Chase is a genius. But it’s cheap, self-serving genius: Look, I’ve got them talking about it all over the world. It’s a sensation! And a lot of them hate me! I’m a notorious genius. True genius would have created an ending that was surprising, realistic, poetic and surreal. A tough order, to be sure, but something that Chase should’ve been able to deliver.
It wasn’t the guy in the Members Only jacket that shot them.
It was the cat. Paulie was right not to trust it. “Suck the breath right outa you” he said, in that very episode.
What, no one else caught that?
:eek:
Holy crap, that was a direct copy and paste of the last paragraph.
Well, part of those lyrics are:
“Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on”
So that could support the theory that life in Soprano-land just keeps going on and on despite the changes.
The more I think about how the ending is left to interpretation and people’s reaction to it, the happier I with “Made in America.” I think I can safely put myself in the brilliant camp.
This may have already been offered (I haven’t read every post carefully to see) but it seems to me that the entire point to the ending was that IF they decide later (for whatever reason) to reopen the issue of “what’s next for The Sopranos?” they won’t have to resort to a lot of bullshit like prequels and dream sequences or flashbacks. They can just “resolve” the ending.
My basic take is that Chase directed the writing staff with one clear objective, “Whatever else we do, we can’t be predictable.”
For me, that worked. I joined in with what I perceive to be at least half of the portion of America who were watching the show. I just said “Damn. What was that?” I thought we had lost signal!
No matter which way you slice it, it was a brilliant ending. Either life goes on for Tony (considering the Journey lyrics: “Oh, the movie never ends; It goes on and on and on and on”) in that paranoid infused perspective we were given… or He was shot in the head with his entire family there to witness, but the audience was spared the horror, and lights went out for us, just as it would have been for Tony. LOVE it.
Somebody on the HBO site noticed the same thing, it went from “just in time for…” to “just in time for dinner”.
Hrmph.
FWIW, I thought it was surprising, realistic, and poetic. And I don’t give a shit about “surreal” (whatever that means, especially in relation to realistic).
I can’t believe how many people seem to be commenting on this leaving something open for a movie.
This isn’t X-Files. It isn’t Pirates of the Caribbean 2.
That was a great ending to a great series, and had just enough closure to the storylines that they had set-up without spelling it out for everyone.
I will mail my left testicle to the SDMB if they ever make a Sopranos movie.
They did change the last sentence in the episode guide. In the last ten minutes or so.
Interesting.
When they showed agent Harris’s reaction to hearing about Phil’s death; stunned, then gleeful, and then the comment about winning, I started laughing and said to my husband, “That is hysterical! The FBI is playing Mafia Death Pool!”
I figured Harris hooked up with the female agent to get information so he could tell Tony where to find Phil. He would know Tony would have Phil killed and Agent Harris could score some points and put Harris in the lead in the game.
Last week many were surprised to find the group of psychiatrists being so unethical by discussing a specific patient. I thought that was sort of statement that even those in legitimate professions get caught up in things and break the rules. They give in to human nature as well. I thought showing the people who are in charge of protecting our country playing a version of celebrity death pool was sort of a parallel to that.
On further thought, perhaps my coming to that conclusion is further proof my friends were right and I shouldn’t be playing Celebrity Death Pool because it has messed up my mind. 
We can quibble about surreal forever. Frankly, I’m not a Sopranos aficionado, and I simply chose four of the adjectives that many people use to describe the series. Toss it, then. I should have been more careful. Still, everyone’s discussing the ending at work today, and they’re having the same debate. Chase has got them talking alright – about David Chase’s controversial ending to David Chase’s brilliant series. I just thought he could do better. And I fully understand that other people totally disagree with me.
What bothers me most is that the type of ending he chose is getting as much talk as what actually happened in the ending. I realize that he did this on purpose. And I realize we could write yards about form and content. It was a shrewd move for David Chase. But it disappoints me nonetheless.
Although the episode was pretty dark I think the funniest lines in the entire series were:
Machs nichs to me whether Tony is alive or dead. All I know is that I am done with TV until Lost comes back in Feb. Woo Hoo! I’m free!
A few thoughts…
Regarding Agent Harris and his “date”, my take was that it was his “friend” in the agency from New York. As she was getting dressed you could clearly see her putting on a badge. All I have to say is Harris way out kicked the coverage getting her in the sack.
Regarding Harris and the “We may win this thing” line, that leaves things wide open too. They had at least one of Tony’s lines tapped as shown in the episode. Maybe the FBI had enough to tie Phil’s death to Tony? Maybe Harris was glad that the Jersey side was going to live to fight another day? It’s open to interpretation.
That brings me to the ending. Again, it’s very open to interpretation. Sure the pieces are there for Tony (or Meadow, since we were following her) to have died at the end. The pieces were also there to say that Tony was never going to be able to let his guard down (see DtC’s post). Heck, Tony and Carm were getting along. AJ was working and had prospects. Meadow had job prospects and a wedding in the future. I say there was enough there to believe that they all lived happily ever after (well… Tony was going to be in court sooner or later) if that’s how you want to see it. To say 100% that Tony died at the end I think is to miss the point. We just don’t know.
Also, in spite of Trunk’s offer of a testicle, I think there’s too much money to be made to completely dismiss a Sopranos movie. No Tony, no movie, thus the ending is ambiguous.
Am I alone in hoping there is NOT a movie? I just can’t imagine that a two- (or three-) hour movie would do anything other than injustice to the hundred-hour work of art that is the Sopranos. I woke up this morning (eh?) thinking of nothing other than the Sopranos. I can’t get the Journey song out of my head. I can’t get work done because I am too busy thinking and reading about the finale. The entire country is gripped by it. And, if the online reaction (and, in fact, my own reaction) is any indication, the consensus about the finale may be swinging from “blech” to “brilliant” as it is given more analysis.
Why mess with that?
No.
And, I don’t get why people approach these things like there has to be one.
Every time some show ends, people start talking about a movie. How about David Chase is an artist, and he just ended THE SOPRANOS the way he’d plotted it out for years? He didn’t leave it ambiguous to leave open the possibility of a sequel.
It’s like people can’t let a show go or something.
There’s not going to be a ‘Sopranos’ movie. There’s not going to be a ‘Deadwood’ movie. There’s not going to be a “Sex & The City” movie.
Shows end.
Badge and a gun, I believe. And given their relative “beauty,” wouldn’t you think that Harris owed her the information (and a bunch of it) rather than the other way around?
Well, Deadwood is a different case, as it was ended WAY too early and even the creator didn’t get closure. I’m hoping that HBO caves to the screaming masses on this one and they get it back up and running, though I admit that it would be difficult now that all of the actors are scattered to the four winds.
There should never be another Sopranos incarnation or spin off. This is where it needs to stop. Cold turkey like.
All I want now from HBO is a 21 hour (3 hrs per book) Dark Tower series. Watch people complain about THAT ending. 
I want a MMORPG based on the Dark Tower series.