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How Will The Sopranos End?

#61
Sorry for the tit-for-tat, but IMO:
Greatest ending ever!

Think about it. The only closure would be if Tony got whacked. Would it be exciting if Tony died of natural causes at age 80? If he got led away in handcuffs or thrown in jail? He's already been beat up, gut-shot, nearly divorced. Closure with Phil is enough for me: I literally laughed out loud at his demise.

The imagination is a wonderful thing, and I'm glad Chase left it up to each of us to come up with our own ending. On that note, here's an excellent article in NYT:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/solving-the-sopranos/?mkt=tvlink2

According to one interesting theory (see article), Tony did get whacked... that theory makes enough sense that I'm disappointed. I prefer to be left with the question. David Chase makes a great point that art should provide questions rather than answers.

Sure, one could argue that the vague ending is simply an excuse for a sequel or movie, but I disagree. I think the finale was beautifully done. Why was it relevant that Meadow was having trouble parking the car? There were shady characters in the diner... Tony was keeping an eye on each one, but was it close enough? BTW, that was a nice little emphasis that the life of a mobster is never truly peaceful... that was my thought when I saw the closing credits.

I think it's great that we can write the ending ourselves: Tony got shot by the dude who went in the bathroom; gets jailed on RICO charges; avoids jail and mob conflict but ends up senile like Junior. The closure is that there's no closure. True closure could never have lived up to our expectations anyway.
 
#62
Fuzzbass said:
Sorry for the tit-for-tat, but IMO:
Greatest ending ever!

Think about it. The only closure would be if Tony got whacked. Would it be exciting if Tony died of natural causes at age 80? If he got led away in handcuffs or thrown in jail? He's already been beat up, gut-shot, nearly divorced. Closure with Phil is enough for me: I literally laughed out loud at his demise.

The imagination is a wonderful thing, and I'm glad Chase left it up to each of us to come up with our own ending. On that note, here's an excellent article in NYT:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/solving-the-sopranos/?mkt=tvlink2

According to one interesting theory (see article), Tony did get whacked... that theory makes enough sense that I'm disappointed. I prefer to be left with the question. David Chase makes a great point that art should provide questions rather than answers.

Sure, one could argue that the vague ending is simply an excuse for a sequel or movie, but I disagree. I think the finale was beautifully done. Why was it relevant that Meadow was having trouble parking the car? There were shady characters in the diner... Tony was keeping an eye on each one, but was it close enough? BTW, that was a nice little emphasis that the life of a mobster is never truly peaceful... that was my thought when I saw the closing credits.

I think it's great that we can write the ending ourselves: Tony got shot by the dude who went in the bathroom; gets jailed on RICO charges; avoids jail and mob conflict but ends up senile like Junior. The closure is that there's no closure. True closure could never have lived up to our expectations anyway.
Click to expand...

Meadow and her car is easy... if she didn't have trouble parking it, she'd be inthe restaurant sooner.
 
#63
Relic said:
Didn't see it, never saw a single episode matter of fact... but for what it's worth, I was listening to a talk show this morning where someone tried to explain that Tony did get whacked, and what was shown was essentially getting whacked from his perspective...
??
I have no idea if that's helpful or ridiculous but just thought I'd throw it out there.
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It's a guess just like any other conclusion:D
 
#64
Steve Clark said:
Who wants to take a bet that we'll see the Sopranos on the big screen in the next few years?

Tony is alive, Paulie is alive, Silvio is alive (sorta), Christopher is back . . . as a cat, AJ "when he has some real world experience" can come back and Tony will set him up with a club.

AJ becoming a made man on the big screen would be a good moment. Is Tony's uncle really senile? And we need a new boss to replace Phil Leotardo. Sounds like some script potential there.

How about Pacino as the new boss squaring off against Tony? Oh wait that's another movie.

For what is worth I enjoyed the ending. I was on the edge of my seat. Was Meadow going to get wacked by a truck as she tried to park the car, or run over as she crossed the road, or witness the execution of her Dad by any number of folks in the restaurant? Could have come back on the big screen as the Godmother.
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I thought the cat was hilarious. I laughed out loud when he sat staring at the photo.
 
#66
Brad Johnson said:
Meadow and her car is easy... if she didn't have trouble parking it, she'd be inthe restaurant sooner.
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Please explain the whole parking problem thing to me. First of all, no one can be that bad at parking a car, especially a Lexus. Second of all, why did Chase include this seemingly useless tidbit in the show? To make the show 2 minutes longer?

Brad Johnson said:
I thought the cat was hilarious. I laughed out loud when he sat staring at the photo.
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And the whole cat thing. Is the cat suposed to be Christopher reincarnated? Seems a little ridiculous to me.
 
#67
Jazzin' said:
Please explain the whole parking problem thing to me. First of all, no one can be that bad at parking a car, especially a Lexus. Second of all, why did Chase include this seemingly useless tidbit in the show? To make the show 2 minutes longer?
Click to expand...

You don't know anyone who has difficulty parallel parking?

And why? Two words...

tension.

And the whole cat thing. Is the cat suposed to be Christopher reincarnated? Seems a little ridiculous to me.
Click to expand...

And if you thought that was ridiculous you might've been amused by Paulie's reaction to the cat.
 
#68
Brad Johnson said:
Meadow and her car is easy... if she didn't have trouble parking it, she'd be inthe restaurant sooner.
Click to expand...

Heh. Well, Meadow could have arrived late for any number of reasons that would also increase tension. Why the car? Maybe parallel parking is a metaphor for parallel universes or something.

What can I say, I wasn't all that great in literature classes.
 
#69
Brad Johnson said:
I thought the cat was hilarious. I laughed out loud when he sat staring at the photo.
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Me too. Paulie was freaked out and almost whacked it with the broom, until Tony walked in.

Jazzin' said:
Please explain the whole parking problem thing to me. First of all, no one can be that bad at parking a car, especially a Lexus. Second of all, why did Chase include this seemingly useless tidbit in the show? To make the show 2 minutes longer?
Click to expand...
I think he just did it to add a little tension to what was happening in the diner. Simple as that.

When I watched her trying to park I thought she was somehow going to run over Tony. :D



As far as the ending being "brilliant", I'm not buying it. It's more like a practical joke. Believe me, I fully understand the concept of drawing your own conclusion based on what you perceived to be happening in the diner right before the plug was pulled, but after the credits started rolling I basically felt ripped off.


It's as simple as this:
I sit down.
You're (Chase) telling me a story.
I listen to the story.
You don't tell me how it ends.

I question why.
You tell me it's "art"
I ask, who's Art? Does he know the ending?? Then kick Chase in the baby makers.
 
#70
Chunk-O-Funk said:
As far as the ending being "brilliant", I'm not buying it. It's more like a practical joke. Believe me, I fully understand the concept of drawing your own conclusion based on what you perceived to be happening in the diner right before the plug was pulled, but after the credits started rolling I basically felt ripped off.
Click to expand...

Well hey, we can agree to disagree. I think that Chase was in a no-win situation: there would've been howls of disappointment regardless of the ending. Finally, see the NYT blog I linked above: a very good argument was made that Tony did indeed get whacked, and Chase chose to depict this subtly and gracefully rather than give us gratuitous gore and grief.
 
#71
Fuzzbass said:
Well hey, we can agree to disagree. I think that Chase was in a no-win situation:
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True on both counts :D

It seems to me with a story like The Sopranos, or any story with a mob boss as the main character, you pretty much paint yourself into a corner when it comes to ending the story.

No mater what, the only way to end the Sopranos saga would be with the end of Tony. Just a mater of how and being creative at the same time. Doesn't necessarily mean the death of Tony, but anything else would not have been to dramatic.

So after saying that, maybe I just set myself up for disappointment with any other ending, BUT I would have been more satisfied with a bad ending than no ending at all.

BTW, I did read the link.
Both sides of the perception are interesting and believable, but my point is the way Chase decided to end the series was not a conclusion. I can think what I want happened, and everyone else is entitled to what they believed happened, but it's all BS unless the story actually ends.

Nobody really knows why the chicken crossed the road and nobody knows what happened to Tony Soprano. Talk about a joke, and it's all on us.
 
#73
Chunk-O-Funk said:
BTW, I did read the link.
Both sides of the perception are interesting and believable, but my point is the way Chase decided to end the series was not a conclusion. I can think what I want happened, and everyone else is entitled to what they believed happened, but it's all BS unless the story actually ends.
Click to expand...

As explained in the link, you have your ending if you want it. Every time the diner door opened, the camera first showed Tony looking up to see who came in, and then the door from Tony's point of view. At the finale of the finale, the door opens, Tony looks up, then it cuts to black. Tony's point of view is black: death. Far more elegant ... and creative ... than his brains getting splattered and his family going into shock and panic. Brain splattering is for the villain, not the (anti)hero.

Chunk-O-Funk said:
Nobody really knows why the chicken crossed the road and nobody knows what happened to Tony Soprano. Talk about a joke, and it's all on us.
Click to expand...

It's only a joke to those who didn't like it. I loved it, in part because I believe an inconclusive/subtle ending is far better than a bad ending. To me, Chase is saying "anything that happens to Tony after the gang war is an anticlimax, no reason to go there".

I will tell you this: if Sopranos is brought back for another season or movie, I'll join you in saying that Chase is an a-hole. :p
 
#75
I agree on the parking thing. I understand being bad at parking, but she tries like 20 times.

I dont think Tony gets whacked personally. The way I see it, when Phil dies, its game over, Tony wins. And I bet you there will be either a movie with a proper ending or another season.
 

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