The greatness of "The Sopranos."

[thedrifter]

Old Jersey Real
The greatness of "The Sopranos."

Friday, June 8, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

"The Sopranos" wasn't only a great show or even a classic. It was a masterpiece, and its end Sunday night is an epochal event. With it goes an era, a time.

You know the story, and if you don't, you've absorbed enough along the way as you overheard people chat Monday morning around what we still call the water cooler and mean as the line at Starbucks. A New Jersey mobster with a family, a business and a therapist makes his way through life. It was a family drama that was a mob drama, but in some hard-to-put-your-finger-on way it was the great post-9/11 drama of our time.

"The Sopranos" first aired on HBO in 1999, but rewatching the first season, there's an air of preamble to it, as if something were coming. Something was, and the show really got its shape and mood from what followed in September 2001. Sometimes this was subtle--Tony goes to his old uncle's place upstate and suddenly thinks about going to live up there where it's safe, where the birds fly on the lake. Sometimes it wasn't--in the bar, he reads from a newspaper story about how unprotected the Port of Newark is. I remember this because at the time I'd begun to worry about the Port of Newark.

That kind of thing happened a lot with "The Sopranos." It was real, Old Jersey real (Satriale's butcher shop, not the mall) and primal. It was about big things, as all great drama is--the human hunger for dominance, for safety, for love; the desire to rise in the world; the need to belong to something, to be a Jet or a Shark, a Crip or a Blood, and have mates, homies, esteemed colleagues or paisans; how we process the hypocrisy all around us, in our families and among our friends, as we grow up; how we process hypocrisy in ourselves.

Because it was primal, its dialogue was pared to the bone and entered the language. You disrespecting the Bing? You wanna get whacked? And other famous phrases, many of them obscene.

The drama of Tony, the great post-9/11 drama of him, is that he is trying to hold on in a world he thinks is breaking to pieces. He has a sense, even though he's only in his 40s, that the best times have passed, not only for the Italian mob but for everyone, for the country--that he'd missed out on something, and that even though he lives in a mansion, even though he is rich and comfortable and always has food in the refrigerator and Carm can go to Paris and the kids go to private school--for all of that, he fears he's part of some long downhill slide, a slide that he can't stop, that no one can, that no one will. Out there, he told his son and daughter, it is the year 2000, but in here it's 1950. His bluster, his desperate desire to re-create order with the rough tools of his disordered heart and brain, are comic, poignant, ridiculous, human.

Tony became a new and instantly recognizable icon, and his character adds to American myth, to America's understanding of itself. It's a big thing to create such a character, and not only one but a whole family of them--Uncle Junior, Christopher, Carmella. This is David Chase's great achievement, to have created characters that are instantly recognizable, utterly original, and that add to America's understanding of itself. And to have created, too, some of the most horrifying moments in all of television history, and one that I think is a contender for Most Horrifying Moment Ever. That would be Adriana desperately crawling--crawling!--through the leaves in the woods as she tries to flee her lovable old friend Silvio, who is about to brutally put her down.

Here is a question that touches on the mystery of creativity, and I'll probably put it badly because I can't define it better than what I'm going to say. David Chase is the famous and justly celebrated creator of "The Sopranos," the shaper of its stories. The psychological, spiritual and emotional energy needed to create a whole world, which is what he has done, is very great. It is a real expenditure, a kind of investment in life, a giving of yourself. You can't do what he does without something like love. Not sentimentality or softness or sweetness, but love. And yet in a way, if you go by "The Sopranos," Mr. Chase loves nothing. Human beings are appetite machines, and each day is devoted to meeting and appeasing those appetites. No one is good, there are no heroes, he sees through it all. The mental-health facility is a shakedown operation where they medicate your child into zombiehood and tell him to watch TV. Politicians are the real *****s. The FBI is populated by smug careerists. In the penultimate show, a table full of psychotherapists top each other with erudite-seeming comments that show a ruthlessness as great as any gangster's. I guess I'm asking where the energy for creativity comes when you see with such cold eyes.

Not that they're unrealistic. They're not. One of the reasons the show was so popular--one of the reasons it resonated--is that it captured a widespread feeling that our institutions are failing, all of them, the church, the media, the law, the government, that there's no one to trust, that Mighty Mouse will not save the day.

In Mr. Chase's world, everyone's a gangster as long as he can find a gang. Those who don't are freelancers.

And what he seems to be telling us, as the final season ends, is that all your pity for Tony, all your regard for the fact that he too is caught, all your sympathy for him as a father, as a man trying to be a man, as a man whose mother literally tried to have him killed, is a mistake. Because he is a bad man. He has passing discomfort but not conscience, he has passing sympathies but no compassion. When he kills the character who is, essentially, his son, Christopher, he does it spontaneously, coolly, and with no passion. It's all pragmatism. He's all appetite. Tony is a stone cold gangster.

There have been shows on television that have been, simply, sublime. In drama there was "I Claudius," a masterpiece of mood and menace--"Trust no one!"-- from which writers and producers continue to steal (see HBO's "Rome.") And PBS's "Upstairs Downstairs." A few others. "The Sopranos" is their equal, but also their superior: It is hard to capture the past, but harder to capture the present, because everyone knows when you don't get it right. It takes guts to do today.

David Chase did, and he made a masterpiece. I'll be watching Sunday night, but I'll wake up that morning with a blue moon in my eyes.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Sopranos Final Season
Slate writer Timothy Noah will be online Thursday, June 7 at 11 a.m. ET to prepare for the Sunday's final episode of "The Sopranos" and takes a look back at the past season of HBO's beloved mob-themed hit.

"Sopranos" Final Season: A Blog (Slate)

Submit your questions and comments before or during today's discussion.

Noah writes Slate's "Chatterbox" column. Previously he was an assistant managing editor at U.S. News & World Report, a reporter in the Washington bureau of the Wall Street Journal, and an editor of Washington Monthly.

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Timothy Noah: Greetings. I'm Timothy Noah, and I'm a participant in Slate's "TV Club" discussion of "The Sopranos." The other participants couldn't be here today. They are Jeffrey Goldberg of the New Yorker and Brian Williams, anchor of the NBC evening news. I'll be glad to take your questions.

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Allentown, Pa.: Hi Tim. Everyone is interested in Tony's fate, but what do you predict will happen to Carmela, Meadow and AJ? Although there is a mobster code of ethics regarding "blood family" ... hasn't the precedent been set in these past few weeks?

Timothy Noah: I've tried to avoid predictions, and focus instead on responding to the series as it unfolds. When you're reading a novel you don't pause to predict out loud what you think is going to happen. You press on with fascination to see how the author is going to end it, and to assess how well he or she pulls it off. That said: Who can resist a little prediction? I think bad things are going to happen to the Soprano family. It may be that Tony dies; it may be he goes to jail; it may be that A.J. goes off the deep end. No matter what unfolds, I think it's safe to say that Carmela will never fully recover from having to face the reality that their family life is based on violence and mayhem.

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Washington: I'm much less interested in the fate of Tony at this point than I am in the fates of Paulie and Phil. It seems to me that this series can end on one of several radically different messages depending on whether Phil's ruthlessness rewards him or leads to his downfall.

Timothy Noah: Yeah, the big question is whether Paulie acted in cahoots with Phil and deliberately botched the hit on Phil. We know from previous seasons that he's played footsie with Tony's New York rivals in the past. If Paulie betrayed Tony, than Pasquale "Patsy" Parisi, last scene running from the hit on Silvio Dante, was probably in on it, too. Which is signficant because his son is dating Meadow. What a tangled web!

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Washington: Why do you think it took until the end of the final season for a majority of viewers to realize Tony Soprano is a psychopath and deserves whatever comes to him in the final episode?

Timothy Noah: I don't think it took until the end of the final season. We've seen flashes of Tony's, er, antisocial behavior for eight seasons. But in this last season we've seen Tony stripped down to his essence. It's gotten harder and harder to look past the mobster to see the loving (if unfaithful) husband and concerned father. I think that's a logical note to end the show on.

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Winter Garden, Fla.: Do you think a feature-length film will ever be produced based on "The Sopranos"? Maybe chronicling the early years?

Timothy Noah: I hope not! The TV series is so beautifully realized. A movie, I think, would feel inadequate because it would only be two hours long, and we're used to having this story unfold in more leisurely, textured fashion. It's a testament to what TV can be at its very best (which it almost never is).

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Germantown, Md.: I think HBO might lose a lot of subscriptions! If Tony Soprano dies ... which I think he will ... will you leave it open-ended perhaps let A.J. live so he becomes the new boss way down the line sometime?

Timothy Noah: A.J. will never be the boss. Meadow, maybe. Though as I pointed out in the TV Club, they've got a pretty low glass ceiling in the Mob. Women seldom progress past prostitute or pole dancer.

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Arlington, Va.: I was a big fan of "The Sopranos" for a few seasons, but then they took some very long breaks between seasons and I lost interest. Did they lose a lot of fans for this reason?

Timothy Noah: A lot of folks found last season tedious. I enjoyed it, though I should confess that I missed a few episodes. (Sopranos fundamentalists will say this makes me a fraud. I say it makes me a not-atypical television viewer.)

_______________________

Southwest Washington: Well, we all know Patsy wanted revenge on Tony for the murder of his brother Spoons, so I always thought Meadow dating Patrick was a little suspect.

Timothy Noah: You'd think a lovely and smart girl like Meadow would have better taste in men. First that wimp Finn, and now a capo's son.

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Washington: Why do writers and critics make such a big deal about a show only 5-10 million people have to pay to watch? There are bad summer reality shows that draw bigger audiences than "The Sopranos." I'm sure the show is compelling to its audience, mostly because of the freedom with sex, nudity and language that writers can exploit by being on HBO, but to the hundreds of millions of people out there who don't watch, what's with all this fuss and attention? There have been far more significant television shows in history, some on network and non-pay cable right now, that don't get half the attention "The Sopranos" gets. Additionally there are far more shows that are better written and produced but are not marketed correctly or never find their audience, but the media continues to prop up a show that delights in playing with its audience with awkward scheduling, long hiatuses, bumping off popular characters and spewing hate-filled, dirty rhetoric.

Timothy Noah: I disagree. I think the show is beautifully written and acted, and I'm delighted that it found a profitable audience, however small compared to network hits. Is it the greatest-ever show on TV? I can't say, because I've missed a lot. Many people prefer "The Wire," but I assume you'd have the same objection to that program, which also appears on HBO. The nudity and language are intrinsic to the plot, and never strike me as gratuitous.

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Reading, Mass.: Will there be a Russian coming out of the woods?

Timothy Noah: I'm guessing not. Terry Winter, a writer for the show who has twice joined our TV Club discussion, says that life is full of loose strings, so why not "The Sopranos"?

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Laurel, Md.: Shame on David Chase for not giving us loyal diehard fans at least a 75-minute episode for the series finale. Or even a retrospect of the series the hour before!

Timothy Noah: Well, you can always buy it on DVD...

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Silver Spring, Md.: I've been enjoying the Slate TV club immensely. That Williams guy -- what a hoot! He's got a bright future for sure. Anyway, my much belated condolences on the loss of your wife, Marjorie, your first "Sopranos"-watching partner. How's it working out watching with your 14-year-old son? Do you ever find any of the scenes uncomfortable? A.J.'s suicide attempt? Obviously, the curb-stomping raised no eyebrows. Is he as insightful as his mom?

Timothy Noah: Will is no slouch in the observation department. He has made an excellent viewing companion. And yes, the more adult scenes have given us much to talk about. But so have the subtle ways that David Chase and Co. communicate the hypocrisy and self-delusion in the characters' lives.

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Richmond, Va.: Why do you think we continue to root for and have sympathy for these characters despite what they do and how they conduct themselves(although I will never forgive Tony for taking Christafu out)?

Timothy Noah: That's the genius of the show. That you can see humanity in the most immoral people. It's something we reporters have a chance to witness on a regular basis. Jeff Goldberg, my TV Club interlocutor, has drawn on his extensive experience covering the Mob, and has some remarkable stories to tell.

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Bethesda, M.D.: I always find it funny how quickly the family gets over deaths. A.J. was surprised by Bobby's death but Christopher was only killed two weeks before and it's pretty much forgotten.

Timothy Noah: One legitimate criticism of the show is that it wildly overstates the frequency with which mobsters "whack" each other and outsiders. The truth is they probably spend more time talking to their lawyers. I'd have liked to see Tony's lawyer become a bigger character in the series.

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Arlington, Va.: I watched an interview with Peter Bogdanovich questioning David Chase on the Season 1 DVD extras, and I've heard that the ending is similar to the beginning. I can see that -- Tony was in serious denial and very depressed. Now it's A.J.'s turn, but I don't think A.J. will stay depressed much longer -- just as the hit on Tony forced a wake up, I think the same will happen to A.J. I just can't wait to see what finally jolts A.J. "back to life." Will it be another near-miss on his life? Or someone else? Or will the threat be enough? And will A.J. finally reconcile his feelings for his dad's business, or will he remain a tortured soul like his dad?

Timothy Noah: I think A.J. is beyond redemption. It's funny, even though he isn't a criminal, I think he's probably the character most people would like to see iced. Such a whiner!

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Hackensack, N.J.: Hi, Timothy. Any thoughts on why Melfi rejected Tony? It seems wildly out of character. She seemed more like a ****ed-off goomahr than a concerned therapist.

Timothy Noah: I think Jeff Goldberg had it right. It wasn't that she changed her mind about whether Tony could benefit in any legitimate way from psychotherapy. It was merely that her prurient interest in Mob life was exposed at a dinner party, and she felt humiliated.

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Columbus, Ohio: What is the significance of Tony alone in Junior's bedroom with the automatic rifle given to him by Bobby? Will Tony kill himself, or is he too narcisistic?

Timothy Noah: Too narcissistic, for sure.

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Re: Meadow: You'd think Meadow's hotness would at least score her better men. But I think it speaks largely to her inner self, as she probably is dating men she thinks she can control after growing up in a house watching her boomingly dominant father figure do whatever he wanted in controlling her mom.

Timothy Noah: That's plausible.

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Henrico, Va.: A lot of friends and family are taking Silvio's death (he might as well be dead) very hard. They think he's the coolest person on the show. What is up with that cardboard cut-out of Silvio in the safehouse Tony and crew are in?

Timothy Noah: Good question. And why haven't they recruited Nils Lofgren to replace him?

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Falls Church, Va.: Have you watched the syndication on A&E yet? Is it as good, or really watered-down? Are body parts blurred out or edited out? Are curses beeped or dubbed over?

Timothy Noah: I don't know. But I once watched a cleaned-up version of "Glengarry Glen Ross" on TV and it was utterly preposterous. I suspect the same thing would be true here.

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St. Louis: Tim, one of my favorite aspects of "The Sopranos" has been David Chase's liberal use of misdirection and "red herrings," particularly in the final season. The FBI/terrorism, Paulie's flirtation with New York, Phil's temporary temptation to leave the game etc. Thus there are a number of mutually exclusive turns that could appear overdetermined in retrospect. I think that if there is any meta-message to "The Sopranos," it is this: Predicting the future is pointless -- there is no way to know -- but we construct narratives that "explain" each turn as if it made sense. Any thoughts?

Timothy Noah: I think you're right. Life is unpredictable, so why not art?

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New York: Do you think another show of "The Sopranos" caliber ever will come along and challange us and make us think like this again? I mean, a weak "Sopranos" episode is better than 99 percent of the stuff that's on TV today.

Timothy Noah: Yes, I do think TV will continue to deliver better and better programs. And also dumber and dumber ones. There's more of it now than ever before, hence the proliferation of both the good stuff and the garbage.

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Bowie, Md.: Three! More! Days! Most of the cast are strong actors. Do you think they will have trouble transitioning to other forms of entertainment (TV, movies, stage) or will they be typecast? (I'm sorry, I can only see Tony Sirico as Paulie -- but at least Stevie Van Zandt has a something to fall back on.)

Timothy Noah: James Gandolfini and Edie Falco have already enjoyed much success playing a number of roles that are very different from the roles they play on "The Sopranos." But I'm not sure I'll ever be able to look at the actors who play Paulie, or Adriana, and think of anything but "The Sopranos."

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Laurel, Md.: It's too bad that Tony never found out about Carmella's hookup with A.J.'s principal while she and Tony were separated.

Timothy Noah: Aw, let Carmela have her fun. Given Tony's philandering, she has it coming to her.

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Richmond, Va.: Even if Tony survives and gets rid of Phil, what is left of the Soprano family? Seems at this point, given the demise of Christopher, Bobby, Vito, Sil and others, they really would be just a "glorified crew."

Timothy Noah: Maybe they'll open a restaurant.

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Beacon, N.Y.: What would you say to Janice offing Tony in the finale? He did threaten to exile Bobby for expecting Tony to help with Uncle Junior's medical costs.

Timothy Noah: Not a strong enough motive.

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Baton Rouge, La.: The glass ceiling may be low for women in power positions in the mob, but you have to admit that the power of the mother and the compliance or noncompliance of women on "The Sopranos" is a strong and powerful undercurrent. Many of the decisions that the mothers/wives/daughters make has shaped the The Family and how it does business. I know there's been talk on Slate that Chase isn't much into sending messages, but I think the role of the mother on the show and how the mother shapes our ability to interact with society positively is certainly prevalent ... The Ultimate Power Position.

Timothy Noah: That's certainly true. Chase definitely communicates the enormous power that women weild in this world outside the Mafia hierarchy. Jeff and I had a playful discussion early on about whether it was even true that the traditional Italian family was patriarchal, given that both David Chase and Mario Puzo say they based their fictional dons on their mothers. See also "Italianamerican," Martin Scorsese's wonderful documentary that consists entirely of his mother and father talking in their Little Italy apartment. Dad can't get a word in edgewise.

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"That's the genius of the show. That you can see humanity in the most immoral people.": I've always seen it the opposite way: that even the most immoral people can live in denial. And how we all do that to an extent, act in such contrast to the high morals we claim. Today a lady with a fish on the back of her car cut me off and slammed on the breaks while flipping me off. WWJD?

Timothy Noah: That's certainly right, too. The self-deception of everyday life is a theme in the plays of Eugene O'Neill, the nonfiction of Joan Didion, and any number of other works. But it has particular piquancy when applied to people who murder for a living.

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Pittsburgh: Is Carmella really smart or really, really stupid? Will she ever be free of Tony and be her own woman? I'm sorry, but the spec house doesn't count. Tony fronted most of the money

Timothy Noah: She's smart and stupid at the same time. That's one of the things that make her a great character. She has no understanding or interest in cosmic questions, or in art (hence her outrage when she learns that A.J. was allowed to read Yeats' "The Second Coming" in college: "What kind of poem is that to teach to a COLLEGE student?" she asked, as if the poem existed only to induce A.J. to commit suicide). Carmela has no sense of humor. She's more attentive to her kids' concerns than Tony most of the time, but she has less self-knowledge than Tony, which is really saying something. And it was laughably easy for Tony to con Carmela into thinking that Adriana simply left town.

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Washington: Tim, frankly I vastly preferred "Deadwood." Lots of psychopathy there, lots of over-the-top filthy language, but many of the characters were historical, or at least nominally based upon real people. Do you think there's ever been a study of how many genuine mob bosses ever went to a shrink? I mean, as they once alluded to in the series, the lifestyle of the Mezzogiorno was so mindlessly agressive and macho that it's pretty near inconceivable that any of them would seek out a psychiatrist.

Timothy Noah: I wouldn't be so sure. Nowadays it's hard to find anyone who HASN'T been to a shrink.

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Such a whiner!: I know, he even made Silvo's shooting about him. ("I was just getting over feeling depressed! How dare Silvio ruin my day! Wah!") He sure deserved that slap Tony gave him.

Timothy Noah: The narcissism is something he inherited directly from Tony, who even managed to feel aggrieved about having to murder Christopher.

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Bethesda, Md.: There are so many comparisons of the original "Godfather" to Shakespeare. Do you see this show in the same light, and as such, do you think it is possible that it will end like all Shakespearean tragedies in that everyone dies at the end?

Timothy Noah: That would certainly work. I'd say "The Sopranos" is more Shakespearean than "The Godfather" because it depicts a larger panorama of human variety. Also, even its darkest moments are often laced with humor. The dialog doesn't scan particularly well, though. Somebody should teach David Chase a thing or two about meter!

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Frederick, Md.: I am (and I hate to use the word) so obsessed with "The Sopranos" that before every season starts I have anxiety dreams about missing the first minutes of the show. I won't answer my phone, and on Sunday I, like A.J., will fall into a deep depression knowing my favorite show of all time will be no more. Thank you "Sopranos" and HBO for the memories. But hey ... whadayagonnado?

Timothy Noah: Dr. Melfi has an opening in her schedule. Maybe you should give her a call.

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Arlington, Va.: I've really enjoyed the TV club -- can you think of any other TV show that would elicit such great discussion? I'm curious about how you'll watch the last show -- any rituals, etc.? For me it will be with great sadness -- this last stretch has been so particularly amazing I can't help but lament it is ending and I don't get to see more!

Timothy Noah: Thanks. Whatever rituals accompany my watching of the final show will be entirely circumstantial. I'll be in the Catskills, on a Slate retreat, so we'll probably recreate the stateroom scene from "A Night at the Opera" in my hotel room. (I'll have the only TV!) Sounds like fun, though I'll miss not getting to watch the denoument with my son Will. Jeff Goldberg will be in Israel. Brian Williams will be wherever Brian Williams is when he's not on your TV screen.

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Tenafly, N.J.: What's with the white shoes motif!?

Timothy Noah: Wiseguys like white shoes. I have no idea why. You'd think they'd be hard to keep clean, because, you know, all that blood.

In the most recent TV Club entry, Brian Williams asks: "What's the deal with the red side of the electric shoe buffer? I get the black side, everybody does. But when I saw Sil (in one of his last acts while standing) using the red side on his white vinyl kicks, it got me thinking."

Maybe it has something to do with those inconvenient smears of blood...

_______________________

Evanston, Ill.: I wonder if you could say a few things about the production values of "The Sopranos," as compared with other television series, present or past. I felt, for instance, that the editing of Bobby's death sequence -- the cross-cutting between the model trains and the shooting itself -- surpassed anything I've seen on TV, approaching the level of DiPalma or Hitchcock. How big of a factor is the budget in making possible the artistry that goes into a sequence like this?

Timothy Noah: No idea. I don't bring knowledge to this enterprise, only appreciation.

_______________________

Timothy Noah: Well, I guess that's a wrap. Thanks for coming by, and check out Slate's TV Club after the final episode. Mostly, I expect, we'll be trying to figure out what to do with our Sunday evenings. Read a book, maybe.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Fateful 'Sopranos'
By Christian Toto
June 8, 2007

Come Sunday, we'll know what happens to New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), the kingpin of HBO's beloved drama. The fate of "The Sopranos" may already be set in concrete. No matter what goes down at 9 on Sunday night, we already know the show has slipped significantly during the two halves of its sixth and final season. A great series has become merely good - at times, ordinary - shrinking the legacy of what was the most acclaimed series of our generation.

Don't believe me? Recall the maudlin scenes surrounding Tony's recovery from a gunshot wound last year, or, much worse, the meandering dream sequence surrounding his bedside vigil.

In recent weeks, Tony developed a gambling habit overnight only to see it vanish when the plotline bored the show's writing squad.

And who could have predicted Tony's complicated therapy sessions with Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) would end as they did last week, with a study suggesting therapy only supports his lifestyle?

In the show's prime, all of the these events would have been handled delicately, engulfing us like waves over many episodes, if not whole seasons - the way change happens in our own lives, one reason we fell so hard for the show.

Not this season. The program's leisurely pace, spiked by the occasional whacking, has been abandoned in the mad dash to wrap up the series before time runs out.

For this viewer, "The Sopranos" legacy has taken a hit - with repercussions for the entire series.

I've been Netflixing the show's second season in recent weeks, since I hopped aboard "The Sopranos" bandwagon later than most.

Now, I might click Season Two off my Netflix queue and go for another series instead.

In our DVD/On Demand lifestyle, a show that overstays its welcome risks damaging its economic afterlife.

Take "Frasier," NBC's brilliant comedy starring Kelsey Grammer as the fussy but lovable shrink. Creatively, the series was all but spent after its seventh season, but on it went until dwindling ratings forced its cancellation.

When I flip channels now and land on a "Frasier" rerun, I often keep on surfing. I might get a crackerjack episode from season four, or a stale one from season nine. Cable offers too many choices for me to take that risk with my leisure time.

Yet "Cheers," the show which begat Dr. Frasier Crane, ended its own run with far fewer artistic compromises despite key cast changes.

Money usually can be blamed for why a show lingers past its expiration date. If the ratings are still better than what any pilot will draw, it makes sense to maintain an existing series on life support a little longer.

But "Sopranos" creator David Chase operated, one thought, under a different set of standards, taking his sweet time between seasons to hone the episodes and calling it quits this season even though HBO still hoped to keep it in its lineup.

Maybe Mr. Chase has one last surprise to unveil Sunday, a revelation worthy of his show's rich past, a capper so ingenious the sins of the final season will be washed away.

If not, we may never look at "The Sopranos" the same way again.

I know I won't.

[thedrifter]

Fini
'Sopranos' swan song is surprisingly sweet, upbeat
Posted: June 10, 2007

If it had ended predictably, it wouldn't have been "The Sopranos."

The one-of-a-kind HBO series, which combined glittering black humor and serious drama with uncanny ease, wrapped up 8 1/2 years Sunday night with a scene of surprising sweetness.

Tony, having escaped Phil Leotardo's murderous minions, met wife Carmela and son A.J. at a local restaurant for dinner, with daughter Meadow on her way.

After flipping through several songs on the tabletop jukebox - "I've Gotta Be Me" and "Who Will You Run To?" among them - Tony decided on Journey's upbeat "Don't Stop Believin'."

The family's mood was equally upbeat, even warm. A.J. reported on his first day at his new job; Carmela browsed through a catalog for her new real estate business.

Shortly before, Tony had gotten some mixed news from his attorney.

There was an 80% to 90% chance Tony would be indicted, the lawyer said - but "trials," he added optimistically, "are there to be won."

Even an uncharacteristically buoyant A.J. reminded his father to "focus on the good times."

Just as Meadow was about to enter the restaurant, the screen abruptly went to black. The song cut out after the words "Don't stop."

It seemed like a nod to die-hard "Sopranos" and even a few cast members who've said they wished the series could go on forever.

Of course, "The Sopranos" being "The Sopranos," there's a less benign interpretation to all this, too.

All through that final scene, the camera lingered on men sitting singly or in pairs around the restaurant. Men who could have been armed. Men who could have been working for Phil, or for the FBI.

After that abrupt fade to black, could everything have gone suddenly dark for Tony? We'll never know. It's no wonder creator David Chase told interviewers recently that many people were bound to be disappointed by the ending.

HBO's Web site was flooded with both negative and positive comments Sunday night. It briefly crashed about an hour after the show's 9:05 p.m. conclusion.

Yet the finale was very much in keeping with TV's least formulaic, most surprising series.

So was Tony's last visit with Uncle Junior, once his mortal enemy.

Now slipping into dementia, Junior didn't recognize his nephew. He didn't even seem to recall Johnny Boy, Tony's late father and Junior's brother.

But when Tony mentioned "this thing of ours" - mob code for the Mafia itself - Junior showed real interest.

"I was involved with that?" he inquired.

Tony told his uncle that Junior and Johnny had once run North Jersey, and the old man seemed pleased.

The final episode was full of the sly asides, quirks and grace notes fans came to love: a mysterious cat out of Edgar Allan Poe, Tony telling Paulie Walnuts that he was a little "miffled" when Paulie turned down a promotion, Paulie remarking at Bobby's funeral that "in the middle of death, we are in life - or is it the other way around?"

Unexpectedly gracious at the end, Paulie - who more than once had seemed to be on the verge of mortally betraying Tony - saluted his boss with, "I live but to serve you, my liege." Or was there a hint of mockery there?

The series always has been haunted by the ghosts of its departed, and the finale was no exception.

Visiting A.J.'s psychotherapist with Carmela, Tony once again mused on his relationship with the formidable Livia.

"I could never please my mother," he told the therapist - who, in a nod to the more recent past, crossed her legs and wore her hair very much like Dr. Melfi, the psychiatrist who last week, in a shocking development, told Tony she was dropping him as a patient.

An old high school friend of Meadow's, Hunter, came back to visit. She told a surprised Carmela that she was halfway through medical school - the road that Meadow herself, to her parents' disappointment, chose not to take.

The episode's music reflected the broad, comfortable embrace of pop culture that was another one of the series' hallmarks.

Before his new SUV went up in flames, A.J. and his girlfriend listened to Bob Dylan's "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleedin')." Pretty amazing stuff, A.J. allowed.

And Chase seemed to be paying tribute to his wife with the song that Tony and Paulie listened to in the truck in an early scene. The name of Chase's wife, like the name of the song, is "Denise."

JSOnline.com Replay "The Sopranos" finale at Tim Cuprisin's blog: www.jsonline.com/cuprisinblog. E-mail: jweintraub@journalsentinel.com

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Sopranos: Some Hate That Ending… I Don't
Warner Todd Huston
June 11, 2007

I have been perusing the message boards tonight to see the reaction to the series ending episode of The Sopranos and it seems the natives are restless. Many seem to feel it is a cop out and that all the creators of the show did was set it up for a possible feature film or a "to be continued" at some other time. They say they are disappointed with this "non-ending."

I can't disagree more.

In fact, I think it is a brilliant ending that befits the entire series.

What made this series is that there was always a sense of foreboding, a sense that violent death could occur at any time. It pervaded the series through and through. At the end of some episodes, when nothing bad happened, you never felt a sense of relief. Maybe a tad bit of disappointment, but never relief. No relief was ever in the offing because there was more to come and the violence and shock was always just around the corner. The tension never let up.

Tony seemed like the lovable rake until he snapped and strangled someone with his bare hands his friends were never safe from either his ire or the ire of those he crossed. This is one of the few series where major characters died in every season. From Big Pussy, to Chris' girlfriend Adriana, to Christopher himself, among so many others, major character's lives were never safe during the run of this show. Just like that of real gangsters who's lives dangle by a thread because of their unsettled and dangerous avocation.

(Warning, spoilers are here. If you have not seen the episode do not read further)

The whole last show was replete with warnings of death. Talismans of death and harbingers float in and out of frame. It swirls around Tony like a whirlwind. Yet, as the show progresses, we come to think he and the surviving members of his crew might be out of the woods.

We maybe even get the haunting feeling that doomed Uncle Junior is still on his game as Tony confronts him at long last in the mental ward. Joon gives a slight, sardonic smile during Tony's questioning. Is he still in there? Playing at the mental case to escape his fate? Maybe, maybe not. We never get a full answer, but doubt remains. Hope remains that he isn't lost to the mists of mental degradation.

AJ seems back on track, Meadow, Tony's daughter is doing well, Sil is not, but at least he's alive. Things might be OK at long last?

The family has all come out of hiding sure that they have made nice with the bosses in New York. It all went too far, they say. It's done. Even the Fed that has occasionally slipped Tony intel over the years accidentally let's his relief over come him in front of another agent. "We WON!", he yelps, only to become self-conscious by the outburst.

Still, as Tony sits down with his family to eat in a highly public, family styled restaurant, we aren't sure it's over. There's that tension still. Something still seems unresolved, something unsettling is still hanging over us. Tony sits with his back to the doors to the bathrooms. A goomba looking man has been staring at Tony from the counter since he entered. What is this guy's problem? Why does he keep glancing at Tony. He seems smooth, not worried. What gives him this sense of resolve? Is he not aware that Jersey and New York have made up? What is his deal?

The goomba lurches past the booth where Tony sits and disappears into the darkness of the doorway that is situated at Tony's back. We see him no more in these waning seconds of the episode.

Meadow is having trouble parallel parking, but finally gets the chore done. She runs across the street to join her family at the booth inside the restaurant. Will she get hit by a car as she hurriedly crosses the street? What seems so uncomfortable? We hear the bell of the restaurant door opening.

Tony looks up with that affable expression.

Then…

The screen goes black.

No music plays as the credits roll.

End series.

WHAT??? THAT'S IT??? Scream these disgruntled fans on the message boards. "This is ALL there is to the ending?", they carp.

Yes, that's it. And I'll tell you why it is brilliant.

This series wasn't really "The Sopranos", this series was Tony Soprano. It is and was all about him. From the therapist's office to the Bada Bing to the kitchen getting coffee to the occasional bloody murder, this show was all about Tony Soprano.

Now, remember a few episodes back when Tony and his doomed brother in Law, Bobby, were talking in that boat on the lake? Remember how they were saying that no one hears or sees the one that ends up getting you in the end? Bobby sure didn't. He turned around in a toy store and two full magazines of 9MM bullets from two New York thugs snuffed him out. He didn't even have a chance to say a word. One minute admiring a toy train the next split second cast into the great here after.

Boom, boom, boom. Over. There was no indication he even realized what was happening.

So, here we have that last scene of the series. A goomba looking man enters a black doorway behind Tony. Tony looks up to see Meadow enter the restaurant at the tingling of the door bell.

Then blackness.

You see, Tony neither heard nor saw the "one that got him".

And, since the show was all about Tony Soprano, when he ceased to be… so did the show.

Blackness.

No more music.

Into the great here after.

Brilliant.

And at long last, the tension is over. And we all get our just rewards in the end.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

A Bang-Up Finale For 'The Sopranos'

By Tom Shales
Monday, June 11, 2007; C01


It may have been the greatest double-take -- by the audience -- in the history of American television.

Millions of viewers who might have thought something had gone wrong with their TV sets or cable systems last night were mistaken. When the picture vanished at the end, the very end, of "The Sopranos" and the screen went black, that was producer David Chase's unorthodox and arguably ingenious way of ending the series and dispatching the Soprano family to eternity.

Chase set up the audience to expect an assassination, perhaps of the whole Soprano family: Tony, Carmela, Anthony Jr. and Meadow, who were sitting in a nostalgically old-fashioned diner about to order dinner. Menacing strangers entered. One went into the men's room, a seeming reference to a famous shooting in "The Godfather" in which a gun was hidden in a water closet.

And then -- while Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" played on a vintage jukebox and the family members made everyday small talk -- the Sopranos disappeared. No shots were fired. Whether they all would have been killed in the next scene, or lived several more years, or even made it to old age, was not specified.

These great mythic characters, who have captivated HBO viewers for nearly a decade, are now suspended in space and the national imagination forever.

An attentive HBO executive who was watching the episode for the second time said the last image, of Tony's face, was seen just as the words "don't stop" were sung on the jukebox. The episode was littered with references to mortality -- life, death, even the Apocalypse in a poem by William Butler Yeats. Only Chase could mix Yeats with the theme from "The Twilight Zone" and Simon & Garfunkel's "Cecilia" played as a cellphone chime and make it all jell.

As always, "The Sopranos" was a catalogue of references from the mundane to the profound, but the finale was the biggest guessing game of all: Who would die, who would live? Fans of the show hoping to see the evil Phil Leotardo get his saw one of the grisliest deaths in the series:

After being shot in the head, Leotardo falls dead to a gas station driveway. The SUV from which he'd emerged proceeds to run over his skull, crushing it and causing his two little grandchildren in their car seats to feel a little bump. It was macabre and bizarre in a way that only "Sopranos" could bring off.

Throughout the episode, Chase paid farewell visits to many of the regular "Sopranos" haunts, including the Bada Bing Club ("the Bing" to its mob owners), Satriale's Pork Store, and the Soprano home once the family felt safe enough to move out of hiding and back into it. In the end, Tony's problem with the feuding mob boss Leotardo was solved with the help of an FBI agent, who could in his way have been as morally corrupt as Tony in his.

But "The Sopranos" was not judgmental. It could be maddeningly neutral and even amoral; Tony Soprano, so powerfully played by James Gandolfini, could be a vicious killer one moment and dear old daddy the next. He loomed a giant figure from the first episode to last night's blistering and shattering finale.

Even posthumous characters showed up or were mentioned last night. Tony's malicious mother is still in his thoughts: "I never could please my mother," Tony said sorrowfully to his son's new therapist. Tony's own therapist, in an unlikely turn of events, dropped him as a patient last week, but now Tony's very, very confused son is seeking a shrink of his own. So the torch is passed to a new generation.

At a mental hospital, Tony visited the notorious old Uncle Junior, who was once instructed by Tony's own mother to kill him and later, in the throes of dotage and Alzheimer's, shot Tony in the stomach. Uncle Junior, dazed and deluded, exists somewhere between the living and the dead.

And Tony's nephew Christopher, whose life Tony himself ended in a recent episode, returned as a photo on the wall that a stray cat for some reason stared at obsessively -- even when the photo was moved to another spot.

HBO has had greater success with "The Sopranos" than any premium cable network has ever had with any series -- not just in terms of audience size but in terms of inspiring conversations, arguments, discussions and re-viewings of episodes.

Wherever two or three are gathered around a water cooler this morning, "The Sopranos" is likely to be a subject of discussion.

It's a classic now, and one that will live on for years.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

No easy ending for HBO's `The Sopranos'
By FRAZIER MOORE, AP Television Writer Today at 8:59 am

Tony Soprano carries on.

The much-awaited conclusion of HBO's "The Sopranos" arrived Sunday night in a frenzy of audience speculation. Would New Jersey mob boss Soprano live or be killed? Would his family die before his eyes? Would he go to jail? Be forced to enter witness protection? Would Brooklyn boss Phil Leotardo, who had ordered a hit on Tony, prevail?

In the end, the only ending that mattered was the one masterminded by "Sopranos" creator David Chase. And playing against viewer expectations, as always, Chase refused to stage a mass extermination, put the characters through any changes, or provide his viewers with comfortable closure. Or catharsis. After all, he declined to pass moral judgment on Tony -- he reminded viewers all season what a thug Tony is, then gave him a pass.

But Chase was true to himself, and that's what made "The Sopranos" brilliant on Sunday night, and the 85 episodes that went before. The product of an artist with a bleak but illuminating vision, "The Sopranos" has always existed on its own terms. And it was seldom tidy.

The only neat development in the finale was that Leotardo was crushed. Otherwise it was perversely non-earthshaking -- just one last visit with the characters we have followed so devoutly since 1999.

Here was the funeral for Bobby Bacala, Tony's soldier and brother-in-law, who was shot dead on Leotardo's orders last week. Here was Tony (series star James Gandolfini) paying a hospital visit to his gravely injured consigliere, Silvio Dante, also targeted by Leotardo.

Tony's ne'er-do-well son A.J. (Robert Iler) continued to wail about the misery in the world, and voiced a fleeting urge to join the Army and go fight in Afghanistan (Tony persuaded him to get involved in filmmaking, instead). Daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) harped on her plans to be a lawyer.

Tony visits his senile Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese) at the nursing home. "You and my dad, you two ran North Jersey," Tony prompts him.

"We did?" said Uncle Junior with no sign of recognition. "That's nice."

Despite suspicions to the contrary, neither Paulie Walnuts nor Patsy Parisi sold out Tony. And neither was whacked. Dr. Melfi, who kicked Tony out of therapy last week, made no last-minute appearance.

Sure, headaches lie ahead for Tony. The Feds are still after him. And Meadow's fiance, Patsy Jr., is a lawyer who may well be pursuing cases that intrude on Tony's business interests.

So what else is new?

The finale displayed the characters 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.

Of course, Leotardo (Frank Vincent) hit a dead end after Tony located him with the help of his favorite federal agent. The execution was a quick but classic "Sopranos" scene: Pulling up at a gas station with his wife, Leotardo made a grand show of telling his two young grandchildren in the back seat to "wave bye-bye" as he emerged from his SUV. The next moment he was on the pavement, shot in the head.

Then you heard the car roll over his head. Carunnnchh! Quick, clinical, even comical, this was the only violence during the hour.

Not that Chase (who wrote and directed this episode) didn't tease viewers with the threat of death in almost every scene.

This was never more true than in the final sequence. On the surface, it was nothing more momentous than Tony, his wife, Carmela (Edie Falco), Meadow and A.J. meeting for dinner at a cozy family restaurant.

When he arrived, Tony dropped a coin in the jukebox and played the classic Journey power ballad "Don't Stop Believing." Meanwhile, every moment seemed to foreshadow disaster: Suspicious-looking people coming in the door or seated at a table nearby. Meadow on the street having trouble parallel parking her car, the tires squealing against the curb. With every passing second, the audience was primed for tragedy. It was a scene both warm and fuzzy yet full of dread, setting every viewer's heart racing for no clear reason.

But nothing would happen. It was just a family gathering for dinner at a restaurant.

Then, with a jingle of the bell on the front door, Tony looked up, apparently seeing Meadow make her delayed entrance. Or could he have seen something awful -- something he certainly deserved -- about to come down?

Probably not. Almost certainly a false alarm. But we'll never know. With that, "The Sopranos" cut to black, leaving us enriched after eight years. And flustered. And fated to always wonder what happened next.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

June 13, 2007, 8:30 a.m.

Goodbye Ton’

By William F. Buckley Jr.

The genius of David Chase, the originator of The Sopranos, was never more evident than in the last episode of the series. I viewed it with an earnest and cosmopolitan young man and his lady, and we wondered, as we waited for the show to start, what would the final act do to Tony Soprano. Speculation in the press had offered three alternative endings: (1) Tony is killed; (2) Tony survives and kills the leader of the other gang; (3) Tony makes a deal with the FBI.

None of these happened. What happened in the final scene was — nothing.

The “nothing” was brilliantly set up. Tony is sitting in a booth in a restaurant. At some point, two burly men made to order for killing fields come into the restaurant and sit down at another table.

Soon Tony’s wife arrives and sits down next to him. Then their son arrives and takes a seat. The only family member missing is the daughter. You are looking at your watch and there are only two minutes left in the hour. Where is the wretched Meadow? Well, we see her. She’s outside, having a hard time parking her car. She doesn’t quite make it into the space on the first attempt, so she has to try again. Backing a car up when there are only nine seconds to go before Pearl Harbor, or 9/11, or Hiroshima, can make for the slowest parking backup in history, which Meadow’s was. But she succeeds, finally, and walks toward the restaurant.

The camera idles toward the entrance, and you rap your watch because it is showing only 15 seconds to go! Then suddenly you are looking at an entirely black screen. The Sopranos is over. And nothing has changed.

That was the genius, the parable, of the most successful television drama in history, giving the viewer hour after hour, year after year, exploitation of sex, exhibitionism, murder, sadism, cynicism and hypocrisy. And, according to David Chase, we are to remember that such is as it is. There was no pictorial, no dramatic end to The Sopranos because its point was to depict life (a) as practiced by the Mafia, and (b) as tolerated, and in fact swooned over, by the viewing public.

What theatrical obligation is there to call an end to it? To do that courts censoriousness, self-doubt.

Commenting on an episode in Year Three (there were eight years total), I wrote of a scene involving a younger member of the gang conspicuous mostly for his fearless swagger. He is enraged when a girl utters an obscenity at his expense. In some detail, we are shown how he hits and clubs her — to death, we discover moments later when Tony comes on the scene.

Tony is angered by his lieutenant’s loss of control and hits him hard enough to cause Tony’s wrist to swell. Moments later, Tony wearily laments the transgression of his junior killer, who in beating the girl mortally committed an offense against the Soprano protocols. The reproach brings instant surrogate action, and we have the pleasure of viewing the quick execution of retributory justice, though for some reason, the viewers were deprived by Mr. Chase of a nice visual of the execution.

The sophistication of the Mephistophelian creator of The Sopranos was never underrated. The language is purely instrumental, even when the dialogue is between Tony and his resourceful shrink. What the language itself doesn’t communicate, facial muscles eloquently tell us. There is no face in Madame Tussaud’s that combines better than Tony Soprano’s the acceptance of irony, the grit of resolution, the trivialization of theft and murder. There is true underworld humor, and you are free to liberate yourself from the drag of orthodoxy as one more pistol shot explodes into the face of a character whose time is up, and who falls under the wheels of a car on the move.

If one of the burly men had opened up in the restaurant with an Uzi, ending the lives of all four of the Sopranos, you’d have felt a quiver of moral relief. Instead, you were reminded by that blank screen that that kind of thing goes on and on, and reminded, also, of its bewitching power to entertain a spellbound, onanistic audience.

Ellie