Sopranos Finale "Made in America"

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by Canuck-Hater

I liked the ending just because you were expecting something epic to happen. You could definately feel the intensity in that diner scene.

Nothing would really be epic enough for the ravenous hoardes of Sopranos fans... that was Chase's dilemma, and that's the beauty part of the ending. We can all believe whatever we want, until a movie comes... if a movie comes.

Personally, I believe that Tony survives a very close call with the NY/NJ conflict, but is even more paranoid, legal troubles will emerge, Silvio will recover, but in essence, life goes on.

Others are free to believe that Tony and family were blown away at the restaurant and we were spared the gory details...

Regardless, the message is "don't stop believing"... believing whatever makes you like the show more.

[Hemi-Cuda]

i see it as a cop out. Chase knew he couldn't make a perfect ending, one that all the fans would like, so instead he makes no ending at all. it didn't even feel like a series closing episode, just another episode among many. very weak

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

i see it as a cop out. Chase knew he couldn't make a perfect ending, one that all the fans would like, so instead he makes no ending at all. it didn't even feel like a series closing episode, just another episode among many. very weak

But there is no "perfect ending"... that's always been the point to Chase's work.

Crime can pay, bad people do get away... sometimes, life just goes on. There's no Hollywood ending here. Life doesn't work that way, and that's what Chase wanted to make... a series that's true to life... that gets right into the psyche of this man, and shows him as a caring father, the product of an abusive family and a ruthless killer and criminal mastermind, all in one. This is too complicated of a show for a simple ending.

Plus, most endings desired would just be a rip off of another mobster movie:

Tony dies when all looks safe...(possibly from someone he trusted)... sounds like Carlito's Way
Tony dies in a blaze of glory... too much like Scarface
Tony retreats to the WPP... Goodfellas?
Tony gets arrested and ratted out... same as in Gotti (and in real life)
Tony wins, but at a great cost... Godfather 3?

Its all been done in these movies, so now, he's done something very different... he just ended it. Boom. Right in the middle of a scene. That's new for the genre.

[Deelow]

I heard the shot 3 endings. It would be cool to see the other two.

[VANFLAMESFAN]

I slept on it and I loved the ending, absolutely loved it. Chase has never been conventional and has never caved into public pressure and there was no perfect ending, there was no ending where everyone would be satisifed, this was like a final "F you for watching" to all the fans and to me, thats priceless. Never been done before and for a society where everyone craves something new and something different, this was perfect. Screw closure, it's overrated.

Best part of the ending was Journey's song playing and right when it goes to black, you hear "Don't Stop".....Perfect.

[Cowperson]

Apparently, according to a radio report this morning, HBO's server collapsed three times last night as millions of e-mails came in complaining about the ending.

An informal MSNBC poll has 59% calling it horrible and 41% describing it as brilliant.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19161059/

Cowperson

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally Posted by Canuck-Hater

Black Screen=A dead Tony Soprano.

It wasn't Tony that got taken out, it was the show. It got whacked when you were expecting it, just like life for guys in the mob.

The black screen with no sound was symbolic of the end of the show, not of the end of Tony.

[underGRADFlame]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Apparently, according to a radio report this morning, HBO's server collapsed three times last night as millions of e-mails came in complaining about the ending.

An informal MSNBC poll has 59% calling it horrible and 41% describing it as brilliant.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19161059/

Cowperson

Add me to the brillant group, Thunderball hit it on the head with his posts. "Chase somehow made it possible for the audience to enter the psyche of Tony Soprano. We became paranoid that something was going to happen."
I always thought it would end with the family sitting down to eat, and it did.

[Cowperson]

LA Times . . . . . not so brilliant.

Chase is possibly the only man in America who could get away with such a thing, and maybe he shouldn’t. While it is one thing to flout the conventions of television, it’s another to flip dramatic tradition, not to mention your audience, the bird. No, he didn’t owe us any neat endings, nor some sort of final word on the nature of good and evil. But after eight years, he did owe us catharsis, some sort of emotional experience that would, if not sum up the entire eight years, leave us with something more meaningful than instant panic and lingering irritation. In the end, the art of writing is the art of making choices. Ending a series with the social weight of “The Sopranos” is not an enviable task, but end it must, and not with the sophomoric gesture of a blank screen.

Yes, people will be talking about the show tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, but they probably won’t be talking about Tony Soprano or any of the work the very fine cast of actors and writers has done over the years. They’ll be talking about how frustrating the blank screen was. In fear of tainting the legacy of “The Sopranos” — if Tony really was just one more truly bad man, some viewers would feel betrayed; if he went from antihero to hero, others would feel the same — if he went from antihero to hero, others would feel the same -- Chase has offered us instead an epic novel with a do-it-yourself ending.

And, of course, the distinct possibility of "The Sopranos: The Movie."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/show...s_fa.html#more

Cowperson

[Lanny_MacDonald]

Personally, I thought this was the single most effective use of the anti-climax I have ever seen in film and video. This was absolute brilliance on Chase's part. He set up the final scene to make you get on the edge of your seat (and I was, even thought I knew how the show would end) and then he left you with nothing. Brilliant!!! This episode has been the buzz all over the country since it ended. There is not a single radio station talking about it. The outrage being displayed is incredible! The Sopranos hit the airwaves with controversy and they leave the airwaves in the same fashion. David Chase and company are freaking geniuses. All they did was guarantee themselves hundreds of millions of dollars (I said to my wife after the show that this will lead to James Cameron type money) when they movie series is shot. The old adage in entertainment is "leave them wanting more" and Chase left a continent begging, no pleading, for more of these characters. Brilliant I say, just f'n brilliant!!!

[burn_baby_burn]

I am fine with the ending. It was the paranoia leading up to the end that was the thriller. For me once Carmella walked into the restaurant I figured everything was fine and nothing major was going to happen. The guy at the counter, the black guys, the other guy pouring coffee. I had a hunch we were being toyed with. Meadow having problems parking the car, was she going to get blindsided? It was pretty good.

The actor that played Vito was on the Howard Stern Show last week. He said none of the actors or crew knew how it was going to end because they shot a few differant endings. HBO used to have commercials for the Sopranos saying "just when you think you know what is going to happen......?" That is one of the things that made the show fun.

Some will assume that Tony died when the screen wen't black. Personally I feel he is fine. But he is going to be in big trouble with Carlo flipping to the feds.

[ricoFlame]

I'm just glad that they didn't take the "dream sequence" route..that definitely would have been brutal. i don't mind the ending, everybody is thinking and there are tons of different theories.

[CaptainCrunch]

I very much doubt that there will ever be a Soprano's movie. The type of pace needed, and the type of plot lines needed to fill a non stop 2 hour movie don't work for the Soprano's.

Its rare that a T.V. series translates to a movie well, and thats why you don't see them that often.

The X-Files was based on long story lines and complex conspiracies, and they tried to jam that into a two hour movie and it failed.

Firefly lost some of its human character that made it so strong on T.V., and fell into the trap of a mass kill off of main characters.

Sex in the City which is rumored to become a movie, and probably one that my girl friend would force me to go to, would be a two hour shoe comparing wine fest about the evils of relationships and casual sex while an old couger like Kim Catrell walks around in bondage outfits for two hours . . . pass.

[Fuzzy McGillicuddy]

I think those disappointed with the ending were hoping to have the series wrapped up in a neat, tidy package. Even though I wasn't sure what to expect, I wasn't disappointed. Life goes on.

The finale displayed their lives continuing, for better and worse, unaffected by the fact that the series is done. The implication was, they will go on as usual. We just won't be able to watch.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy McGillicuddy

I think those disappointed with the ending were hoping to have the series wrapped up in a neat, tidy package. Even though I wasn't sure what to expect, I wasn't disappointed. Life goes on.

I was looking forward to the anti-hero finally paying for his lifestyle, still alive and standing with a smoking gun in his hand after killing the assassin, but with his family dead around him, the only thing he truly places value in taken away from him. And then we would be left to wonder if he would say it was still worth it.

Of course, the ending we saw still allows me to think that might have happened.

Essentially, the author left it to you to figure out the ending which, as the LA Times noted, is a "sophomoric gesture" with a "do it yourself ending."

Time may tell whether or not it eventually wins people over.

I agree there won't be a movie. That's it. That's the way it ends.

Cowperson

[HelloHockeyFans]

A little late, but I just watched the episode, so I thought I'd put my thoughts in as well...

Personally, I didn't hate or love the ending... but it was classic Sopranos to have it end that way... since when did Chase EVER provide closure? His style throughout this series has been to create ambiguity and leave the viewers wondering... and he definitely did that in the series finale. The guy with the DEA hat (presumably a Fed), the Italian-looking fella at the counter who later went to the washroom, the black guys who came in before Meadow... all distractions put there to keep us wondering... as always!

Personally, I think this show is all about the metaphors... those final minutes, with Tony, Carmella and AJ at the table with Meadow missing symbolizes Carmella and AJ always being with Tony... in the sense that the two of them almost have no control of their own lives... as Tony goes, so do they... while Meadow is slowly starting to break away... able to make her own choices and live her life her way.

[BlackEleven]

Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp

It wasn't Tony that got taken out, it was the show. It got whacked when you were expecting it, just like life for guys in the mob.

The black screen with no sound was symbolic of the end of the show, not of the end of Tony.

I like this explanation. Good one!

[Canuck-Hater]

Maybe theres no explanation at all. What you see is what you get, just simply ended with Meadow opening the door, thats it.

[Otto-matic]

was the ending like the season six finale for 24? Sorta like Jack looking out to the beach then a black screen pops up with the silent clock?

I dont watch the Sopranos so thats why im asking.

[Canuck-Hater]

Originally Posted by Otto-matic

was the ending like the season six finale for 24? Sorta like Jack looking out to the beach then a black screen pops up with the silent clock?

I dont watch the Sopranos so thats why im asking.

No. Tony walks into a diner and sits down, the rest of his family joins him while Dont Stop Believing by Journey is playing in the background, suspicious people walk in, nothin doin, then Tonys daughter walks in, the bell hanging on the door rings, tony looks up, screen goes black for 5 seconds, credits roll. Thats pretty much it in a nutshell