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Television The Sopranos

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I have to say that what I felt more than anything else after the show was confusion. I guess it's supposed to be open to interpretation, but the ending was so random that I can't even really come up with any way to interpret it.

A few things that have me confused:

  1. Tony walks into the restaurant wearing black leather, we see him from the front walking through the door, then it flashes to a shot seemingly from his viewpoint when he walked into the restaurant of him now sitting in a booth wearing different clothing (or at least sans-jacket). I don't understand if this is him metaphysically "looking" at himself, or just an odd scene transition between his entrance and him sitting in the booth. Are they "different" Tony's, or did he just take off his jacket?
  2. Meadow parking the car. What is the significance of her having trouble parallel parking? Why is it so important to show that she was having trouble parking? It seems insignificant. Also, is there some reason that she is in a rush? Some reason more important than she may be a few minutes late? She certainly seemed worried about something; is she worried about being late or worried about something else? Maybe in a rush to tell her family or Tony something?
  3. The final shot. As I recall, it is Meadow running towards the restaurant. It is for this reason that I reject the idea that the scene is supposed to represent the "you don't hear it coming when you get shot" line, as Meadow was outside the restaurant, and the angle that we see her from is clearly not from within the restaurant. Therefore, it couldn't be the last thing that Tony sees before the blackness of death after being shot. Why is it so important that we see Meadow running into the restaurant?
  4. The guy at the bar. It seems we are supposed to get the impression, or at least have the suspicion, that this guy is there to kill Tony. He walked in just ahead of AJ. Are we supposed to believe that he followed AJ to the restaurant? It was mentioned that the scene could be a homage to the scene from godfather where Michael takes the gun from the restroom and kills the two men, but there was no indication that anyone could have known where Tony would be eating, and given that the would-be assasin comes in with AJ, we have to assume that the only way that they knew where to find him would be by following AJ. Therefore, they couldn't have planted a gun in the restroom, nor would there be any reason to plant the gun in the restroom. So what is the significance of the possible assassin heading for the restroom before the episode ends? Maybe because then we know that he will have to pass Tony again before he leaves? I don't know why they set it up this way, or what the signifcance of it is.
  5. The black gangsta-looking guys who come in the front door. Why is this shot included, what is the significance? More potential assassins? Why should it matter that these guys come in? I can't see the significance.
  6. The scene with junior. I don't know what we were supposed to get out of that? That the last generation died out when Junior's memory went? Also, what is the extent of Junior's cognitive degeneration. They seemed to imply that may be his memory wasn't as bad as he was acting because of his reaction to Tony asking if he remembered that he had shot Tony. He didn't say one way or the other, but his facial expression (at least in my opinion) showed that maybe he did remember. And since when was his memory so bad? Was it due to the attack by the Asian guy a few episodes back? Before that, he was doing fine it seemed, or at least no where near as bad as he was in this episode. I'm confused as to the extent of his memory loss, its truthfulness, and what it means as well.
  7. Sil. As I recall, he was still in a coma when Tony was sitting with him. Do we know his chances of coming out of it? I remember them saying it didn't look good, but is there still some chance? And what is the significance of "Little Miss Sunshine" playing on the TV? I can interpret that in a very general way, something like the contrast of Tony sitting next to his comatose long time friend and the mundane and impersonal nature of television saying something about the indifference of the world or maybe the insignificance big-picture-wise of what is to Tony a terrible and painful event, but that seems to be a sort of vapid and very general interpretation. Anyone have any thoughts on any of these points with regards to this scene?

Any thoughts, clarifications, opinions?

All these things just confuse the hell out of me. It's such an intricate and sprawling plot with so many characters that I didn't see how they could wrap it up satisfactorily within just 60 minutes, so I wasn't too surprised to see an ending like this given where they were about halfway through the episode. I wish I knew if they were planning more episodes or a feature film, because I can't make sense of the ending and if I wouldn't even try if I knew that there would be more to the story.

I would love to see a film, although if there are going to be more episodes or a film, they would need to get on the ball with it pretty soon if they want to have access to all the actors that they would need. There is so much they could do with the world they have created. I would even like to see a prequel-type film that shows the story of Tony's father and Junior and young Tony. They talk so much about the past in the show, and it seems to important to the personalities of the characters, but it was never really explored as much as I think it could have been.

Anyway...probably the best show ever, I'm sad to see it go, and I wish to hell that I could make sense of it at least a little bit. :\
 
I think this review pretty much reverberates how I felt about the finale... of course, more eloquently.

'Sopranos' ends with a cut-to-black
Finale follows the pattern of the whole series
June 11, 2007

By MIKE DUFFY

FREE PRESS TV CRITIC

"Don't stop ..."

The golden oldie words of Journey's Steve Perry singing "Don't Stop Believin' " on a New Jersey diner juke box at night, cut off cold, the image of Tony Soprano the last we see on screen, then cut to black.

And that's how "The Sopranos" came to an abrupt halt Sunday night on HBO after seven years and 86 episodes, concluding an unforgettably rich mob odyssey about the dark side of the American dream, curdled.

It ended much as it had begun in 1999 with a bathrobe-clad mob boss Tony Soprano picking up that morning newspaper at the foot of his suburban New Jersey home's driveway, swimming in the mundane details of family life. Tony in a diner booth with his wife Carmela and son A.J., with Meadow arriving late about to walk in the door of the diner.

For some fans, perhaps an anticlimax. Tony wasn't killed. He wasn't in a jail cell. He wasn't on the run.

And the most violent thing that happened to a Soprano family member was sadsack A.J. watching his bright yellow SUV go up in flames in the woods after the catalytic converter ignited a pile of leaves under the car. What a kid.

But true to the heart and soul of "The Sopranos" from the start of its run, the finale, written and directed by series creator David Chase, chronicled life in all the funny, tedious humdrum details of work and family life.

And much of the angst revolved around Tony's nuclear family. But not all of it.

Coming out of hiding and returning to his home, Tony had set up a secret meeting with the top henchmen of New York mob rival Phil Leotardo, who had put a contract out on Tony and his gang. A deal was quickly sealed, allowing Tony's men to track down Leotardo in the night's most memorable hit. Leotardo was shot in the back of the head at a gas station, then crumped to the asphalt where a wheel on his large SUV rolled over and crushed his head. Yuck. Adios, Phil.

So much of the finale, aside from Leotardo's whacking, revolved around those mundane moments in life, the family worries and concerns. A.J. went from listening to Bob Dylan, quoting Yeats and jabbering about joining the Army to being bought off for a hot new black BMW, back to his normal self-absorbed post-adolescent self. Son of a mobster, Tony Soprano, who confessed to A.J.'s therapist, "I never could please my mother." Well, no Dr. Melfi, but Tony keeps on with the therapy talk.

Tony also finally got around to bittersweet visits with right hand man Silvio Dante, flat out in a coma at the hospital. And he also had a melancholy visit with senile Uncle Junior in the mental facility, but foggy Uncle June didn't quite recognize him.

There were funny moments with Paulie Walnuts, who was freaked out by a cat that kept looking at a photo of dead Christopher Moltisanti hanging on the wall at the Bada Bing.

Still the indelible images from the finale were those of Tony, Carmela, A.J. and Meadow just being family -- angst, worries and all. Gathering in that diner, though, Chase allowed moments of dread to creep in as one or two diner patrons looked like they just might have weapons, on a mission to kill Tony. But no. Just Tony punching buttons on the juke box, selecting that corny old Journey song as Carmela and then A.J. settled into the booth with him awaiting Meadow's imminent arrival.

But there was, of course, that telltale loose end that could eventually bring Tony Soprano down. One of his own men from the Bada Bing, Carlo Gervasi, had agreed to testify to the feds.

But we'll never know the outcome. We'll never see that.

And that's why "The Sopranos" was always so great, so different, leaving things hanging, unresolved, loose ends and all, like real life, frustrating and real. And forever memorable.

"Don't stop ..."
 
GreatSpaceCoaster said:
Watch me play therapist....What do YOU think it meant?

i really couldn't get anything past using it as a way to take us to the edge of our seat.

re little miss sunshine playing: the only thing i could think of, well, while watching it the word redemption popped in my head, but i would think there are other films that would be more apropos.
 
DarthMom said:
hey i am not whining! i liked the ending. don't be so coy, tell me what that meant


Not being coy.. David Chase told us exactly what happened... people just need to think it about it more...

Honestly, why did they show us Meadow having trouble parallel parking (hint: think about her career aspirations/Tony's)...

Why did the last scene take place in a family restaurant?

What was the significance of the title of this finale?(Hint: Meadow/ Little Miss Sunshine playing)


Fill the rest :)
 
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Out of curioisity, does anyone know what black & white movie was playing in the background of the Sopranos' living room? I know Chase always picks these films on purpose but I couldn't place it.

edit: It was an old episode of the Twilight Zone. The scene aired on the Sopranos has a man saying: "The television industry today is looking for talent, they're looking for quality. They are preoccupied with talent and quality. And the writer is a major commodity."
 
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Ravr said:
Not being coy.. David Chase told us exactly what happened... people just need to think it about it more...

Honestly, why did they show us Meadow having trouble parallel parking (hint: think about her career aspirations/Tony's)...

Why did the last scene take place in a family restaurant?

What was the significance of the title of this finale?(Hint: Meadow/ Little Miss Sunshine playing)


Fill the rest :)

I'm not sure i follow you there on some of those, but I think a few of them are kind of a stretch...

are you saying everyone was killed except for meadow?
 
what difference would it make?

it's just an alternate ending.

david chase wanted the ending to make you think but christ some of you guys are over-analysing this way too much.
 
yeah reminds me of a high school english teacher who had an author visit her college one year after studying his works. to sum it up, all the over analysing by everyone, and in the end it was a simple remark on a beautiful snow covered hill, without inference of metaphor.

however, this may be different.

just some more food for thought, when clicking through some car radio stations, i came upon someone saying that all the characters in the bar were people who had committed crimes in the past or something like that, i.e. one of them was phils nephew, another group of (black?) guys that had subcontracted out some work before, etc. i only caught the tail end of this, but does this make sense to anyone?
 
Ravr said:
Not being coy.. David Chase told us exactly what happened... people just need to think it about it more...

Honestly, why did they show us Meadow having trouble parallel parking (hint: think about her career aspirations/Tony's)...

Why did the last scene take place in a family restaurant?

What was the significance of the title of this finale?(Hint: Meadow/ Little Miss Sunshine playing)


Fill the rest :)

Some people are interpreting her parallel parking as her finally getting involved in the family business. It took her a few tries, but she's finally in. AJ got bought in and Carmela married into it. Also, some are saying the onion rings, their shape to be more specific, are symbolic. They're a complete circle, and in 8 years everyone's basically in the same place...

Oh, and some are saying that Paulie's the rat, since he has all the cat issues...
 
DarthMom said:
just some more food for thought, when clicking through some car radio stations, i came upon someone saying that all the characters in the bar were people who had committed crimes in the past or something like that, i.e. one of them was phils nephew, another group of (black?) guys that had subcontracted out some work before, etc. i only caught the tail end of this, but does this make sense to anyone?

The columnists from the Inq. and some other people took that theory further and came up with similar ones... Oh, and that's where I got the stuff from my above post from.

LINK!
 
Re Chris:
Chris was also my favorite character. To be sure, he was a violent, hot-headed cocksucker, but of everyone in the crew he was the only one who, deep down inside, aspired to be something other than a mobster. Time and again he tries to get into the movies, through acting and writing, and time and again he's either browbeaten by Tony into quitting or falls back on his own accord.

My favorite scene with Chris is the one from Season Five, when he's at the gas station right after Adrianna told her she was an informant. We see this--apparently--lower class family milling around their car, and the camera lingers on his face as he watches them. As much as he loved Adrianna, he couldn't give up his life for that kind of poor anonymity, and that--to me--is why he turned her over to Tony, not because of his oath. Of course, I could be completely wrong...

Re last episode:
There was a scene last night that interested me that no one has mentioned yet: the one where that Fed goes into Agent Harris's office, tells him that Leotardo's been killed, whereupon Harris looks exultant and says "We might win this!" Was Harris trying to set up Tony all this time under the premise of getting his help in catching "terrorists"?
 
^^ that's what i thought last night when i was watching it.. i kept expecting paulie to turn out to be the rat. he kept making weird expressions.. odd frowns that seemed unlike him.. or perhaps i was just overreaching ;)
 
Ravr said:
WAY more than that... you need to think more about it, and than you will "get" the finale.

Could you please explain? Im curious to your interpritation. As much as I hated the ending Im enjoying going over evry little detail to try and get something out of it lol, its just that I got so much swimming in my head right now because the episode was indeed loaded with a lot of things to make viewers wonder.
 
pennywise said:
I'm not sure i follow you there on some of those, but I think a few of them are kind of a stretch...

are you saying everyone was killed except for meadow?

Indeed. Please explain what you are getting at.
 
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