The Obligatory 'Sopranos' Post
Woke Up This Mornin', Already Had Myself A Gun...
BIG EFFIN' SPOILER ALERT!!
DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE SOPRANOS FINALE!!
I didn't expect to be able to watch the 'Sopranos' finale last night, but someone at Dish Network screwed up. The satellite box wasn't supposed to be turned on until sometime today, but when I checked it at 11:45 last night, lo and behold, it was on! Guess the check cleared early. At any rate, the 2nd run of the 'Sopranos' finale was on HBO2 at midnight, and I got to watch the thing.
I'm not quite sure what to make of that ending. I don't buy the argument that the "snap to black" was Tony's perspective upon being whacked. That's just too artsy-fartsy for what's been done in the series. Even when writer David Chase was "going deep", it never really got that cerebral. Besides, the Jersey crew had already made peace with Little Carmine and the New York mob, and Phil Leotardo was doing his Rachel Corrie impersonation in that gas station parking lot.
To be honest, it reminded me a lot of 'Seinfeld'. One of the rules the 'Seinfeld' writers had was "no learning, no growing". The characters were meant to be unredeemable, despicable human beings.
In a sense, that's what we got with the Soprano family. Aside from half the crew being dead, for the most part they ended like they began. A little older, but certainly not much wiser. AJ's still a whiny loser, Carmela's willing to trade her soul for real estate equity, Meadow's dating a mobster's son, and Tony? Tony's killed his best friend, his cousin and his nephew, and can still face himself in the mirror each day. That's one cold-hearted SOB, and I'm kinda sorry he walked away with only a possible Federal indictment held against him. Part of me was hoping he'd be taking a dirt nap at the end of the show. Even more appropriate would have been the whole family (plus Janice) out on his yacht 'Stugots', and having the thing blow up.
The scene with Uncle Junior was perhaps the most telling. Supposedly Uncle Jun's sitting on a huge stash of cash, the spoils from a life of crime. In the end, he's got no memory of his former life or family, and is destined to die alone in an institution. When Tony visited Junior to warn him about Janice (and make a play for the $$ stash himself), you got a sense of Tony's future. No matter how well he plans, fate sometimes intervenes to give you that cosmic comeuppance.
I am glad they didn't do anything really foolish, like bring Adriana back, or have Paulie or Tony flip. That would've ticked me off to no end. OTOH, how hard would it have been to pan across the Pine Barrens, and show a mouse-chewed skull with a bullet hole and Russian dental work? That's one loose end that needed to be tied up properly!
BIG EFFIN' SPOILER ALERT!!
DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE SOPRANOS FINALE!!
I didn't expect to be able to watch the 'Sopranos' finale last night, but someone at Dish Network screwed up. The satellite box wasn't supposed to be turned on until sometime today, but when I checked it at 11:45 last night, lo and behold, it was on! Guess the check cleared early. At any rate, the 2nd run of the 'Sopranos' finale was on HBO2 at midnight, and I got to watch the thing.
I'm not quite sure what to make of that ending. I don't buy the argument that the "snap to black" was Tony's perspective upon being whacked. That's just too artsy-fartsy for what's been done in the series. Even when writer David Chase was "going deep", it never really got that cerebral. Besides, the Jersey crew had already made peace with Little Carmine and the New York mob, and Phil Leotardo was doing his Rachel Corrie impersonation in that gas station parking lot.
To be honest, it reminded me a lot of 'Seinfeld'. One of the rules the 'Seinfeld' writers had was "no learning, no growing". The characters were meant to be unredeemable, despicable human beings.
In a sense, that's what we got with the Soprano family. Aside from half the crew being dead, for the most part they ended like they began. A little older, but certainly not much wiser. AJ's still a whiny loser, Carmela's willing to trade her soul for real estate equity, Meadow's dating a mobster's son, and Tony? Tony's killed his best friend, his cousin and his nephew, and can still face himself in the mirror each day. That's one cold-hearted SOB, and I'm kinda sorry he walked away with only a possible Federal indictment held against him. Part of me was hoping he'd be taking a dirt nap at the end of the show. Even more appropriate would have been the whole family (plus Janice) out on his yacht 'Stugots', and having the thing blow up.
The scene with Uncle Junior was perhaps the most telling. Supposedly Uncle Jun's sitting on a huge stash of cash, the spoils from a life of crime. In the end, he's got no memory of his former life or family, and is destined to die alone in an institution. When Tony visited Junior to warn him about Janice (and make a play for the $$ stash himself), you got a sense of Tony's future. No matter how well he plans, fate sometimes intervenes to give you that cosmic comeuppance.
I am glad they didn't do anything really foolish, like bring Adriana back, or have Paulie or Tony flip. That would've ticked me off to no end. OTOH, how hard would it have been to pan across the Pine Barrens, and show a mouse-chewed skull with a bullet hole and Russian dental work? That's one loose end that needed to be tied up properly!
posted by El Capitan | 3:45 PM
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