Steve V. wrote:
What a horrible fucking ending.

WHAT A HORRIBLE FUCKING ENDING.

(SPOILER ALERT)

Eh...Mixed feelings on this one. At first, my reaction was outrage, but that lasted only for a few minutes. I have no doubt this would have been a much, much better closer had it been combined with the previous, in a two-hour finale. This would have made a HUGE difference, leaving everyone with the impression that A BUNCH OF BIG THINGS HAPPENED.

Then again, what did we expect? My buddies and I got together every Sunday for this, and we kept saying, "There's no way they can tie all of this up." And of course they couldn't. It just would have been artificial.

Now, this doesn't make it good, mind you.

Yeah, they were definitely fucking with us. All that phony tension at the end (Meadow's car parking mishaps, the misc. thugs in the restaurant, etc.).

Maybe they're leaving it open to occasion 2 or 4 hour specials? Somehow, I can't see this happening, though.

Somehow, I'm glad that there's no resolution. It's still an open book, to some degree, even though we're not exactly privy to the rest.

I remember seeing an interview with David Chase and he was very flip about how Tony Soprano had become some kind of cultural icon. He shrugged off the phenomenon with indifference, saying, "He's a fictional character. Really means nothing to me. It's a job, a trick, an illusion."

David Chase both wrote and directed this final episode, and I see every bit of that attitude reflected in the finale.

In short: eh.

I thought it ended perfectly. When it ends you don't hear it coming.

-Jeremy

Phil met his end very gruesomely. Wasn't expecting that.

burun wrote:Phil met his end very gruesomely. Wasn't expecting that.

CRUNCHHHHHH.

The reactions afterwards had me on the floor.

the cat stole the episode

I kind of liked it.

AJ became the very thing he hated the most.

The fact it ends with the tension at the restaurant kind of showed that the Sopranos will never be this 'All America' family they try to be.

Yeah they are just like us but we don't need to worry about getting killed when we go out for dinner.

I discussed the ending with my brother.

I think the ambiguity of it was the best part. The "you never hear it coming" conversation with Baccala was in my mind for a moment.

I think the more I ponder the ending, I find much more to my liking.

I agree, tying up all of those loose ends would've been impossible. Introducing a new storyline near the very end was kind of fucked too, about Carlo flipping. Season 7 in three years...?

I think it leaves you to draw your own conclusions, which is good. David Chase created a masterful final scene...it was the perfect set up for a mafia hit like in the Godfather but no shot was fired. Meadow's look of terror, Tony's final glance toward the bathroom before the cut to black...then the silence.

I think the episode as a whole was pretty terrible, but the final scene was very well-done. Phil's death was a highlight...genius.

I think the fact that there was no big blowout, there was no final exterminations, no iconic scenes, no closure is a very noteworthy approach. So many other shows have discredited their existence by creating finales that were bland and predictable and played right into the viewers' hands...every need satisfied. No closing of the door, no ratting on the family...just a shrug and a short walk into oblivion.

RIP Sopranos.

I was thinking the whole time "what kind of scene are they going to devise that will sum up this show perfectly?" I couldn't think of a single way they could pull it off, but I feel that they managed to do it better than I expected. Seems more brilliant every time I play it back in my head.

Also:

It's about some private detective who gets sucked into his computer through a dataport, and has to solve the murders of some virtual prostitues.

Steve V. wrote:I think the ambiguity of it was the best part. The "you never hear it coming" conversation with Baccala was in my mind for a moment.
RIP Sopranos.

i believe that's it, right there. tony took a bullet in the head, and we got to see what it was like. random and meaningless. excellent ending.