Final Sopranos on E4

[medichi]

Anyone watch this? Did they cut the last ten minutes of it or what? Last bit was just the family in the restaurant, then it cut to black but in a "crap editing" rather than deliberate way - any thoughts?

[Larsen B]

No they didn't cut anything, that's the way it was supposed to be. Feels like rather a cop out don't ya think?

[Chris]

I shouted at the TV for a while when that happened. If they were going to the black screen ending I at least wanted to hear a gunshot.

[lepeep]

I thought it was fantastic...
the ending was perfect!

[medichi]

On reflection, I quite like it - and I liked this too:

YouTube - The Sopranos Finale Explained (in detail with video)

Some of it fits.

[Diesel]

Watched it yonks ago - cop out.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by medichi

On reflection, I quite like it - and I liked this too:

YouTube - The Sopranos Finale Explained (in detail with video)

Some of it fits.

A lot of that makes sense.

I definitely think Tony was going to get popped, it built up and built up throughout the last scene. So the sudden cut to black fits to that. I guess playing a gunshot over it or something would make it too obvious.

My favourite bit of the episode was Agent Harris' slip of the tongue when he was told of Phil's death.

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by Chris

A lot of that makes sense.

I definitely think Tony was going to get popped, it built up and built up throughout the last scene. So the sudden cut to black fits to that. I guess playing a gunshot over it or something would make it too obvious.

My favourite bit of the episode was Agent Harris' slip of the tongue when he was told of Phil's death.

Yes, I guess some of it does, but I'm taking the cynical line that Chase, whilst dressing it up like a David Lynch scene, is basically assuring the financial security of himself, the writers and the principal cast.

Let's be honest, whilst the cast were absolutely outstanding in their respective roles, almost all of them, with the exception of Edie Falco (Carmela) have had pretty limited careers.

Examples...
James Gandolfini has been dreadful in just about everything else he's been in (e.g. The Last Castle).
Tony Sirico (Walnuts) is good at playing mob lackies and has done little else.
Steve Van Zandt (Silvio) has no acting chops whatsover, but at least has his musical career.
Drea DeMatteo (Adriana) has been eye-candy in a few third-rate movies and Joey (pish)
The list could go on....

These guys have mortgages and egos like the rest of us and it would be a hell of a comedown to go from working regularly in a highly acclaimed series of that quality and global exposure to appearing as a marquee "name" in B-movies.

So, I believe that Chase has come up with the perfect ending in many respects. Cerebral enough for the intellectuals, Geeky enough for the "Ooh!, I spotted an obscure reference" geeks and plenty of discussion points to keep the memory of the series alive.

To cap it all, it has a bulletproof "get out" if they want to resurrect the series and is just about conclusive enough if they don't.

I even convinced myself! - it's not a cop out, it's a piece of genius on many levels!

[Bigsby]

I liked the ending. I'm a sucker for happy endings, and this ending lets me believe that Tony and the family lived happily ever after, eating their onion rings.

[Teabags]

when it went black I'll admit I did say "oh not now you fucking bastarding fucking signal"

but when I realised what was happening, I thought it was good. The build up was immense.