Final Finale Thoughts
The web has been full of speculation on what the ending of The Sopranos meant. I don't have anything to add to all the ingenious theorizing, except to say I come down on the side of ambiguity. I don't believe series creator David Chase knows what happened to Tony, but simply isn't telling.
Supposedly, he's known how he wanted to end the series for a long time. And while he could have gone for a definite ending--life goes on, everything's closing in on Tony, Tony gets whacked, the audience gets whacked, etc.--Chase put in all the possibilities and wanted us to ruminate on it. Any way we want it. And to judge by all the discussion it's caused, I think he succeeded.
Ambiguity is no fun, and, to be honest, not usually a great way to end a dramatic work. But if The Sopranos didn't have a Lady Or The Tiger ending, we'd have something much worse--Chase wanting us to believe something, but his writing and directing being so cryptic (or incompetent) that we can't tell what it is.
posted by LAGuy @ 1:56 AM
2 Comments:
THanks LAGuy- I haven't written on this subject because there didn't seem to be any new angles I could add. The fact that people are still talking about it days later shows David Chase continues to fascinate even as he enrages or disappoints (to some at least--The local sports radio station solons have been saying The Sopranos has sucked for 3or 4 years new- but they took time every Monday morning to go on & on about that)
Over time I find I liked the ending more and more -the lack of resolution keeps me thinking.
As I was watching the final epsode and watching the clock I thought it was going to end with a fade out on the family sitting around the dinner table chatting- like the "Everybody Loves Raymond" finale- I was thinking somehow some point was being made contrasting the Sopranos with Ray Romano's sitcom Italian-American family (something about the funny stuff being really cruel in one and the cruel stuff being really funny in the other)when all of the sudden the cable went ou
It was the anti-Seinfeld ending. Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer wound up in jail (after rehashing/wrapping up many story lines) rather than Monk's Diner. Tony, Carmela, AJ and Meadow wind up in a diner (after wrapping up no story lines), rather than jail.
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