I don't see any mention of Dr. Krakower, the shrink Dr. Melfi refers Carmela to in "Second Opinon." He advises Carmela to take her children - "what's left of them" - & leave Tony, taking none of Tony's "blood money," & start over because she must not excuse his "crimes." Carmela is startled. Krakower tells her Tony might be redeemed if, like Raskolnikov in "Crime in Punishment," he turns himself in, confesses to his crimes & spends years in prison contemplating them. Otherwise, nada.
I've always thought this is the heart of "The Sopranos." Carmela's love & tolerance of Tony enable the whole shebang to function, more than any other factor. As Melfi tells Tony about his marriage "You're actually a very conventional man."
The Sopranos is built on Carmela's ability to deny reality, obfuscate, make excuses & repeatedly turn to the Church for an alternative "point of view." We later see Carmela visit a young priest who advises her to support & forgive Tony because she took "a sacred vow" (like Tony being "made"). The priest - & Church - function as the inverse of Dr. Krakower - excusing criminality & abusive marriages that warp & damage children.
If there's a martyr in "The Sopranos," it's Adrianna, repaid for her sweetness, generosity of spirit & love of Christopher with the ultimate betrayal. But Adrianna is as corrupted by the Catholic view of marriage as Carmela. Love's not good enough. Love can be corrosive.
Dr. Krakower is the moral center of "The Sopranos."
53
I never watched the Sopranos, but I did find that cut to black ending on You Tube. With no background, my feeling was Tony lived, the story just ended. With a little more background reading, I got the sense there was a lot of call back symbolism, and therefore the guy who went in the bathroom came out and shot Tony, who died instantly, never knowing what hit him.
A third option is that Chase mirrored a European ending for this film, which is the story simply ends, with no summation, no conclusion, no “what happens to Tony”. Many European films, especially from France, are very frustrating to an American because there is no “wrapping things up” at the end. You are never told if the person lives or dies, if the lovers get married or not, if the main character gets the job, goes to prison, loses everything, whatever. The story simply stops. French films usually stop, they don’t end.
It’s significant that the song being played “Don’t stop believing”, only gets out the words “don’t stop” when it cuts to black. The viewer doesn’t want the action to stop at that precise point, but it does anyway. No ending, no conclusion, no resolution, no explanation. The Sopranos just stops.
It’s like the difference between football and soccer. One doesn’t end without a winner and a loser; the other ends when the time runs out, even if the score is 0-0. Americans want an ending; the French just enjoy a well-played game.
18
I think "All in the Family" was a much better show and one did not need cable to see it. In that sense it was much more egalitarian. It was great in how it depicted lower middle-class WASPs as ignorant, racist, clueless, and dumb. It was one of the few shows, besides the "Beverly Hill Billies" which ridiculed WASPs, in contrast to the many diatribes that present Italian-Americans, African-Americans and Latinos in a bad light. I think we should bring back these two great shows. Deliverance is also worth seeing.
2
Meadow didn't even get to eat her fries...
and it's hacked me off for eleven years and counting!
4
Maybe if David Chase had written an actual show ending and not a prank fake out (how many people thought their cable went out during the ending?) that wouldn't be an issue. Mad Men and Breaking Bad had actual compelling finales that wrapped up the show. Chase ran out of ideas and bit the hand that fed him with his lame non-ending.
7
I watched the Sopranos, and found it well-written and engaging.
But I will never forgive David Chase for the vile and gratuitous anti-Black racism that was pervasive throughout the series.
Although Chase's Italian American characters are portrayed as amoral, bumbling sociopaths, whenever a Black character appears onscreen, that character is easily outwitted by the dumbest Italian character. As one example of many, there is a ridiculous scene in which Christopher, in a neck brace, beats up a tall, muscular Black street dealer who probably outweighs Christopher by 60 lbs. Black leaders are portrayed as uniformly corrupt and self-dealing.
Having grown up in an environment similar to the communities The Sopranos depicts, I had little doubt as to the kinds of people and racist attitudes that Chase was pandering to.
The Sopranos also used a film tactic popularized in the early 90s: combining humor with depictions of extreme, graphic violence and depravity. As I can tell you from life experience, there was nothing at all funny about real-life gangsters. Today we have Sopranos-inspired shows like Breaking Bad and Barry in which middle class viewers are drawn in, taking violence, predation and depravity lightly, in a voyeuristic kind of way.
All of this, in a country consumed by gun violence.
History is full of people who were brilliant at their craft, but whose contributions to society and the world are starkly negative, even depraved. Add David Chase to that list.
6
History will show that the "much maligned" Columbus Day episode was actually a brilliant and trenchant critique of multicultural excess and a vindication of a progressive vision of America.
Be proud of it, Mr Chase.
14
@David History will show? It's been two decades! I agree with you, but I'm pretty sure "history" ain't thinking about the Columbus Day episode.
4
I think everyone loved the show so much, that was the only way to end it. When you are saying goodbye to your loved one, it might just be easier to kiss and turn away as quickly as possible. The longer it drags, more painful it becomes. Whether Tony died or not is irrelevant because how many larger than life criminals do you know who retire and spend their days peacefully observing sunsets. So if not in that episode, but somewhere down the line, Tony dies or goes to jail. That much is given in a lifestyle such as his. The question is how does the audience say goodbye to characters they have grown to love. Fade to black and move on.
11
does the soprano finale bring to mind the ending of "no country for old men" or am i confused? ...(confused about this, specifically).
5
One Italian American from the upper class refused to even watch the show, feeling it was a hateful slur, while another Italian-American from the working/middle class watched the show with a certain grudging respect or even pride. Ironically, the former's colorful personality would have better fit into the show's parade of characters.
Here's another take on the ending: Chase, tongue in check, echoes one of the show's themes by blacking out himself from the pressure of coming up with a fitting ending with the whole world watching!
4
@Rivera You do not have to be of a certain class to consider it a slur, all you need is to have a brain that is functioning properly. Another possibility is that you are of a different nationality and you love to see other people insulted so that you can feel better about your own miserable existence.
Of course Tony is alive. There will always be a Tony Soprano, whether it's Tony or not. Because Tony Soprano's will always be a fabric of our society. Just like Johnny Friendly in On The Waterfront. There will always be a Johnny Friendly.
7
I went to a dating event at the 92nd Street Y back when The Sopranos was first showing. So many people were amazed at the show, but I felt affronted. Not ethnocentric myself, but this show seemed little more than cliched drama of dated characters from my mother's old neighborhood, now long dead. Much later, after I started living with my now spouse, a big fan, I started enjoying the show, but still, I was left with the lingering feeling that such stereotypes are destructive and demeaning.
It was the first show I binge-watched (it all began with borrowing some taped early episodes on vhs), and it is now the way I consume shows today.
The difference of the first binge to now is that I always watched the opening of the Sopranos. Why? It is such a great opening.
I always thought Carmella’s complicity and what she knew vs. what she never asked about was the most compelling thread of this story-telling.
25
'Woke up this morning....' great song and cool video footage of Jersey and Manhattan.... I never skip over it either... even now after seeing every episode at least 10 x .... I still watch without ever skipping this fantastic prelude!
22
I can sit here and conjure the exact feeling of watching the series end, even now many years later. I was the same age as Meadow through the series and Tony was America's dad. I watched the show religiously with my Italian family; it was the only show we ever, ever enjoyed all together. When the final scene cut to black we all jumped out of our seats ans screamed in horror and delight. I miss those Sundays evenings together.
21
With all due respects to David's desires about commercials and biting the hand that feeds, I got one thing to say about the show; stronger than dirt.
And, as a point of fact I personally know to be true, Dr. Melfi picked up the Russian hitchiking in the woods on a Jersey backroad, they've got two kids now and are happily raising the twin terrors at the Jersey shore. There's a framed picture of Uncle Tony on the mantle.
May they be college roomates with your private schooled kids at BrownColgateNYU. You got a problem with that?
17
@veteran I like you, buddy.
1
In the last episode the viewer gets drawn into the final scene through closeups and becomes the missing occupant at the table. The tension builds because the audience knows it's the end and there must be some sort of resolution, but time is running out yet nothing seems to be happening until the screen goes black. I interpreted that to mean the viewers got whacked. By investing their interest and emotions in the series over its six season run the audience became complicit in its sordid criminal world and paid the price. Was Tony killed too? We'll never know because we were killed first.
19
@PWR
That's an interesting angle that I hadn't considered!
2
@PWR
Brilliant! Shot in the back at the table, right in front of the Sopranos. That's it.
3
In the early 1900s The Birth of a Nation was considered one of the greatest films of that early era, a masterpiece. It turned out to be one of the ugliest, vile films in our history.
Ditto for this, now we look at this as brilliant, many yrs. from now it will be viewed as promoting a group, the mafia, that in some sense is sicker than Hitler. Hitler didn't abuse his children, he had none.
Also, the series with it gratuitous violent gun scenes help promote America's cultural gun sickness that results In 100k+ gun deaths/injuries a year, an aberration re our peer countries.
Congrats. Mr. Chase.
11
Chase is being coy about the ending. Tony is dead. There is black.....nothingness. That's what death is.
6
I came late to The Sopranos, my spouse a long time fan, and I wasn't upset by the ending, although it drove her crazy. I'm normally tolerant of ambiguity, and I saw the end as nothing more than a continuation of what had always brought people back, week after week, "Who was gonna' get whacked next?". Maybe not so literally, but I first realized the technique of leaving people wanting more, leaving that lingering question, pulling them back over and over. What made other people fans and addicts was exactly how the show ended.
So, Tony Soprano is a flawed hero? Which part of hero is defined by a bully that beats up women, abuses his own wife
and family, kills people for a living in his role as mafia boss,
and sells drugs to kids(or, are we to believe that Tony wouldn't
do that because Santa Clause told him not to?)
Yes, he is flawed, but he is a less than human monster.
Or, perhaps, we should call Stalin a hero for his "flawed"
attempts at population control!
Where are the women of the NYT who should call Tony what he really is? A misogynist, - "a worse than foul fiend, untroubled by a spark of human kindness!
11
I loved the Sopranos until I met David Chase in Dublin at a U.S. Embassy-sponsored event in 2015. He was a total classless jerk at the event. None of us who met him were impressed. I can see why Gandolfini grew tired of Chase as Gandolfini was a class act.
20
David Chase wrote an episode of the "Rockford Files'' in which a mob hitman sent to California is undergoing psychotherapy. I always have believed that this was his germ for "The Sopranos.''
6
It's a great show but the last few years were big yawns. David Chase laments the popular voice of more whacking and less yacking. But it built it's popularity on the age old winner of sex and violence. Were the first few seasons terrific writing, yes, The Pine Barrens episode is incredible, mixing violence, nudity at the bing, comedy with the emotional struggles of being lost.
If someone made another mob series today on Netflix with more sex and more violence, it would be just as popular as the Sopranos.
Chase needs to get over himself. What has he delivered before or after? and now a prequel? If he leaves out much of the sex and violence, it will bomb.
3
I binge-watched the Sopranos on maternity leave in 2011. What a show! The music was so often just perfect.
1
The Sopranos was much more than a breakout television experience. It raised the cultural bar for television by consistently providing, week after week, episodes that had the production values of a major motion picture.
That just had not been consistently done before on the small screen. It was real, the story threads bit into our collective self-consciousness. It grabbed us and kept on grabbing at us.
I do remember thinking when the screen went to black that I had lost my cable connection! It was a shock to me to eventually realize that was the final shot. At first I was angry at Chase, but shortly afterward I came to realize how absolutely brilliant that choice was.
In film oftentimes, it is what the viewer doesn't see that has the greatest impact. Last year I watched the series in full. After almost 20 years, it still holds up, as any great piece of film will do (think Casablanca, or Shane).
8
The ending was a huge mistake. Lots of interesting movies and TV shows have an ending that's vague or leaves you hanging in some way. It may not be what the audience wants but it's fair. But to spend several minutes building up a suspenseful scene and cut it off in the middle basically says "something happened but we're not going to tell you what it is". Chase could have made his point in a much less frustrating way.
3
The Sopranos gave us all dreams and escapism. Both essential to a healthy life... Cervantes character Don Quixote died not by age, illness or external trauma.... but by those around him convincing him that he wasn’t a Knight Errant But was in fact an ageing man who had no right to be worrying about tilting at giants/windmills or honour of his Lady Dulcinea. Cervantes... “ The worst thing in life is to see life as it is.... and not as it should be”.
5
To me, going black meant the story was over. OVER. The end. No sequels. No reunion.
Absolutely brilliant.
11
Any article that fails to mention The Wire as a groundbreaking example of serial television loses credibility at the start, though the interview with David Chase is far better than most interviews of this sort.
12
I got hooked all over again. It's like a drug. It feels so good but you know you're wasting time watching episodes you're seen many times before. I can't help feeling sad and a little angry that Tony didn't have a better diet in his real life. He was the heart and soul of the Sopranos.
1
The Sopranos became so popular. Tony was such a sympathetic character, that I’m wondering if he and the show normalized the idea of electing Donald Trump.
5
Long before the sixth season I told myself the show had to end with Tony Soprano either dead, in prison or in witness protection. When the show ended with none of the above I felt cheated. "Breaking Bad" had a much more fulfilling ending.
4
Re-watching now for the fifth time.
Started while a Sophomore in HS, and now a physician, I am struck with how well the medical world is depicted. Much better than any medical drama on TV.
The depiction of senior citizens in general is also hilarious. e.g. -zoom in on Livia reading the obits at green grove with a magnifying glass.
5
John, I hope you don't perform wallet biopsies!
1
The NJ plates on my GMC pickup read "PL," they're commemorative plates for the South Jersey "Pinelands." My family on the maternal side settled in Lakehurst, N.J., Ocean County in the 1870's, so as a kid I spent a lot of time with my grandfather taking me through the "Pine Barrens" and explaining their history. One thing I think I can say for sure is that the scenes for the "Pine Barrens" were not shot (no pun intended) in the "Pine Barrens" because the trees and geography don't look right. I might add in the Final Episode, Tony never knew what hit him. Loved the talking fish episodes too.
2
Columbus Day is one of my favorite episodes! It pokes everyone in the eye. The final scene in the car is priceless.
The episode College is one of the best hours of television ever.
3
In some ways, I'd point to HBO's airing of "Oz" back in 1997 as the "unofficial" start of unconventional TV with "ambitious" storytelling. The 63 episodes aired for several seasons and then overlapped with The Sopranos. There were a number of superb performances by actors/actresses who went on to other outstanding shows, and of course, Edie Falco was one of them. But still, The Sopranos was and will remain a landmark show for the ages.
22
@marty I loved OZ. Loved it. Funny how there was also a crossover of actors to various Law & Order shows - Meloni, Winters, etc. I still think about OZ all the time.
For ever the best tv show , thanks Mr Chase , thanks HBO , rest in peace James Gandolfini ...
My best episode ?When Tony went to Italy and met with the Donna and Furyo ...
7
I will never forget watching True Romance and sitting up in my chair when Virgil the hitman spoke his lines. I had never seen the actor, but his performance was so real, so credible, so menacing. Who the heck is this guy?
The next time I saw him, James Gandolfini was playing Tony Soprano. Respect.
19
I loved "Not Fade Away."
The last 3 minutes are killer.
10
Yes, ‘Not Fade Away’ is a classic American movie of the dream of rock n roll! Must be seen by more people! Great music too curated by Little Steven!
6
This week I'm enthusiastically binge-watching it for the 7th time and I'm seeing lots of things I missed before. In particular little jokes like when Paulie goes to visit a psychic and says his name is "Ted Hughes."
The episode where Tony take peyote and has the revelation that mothers are buses - they drop us off and then keep going on their own journey. That continues to have resonance years later. Brilliant!
I studied Shakespeare extensively in grad school. "The Sopranos" isn't Shakespeare but it comes closer than anything else ever has. The psychology, the terror, the humor, the uncanny.
86 hours of perfection.
Many thanks, Mr. Chase.
37
Sopranos was indeed seminal and I think its influence is everywhere. Some examples: The Wire for its bleak realism. Breaking Bad for its story arc. Boardwalk Empire for the richness of the characters, Deadwood for the writing and ensemble cast and Justified for its combination of drama, action and humour. That said, it's influence is somewhat overstated and other groundbreaking shows like Homicide, Life on the Street and the groundbreaking Hill Street Blues are not given the credit they deserve.
14
I never watched the Sopranos but currently I'm binge watching as there has been one full season aired each day on HBO since Friday. Tomorrow is Season 5. Thankfully, I work from home. I'm loving the show!
9
Loved the Sopranos and like this interview, but contrary to the interviewer and to Chase, it isn't really our choices that shape our brief bit of life, but the other way around: It's more our brief bit of life that shapes our choices. I think the whole Sopranos series bears that out.
3
Watched "The Sopranos" and "Deadwood" in their entirety. Yes, "The Sopranos" was a landmark show that changed television forever. Undoubtedly, "Deadwood" would not have existed without "The Sopranos" coming first. And yet, today, many TV shows seem to owe more creatively to "Deadwood" than to "The Sopranos." Which makes me wonder: Why aren't there similar paeans to "Deadwood" today? The latter show is quite forgotten it seems.
9
@Sándor I agree with you, and believe Deadwood the best television series ever. It gets less attention because it was only 3 seasons long -- outstanding characters, writing, acting & overall storytelling.
2
@Sándor
deadwood was simply great!
2
@kinleytuyn
I thought it was 2 seasons. It had its moments-the first few episodes-and certainly some good acting, characters and concept. I was watching some of it recently and the language becomes laughable after a few minutes, as well as inaccurate. And while there was enough violence in the west-much of it white washed in other depictions- this unremitting graphic violence even does human nature a disservice.
1
I’ve always thought the cut-to-black ending meant that the audience—the viewer—got whacked while Tony lived on. That was both literally and metaphorically true. One minute we’re seeing Tony and his family and the next it all goes black.
30
@THanna Ahh- you're probably right- we've been whacked - no wonder! Does that mean trump isn't really potus?
4
And let’s not forget that Tony Lip, the real life lead character in the film Green Book, memorably played Carmine, a Don (of a “glorified crew”), the father of Little Carmine, and the man who chastised Tony when Tony wore shorts on Sunday in his backyard. “A Don doesn’t wear shorts.”
16
As an Italian American, I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to see our viewpoints expressed - and I’m talking beyond the gangster stuff. I loved the Columbus Day episode. I loved the ending - real film school stuff. But when James Gandolfini died, I knew that Tony had died.
30
The ending, with the song "Don't Stop Believing," is an homage to the power of storytelling. Tony Soprano and all his cronies and family are still carrying on, just like other characters of so many beloved fictional tales. They will never die, as long as they continue to live on in our imaginations. Thank you, Mr. Chase, for giving us such a wonderful gift.
27
I would add that the ending of the Sopranos reflected the ending of the audience's ability to follow Tony's story. Tony's story goes on, which might involve him being whacked that day, or twenty years later, or never, but we no longer get to see it. I think it is remarkably true to the spirit of a series that incorporated the real with the fantastic in a way not seen previously on TV.
5
I liked the Columbus Day episode- I thought it was really funny. I hated that dream sequence at the big mansion that you show in the article.
I loved the last episode- the tension is unbearable, as much as in any Hitchcock film, all built up with technique- sorry that Gandolfini seems to not have gotten along with Chase at the end but as artists they really accomplished something. The most unforgettable killing, & in its way the most violent, was also the quietest one, that of Christopher- took my breath away (aware of the pun). The series as a whole is the greatest ever, except for maybe The Wire, with Breaking Bad close too.
10
I can’t help but feel the tragic loss of James Gandolfini when reminiscing about the show. I can’t really separate Tony from James and as with any favourite artist gone too soon, I can’t enjoy their performances as I once could.
15
I may be one of the few people who thought the ending was brilliant from the moment it aired. I laughed and was delighted. It was a unique and groundbreaking show and no other ordinary or expected ending would have been right.
79
@Nelle Engoron - You and I are TWO of the few.
10
Third! Never understood the anger and disappointment
4
@Nelle Engoron I agree! I also felt it accurately expressed an important reality of a mobster's life. You're always looking over your shoulder, fearing the constant threat of the worst that might happen - basically living in the presence of death. On some level Tony was as alive as he was dead, and the wonderful thing is that Mr. Chase had the guts to leave it there.
7
It was an incredible piece of work and story-telling from every aspect. And after 86 episodes it's not hard to imagine the bloom was off the rose in the relationship between Gandolfini and Chase.
Still think about the sheer chaotic brilliance of "The Pine Barrens" episode. Wow.
20
Great interview. Thank you so much!
13
I love that show. I still watch the dvds! Thank you David Chase!
9
Though it is frustrating, it is an undeniable verity that after a story ends, according to the designs of its creator, the tale and its characters end. After the fade to black, there is nothing.
@Stu Pidasso
Just one more comment ... That wasn't a fade to black. It just went black! & it was a long time before the credits rolled, if I remember correctly, so some people thought their TV was on the fritz!
12
What the Sopranos did for the mafia, Sons of Anarchy did for bikers...they both gave a pinch of insight, a lot of creativity and left thought provoking legacies.
At some point you just have to enjoy what's in front of you and not try to microanalyze.
7
@BlackStar
Exactly, let Superman fly, let spiderman walk up walls. Enjoy the moments.
1
Good interview with David Chase. It sounded difficulty to extract emotional tugs from him but what would you expect when someone when asked sensitive questions about his 'baby'? The guy did something never done before - that's a definition for an artistic genius if there ever was one.
As for the ending: Remember what Hilary Clinton used to say - 'it is what it is' - and she knows a lot about ambiguous endings.
9
I have watched the entire series 3 times. I was a latecomer. I began watching the series about 4 years after it started. All of my friends would tell me how good it was and that I should watch it, but I would scoff and tell them that the few scenes I did see usually at someone else's place, were incredibly violent. Specifically the scene where Ralph Cifaretto watches through the window as Silvio is beating up his girlfriend for not showing up at "The Bing", (she borrowed money from Silvio to have her teeth fixed), and the episode where Janice Kills Ritchie, shooting him at the dinner table. After finally being convinced to watch one episode beginning to end I was hooked. I was able to pick it up in the fourth season and watch it till the last. This show was so well written and all of the characters had so much dimension.
A standout episode for me me was "Marco Polo", (5th season), especially the scene where after throwing her parents an anniversary party, Carmela confronts her Mother about being ashamed of their Italian heritage. "Your secrets out".
Not sure which episode or season but the scene where Dr. Melfi tells Tony that during their therapy sessions the work calls for her to act as a sympathetic woman.
Livia accidentally driving into her friend after dropping her off.
"Long Term Parking", (also 5th season), Adriana's last episode.
12
I still think about The Sopranos and David Chase quite a bit.
Chase once said something about how the characters' lives were shaped by lies, that every word out of their mouths was a lie. Can't really look at our president without thinking of that great show. The similarities are many - i.e. the episode where Tony realizes his cohorts laugh at his jokes because he's the boss. I wonder how our president feels when he hears of the latest associate to call him an idiot or a moron behind his back. And that thing DJT does with his shoulders and his arms - classic mobster move.
The First Lady strikes as very much a Carmela Soprano-like figure. She wants out but can't quite make it work, and she probably does love the guy even though she knows it's a pipe dream.
The Sopranos will always be my choice for best TV drama of all time.
38
So glad to see that Martin Scorsese is doing a movie about the Irish Mafia. Would love to see more on the British Mafia, you know.......the one that ravaged the world's peoples (Aborigines in Australia, Maori in New Zealand, Chinese in Opium Wars, African tribes, indigenous in North America.........) or how about the Dutch Mafia in SE Asia?
David Chase must know how he has insulted Italian-Americans and how he made millions off of doing it.
7
@bigdoc this is the good stuff right here lol
1
@bigdoc Hang on a second. Let's not forget the ongoing lawsuit my family has with the family in the neighbouring cave, 20,000 years ago. No justice until that is resolved!
3
@bigdoc
Government (aristocracy) actions != Organized crime for and by the proletariat
Try again.
1
The Sopranos was so well made and the acting was top notch. I was hooked on the show the first few years. But I eventually stopped watching (coming back for the final season) because, one-by-one, I started to dislike every character. I could deal with the violence and brutality, it was the pettiness and all-consuming selfishness exhibited by literally everyone in the show that wore me down. To this day I find I don't enjoy many popular shows because I can't find a character that I like and so I stop watching.
12
The Sopranos.
The Shield.
Breaking Bad.
The three best series ever.
Period.
9
“The Wire”: best show ever
8
The last episode provides an end to the leitmotif that had run through most of the last season. Tony had cast aside his support network. Why? Because every character on the show, when things appeared to be turning around, they managed to destroy their chance. For example, Tony's cousin Tony Blundetto, played by Steve Buscemi, studied hard after prison and passed his professional exam so he could open a health spa. All the work was done and the place was about to open when he fell off the wagon, savaging the Koreans who helped him in the process.
So, Tony is running alone and running scared. Men from his team get whacked, even though they're "made" guys. He kills Christopher, who he loved, with his own hands because Christopher might live to talk after an auto accident. At the same time, Tony puts out a hit on the leader of a rival faction. He accomplishes that, but the other members of the man's crew realize that, with their boss gone and Tony off the rails, they have a chance to kill him, consolidate, and expand. Tony is left with Pauli and not many others, thanks to the other guys.
In the diner, Tony tries to resurrect a brief moment of a normal family night out. His feral sense spots the hitman as soon as he enters the restaurant. But, for some reason, he put his early warning system on hold. Does Tony actually get whacked in front of his family? Don't know. But, the story arc was set that it would make a lot of sense if it did happen.
8
@Seth Kaplan
"He kills Christopher, who he loved, with his own hands because Christopher might live to talk after an auto accident. "
Nah. He sees the tree branch that went through the baby's chair and realized it could have been the kid and in that disgust finished him. Tony always had a weird thing about "protecting" innocents or babies, at least as he defined innocents. That was the point where he saw Christopher as irredeemable, and I think he probably told himself he was doing it to protect the kid.
15
Mr. Chase is a genius and I thank him for the best show ever on TV and for all of the top notch work he inspired and influenced.
19
@bigdoc that’s a spicy take-a paisano!
1
The master speaks, but continues to be coy about the cut to black ending. An arty, existential non-conclusion that seemed so Chase. Many shows are called, but there is still only the Sopranos. What other show could flaunt that grungy drive along the New Jersey Turnpike in its opening credits?
18
@EB
That grungy drive along the New Jersey Turnpike is mesmerizing. It never failed to enthrall me.Throughout the entire series, those images, along with "woke up this morning" would make me salivate, like Pavlov's dogs.
7
Tony is like Schrodinger's Cat - an unmeasured superposition, both alive and dead at the same time.
19
Greatest. Show. Ever. Period.
After moving to Seattle from NYC I rewatched the whole thing just to make me less homesick. The Sopranos is comfort food and brilliance all in one.
Thank you David Chase.
36
@Jason Same here!
4
The show was special and led to so many more in subsequent years. I especially like the writers and directors who went on to develop or direct other excellent shows.
Thank you to Mr. Chase for his creative talents and for that beautiful ending to the Sopranos. Even with the death of Mr. Gandolfini, Tony Soprano still lives.
4
When it comes to great . Mash.Sopranos. that's it.
8
Even after all these years we can't "fugettaboutit"!
23
All That You Dream...comes to shine through silver linings....
1
We just got a Firestick and so, first the first time, I've got access to all of the episodes. I'm trying to ration them to two a day (pretty easy with another excellent series, "Band of Brothers," because just one episode gives me shell shock and I have to put the series aside.) I can't do that with "Sopranos." Before you know it, I've watched four episodes and the whole morning is seemingly shot. But the characters are so compelling that I always end my "Sopranos" binges feeling that it was time well spent. It's sure not our world: The Twin Towers still stand, Trump is still a harmless punk, and there is honor, no matter how perverse, in Sopranoland.
19
@Jim Surely you jest. There is absolutely no honor displayed by any character from The Sopranos. Nothing was more consistent than everyone's brutish selfishness and cruelty.
8
I just finished rewatching it all again a month ago.
It holds up very well, but when you watch it all in one go it feels a little repetitive.
The Wire, on the other hand...
7
The Sopranos’ ending was brilliant - we are all still taking about it all theses years later.
18
I didn't realize till this weekend that it was being rebroadcast. I know I got on my husband's last nerve recounting every episode I watched. We all took something different from the show, but 20 yrs older and now as an advanced practice psychiatric nurse, I see soooooo much more than I did before!! Of course Melfi was off the chain with her non-existent professional boundaries, but there was so much psychodynamic theory running throughout various storylines. I LOVED when Tony yelled at Richie for making him bust his you know what....and I thought, "b/c Richie wants a father." Thank you David Chase for making a FIRST CLASS SHOW ABOUT PSYCHIATRY. And for the record, if a mobster came to my office for treatment, I would pack up my family, move out of state, and change my name. For. Reelz.
14
I had (have) heard so so much about this series that I gave it a try a few years ago. Honestly gave it a try but really couldn't find a way to get past the coarseness and random, serial cruelty. Maybe I'll try it again, but I dunno....
6
Given the subject matter, you expected what? Daisies & tea parties, perhaps?
18
Best Xmas I ever had was spent alone, eating cherries, chocolates and binge-watching The Sopranos'. Truly a revelation in small screen entertainment.
24
The Sopranos? One of the greatest television series in the history of the medium, anywhere, anytime, period. The rest is hyperbole.
Did Tony die in fade to black? Hypervigilance killed him long before he died by the gun.
9
The writing was superb. The contrast between Tony's inability to control his children and his iron-fist control over an empire was perfect.
Some of the best scenes were in the Soprano home, all easily related to our mundane existences. Tony complaining about the orange juice with too much pulp humanized him. The writing was pure genius.
68
What we enjoyed about "The Sopranos" was living near Dallas, TX but seeing places we knew (and lived near places in the series).
We loved the series, have the box set, and will see the movie in 20. Thanks David Chase!
5
As an Italian American, I loved the show, couldn’t wait for it each week, each season. Aside from the great writing, casting, music—The Sopranos was the first time I heard characters speak (and act) like my family. And none of my family was in the mob.
42
I couldn’t agree with you more. They absolutely nailed Italian Americans- good, bad or indifferent.
11
@bigdoc That might be a good show you describe. Now, go and try to sell it.
See, we get entertainment when people with power and money say "OK" to a person who has an idea.
Get yours sold and we will all see that side of Italian life. Well, if we don't ban all Muslims since they are all terrorists, of course.
Get it??
@bigdoc
Dude! Was your ex-wife Italian?
It's a TV show. It's not real. Chase is Italian-American (his father's real name was DeCesare). We get it - you didnt like the show or Chase's depictions. That puts you in a distinct minority. Sorry.
1
Tony and Carmella finished their meal and went home. It was us who got wacked.
49
I wonder what he thought of Leni Riefenstahl's autobiography, which is on the shelf just behind his right elbow.
3
Wow! Good catch.
@CDF - I noticed that too and wondered if and how the books were curated before the photo shoot.
@CDF That’s what I was going to do - check the book shelves. Well done!
Perhaps we are all a bit quick to designate too much to Mr. Chase and his impact on the culture. Shouldn't a person's work be judged in total, not just based on a singular achievement? Or perhaps that is enough if it stretches far enough. So it would seem for Mr. Chase as his subsequent work, the movie Not Fade Away, isn't particularly good and nothing original has come since.
There's nothing wrong with being a good TV writer. But, all the illusions to TV as cinema seem to me to ask, why is he unable to write for the cinema. Mining the early days of the Sopranos seems like an admission that Chase doesn't have anything new to say and isn't up to the scope of cinema.
2
@gopher1
Maybe radically changing the landscape of TV forever was enough for one life.
19
I really wish people would stop comparing The Sopranos to Breaking Bad and ever worse The Shield.
As the masterful Mr Chase points out, he had always set out to do something completely different and never follow the low brow form you see on network TV and most of the original stuff on Netflix and all the other services.
The Shield and BB are one note stories with completely unredeemable main characters. As opposed to Tony who was a heartless killer with a desperate attempt to be decent husband and father. And while Cranston is a fine actor who can believably play "crazy" and "evil," the character is one dimensional. And as for the Shield, remove all the scenes of Chiklis playing "baddest dude in the world" and the show would be 30 seconds long. No nuance.
I will also add that any "journalist" that asks Chase whether he'd ever attempt a revival of the Sopranos should be sent back to the copy room. Although I won't be surprised if Netflix comes up with a show called The Pisanos.
The Sopranos - one of a kind. And nothing following it comes into the same universe.
42
@zigful26
I agree with you...mostly. For me, I think the two shining examples of what’s possible in tv drama are The Sopranos and The Wire.
15
@zigful26 . Can't agree that Walter White of BB was one dimensional. He had a big wound to his pride - the loss of his girlfriend to his research partner and the couple's later great success. I thought that story line needed to be filled out a lot more. Why did this wound caused such rage in him - did he not get enough encouragement elsewhere? He married the cashier at the cafe at Los Alamos. He pasted a smile over his rage. But jeez, the scene where he and Skylar are looking at the sonogram and have just learned they'll have a daughter - he turns away, crying, knowing his secret, that he will not be alive much longer. Or how about the many times he was merciful toward Jesse? Walter had plenty of dimension, he relieved his humiliations (remember how Hank mocked him?) through the toughness of his crimes.
16
@Nina Rose
For me a lot of that stuff was a little to melodramatic for my tastes.
In addition I found most of the main original characters to be awful actors. Most especially Walter’s kids, wife, and brother in-law. As for Jesse, eh. And my point is proven by Aaron Paul being relagaded to straight to cable movies and bad TV
1
who was the kinks’ fan who stuck “i’m not like everybody else in”? it so fit.
6
The ending was simple. Subjective camera, Tony's point of view, the timing of it: He gets shot in the head by the guy in the Members Only jacket. Fair 'nuff. Move on.
11
@Bridgman My theory is that Tony doesn't get whacked.
The audience does.
We'd all been complicit with everything Tony did for six years, watching with tacit approval, and finally we all got what we deserved, to get taken out harshly and abruptly.
28
The ending - cut to black - was perfect.
27
Too bad no mention of the book, The Soprano State, and a website of the same name, chronicling all the real life corruption, the influence of the mob, and so many other things the show got so right about the Great State of New Jersey.
A an aside, it was always fun to see Gandolfini and other members of the cast at local Bruce shows!!
7
The Sopranos is brilliant throughout, and of course should not be reduced to the debate over its ultimate ending. That said, for anyone interested in an exhaustive analysis (complete with annotated still frames) supporting the interpretation that Tony is whacked in the final scene (an argument to which I was converted), take a sick day from work (yes, there's that much to wade through) and check out these links.
https://masterofsopranos.wordpress.com/the-sopranos-definitive-explanation-of-the-end/
and parts 2
https://masterofsopranos.wordpress.com/39-2/
and 3
https://masterofsopranos.wordpress.com/page-3/
If you do buy into Tony's death, then Chase is all the more masterful for depicting 6 seasons of vivid and occasionally hilarious demises, only to kill his protagonist absent both visuals and sound.
16
@D Price It's absent both visuals and sound because Tony is dead -- therefore from the moment of his death there is nothing more to see or hear. It's over. Just like that. And that's what the show has been telling us all along. You get one life. Make of it what you will, because when it's over, it's over. They even explicitly quote St. Paul in the show "in the midst of life, we are in death."
15
@JerseyGirl
Yes, exactly. And there are other "Tony's p.o.v." shots throughout that sequence appearing in a definite pattern.
7
Richard Ellenson's brilliant summation: "It's not TV. It's HBO" was most fully realized by Chase and his show exploring a new form simultaneously through composition and improvisation. Here we have classic human themes developed like Indian ragas transcending time and place, including the illumination of seemingly superfluous nonentities into life-transforming events. The ravishingly beautiful quality of the cinematography itself hypnotized and seduced us, belying the savagery beneath it all, punctuated by majestic musical choices like "Comes Love" by Artie Shaw and "Gotta Serve Somebody" by Bob Dylan, and the uproarious implementation of Hasya (humorous) Rasa.
11
@Michael Robinson
Also Dylan's great version of "Return To Me."
3
I hoped tony survived the final scene..and told myself he did. I still think he did.
For me the strength of the show was that there is good in most people (not Ralphy) and we’re all Human with more or less of the same foibles that define being human. Those foibles are made more stark by the underlying, pervasive immorality by which the main characters survive. So a murderer struggles with depression and panic attacks...who’d a thought
2
Tony was smarter than the pretenders in and around the Oval Office. Team Trump is more Breslin's "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight," than Chase's "The Sopranos."
15
Great series. The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men, The Americans, Breaking Bad. The last 20 years have been the golden era of serious TV.
85
@Old blue totally agree.
Y agree
7
@Old blue I am a big fan of all of the shows you listed but have never even heard of The Americans... will need to look into it!
4
@Billy White "The Americans" is on Amazon Prime. DO IT.
Also influenced by "The Sopranos", specifically bad people doing bad things (unless your sympathies lie with the Russians!), but they are still human and you still like them.
9
An amazing show yes but also one that perpetuates a negative vile stereotype of over 20 million Americans. Thank you Mr. Chase for making life harder for every with an Italian last name. Its not wonder that most agents still advise their clients to change there last names for fear of being boxed in to the sopranos/jersey shore type cast.
3
@JamesHK No one with a functional brain actually believes that all or most or even many Italian-Americans are involved with the mob and if you ask me the title of "successful businessman" is much more of a slur than anything in The Sopranos.
46
@JamesHK
Self-hate much?
As an Italian-American and native New Yorker, I can say with 100% certainty that the show's portrayal of Italian Americana was extremely accurate, as was its depiction of corruption in the Northeast United States.
Perhaps we should be more concerned with the alarming accuracy of the portrayed sopranos/jersey shore stereotypes- and less with how uncomfortable they make us.
20
@Michael
This fellow Italian-American and native New Yorker agrees with you, and would add that much in the show can be seen as a metaphor for the violence, corruption and criminality endemic to the US as a whole...
4
It was great storytelling. We sat through viciousness and violence and Dr. Melfi's rape because it was great storytelling, nuanced, detailed, emotional, brave, cowardly, funny, terrifying...human.
PS there is also an excellent Sopranos cookbook. I mean, the recipes are terrific (and the accompanying photos and commentary are amazing, including Livia dealing with a stovetop fire).
5
Quite possibly the greatest TV series of all time.
47
@Sparky
I thought this for many years. Then I watched The Wire. For me, the "greatest" series comes down to those two.
The Wire has equally unforgettable characters, and riveting drama involving not just criminals, but also cops and politicians. It's equally sardonic. but as social commentary on urban race and class relations, it's unparalleled. McNulty, Bunk Moreland, Omar, Stringer Bell, Avon Barksdale, Bubbles, Tommy Carcetti, Kima.....
What do others think who have seen both? I'm interested.
21
@jcb
The Wire #1.
The variations between seasons was brilliant
17
@jcb
I loved THE SOPRANOS, THE WIRE, and BREAKING BAD. At this point, I cannot pick one over another—they are all tied for first place in my mind.
13
Last week, HBO2 had its yearly binge airing of "Game of Thrones", and this week it's "The Sopranos" binge (today they're airing Season 4). I mention "Game of Thrones", because in some ways, the success of "The Sopranos" paved the way for "GoT". Both series featured characters who were very flawed, and yet, this viewer found herself following their every action and in many cases, hoping that these characters would be successful.
Other commenters have mentioned the music that accompanied the show--it fascinated me how one week, the episode would end with a hip-hop song and the next week, it would be an operatic aria. And then, there was "Woke Up This Morning", which opened every episode--I still think it was one of the best songs to open a television show ever!
10
Much as I enjoyed the Sopranos--and I did--i would argue that "Hill Street Blues" got there first, in terms of a type of storytelling and characters who felt like real people.
9
@narya - Milch worked on Hill Street Blues, from Season 3 onward.
1
Indeed!
1
Disregard... I'm confusing David Milch with David Chase. D'oh!
And the soundtrack that I believe Mr. Chase personally curated for each episode was fantastic. The songs used to close each episode were spot on.
42
I agree that we live i an era of excellent television. But the Sopranos remains the best ever!
I have forgotten who wrote it, but some critic, in a nice reversal of a standard line, referred to Tony Soprano as "the person we hate to love." Exactly.
35
The Sopranos truly was groundbreaking: TV as cinema. Chase deserves even more credit for giving Matt Weiner a timely boost towards Weiner's exquisitely cinematic period piece, Mad Men. Which itself managed a remarkable series-ending sequence.
12
It’s a Schroedinger’s Cat ending, and David Chase never opens the box
60
HBO was running episodes non stop all Sunday and one I watched was the "Russian in the Woods" Pine Barrens. So much going on, so many balls in the air. The just finished Christmas, Gloria nuts, and beautiful and dangerous. The Russian Mafia, also the same. Christopher and Paulie the Abbot and Costello of mayhem. Uncle Junior chiming in with his two retired-cents. And of course the die-hard Russian exploding out of the car trunk. A wilderness a half mile from the expressway. Tony in his natural element, chaos.
12
It doesn’t get better. I’m still chasing that buzz all these years later. That was peak television and we won’t see the likes of it again.
8
I grew up in New Jersey. The Jersey depicted in the Soprano's was sheltered from my young eyes, existing just past the periphery of affluence. Sure I knew the kids who's fathers did something or other, and no one asked any more questions... Those jobs came with hours that made doctor's hours look easy.
But it took seeing the Soprano's on television to know that driving around the "Jersey" of the Soprano's was like another country compared to where I grew up. Making this show even more brilliant, because I recognize all the locations from my past and present tense. It's remarkable television that acts like the cinema noir of decades earlier.
15
@Warren Bobrow: I grew up on Long Island, and I knew kids whose fathers were in the Mafia. My neighbor directly across the street got two of his fingers chopped off for stealing from his mobbed-up boss. In one episode of The Sopranos it's suggested that as a child, witnessing his father and uncle administer that same punishment in a butcher shop may have resulted in Tony's later panic attacks, many of which occurred in the presence of meat!
11
Thanks very much Mr. Chase for creating such a wonderful entertaining series! Now at the age of 64 it's the only tv series I've ever binge-watched (with my wife). Twice, in fact. That's quite a time investment from a dwindling vault! Heck, I might just have to do it again.
And thank you for sharing your candid comments and rememberances.
13
I have binge watched it 14 times.
8
I fell in love with The Sopranos and James Gandolfini’s Tony in particular. Each character was perfectly cast, but Mr. Gandolfini WAS Tony Soprano (although from all accounts I read, as far from the Tony character as one could be in real life). He was a phenomenal actor; he gave a quiet, powerful performance in one of the last movies he made, the one with Julia Louis Dreyfus (the name of which escapes me at the moment). He was taken far too soon. May he Rest In Peace.
That we’re still talking about The Sopranos more than 10 years after its last episode is a tremendous credit to Mr. Chase, the actors, writers, and the rest of the production team. I’m definitely going to continue revisiting South Jersey all this week and next by way of HBO.
71
@Sherry Tony Soprano lived in North Caldwell, which is in North Jersey. Another whole world from South Jersey, which is more akin to Philadelphia than the Meadowlands.
21
@Warren Bobrow
Thank you for the clarification, seriously. I couldn’t remember if it were North or South, and just KNEW I was going to get it. And I did! (smile)
6
I think Mr Van Sant had some input too.
2
Thank you David Chase and the exceptional cast for the best drama and character development ever.
21
I was a huge fan of the show when it was on originally, and had not watched any episodes in quite a few years. I started watching over the weekend as HBO replayed the series for the anniversary, and I was as entertained now as I was when the show was in its original run -- perhaps even more so today. I find the show funnier and compelling, yet more brutal and repulsive at the same time. And I am more appreciative of the acting than ever before -- especially Dominic Chianese. Uncle Jun had some of the greatest lines and Mr. Chianese delivered them stunningly. What a fantastic show!
36
The Sopranos was, is, and will forever be a masterpiece. It is unparalleled art. I am not being hyperbolic, but it is Shakespearean. More than anything, it is a story of the human condition, and that was something that the show's fiercest critics could not grasp.
114
@PubliusMaximus
I grew up in Soprano country. My home in West Orange
was about 10 minutes from Livias home (fictionally). References of Essex County in the show were common although my upbringing was more mundane. Mr Chase, Tony and others captured a certain sensibility, an impatient gruffness which to me
defines New Jersey culture perfectly mafia or otherwise. Bravo on a masterpiece
28
@PubliusMaximus- respectfully disagree..see my post.
In the early 1900s The Birth of a Nation was considered one of the greatest films of that early era, a masterpiece. It turned out to be one of the ugliest, vile films in our history.
Ditto for this, now we look at this as brilliant, many yrs. from now it will be viewed as promoting a group, the mafia, that in some sense is sicker than Hitler. Hitler didn't abuse his children, he had none.
Also, the series with it gratuitous violent gun scenes help promote America's cultural gun sickness that results In 100k+ gun deaths/injuries a year, an aberration re our peer countries.
Congrats. Mr. Chase.
2
I remember waiting breathlessly each week for a new episode of "The Sopranos" (and "Sex and the City," which was out at the the same time). BTW, my favorite Tony dream sequence is when Dr. Melfi, who's in the dream, asks Tony, "Who's your friend?"
9
The aftermath of Dr. Melfi's rape still haunts me. As someone who likes to think of herself as a moral human being, there was something inside me urging her to accept Tony's "help". The rape was so brutally and realistically depicted; then the perpetrator essentially walked away with little punishment. Intellectually the viewer knew that Tony's solution to the injustice done to Melfi was wrong, but the tension the episode built inside me had me thinking, "Yes, tell him, Melfi--tell Tony to go get the mother---and then justice will be done." She chose to do the right thing, but Tony's sincere interest and care in what was wrong with her made for powerful TV. Great television and Holstein's, the setting of the last scene, does have great onion rings.
61
That event - Melfi’s rape- which came out of nowhere, should have been avenged. Why it was not has always bothered me. All the male characters were avenged for whatever, and then a rapist creep gets away with it?
What was up with that Mr Chase?
4
@SD She wasn’t avenged because the power was all in Melfi’s hands. She could easily have that man killed but she was the only moral compass in the show. She was the anchor of good and even then she didn’t faulter.
26
Chase knew his characters well: revenge would have satisfied his viewers, but would have been inconsistent with Melfi’s character.
8
First 3 seasons were brilliant. Unfortunately for me, the rest of the seasons seemed forced. I agree with David Chase, it is not worth talking about. Time to move on.
1
Chase has this success but not the clout to make shows he wants to make?
Now that is depressing. Hollywood is a jealous god.
19
The only show I would NOT miss a single episode on TeeVee....
Who would have thought an overweight, balding,middle aged man, not so good looking ,would be so sexy?!?!??
Just goes to show there's hope for everyone!!!!
11
@Ignatz George Costanza. He also had many attractive women clamoring to be with him.
1
I love this reading of the final scene as hopeful. There is so much power in that scene, and it comes from the tension and anticipation that's alive until the very last instant. Tony is just about to see Meadow (we hear the restaurant door's bell) when the scene ends. In the pilot episode, there's a lot of emphasis on the end of things, but there's also emphasis on family--Tony's duck dream and his duck obsession are about family--and the whole series carries through it the deep desire to be with family in a pure and real way, a return to some lost togetherness. That final scene of the series seems like the culmination of this desire. It and the final scene of season 1 (where the Sopranos go to eat at Artie's during a power outage) are the closest we come to reaching that dream of togetherness. So much holds them apart--sin, modernity--but they're always drawn together too.
27
"Sometimes I couldn’t believe it was that important to people."
Storytelling is ESSENTIAL to people. It's how we make sense of life. "The Sopranos" was great storytelling. And that is an achievement to be proud of.
87
@Jean Agree. I used to pray that nothing would happen to me before I got to see how The Sopranos ended! And I loved the ending.
3
I don't watch much TV but I binge-watched Sopranos last year and this year I was in love with The Americans. Hadn't thought of it much, but when you get down to the core and overlook the blood and guts, they're both really just dramas about family and marriage.
15
Missed it when it first came out. Binge watched a bunch last weekend. Wow. Really good. The growing up of Meadow and her awareness of the family business and then the confrontation between Carmela and Tony and her about her wanting quit school and go to Europe. Wow!
7
On the ending: When it cut to black I, as I think many others did, thought my cable connection was at fault. I was totally bewildered when I realized it was the end. My son, who is a writer and actor, came to my rescue with the most satisfying explanation I've heard.
He said that when the protagonist dies, there is no longer a point of view. Nothing else can happen but explanation. The brilliance of the ending was it did not bother with explanation. Tony was dead, so we longer could see the world through his eyes. We always knew (or believed) Tony would die violently. And so he did, with death looming outside the restaurant. Did his family die with him? What was the carnage? We'll never know, since Tony was no longer here to tell us. There was nothing left to say. That's what death is; all the rest is commentary.
193
@Eileen Paroff To me, the ending was about the beginning, going into therapy.
Sociopaths do not change through 'talk therapy'; to me the ending said, "Nothing changes, but everything is changed", and I think your take is equally valid, but a story isn't about what happens after it "ends". Point being, with all the death caused by Tony, six seasons of therapy changed NOTHING for Tony Soprano. His death was NOT part of the story.
4
I think both explanations can be valid. A sociopath can be kind and loving in limited situations, but can't (as you say) be cured. Mainly, I think psychotherapy would serve to help justify his or her actions by delving into to his/her subconscious motivations. And I think that's what it did. He had a glimmer of compassion in him that sparked his conflict, but he was too immersed in the expediency of murder for it to make much of difference. He killed what hindered him--as did his enemies. To me, it's more hopeful that he died this way. There is, after all, some retribution for the life we live.
8
@Eileen Paroff I saw it slightly differently. The final Shot is of Tony's face as he begins to look up. Then the Cut to black, the lights going out. ( recall the conversation Tony has with Bobby about what it is like to experience death).
The POV is the person opposite Tony..it always seemed to me it was that person that died ( AJ?). The song playing, Don't Stop Believing" gives the me the feeling that Tony, with a lifetime of instincts honed to react to situations such as this, has one last chance to live another day. Of course we will never know unless David Chase wrote a sequel. There are so many ways to consider this ending!
8
A truly superb series. Like BREAKING BAD, it unfolds like a great American novel - complex characters, real life moments, insight, family, greed - a pleasure to watch and to turn people onto who missed it the first time around.
21
I think the most brilliant single episode of any show ever is the Naples episode, and how it cuts back and forth seamlessly between Naples and Jersey, with that beautiful music and genius dialogue.
7
@globalnomad And Chase thought that was one of the weakest episodes.
2
I would have bet my bottom dollar that the Ruski in
the Pine Barrens episode would be coming back later in the show, suddenly, surprisingly. He never did, and I am no longer never wrong about such things.
8
I'm watching the Series again and loving it. The "cut to black" ending fits perfectly. If you watch closely all the clues to the final episode are salted throughout...brilliant. Kudos to Mr.Chase.
46
Thank you David Chase. For everything in general and the ending specifically. He could’ve said Tony was dead at any time but he let us debate over it and decide in our own hearts what happened in the diner that night. Despite all the hate he got, he laughed it off and that’s exactly why the show is talked about 20 years later. You’re an inspiration to me as an artist Mr. Chase.
101
@Sean Tony is Schrodinger's cat.
1
Wonderful show, and I loved Pine Barrens. Laughed myself spastic.
41
My favorite episode. When Paulie suggested to Christopher that they go get a steak at Morton's and then get their joints comped, I about lost it. Also, Pine Barrens was directed by Steve Buscemi.
35
@Joey: There were some really funny lines in this episode. For example, in a cell phone conversation, Tony tells Paulie that the deadly Russian formerly worked for the government ministry of the interior. Paulie misunderstands and tells Christopher, "You're not gonna believe this. He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. The guy was an interior decorator."
30
@Carson Drew: Greatest line ever! I think Meadow would like to work for the DOJ.
7