The Sopranos Finale (don't read if you haven't watched it)

[jfreeman420]

I'm a huge Sopranos fan. I have watched every episode faithfully on Sundays for the past 7 seasons. Been through countless girlfriends in this amount of time but one thing has held true with each one of them. Keep your mouth shut between 9pm and 10pm on Sunday.

I had a great party last night with some friends, food, wine and wore my Tony Soprano day date during the show. I was a little upset that they didn't at least have a 2 hour finale. After being a loyal fan for all these years I thought they owed me that.

Thinking about the way it ended I am not dissapointed. I feel the ending was appropriate and unexpected. I'm glad they got Phil and at the end they made you think that everyone was going to get whacked. I'm sure people other than us thought there was something wrong with the TV when the screen went blank. I like the fact they left it open. There are talks of a movie.

It was very creative the way they wound it down. At the end it was just another day in the life. And they reminded you that the show isn't about mafia but about family.

What do you think?

[Jumbie]

I thought it sucked. I don't have much else to add to it because I though the Sopranos started going downhill after maybe season 2 or 3.

Don't know why I even stuck with it but I guess it's cause I just like the whole "gangsta thing".

As well, I guess I don't like open endings. I need closure...

I gotta give the writers props for building up a huge amount of suspense in the last 5 minutes though. Was sure that Meadow was going to walk in just in time to see her family wiped out. Kinda glad that Tony didn't die or rat out to the Feds but I sure wish AJ had gotten locked in that car when it caught on fire (yeah, he's the dumb; it could happen).

[ryyannon]

I'm dreading the day it arrives in France, dubbed in....French?

Anyway, Joisey is another planet - a country unto itself. Back in the days, Jackie Kennedy had an estate somewhere around Short Hills - and could 'Clerks' have been made anywhere else? It's creepy to drive around certain areas in South Jersey, knowing - as the well-informed will tell you - that 'there's a stiff under every mile' of Mafia-paved highway.

Only in America, and like they say, you gotta love it, warts and all.

This guy has an interesting take on the series:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19170445/

[eddhead]

I'm a huge Sopranos fan. I have watched every episode faithfully on Sundays for the past 7 seasons. Been through countless girlfriends in this amount of time but one thing has held true with each one of them. Keep your mouth shut between 9pm and 10pm on Sunday.

I had a great party last night with some friends, food, wine and wore my Tony Soprano day date during the show. I was a little upset that they didn't at least have a 2 hour finale. After being a loyal fan for all these years I thought they owed me that.

Thinking about the way it ended I am not dissapointed. I feel the ending was appropriate and unexpected. I'm glad they got Phil and at the end they made you think that everyone was going to get whacked. I'm sure people other than us thought there was something wrong with the TV when the screen went blank. I like the fact they left it open. There are talks of a movie.

It was very creative the way they wound it down. At the end it was just another day in the life. And they reminded you that the show isn't about mafia but about family.

What do you think?

Also a huge fan.

Was frustrated about it yesterday, pi$$ed off in fact ... but feel a bit better about it today. I think a lot of us were looking for closure which never came ... but we should have known better. The is pretty typical of how Chase wrote the series leading up to this point. Remember the Russian who Chris and Paulie shot in the woods but never found? remember how nothing ever came of it? things do not always get settled with Chase's scripts/. It was a weird series that way.. not all the themes were carried thorugh.

Anyway, when Tony entered the restuarant, and his family slowly came in behind, I was thinking we had finally come full circle and was impressed with the symmetry. Remember, early on Tony's father Johnny was knocked off in a family restuarant in front of his entire family.This was the first time I could remember the nuclear soprano family gathering alone in a restauant and I was just waiting to see that again, this time to Tony, especially with the camera focusing on the tough looking guys who were sitting around him. I am sure the symbolism was intentional ... a tease ... but i still do not get what the deal was with Meadow's feable attempts at // parking. Well at least this way they left the door open for a gala move event in 3 years or so!!

It is always tough to end an iconic series like this without disappointing the faithfull. Some of the comments on the HBO website were very direct last night.. a lot of frustrated viewers, but I think that would have been the case no matter how it ended.

Bottom line though is this was arguably the best written, best performed TV series of all time. When you really think about it, the ending could never have been ordinary .. and ordinary ending just would not have done the series justice.

[Steve G]

Big fan of the series also. At first I was [censored]upset (geez), not knowing or seeing any final closure. Then I assumed Tony got clipped when the screen went blank.

Now I think David Chase whacked the fans...Tony looks up and "we" get whacked, everything goes blank.

As Bobby said in the first episode of season 6b "You never hear it when it happens". And we never did.

Edited June 11, 2007 by Steve G

[yt74]

I was shocked, then disappointed and now I think it was brilliant. At minimum it let you interpret the ending you want, at most it is wide open to future endevours...

[cornerstone]

I totally agree with the initial shock (what the fu*k is wrong with the TV?!?!) giving way to kind of liking it. There was never going to be a "satisfying" way to end it, because I didn't want it to end. And in a way, that's what they managed to do - have a non-ending, and I think folk are warming to it.

I'm half-tempted to watch it back over again from season 1 now

[Logan]

I've only just watched the final... Bit Torrent is really becoming a saviour for those of us who normally wait months or years for this stuff.. Loved the way they ended it. Either of the two obvious ways to end such a series would be predictable and I think they did a great job.

I'm still undecided as to exactly what happened.. but clearly thats the intention.

[elwopo]

A friend sent me this information....

The guy at the bar is also credited as Nikki Leotardo. The same actor played him in the first part of season 6 during a brief sit down concerning the future of Vito. That wasn't that long ago. Apparently, he is the nephew of Phil. Phil's brother Nikki Senior was killed in 1976 in a car accident. David Chase is truly rewarding the true fans who pay attention to detail. So the point would have been that life continues and we may never know the end of the Sopranos. But if you pay attention to the history, you will find that all the answers lie in the characters in the restaurant. The trucker was the brother of the guy who was robbed by Christopher in Season 2. Remember the DVD players? The trucker had to identify the body. The boy scouts were in the train store and the black guys at the end were the ones who tried to kill Tony and only clipped him in the ear (was that season 2 or 3?).

I might have to rent the DVDs to check this out....

[Steve G]

A friend sent me this information....

The guy at the bar is also credited as Nikki Leotardo. The same actor played him in the first part of season 6 during a brief sit down concerning the future of Vito. That wasn't that long ago. Apparently, he is the nephew of Phil. Phil's brother Nikki Senior was killed in 1976 in a car accident. David Chase is truly rewarding the true fans who pay attention to detail. So the point would have been that life continues and we may never know the end of the Sopranos. But if you pay attention to the history, you will find that all the answers lie in the characters in the restaurant. The trucker was the brother of the guy who was robbed by Christopher in Season 2. Remember the DVD players? The trucker had to identify the body. The boy scouts were in the train store and the black guys at the end were the ones who tried to kill Tony and only clipped him in the ear (was that season 2 or 3?).

I might have to rent the DVDs to check this out....

While this a interesting take on the ending, it has already been de-bunked over at many Soprano fourms, such as the Chase Lounge, etc. The end credits do not indicate Nikki Leotardo as the member's only jacket patron. I have verified this myself. So in other words this entire explanation is false I'm afraid.

[ekhunter]

Also a huge fan.

Was frustrated about it yesterday, pi$$ed off in fact ... but feel a bit better about it today. I think a lot of us were looking for closure which never came ... but we should have known better. The is pretty typical of how Chase wrote the series leading up to this point. Remember the Russian who Chris and Paulie shot in the woods but never found? remember how nothing ever came of it? things do not always get settled with Chase's scripts/. It was a weird series that way.. not all the themes were carried thorugh.

Anyway, when Tony entered the restuarant, and his family slowly came in behind, I was thinking we had finally come full circle and was impressed with the symmetry. Remember, early on Tony's father Johnny was knocked off in a family restuarant in front of his entire family.This was the first time I could remember the nuclear soprano family gathering alone in a restauant and I was just waiting to see that again, this time to Tony, especially with the camera focusing on the tough looking guys who were sitting around him. I am sure the symbolism was intentional ... a tease ... but i still do not get what the deal was with Meadow's feable attempts at // parking. Well at least this way they left the door open for a gala move event in 3 years or so!!

It is always tough to end an iconic series like this without disappointing the faithfull. Some of the comments on the HBO website were very direct last night.. a lot of frustrated viewers, but I think that would have been the case no matter how it ended.

Bottom line though is this was arguably the best written, best performed TV series of all time. When you really think about it, the ending could never have been ordinary .. and ordinary ending just would not have done the series justice.

My thoughts exactly, I couldn't of said it better. I will miss watching the Sopranos on sunday nights.

[robertk]

Well.......Sounds like Chase figured out how to get this ending talked about. Something for everyone to hate (like). Pick your ending. Me..........my perception is that Tony gathered the family together to announce a nice surprise.

They're going to Disneyland.

[Zed]

It sucked and was very boring , I kept looking at the clock , whens it going to happen , almost 10:00 PM and nothing , very boring !

To many things happening with the characters like AJ and now no ending at all ?

The last 2 years were boring ever since they went off the air and then came back on , it just wasn't the same , must have had different writers !

Plus I think they are or were trying to cut down on the violence and the smoking , Sill always had a smoke going and then you never seen him with one plus Tony and the cigars , you just caught a 1 second glimpse of one and that was about it ...

Again , very boring at the time but now that I think of it , it was Ok I guess ??

And the cat was supposed to be Christophers reincarnation , no wonder Paulie didn't like it

Zed

[Zed]

At least the new season of Rescue Me starts back up tomorrow night , I wish that was on HBO instead of FX , Dennis Leary would be a riot if you could hear him cussin

Zed

[archibald]

You guys are thinking too hard. Business. Conceived, written, and produced for the whole purpose of setting up the movie...provided they have enough dough in the bank to pay Gandolfini.

Here's Chase's "denial" of movie plans. He ought to start writing "denials" for Gore.

"I don't think about (a movie) much," he told the paper. "I never say never. An idea could pop into my head where I would go, 'Wow, that would make a great movie,' but I doubt it.

"I'm not being coy," he added. "If something appeared that really made a good 'Sopranos' movie and you could invest in it and everybody else wanted to do it, I would do it. But I think we've kind of said it and done it."

Sounds pretty coy to me...