Am I the only one who feels like there's a bit of Tony in each of us - the greed, the risk-taking, the stroking of the ego, the love-of-instant-gratication?
Hopefully, most of us took those character defects to less extreme lengths than did Mr. Soprano, but the fact remains, to the extent that we live our lives inconsistently with how we know deep down that we ought to be living them (and here's why Melfi's character, who showed us that Tony had good qualities, too, kind of like . . . each of us, was such a crucial character), the closer we are to constructing our own personal hell here on Earth.
And AJ's last line about "let's always remember the good times" reminds us that heaven is not a place far far away, but, rather, is made up of beautiful moments here on Earth.
And THAT, imo, was the genius of the show - we all identified with Tony's character, and thus, genuinely CARED for this mass murderer because we saw that he's a frail human being like the rest of us.
RIP The Sopranos - BY FAR The Greatest Television Of All Time
-- LL
