11:24 June 11th, 2007
Tags: Uncategorized
For many fans, it will be hard to forgetabout the much anticipated series finale of The Sopranos. Show creator David Chase may have penned the ultimate non-ending to the beloved saga of New Jersey crime boss Tony Soprano and his dysfunctional blood and mob families. The abrupt cut-to-black ending divided fans and critics, with many confused and angry viewers besieging HBO’s web site, according to Deadline Hollywood Daily. But it was Chase who ultimately had the last laugh, as hordes of rumored spoilers and theories on how the show would end proved to be fruitless. What do you think? Were you disappointed by the series finale? Does Tony Soprano live on? Are you planning to cancel HBO now that the series is over? Send us your thoughts.
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Very disappointed by the ending. My only idea
- Posted by G coleis the dude going into the bathroom gets the peice
hidden in the loo and maybe shoots tony? Honestly the worst ending to a show I have ever ever ever ever ever seen. i can’t stress how lame that ending was. it nearly makes me hate the whole show. It just destroyed the moment. I hope the writer realises how many people are annoyed and he looses his executive salary.
I think this would of been a great ending. All four of them, Tony, Carmella, Meadow and AJ, should of all been gunned down and killed.
The ending David Chase chose, was suckful.
- Posted by AlexisI think Chase chose the appropriate ending. People who are upset with it aren’t thinking in terms of the show as a whole or the characters. This program never did anything predictably, which is one of the things we all most loved about it: no tidy endings at the end of the hour, no end to the soul searching everyone went through, no easy out. That’s what made it so entertaining and realistic, the fact that it mimics life with all its ambuiiguities and frustrations. After that black screen we know what Tony and the rest of all his families are going to have to wonder for the rest of their lives: is the next guy through the door going to blow my head off? Can I trust my old friend/child/wife not to be in with my enemies? Am I at last going to have to pay for my sins? How? When will this worry end, only when I am finally dead? Chase understood that to be true to his vision he had to end it the way he did, and I agree with his choice wholeheartedly. As a fellow writer I think that he could not in good conscience have ended The Sopranos in any other way and been true to his vision of the show from the beginning. As for those who think there’s no “closure”…since when do any of get closure in real life? Stop thinking cinemactically and try to get the lesson Chase wanted to teach you throughout the show’s run: nothing is certain, and all we can do is accept what life throws at us, move on, and “remember the good times”. For that I will miss the show and David Chase.
- Posted by CeltiaTony gets whacked at the end. That was the final message. The show ends with the fade to black on Tony’s face, the final lyrics “Don’t Stop,” and the ding of the restaurant bell (interpreted as ‘you’re number is up’). If you recall a few episodes ago, Tony remarks that he imagines dying to be like everyhing fading to black, or something to the effect (don’t have the exact quote). Therefore, although nobody is talking about, I think the diner scene can be interpreted as Tony’s death.
- Posted by Greg CherryDavid Chase had the world watching his show, a platform filmmakers and writers dream about. He had the golden opportunity of a lifetime to deliver a moment that no one would ever forget. It was the equivalent of a batter being up with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, fifty-thousand people standing in anticipation, full count, two outs…and looking at strike three. Chase, faced with a chance to write the most memorable ending in television history, instead chose to write no ending at all.
Then 10 seconds of black, to hide deeper in his cowardice, as we thought to ourselves, “was that really it?” This is the biggest fraud in TV history. The entire series put to waste. And if this was in fact essentially an HBO series that start-to-finish is going to serve as a trailer for a major motion picture, then folks, we owe it to ourselves to boycott that film.
Never has there been a more arrogant slap in the face to fans. To put an exclamation point on Chase’s disregard for our time, he had the gall to include a scene with his homely daughter, who we haven’t seen in several seasons, as if to say, “You’ll watch whatever I give you. I’ll put 2 minutes of my daughter in, and you’ll sit there and take it.”
Anyone who thinks this total lack of respect for the fans and for himself as a creative mind is being fooled in the worst kind of way. Release your blind devotion to this arthouse hack and see the light.
You’ve been had.
(I cancelled HBO the following day).
- Posted by Mark E.You are kidding-it is just a TV show. We do not subscribe to HBO because the programming is not worth the extra $$$.
- Posted by John WiegandI thought it was a great ending, or opening to a movie. Either way, it was a great series and I loved it.
To #5, “Ray”: If it is such a tasteless show then why the hell are you reading an entire article about it? What does that make you?
A moron.
- Posted by JohnWhat do you get when one hand types and the other counts money and hyperbolic reviews?
The last several seasons of the Sopranos.
The Sopranos is a perfect example of the importance of first impressions. Like other pathologically overpraised pop culture such as Pulp Fiction, the Sopranos started off better than just about anything of its kind that had come before it, and that strong opener became the rose-colored filter through which the the remaining two-thirds thoroughly phoned-in acting and writing were interpreted.
Even though the downward slide began probably as far back as Livia’s death, no one seems to have really noticed (out loud anyway) that at least a third of the cast — in particular the idiotic Steve Van Zandt, the horrible Robert Iler, comically wooden Steve Vincent and Lorraine Braco — would feel right at home in bad community theatre and that most of the writing was alternately pretentious (who could forget Kevin Finnerty), dull and implausible. And who can count all the unresolved plot lines, as lost to viewers as that fascinating Russian was to Tony’s mob. Then there is the directing, which went from simply lacklustre to thoroughly risible last week when Bobby’s murder was comically intercut with a toy train wrecking.
It’s fitting that the final episode was also the worst, a succession of largely meaningless and dull scenes capped by three minutes of Meadow parking her car while AJ snarfed onion rings. David Chase and co figured out long ago that they could do literally anything and someone somewhere in a high place would call it brilliant. So funny to hear dimwits speculating on what the last episode means, when it’s obvious: the message is, “Kiss off rubes, and btw, wait for the film.’
The icing of course was the premier of John from Cincinatti, another HBO trip into the mind of an insulated, self-indulgent and pretentious writer’s head. Every character is rageaholic and they drop f-bombs every other line, so it must be brilliant.
- Posted by mmCAN’T HAVE TONY SOPRANO DIE IF THERE’S GONNA BE A MOVIE!
- Posted by Jack“The richest achievement in the history of television”, “Paulie and the cat were great”, Phil’s head run over, absolutely brilliant”. You people are absolutely nuts! They ran out of ideas a long time ago and began filling time with those dreadful counseling sessions. My favorite time killer was the wife and a neighbor vacationing in France. Should have been on the Travel Channel. If this is the best, TV’s in serious trouble.
- Posted by P. MasonThe ending was horrid..not because of the plot, or the story, I in fact liked it, life goes on for Tony, he is always looking over his shoulder..that is fine. What has got the fans in an uproar was the stupid cut to black. That just made fans incensed. End it fine, but END IT. We will always have the “Pine Barrens”..
- Posted by RWI was disappointed to see the show end that way. But at that same I thought it was a little cool. The show could have ended a multitude of ways. I think that Chase left it up to the viewer to decide. Let’s face it, whatever ending he picked, there would be a large of people that would have hated anyways. The Sopranos was always about going against the grain and the unexpected. What a fitting way for the show to end.
Plus, how could there be an upcomming “Sopranos” movie if the family or Tony get’s killed off? I think that Chase is setting us up for the movie…which I hope is made really soon because I already miss the Sopranos.
- Posted by Craig SahagianTony is dead because when you get wacked you never hear it or see it coming!
- Posted by Nicky the BladeBest show on T.V.! B.S. The Shield is the best show on TV!
- Posted by Mike Cclose bit no cigar…of the two brothas that tried to clip Tony, one was shot in the head while Tony was struggling for the gun (he intercepted a bullet fired from his buddy’s gun)
- Posted by Joey DThe Nikki Leotardo thing is a good catch, tho.
methinks ’twas the audience who got whacked…david killed us, the viewers…everything went black and silent - for us….the soprano’s lives went on, ours didn’t….the end…jt
- Posted by joan turnerI have never watched “The Sopranos” as I see no reason to glorify mobsters and criminals in the name of “entertainment”. These people are killers and are not worthy of being pop culture icons–it sends the wrong message the same way that rap “music” (an oxymoron to be sure)and hip-hop have created a subculture of “gangstas” that are killing each other and poisoning American kids. It’s just wrong.
- Posted by LimoBarbie