Bradley R. Weissenberger wrote:Everything tells me that someone killed Tony, but wtf do I know?

My wife, who missed the last three episodes of "The Sopranos" while on her mission to the hinterlands, watched these three episodes (as recorded by means of TiVo) over the last two nights.

Her response to the "blackout" ending of "The Sopranos"?

"They had dinner."

So great!

Salut, Bradley R. Montebianco's wife!

She is also truly puzzled as to where the casting agents found the man who exclaimed "Oh, shit!" in response to Phil Leotardo's Ford-induced head eruption.

She has a point.

stewie wrote:That was a very astute piece of directing, because for the first time I felt what a target like Tony would feel when taking his family out for dinner.

Great ending.

Very true. You really got to see what it feels like to be a potential target for a bullet every day. Always a certain level of underlying tension, with the thought, is today the day?

"They had dinner."

YES YES YES!
My exact reaction as well!

Is your wife from North Dakota?

Absolute perfect ending for this show. As a kid that Journey song always made me feel a little tense, too.

Salut Brad's Hinterlanding Wife!

Ike

Hilary Clinton has parodied the final scene for her campaign.

This guy has some interesting ideas about the finale.

http://www.bobharris.com/content/view/1406/1

I think they make a lot of sense but I don't like what they mean. I didn't want Tony to die, despite how much of a monster he was. Also, from the story's perspective it didn't seem to make sense to me: Tony had seemingly fixed things with New York so why would they get rid of him?

What a fantastic show it was though. *sigh* (Cue montage sequence set to 'Memories')

chuckles wrote:This guy has some interesting ideas about the finale.

http://www.bobharris.com/content/view/1406/1

I think they make a lot of sense but I don't like what they mean. I didn't want Tony to die, despite how much of a monster he was. Also, from the story's perspective it didn't seem to make sense to me: Tony had seemingly fixed things with New York so why would they get rid of him?

What a fantastic show it was though. *sigh* (Cue montage sequence set to 'Memories')

WWMD? What would Machiavelli do? Or say in this case. If you're going to kill off someone, you kill off all their kin as well because grudges cannot be forgotten or bought off, especially if patrimony is involved, as it might have been had Phil retired as boss and passed Brooklyn on to cousins, etc. Phil's an example of this. Putatively, his being a hard-line, incorrigible dick in the end was because Tony B. knocked off Phil's younger brother and he didn't get the revenge he wanted. The latter is key. There was nothing on the line except love in that case, but that's enough. The thirst for revenge, to address the feeling of being done wrong and wanting to protect, avenge, one's own can't be stopped.

I don't want Tony to be dead either.

I'm surprised no-one mentioned A.J.'s "focus on the good times" line. It could just as easily apply to the audience, thought it wouldn't make that much sense to not show the hit having said that. I guess it's just one of many possibilities that are, ultimately, irrelevant.

'cos I only just saw it. I don't live in the States.


This fuckin' guy.

What a great show.

My only complaints about the last nine episodes would be the AJ shit--easily my least favorite character on the show.

Frank Vincent- masterful performance. "You look like a Puerto Rican whore." His demise was justly deserved. Say bye bye, grandpa! Squash!

There were two wonderfully shot scenes- the one w/ the guy getting whacked at the restaurant with Silvio and the scene with Bobby being shot at the toy train store.

Personally, I think Tony was in the right to take Christopher out of the picture. He knew that Chris could somehow drag him down, one way or another, or else Chris would go off the edge and kill Tony anyway. Chris' relapse probably didn't help any either.

As for the ending: Hey, if you're a Sopranos fan, you shoulda expected it.

I'm waiting for the follow-up sitcom, It's Pauly!

just got the dvd's. sorry if this is old news.

Ranxerox wrote:'The insight was that none of the characters would be redeemed, including the Soprano kids.'

Is that something that really qualifies as an insight? I mean the whole show, for eight years, has continually shown us that these self-obsessed people don't change easily, that they wallow in self-serving pity, self-serving mythologies, self-serving justifications, etc. After a point, if the characters do not change then the drum beat is a lecture, a cynical, sneering, even lazy meditation on the baser aspects of humanity, not to mention an indictment or purposeful affront to the idea of trying to discuss humanity via story lines that demonstrate character evolutions within contexts of grander themes such as redemption, etc.

dr. melfi had a redemption, or at least an epiphany in her final counseling session with tony. if you want redemption, that's probably the closest you're going to get.
chase said once that the whole series is about people making deals with the devil. lying is such a way of life for them, there's no realistic chance at redemption for the sopranos anymore. in that sense, chase kept it real until the end.