Sopranos Ending: Freshman Year at Film School.
Posted by
Kevin
Okay, that was awful. I don’t want to hear anything about “not wrapping things in a bow” or “ambiguity” because that wasn’t what happened last night. And, yes, spoilers follow, so read down if you aren’t interested.
Chase did not end the series with any kind of ambiguity, or at least, with any kind of ambiguity that matters. No, you don’t know precisely what happens to Tony at the end, but Chase left enough hints around to let anyone put any bow they wanted on the end of the show. If you think Tony should die, well, the ending, combined with Bobby’s comments about just fading to black — which were emphasized in the penultimate episode — let you think he died. If you think he was going to jail, the final scene’s tension combined with the news of Carlos’ grand jury testimony let you think that he was about to be picked up. If you want to believe that Tony continues to muddle along while slowly corrupting and destroying the things around him, A.J.’s sudden conversion to materialism and Meadow’s slow drift into Mob lawyer-land and the plight of Bobby’s poor kids let you believe that as well. That’s not ambiguity — that is pandering.
Chase and his staff created a rich show with fascinating characters and events. Those characters and those events have different importance and meaning depending upon which ending you imagine for the show. Instead of trusting his viewers to think, to re-examine the show in the light of an ending, Chase did the worst kind of pandering. He gave enough evidence to support any conclusion anyone wants to believe and in doing so stole from the audience the pleasure of having to think about what they have just seen. Since you can choose your own ending, you can — and probably will — choose the ending that best fits your desires, pre-conceived notions, and biases. Chase did wrap the show up in a nice, net little package — he just let you choose the wrapping paper.
And that’s a shame. Chase indulged in the kind of pretentious self-indulgence that gets first year film students Fs. He could have trusted his audience, trusted in his story and the structure and characters that he and his writers and actors had created over the last several years. He could have given us something like Rashamon; instead he gave us something like a “choose your adventure” book. The Sopranos could have been truly great. Chase settled for just truly pretentious.
[…] The smart opinions about the Sopranos finale are split — some people hated it, some thought it “perfect.” At least one blogger has already posted on both sides, first con, then pro. […]
Pingback 6/11/2007
100% agreement here, this is not that Jeremy Irons film.. oh heck gotta look it up…. Reversal of fortune where the drama centers around the court case and the ambiguity of the facts provide us with a feeling of doubt that the film makers were aiming for. It was just a cop-out. Even if there are plans for a movie, this was a stupid stupid stupid ending.
Comment 6/11/2007
I completely disagree with your assessment that the Soprano’s final scene was prententious. This has always been, first and foremost, a psychological drama. It now has a psychological ending. What the viewer’s mind fills in will say much about the viewer. A dramatic Rorschach Test if you will. And, as all of the stories are told from Tony’s point of view, his death would be just as sudden. It “went dark” for Phil Leotardo in mid-sentence. Why would it be any different for Tony? A perfectly UNpretentious ending if you ask me.
Comment 6/11/2007
Ah, just like it’s HBO sister show, Sex and the City…
In it’s prime it was a great show, historically good television. But, it became a victim of its own popularity and stretched four seasons worth of great story into six seasons worth of very good story (so it could continue printing money), and then ended by reinforcing so many of the stereotypes it was disproving at its peak.
Full disclosure: I stopped watching it regularly midway through season five, when I constantly wound up asking myself why I was blocking out time in my schedule for what was often a mediocre viewing experience. If you ask me, the “need to be in the know” kept it going for the last two seasons, because on it’s own merits, it had taken a nosedive.
Comment 6/11/2007
As I said — though not quite as pithily — on my own blog, Chase gave us closure in terms of character rather than plot. We don’t know what happens to the characters going forward (though I do agree with O’Grady that he probably did tell us what happened to Tony), but we know everything there is to know about them as people.
In the final episode, Chase took us around to visit one last time with each of the surviving major characters, and showed us (again) just who they are. There are no surprises left in any of them, no capacity for redemption or renewal. They’re going to live out the rest of their squalid lives according to the squalid scripts they’ve written for themselves.
There won’t be a movie because there’s nothing left to say.
Comment 6/11/2007
O’Grady
First, the story hasn’t been told from Tony’s point of view — its been told form a lot of points of view. Second, as I said: yes, you could believe that — but there is enough evidence to believe something else. You choose one set of wrapping paper, I choose another.
Brooklynite
That is more supportable, but plot and action are still tied to characters. The endings, and the shape of the characters, are vastly different if Tony is killed than if he is arrested than if he continues his life as we have seen for the last eight years.
Comment 6/11/2007
My opinion is any worthwhile series is not/can not be defined by its final episode. Therefore, the same criteria used to judge the previous versions should be used to judge the last one. Up until the last one second of the show, I thought this one was consistent with the rest of the season (which for me is to say several notches below previous seasons).
Having said that, I thought the final scene was very well done in terms of building tension. Reminded me of a Hitchcock film.
Perhaps the best ending of a final episode of a long-running television series was the very end of the Newhart show. I can recall it as vividly today as when I saw it maybe 20 years ago. I think the way Sopranos ended will probably stick with some viewers for many years as well.
Comment 6/11/2007
The show was never really about Tony or his family, it was about the viewers and their romantic fascination with organized crime. And so the ending isn’t really about the show’s lack of closure, it’s about the audiences reaction to it.
Comment 6/11/2007
Ted:
Perhaps the best ending of a final episode of a long-running television series was the very end of the Newhart show.
I agree wholeheartedly. But was it really 20 years ago?!?
Comment 6/11/2007
If we’re going to talk about best final episodes, I must pay homage to Six Feet Under. While I agree Newhart is up there and maybe St. Elsewhere, 6FU was absolutely the the most fitting series finale for the storyline.
Comment 6/11/2007
[…] Oh, and apparently I’m one of the millions who thought something had gone wrong because of the way The Sopranos final episode ended (an anti-ending ending, one blogger put it) -and has sparked a furious debate among fans (what really happened?). Missed the easter egg, too. So even as critics analyze the final episode, debate on how effective or artistically sound it was, or viewers denounce how it concluded, others point out an epic has ended and what did it all mean? […]
Pingback 6/11/2007
If you want something wrapped up in a bow, go to netflix and rent Cleaver or Anti-Virus. Those movies are made with your IQ in mind.
Comment 6/12/2007
Chrissy, is da you? Commenting from the great beyond? I seen the Mother Mary in the Bing, and now this, hearing from you. T would never believe me.
I’ll never forget that time we whacked that Russian interior decorator in the woods. Thems were good times.
Say hello to Ma for me if you see her.
Paulie
Comment 6/12/2007
I am one of the few that thought the ending was great. I didn’t see Tony getting whacked. The end was that Tony would keep being Tony. Charges wouldn’t stick and life would go on.
Wasn’t the point of the Sopranos that crime is inevitable?
It wasn’t as much a morality play as it was a mirror on life in New Jersey. Just another tax that had to be paid. But instead of nasty grams from the .gov in the mail Paulie comes over with a baseball bat if you hadn’t paid the vic.
Life in Jersey. Tony, or someone like Tony, would assess a tribute and if you like having you knees work correctly you would pay up.
In the end we see there is no end. It just keeps going.
Comment 6/18/2007