I would love to hear folks' predictions on what they think will happen. My only prediction is the series will end with a introspective "whimper" in true David Chase style.
Thoughts?
Replies
47
needs to get out more
the 'boring' ending sure has much of america speculating for the last two days. as mentioned above, the ending was definitely not what everyone was anticipating, and neither was the ride to the ending. surprises at every turn, even the last turn.
Beach Lover
It was boring!It made me realize what a waste of time watching the past two seasons has been! For that I am grateful! Sopranos will be the last series I ever follow! I would not call it a genius ending. I would call it a bunch of people sitting around deciding that they may need a buck one day so lets keep it wide open and have nothing happen...It will be perfect for "Sopranos The Movie".
Interesting comment about wasting time.
I don't watch much television, but my wife and I started watching "Lost" from the beginning and have, with the exception of an episode or two, seen all three seasons. It was recently announced that the show would have a finite life span and would end after three more seasons. Given the nature of the show, I can definitely see a scenario in which the finale will answer some questions but at the same time leave many more unanswered or even leave you with new ones.
I wonder if sometime in the Spring of 2010 I'll be asking myself if following the show for six seasons was a waste of time.:scratch:
Beach Fanatic
Interesting comment about wasting time.
I don't watch much television, but my wife and I started watching "Lost" from the beginning and have, with the exception of an episode or two, seen all three seasons. It was recently announced that the show would have a finite life span and would end after three more seasons. Given the nature of the show, I can definitely see a scenario in which the finale will answer some questions but at the same time leave many more unanswered or even leave you with new ones.
I wonder if sometime in the Spring of 2010 I'll be asking myself if following the show for six seasons was a waste of time.:scratch:
Not if you enjoyed the journey.
SoWal Insider
I agree I love LOST but for every answer they've given I have 3 more questions. It's twisted.
bean
I agree I love LOST but for every answer they've given I have 3 more questions. It's twisted.
I love LOST. At least they've given us some answers! Even if it ended right now I wouldn't say it was a waste of time. I've enjoyed every episode.
SoWal Insider
I love LOST. At least they've given us some answers! Even if it ended right now I wouldn't say it was a waste of time. I've enjoyed every episode.
Me too, I'm there until they leave (or decide to stay). I think the beach is beautiful, and if people weren't dying and there were no smoke monsters I'd probably want to stay.
Were you freaking out at the twist with Jack's flashback being a flashfoward??? I've been hooked from day 1 and I've gotten my girls here at the office hooked too.
Beach Lover
Were you freaking out at the twist with Jack's flashback being a flashfoward??? I've been hooked from day 1 and I've gotten my girls here at the office hooked too.
That really threw me for a loop.
Very clever if we now begin to see flash forwards instead of flashbacks. Who got off the island? How? How has their life been impacted? Whose funeral did Jack attend? Too bad the new season doesn't start until next February!!!
Oh.....and I better find out what the @$@# that black smoke monster is or there will be much violence and mayhem at the ATHQ.
hmmmm......can't remember
I miss the polar bear.
Beach Lover
I miss the polar bear.
I've always wondered if there was any significance in the fact that the young boy, Walt, had a comic book that featured a polar bear rather predominantly. Speaking of Walt.....wonder when or if they'll ever get back to the story of him and his father after they left the island in the boat?
hmmmm......can't remember
I've always wondered if there was any significance in the fact that the young boy, Walt, had a comic book that featured a polar bear rather predominantly. Speaking of Walt.....wonder when or if they'll ever get back to the story of him and his father after they left the island in the boat?
Of COURSE it's significant; they just may never tell us WHY it's significant.
I would quit that show if I wasn't completely hooked...
Beach Lover
Of COURSE it's significant; they just may never tell us WHY it's significant.
I would quit that show if I wasn't completely hooked...
AMEN!!
I can't decide if watching this show is a guilty pleasure
or a perverse addiction. 
Regardless, I've got too much emotional energy invested to quit watching now.SoWal Insider
AMEN!!
I can't decide if watching this show is a guilty pleasure
It's like being married.
As for the polar bears at least we know they were on the island for experiments by the original Dharma people so that much was explained. But what about the big box that brings whatever you want to the island? Locke's dad for instance?
And who or what is Jacob? 
Can't wait.Beach Lover
As for the polar bears at least we know they were on the island for experiments by the original Dharma people so that much was explained. But what about the big box that brings whatever you want to the island? Locke's dad for instance?
The Others' had their henchmen locate Locke's father, kidnap him, and transport him to the island. Remember that Locke's Dad, when tied up in the Black Rock, recalled being in an auto accident, being put into an ambulance, then waking up on the island? This was done to make it appear, to a believer in the island's mystical forces like Locke, that his dreams/subconscious thoughts were magically manifested.
Beach Fanatic
I don't ever post here, but I saw the title and thought I'd offer this article.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MmNjZWJhMGJlOGI1MWNiZjFhYmE4ZGMzZGI0OTZkOGQ=
The only thing I disagree with the author on is the theory that the fade to black is Tony's death. I believe that the ending was great in that it showed us the world through Tony's paranoid eyes and shows the hell he lives in because of his chosen lifestyle. Not as romantic a death as suffering a heart attack while chasing one's grandson in the tomato garden.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MmNjZWJhMGJlOGI1MWNiZjFhYmE4ZGMzZGI0OTZkOGQ=
The only thing I disagree with the author on is the theory that the fade to black is Tony's death. I believe that the ending was great in that it showed us the world through Tony's paranoid eyes and shows the hell he lives in because of his chosen lifestyle. Not as romantic a death as suffering a heart attack while chasing one's grandson in the tomato garden.
Beach FanaticAuthor
I don't ever post here, but I saw the title and thought I'd offer this article.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MmNjZWJhMGJlOGI1MWNiZjFhYmE4ZGMzZGI0OTZkOGQ=
The only thing I disagree with the author on is the theory that the fade to black is Tony's death. I believe that the ending was great in that it showed us the world through Tony's paranoid eyes and shows the hell he lives in because of his chosen lifestyle. Not as romantic a death as suffering a heart attack while chasing one's grandson in the tomato garden.
It wasn't a fade to black, it was a CUT to black. Completely different thing in filmmaking terms. Personally, I think it was the viewer who was whacked, not Tony.
Beach Lover
I don't ever post here, but I saw the title and thought I'd offer this article.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MmNjZWJhMGJlOGI1MWNiZjFhYmE4ZGMzZGI0OTZkOGQ=
Funnkalicious
It wasn't a fade to black, it was a CUT to black. Completely different thing in filmmaking terms. Personally, I think it was the viewer who was whacked, not Tony.
The more I think about it, the better the ending was.
Beach Fanatic
Interesting comment about wasting time.
I don't watch much television, but my wife and I started watching "Lost" from the beginning and have, with the exception of an episode or two, seen all three seasons. It was recently announced that the show would have a finite life span and would end after three more seasons. Given the nature of the show, I can definitely see a scenario in which the finale will answer some questions but at the same time leave many more unanswered or even leave you with new ones.
I wonder if sometime in the Spring of 2010 I'll be asking myself if following the show for six seasons was a waste of time.:scratch:
I can answer that for you.... Yes!
Beach Fanatic
The more I think about it, the better the ending was.AGreed - posted this somewhere else but once the shock of abruptness ends, one can find cleverness and peace in ending. The more i think about it the more amazed I am at just how much Chase was able to resolve for us......
Beach Fanatic
Given some time to think about the show I agree that it was a unique ending. My problem was, I was bored with the show. I guess I lost touch awhile back... I want my mafia shows to move me like "Good Fellas". Now that was show!
Edited
Beach Fanatic
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTM2NDMzMzdiZDIzMTJjMDBmYmQ1ZjFmYzcyNzlkOWM=
One more take.
Goodbye Tony
By William F. Buckley Jr.
The genius of David Chase, the originator of The Sopranos, was never more evident than in the last episode of the series. I viewed it with an earnest and cosmopolitan young man and his lady, and we wondered, as we waited for the show to start, what would the final act do to Tony Soprano. Speculation in the press had offered three alternative endings: (1) Tony is killed; (2) Tony survives and kills the leader of the other gang; (3) Tony makes a deal with the FBI.
None of these happened. What happened in the final scene was ? nothing.
The ?nothing? was brilliantly set up. Tony is sitting in a booth in a restaurant. At some point, two burly men made to order for killing fields come into the restaurant and sit down at another table.
Soon Tony?s wife arrives and sits down next to him. Then their son arrives and takes a seat. The only family member missing is the daughter. You are looking at your watch and there are only two minutes left in the hour. Where is the wretched Meadow? Well, we see her. She?s outside, having a hard time parking her car. She doesn?t quite make it into the space on the first attempt, so she has to try again. Backing a car up when there are only nine seconds to go before Pearl Harbor, or 9/11, or Hiroshima, can make for the slowest parking backup in history, which Meadow?s was. But she succeeds, finally, and walks toward the restaurant.
The camera idles toward the entrance, and you rap your watch because it is showing only 15 seconds to go! Then suddenly you are looking at an entirely black screen. The Sopranos is over. And nothing has changed.
That was the genius, the parable, of the most successful television drama in history, giving the viewer hour after hour, year after year, exploitation of sex, exhibitionism, murder, sadism, cynicism and hypocrisy. And, according to David Chase, we are to remember that such is as it is. There was no pictorial, no dramatic end to The Sopranos because its point was to depict life (a) as practiced by the Mafia, and (b) as tolerated, and in fact swooned over, by the viewing public.
What theatrical obligation is there to call an end to it? To do that courts censoriousness, self-doubt.
Commenting on an episode in Year Three (there were eight years total), I wrote of a scene involving a younger member of the gang conspicuous mostly for his fearless swagger. He is enraged when a girl utters an obscenity at his expense. In some detail, we are shown how he hits and clubs her ? to death, we discover moments later when Tony comes on the scene.
Tony is angered by his lieutenant?s loss of control and hits him hard enough to cause Tony?s wrist to swell. Moments later, Tony wearily laments the transgression of his junior killer, who in beating the girl mortally committed an offense against the Soprano protocols. The reproach brings instant surrogate action, and we have the pleasure of viewing the quick execution of retributory justice, though for some reason, the viewers were deprived by Mr. Chase of a nice visual of the execution.
The sophistication of the Mephistophelian creator of The Sopranos was never underrated. The language is purely instrumental, even when the dialogue is between Tony and his resourceful shrink. What the language itself doesn?t communicate, facial muscles eloquently tell us. There is no face in Madame Tussaud?s that combines better than Tony Soprano?s the acceptance of irony, the grit of resolution, the trivialization of theft and murder. There is true underworld humor, and you are free to liberate yourself from the drag of orthodoxy as one more pistol shot explodes into the face of a character whose time is up, and who falls under the wheels of a car on the move.
If one of the burly men had opened up in the restaurant with an Uzi, ending the lives of all four of the Sopranos, you?d have felt a quiver of moral relief. Instead, you were reminded by that blank screen that that kind of thing goes on and on, and reminded, also, of its bewitching power to entertain a spellbound, onanistic audience.
One more take.
Goodbye Tony
By William F. Buckley Jr.
The genius of David Chase, the originator of The Sopranos, was never more evident than in the last episode of the series. I viewed it with an earnest and cosmopolitan young man and his lady, and we wondered, as we waited for the show to start, what would the final act do to Tony Soprano. Speculation in the press had offered three alternative endings: (1) Tony is killed; (2) Tony survives and kills the leader of the other gang; (3) Tony makes a deal with the FBI.
None of these happened. What happened in the final scene was ? nothing.
The ?nothing? was brilliantly set up. Tony is sitting in a booth in a restaurant. At some point, two burly men made to order for killing fields come into the restaurant and sit down at another table.
Soon Tony?s wife arrives and sits down next to him. Then their son arrives and takes a seat. The only family member missing is the daughter. You are looking at your watch and there are only two minutes left in the hour. Where is the wretched Meadow? Well, we see her. She?s outside, having a hard time parking her car. She doesn?t quite make it into the space on the first attempt, so she has to try again. Backing a car up when there are only nine seconds to go before Pearl Harbor, or 9/11, or Hiroshima, can make for the slowest parking backup in history, which Meadow?s was. But she succeeds, finally, and walks toward the restaurant.
The camera idles toward the entrance, and you rap your watch because it is showing only 15 seconds to go! Then suddenly you are looking at an entirely black screen. The Sopranos is over. And nothing has changed.
That was the genius, the parable, of the most successful television drama in history, giving the viewer hour after hour, year after year, exploitation of sex, exhibitionism, murder, sadism, cynicism and hypocrisy. And, according to David Chase, we are to remember that such is as it is. There was no pictorial, no dramatic end to The Sopranos because its point was to depict life (a) as practiced by the Mafia, and (b) as tolerated, and in fact swooned over, by the viewing public.
What theatrical obligation is there to call an end to it? To do that courts censoriousness, self-doubt.
Commenting on an episode in Year Three (there were eight years total), I wrote of a scene involving a younger member of the gang conspicuous mostly for his fearless swagger. He is enraged when a girl utters an obscenity at his expense. In some detail, we are shown how he hits and clubs her ? to death, we discover moments later when Tony comes on the scene.
Tony is angered by his lieutenant?s loss of control and hits him hard enough to cause Tony?s wrist to swell. Moments later, Tony wearily laments the transgression of his junior killer, who in beating the girl mortally committed an offense against the Soprano protocols. The reproach brings instant surrogate action, and we have the pleasure of viewing the quick execution of retributory justice, though for some reason, the viewers were deprived by Mr. Chase of a nice visual of the execution.
The sophistication of the Mephistophelian creator of The Sopranos was never underrated. The language is purely instrumental, even when the dialogue is between Tony and his resourceful shrink. What the language itself doesn?t communicate, facial muscles eloquently tell us. There is no face in Madame Tussaud?s that combines better than Tony Soprano?s the acceptance of irony, the grit of resolution, the trivialization of theft and murder. There is true underworld humor, and you are free to liberate yourself from the drag of orthodoxy as one more pistol shot explodes into the face of a character whose time is up, and who falls under the wheels of a car on the move.
If one of the burly men had opened up in the restaurant with an Uzi, ending the lives of all four of the Sopranos, you?d have felt a quiver of moral relief. Instead, you were reminded by that blank screen that that kind of thing goes on and on, and reminded, also, of its bewitching power to entertain a spellbound, onanistic audience.
Beach Fanatic
The fact we keep talking about it tells you it was a success.
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