If you click on this and read it after not seeing the show you are a meatball. I guarentee somebody will and say "why did you ruin it for me". LOL.

I loved it. That suspense that they built up was great. You saw the shady character in the dinner, Meadow struggling with the car and being a sitting duck. The 05 White Sox theme music playing. Great.

I figured out half way through the song it was a build up to nothing happening. But still didn't know. That was a very well done.

Beardown, I know what you're saying but I'm through with David Chase and his BS. This was a chance to give back to fans who were trying to make some semblance of a series out of this confused muddled mess. And he completely underperformed. This was crap. As a writer, I'm ashamed. Watch him win an Emmy for this garbage.

Build up was all the Sopranos was for the last 4 years.

Pay off would have been...apt.

I still haven't finished watching season 2 yet...why did you ruin it for me?


By the way, I haven't finished watching season 2 yet. I guess I'm slightly behind. I did watch this episode and I thought the ending sucked.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

There was resolution. Phil got shot. Tony beat him before he got it. That was it guys. I don't know how hard that is to understand. Now Tony has to defend himself in court.

What was the point of the restaurant then?

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Suspense. That was a great moment in TV history. Everybody in America shut up and was attentive. It drew everybody in.

Anticipation was the key. The end result was not the important aspect of that last scene.

Look. I'm not going to convince anybody if you didn't realize it while it was happening. To each their own.

what was the point of any of it? ohhh...phil got it. wow didn't see that coming.

so tony gets to live the rest of his life. thanks for watching 8 years of the sopranos. tony lives.

No, by the end I had had enough. i was sitting there, arms crossed, just waiting for something to happen. When I saw the time on the cable box I just started shaking my head. ensued.

Ok. WZ. I guess you needed Tony to be shot. That would have had you jumping up and down in your house. Hooting and hollaring. That's fine.

See, that would have been predictable to me. The fact that nobody died was completly least predicted outcome.

agreed. i thought it was perfect.

_________________
@audioidkid

Maybe Tony got whacked when everything went black. He said last week, that you never hear the one that gets you. He gets shot and that was it.

_________________
Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

The problem is that the episode can be interpreted either that he was killed(and therefore it was black and silent) or that he wasn't killed and life just goes on. I don't watch shows to get 99% of the story.

I can think of very few movies and or shows that were improved by giving an ending that doesn't explain what happens in that specific scene.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Right. It could be that the shady guy came out of the bathroom and got him. Sure. It's up to the viewer. So it doesn't matter.

They shot 7 endings I heard. One had Meadow being killed. (Panther posted that here). I just read that now. Maybe initially they had Meadow storming into the booth to sit next to her dad. The shooter comes out of the bathroom quick and gets Meadow instead of Tony. Maybe that was shot and not used.

It doesn't matter. It's over and left for interpretation. That's what the writer wanted. I liked it. Most people probably don't.

No someone died. Leotardo died. REAL surprise.

OK. Here's my problem from the get go: First two seasons, this show was up there with one of the best shows in TV history. Chase's idea was to go 4 seasons. Then they drove a dump truck of money to his doorstep to continue the show. I don't blame him for taking the money. But instead of developing strong characters and strong situations, the show muddled through 3 of the most boring, unfocused seasons I've seen in recent TV history aside from "ER" and "The X-Files". The show lost its purpose, and more importantly, its perspective. It was a satire of not only mob life, but suburban life. Then it became as mundane as suburban life. They started throwing things in, little details about the characters' lives that no one cared about before. Suddenly we're supposed to care about Meadow and her scholarship. Suddenly we're supposed to care about Carmella and her waining relationship with Tony--a woman who was set up as part of the satire of suburban woman/mob woman who is blind to everything.

So then they go through the separation shit. Oh--now we're supposed to care about Tony. The opitome of the caricature of a mob boss, the anti-hero. So we're erasing history and making it up as we go along, now--I see, David Chase. Not only do you collect your paycheck, you're lazy. You don't bother to continue the intellectualism of the show.

Fast forward to the last episode. Forget the slap dashed last season, where they had set up NOTHING--and they threw together some deaths that were supposed to get people talking about how this has brought "The Sopranos" back to "the good ole days". Now you set everything up, you shoot 6 different endings and leak different endings. And NOTHING ABOUT THE CHARACTERS IS RESOLVED.

Everything that was set up from the start has been ignored. There has been no growth from Tony. No growth from the family. We are left with a restaurant scene that doesn't answer anything--and poses no questions.

It's simply LAZY WRITING. I'm not saying you can't enjoy it. I'm saying it brought my piss to a boil and I'm tired of execs and writers getting away with this shit. End your goddamn series the way it should be ended.

No Tony didn't need to die. But something needed to be resolved. Instead it was the same half-assed bullshit that's been going on since Season 4.

It was garbage in my eyes. It was absolutely a throw away episode, and for your last gasp of air--for your last effort--MAKE IT COUNT.

That didn't happen.

Ok. Fine. I understand what you're saying. But that horse left the barn once they went past season 4 and it was taken in boaring directions at times. They had some bad shows. But I still liked it. You're right. The first couple seasons were the best and they went down a little. It would be tough to maintain that level. He took the money and tried other things. I still enjoyed it. They weren't going to tie it back up in this final episode anyway.

I'm just talking about this episode and that final scene.

I realize I've come on very strong about this. I'm not saying that nobody can like it. I'm venting my personal frustration with the show, and that's just how I felt. I was obviously pissed off--I just hate when writers short change their audience. I believe in giving your all, especially when you get the gift that Chase was given. Not everybody gets to see their own show completely through. And the fact that he ended it the way he did, it just was butting the cigarette in my face. I get the fact that he wanted to leave it up to interpretation. The problem is--there has been so much build up--he owed his audience some pay off. Killing off Christopher and Bobby isn't paying off--there was no set up for either death like their was for Pussy. A lot of red herrings, a lot of stuff went nowhere. Especially with the FBI, the terrorists, etc.

So I just feel jilted.

Don't apologize. You can feel any way you want. I'm know you're not alone.

The anxiety that the audience felt in the last 5 minutes of the show is how Tony & his family will live out the rest of their lives.
It was perfect.

The resolution is that in his life there is no clear resolutions. He still has to live in fear that everyone is out to get him.

The saying is "always leave them wanting more".
God knows Chase did that.

_________________
“Mmmm. Move over, eggs. Bacon just got a new best friend - fudge.”

You put it better then I could. I agree.

I swear. I've never been more riveted then in those last 5 minutes while watching a TV show. Plus I'll admit I like that Journey song. So that amped my senses that much more. The words in that song were meant to explain the ending as well. Well, your interpretation of the lyrics in regards to Tony. Obviously. LOL.

He didn't invent this ending style. Maybe for TV shows. But it's been done in movies and books.

I just saw it for the 2nd time and I like it better. The conversation with Paulie near the end was great.

Tony clearly looked at the door as his daughter walked in and the bell rang. Not towords the bathroom like I thought.

Plus they went to black right on the lyrics "Don't stop". Intentional obviously. Could mean many things.

But mostly it means that there will be another episode. A movie or revamping the series. When Tony's real life acting career goes no where.

This was the most retardedly awesome thing I have ever seen, and it vindicated my decision to never watch the show.

Worse than the last Seinfeld.

Amazing.

_________________

Beardown and Doug, I take it you were on some sort of drug while watching the ending and are both white sox fans. That may go down as the worst, most boring last episode of any great TV show. For all the slow moving plot lines that David Chase shit together over the last 12-14 episodes, the fans at this point deserved a better pay off. If you think Phil's whaking did that, then I suppose you can come over and watch paint dry at my house next weekend and be captivated.

W_Z, I am in complete agreement with you on this. I've defended a lot of slow and not popular parts of this show for yeasr because it can be artistic at times, but this was a slap in the face in my opinion.

While I love this idea and initially thought about that after the show ended, TONY and his family did not have any noticeable anxiety in the restaurant whatsoever. Only we did. Maybe it shows they've gotten used to it? Who the hell knows?

If you learned anything it is that Chase never does what is expected, and he won't this time. IMHO there will never be a movie.

_________________
“Mmmm. Move over, eggs. Bacon just got a new best friend - fudge.”

Wouldn't Tony recognize both of these characters?

_________________
“Mmmm. Move over, eggs. Bacon just got a new best friend - fudge.”

So if you figured out "half way through the song it was a build up to nothing", then by definition the "suspense that they built up" wasn't great at all--it was, in fact, non-existent.

_________________

How are anxiety and lack of resolution inherently "perfect" endings? Any ten-year old could complete a short story in the same manner. Would those also be perfect texts as well?

I think there's a difference between a satisfying lack of resolution and an unsatisfying one. For instance, literary critics often refer to the ambiguous endings of The Great Gatsby and The Sound and the Fury as texts whose endings simultaneously resist narrative closure while also engaging the plot symbolically, thereby securing their places in the pantheon of American literature. I personally didn't see that kind of artistic premeditation at work in the Sopranos finale. The episode wasn't operating from a surplus of narrative meaning--operating on multiple aesthetic levels at any given moment--but from a dearth of ideas. The lack of a clear ending in this case seems to suggest the show had lost its focus, lost its perspective and lost its creative vitality.

_________________

I generally agree, but I was specifically responding to comments that the series finale was "perfect".

_________________