They all sat in the restaurant like sitting ducks, waiting for someone to walk in and blow them all away. You expected that man in the booth to walk inside the bathroom, reach behind the toilet and grab the hidden gun and come out and aim it right at Tony’s head. You wanted Meadow to get run over on that dark street. You thought Carmela would be screaming and crying, with blood all over her, as she watched her entire family die, and then she would be finished too. AJ, the crybaby, he would cry no more….
You thought you would have a grand overhead director’s cut view, a dramatic pull-out, wide shot of the four dead, blood soaked victims on the octagonal tiles, as Verdi played. You imagined waking up to read Peggy Noonan write something moral and sensible about how “evil men must die, it’s been that way since Aristotle…” or some other nonsense. You wanted David Brooks to write: “this is the only possible solution for the end of “The Sopranos” and I applaud Mr. Chase for his guts in killing off his characters…”
In real life, bad people sometimes get away with things. More often than not. Then why do we love them so much?
Here in Van Nuys 
Hmmm. Is that show, “The Sopranos,” you all are talking about?
I hear that many people enjoy it. Maybe I should start watching it…
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I myself thought it was brilliant.
http://xanga.com/careygly
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I agree Dave. There would have been equal amounts of anger and disappointment at any ending. If they all died; if it was all a dream, etc. I think it was bold and sort of magnificent and brutal…to the viewer. It ended so suddenly and people have to adjust to the loss.
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I thought Tony had to die, but the more I think about this ending the more I like it. It left me thinking about right and wrong. He could have been killed as the screen went black. Or it could have been we the viewers getting killed, as we eagerly anticipated a hit. They set us up to expect a sad ending, then played “don’t stop believing” and talked about focusing on the good times while bad omens were occurring all around them. It was just so well balanced, and I think a consequence of the internet age is that writers are becoming more in tune with their audiences and are learning to play against their expectations and reactions.
Besides, isn’t it great to see something so bold in a mainstream, widely popular show? It had to take guts to end the show like that. It makes the whole thing seem like a big existential nihilistic piece of art. Like his mother said “It’s all a big nothing.”
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