Opinions Daily

For a show that was talked about being maybe the greatest series in the history of television, The Sopranos ended with a whimper on Sunday night.

Instead of drama and intrigue, we, the audience, got dead air.

Instead of closure for the series, the audience got an open-ended ending that left us scrambling for the cable box.

Instead of a great ending, the audience got a gimmicky one.

For those who don’t know, the Sopranos ended with the immediate family sitting down for dinner at a dner. Meadow Soprano, running a little late because she can’t parallel park, runs into the restaurant to meet the rest of her family, and the camera cuts to Tony. Then nothing. A blank screen for 10 seconds. Then the closing credits appear without music.

The group I watched it with thought their DVR had malfunctioned and scrambled to find out what was wrong. We rewinded it and watched it again. And again. Turns out nothing was wrong except what David Chase calls an ending.

There’s a theory that makes the ending more palatable. It says:

“I am surprised to see that more people didn’t come to the same conclusion I came to watching the final episode of The Sopranos — Tony is dead. That’s why there was a sharp cut at the end. There wasn’t a fade to black, the music stopped, the pictures stopped, there was an instant sharp exit. That’s how you die when you get shot in the back of the head.”

This makes more some sense but still feels like a cop out. David Chase might have been “true” to his vision with this ending, but to me the Sopranos feels unfinished.

Technorati Tags: The Sopranos, Tony Soprano, The Sopranos finale, David Chase

Share This

Write a comment