hovering near him, you get a sense of the two threats that are always there for him. And that penultimate scene with Uncle Junior shows how fickle the status of his job is — Tony runs North Jersey now, but look what’s happened to the previous top guy.

And yeah, watching Phil get it was terrific. The reaction shots from the teenagers watching his head get freshly squeezed — priceless.

While you were watching HBO, I was trying to stomach a Cubs-Braves game, and ended up seeing part of Faux’s alleged “comedy� news show. The one with actual disclaimers at the beginning for Faux’s with-it audience.

1. Shorter Faux “Comedy�: Arab names all sound alike, so America was smart to occupy Iraq in response to 9/11.

2. Shorter ESPN: A’s-Giants, Angels-Cards? Hell, no; Cubs-Baves, because those two teams are NEVER on TV.

Anyone recognize the “suspicious characters” at the end? Have they appeared in other episodes?

Randall Byrd’s entirely cryptic posts about Jesus’ General actually concern something pretty important and, if I’m reading RB correctly, constitute an attempt to take a pretty awful situation caused by a handful of people (including, it must be said, JG himself) and turn it into an unwarranted attack on Teh Left.

At any rate, the place you actually want to start to figure this mess out is probably here.

heh.
[Rachel – you are banned. Future posts by you will be considered to be harassment. This is your only warning. I will contact your ISP if you continue to post here using different IPs.]
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patriotboy/7710735016052834648/#423272

Talk about thin-skinned crybaby victimhood.

KInda sad when this guy starts to make sense, eh?

That wasn’t the end. Do you think Chase yelled cut after Meadow opened the door.

You’ll see the ending on a DVD this Christmas in a store near you.

If they don’t I’m still happy with it ending this way.

I would have to agree with Otto Man.

“With the indictments hanging over Tony and the suspicious Members Only guy hovering near him, you get a sense of the two threats that are always there for him”

What do you want, a boutonniere?

“What do you want, a boutonniere?”

Awesome. A glimmer of Junior in the shell of a senile old man.

ugh, david chase laughs all the way to the bank. boo. it would’ve been the same exact message if they’d panned out from the table, everyone there eating onion rings and surrounded by threats real and perceived, with the strains of “don’t stop believin'” in the air. but NO. stupid, stupid, stupid.

(but did they really have to squash a guy’s head? damn!)

The endings derivative nature speaking of platitudes yet revealing the core nature of a humanistic determination may be ambiguous to some but unnervingly paternalistic to others.

Just that Tony Soprano cum Fred Flintstone via the machinations of a ginned up Homer Simpson presented the full realiziation of the id is no excuse for the acceptance of the banal over the substantive.

If that is what this finale leads us to believe, whether in the ephemeral in its truthiness, then we might all be damned.

The more I think about the ending, the more I think Tony died at that table. He was shot in the head in front of his family.

After all that obsessing– all the “what does it all mean” soul-searching and the peyote-induced “I get it,” Tony never sees the assassin’s bullet coming. There’s no fanfare, no music, no slow-motion, no life flashing before his eyes. Just a black screen.

Tony Soprano cum Fred Flintstone via the machinations of a ginned up Homer Simpson

I do not like your slashfiction.

1. yank in london:

i think reading the comments (which, after all, requires you to actively click a button) of a post titled “what did you think of the end of the sopranos” and THEN being surprised by all the spoilers is a bit…(david chase style, i will say no more)

2. david chase has been dyspeptically saying fuck you to the audience for the last year (seasons 6A and 6B).

first you get a dream sequence, followed by “brokeback sopranos” with hardcore gay sex scenes shot in such a way as to piss off macho assholes who like the show and aesthetes as well (unless someone out there [cough andrew sullivan cough] likes bears, i mean joey g is really something). also, pretty much nothing happened in 6A. then, to top it all of, while plenty of stuff happened in 6B, we were pretty much left where we started–a family of assholes who all (other than carm) attempt to discover self-awareness, only to shy away from it in the face of having a lot of money and being able to stomp on people with impunity. and those are the motherfuckers we’ve all been rooting for over these past 7 years, a bunch of stupid whingeing scum.

david chase is sitting somewhere today (it’s nice, wherever it is) laughing at us all. and who can blame him? we wanted him to redeem these characters and he managed not to do so in the most irritating manner humanly possible. bless his evil little heart.

as for journey, he can play that song at the end but the truth is, the real epitapth of that show was uttered by one johnny rotten 30 years ago:

” did you ever feel like you’d been cheated?”

” the more I think Tony died at that table. He was shot in the head in front of his family.”

Yeah, the thing about getting whacked is that you never see it coming.

I wanted to see him use that badass assault rifle he was sleeping with to cut down wave after wave of Phil’s mafiosos, preferrably while standing atop the pool table in the Bad Bing club and clenching a cigar in his mouth. He didn’t, and therefore I am disappointed in the ending. But I have pretty high standards for my television viewing, as you can plainly see.

Well done ignoring the troll, everyone.
The one thing I wonder, n feel half stupid about, is who put that link in the comments. Was it Aunt B or a sixmeat fucktard like this new piece of shit?
(Who might just be Kevin anyhow.)
Remind me not to wade into any more clusterfucks in the future, thanks.

As for the idea Tony got shot, interesting. But it annoys me, to be honest. The ending was a lazy ass cop out, n by giving space for that interpretation Chase just made it easier on himself.
Honestly, I don’t care if he was shot. I really don’t. I’m glad the show is over. It ran out of gas a long, long time ago.

Now the Wire’s final ep, that’s gonna be satisfying. It’ll be a montage, n it’ll be a little cheesy, but it’ll work.

Sohei- you mean the ‘Danny Boy” scene in Miller’s Crossing? Would be cool to see it played out in the Bing. Not Chase’ style, tho.

“Don’t stop.”

FADE TO BLACK.

Tony was whacked. We saw and heard what he saw and heard just before he was killed.

For the record, it cut to black – no fade – which enhances the Tony got his brains blown out theory. However, this would not really be in keeping with Chase’s style. But at the end of the day, everyone’s theory is plausible, and everyone can look back at images to support their theories. It’s brilliant; people will be debating the ending for years – or at least until the DVD comes out with 4 or 5 alternate endings.

Haven’t seen the ending yet so can’t comment.

The Sopranos, The Wire, and Deadwood represent some of the best American television ever produced. If David Milch’s latest effort, John from Cincinatti, is an example fo the kind of programming we can expect from HBO, it won’t be worth the purchase price. To think HBO (and Milch) sacrificed Deadwood for this.

david chase is sitting somewhere today (it’s nice, wherever it is) laughing at us all. and who can blame him? we wanted him to redeem these characters and he managed not to do so in the most irritating manner humanly possible. bless his evil little heart.

In the next to last episode Chase mocked us for ever having wanted Tony to be redeemed in the first place (or just for rooting for his success) via Dr. Melfi’s reading of that paper on sociopaths in therapy. The blaring closeups of the text that finally convinced her that she should cut him off were Chase telling us: Enough already. Fuck this and get a brain morans, you’ve been rooting for a evil sociopath for years now so don’t expect something satisfying next week because you don’t deserve it.” Or the mockery was self directed.

adb: Honestly, I don’t care if he was shot. I really don’t. I’m glad the show is over. It ran out of gas a long, long time ago.

Yup. Apart from a few flashes of brilliance here and there, the show has been on the skids since Nancy Marchand (played Livia, Tony’s mom) died.

It’s all a big nothing.

Lesley: To think HBO (and Milch) sacrificed Deadwood for this.

There’s only one word for the man responsible for killing Deadwood:

COCKSUCKER!!!

All the swearing from a single ep of Deadwood.
It’s fuckin poetry, cocksuckers.

kingubu- Exactly, tho I think 9/11 somehow contributed. Six Feet Under also stank up the joint for a while after it.
The one virtue of Deadwood’s quick exit is it didn’t get to jump the shark. It did slowly decline a little, tho, I think. The first season was just so goddamn good.
Almost makes me glad the Wire won’t get a chance to decline. Every season of the Wire has been amazing in its own right. I think it’s the best show since Twin Peaks, no question.

Many apologies, a different brad.

I didn’t intend to troll-feed. I had run into the story in question on Crooked Timber, felt bad for Scott Kaufman, and was then annoyed that his experience had become troll fodder over here.

Bottom line: one should simply never feed the trolls. No good comes of it!

Sorry again….

I didn’t mean to fault you, IB. I’ve been guilty of waaaaay worse. And that little offshoot of this mess you linked to is genuinely disturbing. Either someone’s having a breakdown, or it’s a wingnut in a mask with a personal bone to pick. Either way, yoiks.

I loved it. The Sopranos: Sometimes crime pays, but it isn’t without consequences, unless it is.

Given all the other manipulations in that scene, I can’t subscribe to the theory that the screen blacked out because Tony was shot. They wanted you to think your cable had cut out. More manipulation. That’s it.

The ending was a lazy ass cop out, n by giving space for that interpretation Chase just made it easier on himself.

No……… a lazy ending would have seen the first 1/2 hour filled with blazing guns, and the 2nd 1/2 hour spent neatly tying up all the loose ends, a la Six Feet Under (err…..without the guns blazing, of course).

Like most, I was a bit WTF at the end, but……..I find myself mulling it over today, and I like it more as time passes. The diner scene at the end: this is Tony’s life. The wife, the kids, the onion rings, the possible enemies everywhere, the threat of jail, of death, of ….maybe nothing, just a gibbering old man in a wheelchair in a prison somewhere. The banality of evil.

As to what happened at the end: Chase left several possible futures open. Great fun.

I think it was lazy. The best element of season 6b was the reduction of Tony’s character to the core murdering, asbestos dumping, gangster he is. I was kind of oddly hoping his small f family would get blown up in a strike meant for him, to reduce him further, leave him alone and paranoid, staring at Uncle Junior as his future.
I’ll grant that the ending was artfully done in many respects, but it seemed too damn self aware and self absorbed. The Sopranos wasn’t life itself, it was a narrative, that could have had a bit more of a dramatic conclusion, instead of the hint of one in an attempt to be all things to all people.

OK, never watched it (even when I had HBO) never will.. But I remember talk of a Sopranos movie, then talk that there wouldn’t be one. Not sure which it is now (as if we could know with certainty) but might this ending be an incentive to almost force a movie to be made?

I liked it. It reminded me of the ending of Hill Street Blues, which was just another day on the hill, basically. The strong implication was that all the characters would be going about their business — we just weren’t there to watch them anymore.

That was the Soprano family at the end — going on with their day to day lives as we’ve seen them for all these years, at once ordinary and on the knife-edge of danger. We just won’t be there to see it.

I think the comparisson to Hill Street is very apt, Ivytree. That was one of my fave shows when it was on. The impression both finales left on me is that “this thing goes on, much like you’ve seen it go on, and the individual players are less relevant than that which they embody.

With the Sopranos I was left feeling like Tony has seen glimpses of his own future, and none of the possibilities are especially pretty. Whether he gets capped at the “blackout,” later on, or never, his life, be it 3 seconds or 30 more years will be the height of dread, madness, disappointment, and loss, mixed in with humorous moments – not necessarily because of the life he has chosen, but more simply because of the man he is.

He is Junior, Janice, Johnny-Boy, and Livia.

But yeah, we won’t be there to see.

I heard they shot several endings. I wish they’d used one!

The moral of the episode? “Parallel parking can be a bitch.”

The moral of the episode? “Parallel parking Steve Perry can be a bitch.�

Fixed

Never watched one episode. Seems I must’ve ( I like it, “must’ve”, sounds so, so manly, so Mafia-like) got “Godfathered” out back in the 70’s.

However, I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night!!!!!

The ending was a bit of a fuck up for the first couple on minutes after the show was over. But I thought it was good. There was a bit of cleverness involved. The last episode of St Elsewhere, now that blew chunks.

I am an addict to “the wire”; best show ever!!!11!!1

Also, “Weeds” very good, but light hearted.

Dexter has a lot of the same quality as Tony Soprano / fucked up good guy bad guy thing.