Sopranos, cut to black

Well, I just finished watching sopranos and i've only read the LATimes review of it. I gotta say prior to watching it, i was somewhat expecting a climactic ending after all the hullaballoo for the last year but was sure that it could go bust with anticlimacticism. After all the best television series enders I've seen were Newhart, with MASH being a close second, and Magnum PI falling in there somewhere.

I finished and called the freshly annointed bday girl and wanted to powwow about it. i gotta say, i didn't shriek at the final cut. I was expressively nervous with the buildup of tension and the sort of people walking into the diner and the closeups of meadows car hitting the curb knowing on my OnDemand timer that it was almost over. But I gotta say, David Chase, owes us nothing. It's his television as art and a fitting end to a saga that american entertainment has often revered. We got a long 8 season 10 year snapshot into the workings of a sometimes thought, dying profession in America, the mafia. It was beautifully done, tied back to the beginning and left one to ponder "what the hell!" Good i say. We saw Tony's family happily enjoying a meal in peace with his family, but obviously personally conflicted with being in public. We've seen him for sometime knowing that he has to watch over his shoulder and know now that he is constantly going to have to. His wife loves him and sticks by him, accepting her role as a mob boss' wife. His daughter futifully (at this point in her life maturely) accepts her role and goes into a field that should keep the heat on another stove while exposing the plight of her heritage and others. AJ, the pissant of a son finally moves into an area after literally, an explosive breakthrough, to realize he has a lot of options that his place in the family can offer. He is at a selfish age of discovery of the world and self, but still highly immature. The trappings of a priveleged life provide that for him. All other characters seem to go the way they should however unresolved as that may seem. But the final episode gave us enough violence to think that we would be satiated, but then took it another step while showing the twin infants while Phils' head was popped under the weight of his own car (perhaps, we had already seen the foreshadowing/symbolism to this necessary event).

I haven't dived deeply into the sheer amount of symbolism yet as far as the music, and the FBI, and the cat vs christopher or even the obvious Jr. Soprano, but that might be something i do internally or to the chagrin of my roommates. Either way, i'm a junky for reading into television when its good, (ie.-LOST), as the Sopranos is in a league of it's own in our media conscience. I say good for fucking you David Chase, it kicked ass, and left people thinking. I am. I appreciate that series and what it's done for television, and the cosa nostra. It was even godfatheresque if i dare say (parts 1 and 2;3 blew donkey dick). Ms Bday even brought up the closing of Godfather1 where the door literally closed on Kate (and us as viewers-for the time being) and left her to contemplate what she had gotten herself into.

To close, i say it was masterful, kudos from a self described film snob.