Sunday, June 10, 2007

What The Heck Was That?

The Sopranos finale just ended. SPOILER ALERT. Everyone except Meadow is sitting at the table in the restaurant, and Meadow is taking forever trying to park. She finally gets through the door, and...blackout. Blackout. THen credits. No music. I thought my cable was out, but that was the end. Confused as hell. Did David Chase execute the biggest swerve of all? Were they all killed, and we just don't get to see it? Did he just override all speculation and just decide to leave us in the dark, forever?

You don't end a series with a cliffhanger! WTF?!

Is it really the end? Was the biggest swerve that this wasn't the real finale? I don't know what to think.

UPDATE: You know what, after reading the comments over at Althouse, I'm wondering if the feeling in my gut is correct that this a stroke of genius by Chase. In one sense he wants us to suffer, never really knowing, and in other sense he expects we'll be figuring out the ending in our heads for years. Heck, we could just look at it for what we saw: Tony and his family lived. Period.

UPDATE#2: You know what, I think this guy nails it.

UPDATE#3: Well, if you were looking for the big bang finale, it seems the WWE has done it. I was thinking in the back of my head how crazy it would be if something like the limo blowing up happened, and how it would never happen. That's silly. And then it happened. Wow. REally didn't see that coming, that it actually happened, I mean.

3 comments:

DaveG said...

Ah, drat. I saw the spoiler alert, and as I'm waiting for the DVDs to come out so I can watch it all at once, I've been down right diligent in avoiding reading any spoilers, but thought what the heck, I'll see how it ends.

Well, it ends in disappointment. What a downer. I like closure, not hanging chads, if you will. Well, I guess I'm glad I know now, and I can save the time I would have spent watching the whole season. I agree with you: you don't end a series with a cliffhanger. I personally find it cowardly. The writers of M*A*S*H didn't take the easy way out with Col. Blake; this ending reeks of cowardice. Or avarice, I suppose, it they're keeping their options open for future shows.

Rafique Tucker said...

You know what though, I've thought it over, and while it messed me up at first, I'm really starting to dig what David Chase was trying to do. It was a swerve, totally exploding our expectations, and I think the idea was for us to dceide for ourselves, always wondering what really happened.

Or, maybe it WAS a cop-out. Who knows.

Unknown said...

Tony's dead. That suspicious looking guy went into the bathroom and came out like Michael Corleone, guns blazing. It's like Tony said to Bobby -- "You never see it coming."

Either that or Meadow joins them and they all eat onion rings while listening to a crappy power ballad.