The Sopranos
Jun. 11th, 2007 08:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiWell, I liked the ending. A hell of a lot.
Well, other than the "fuck you, Tivo" aspect of it.
But I love the ambiguity, and I love the necessity of it. Almost everyone said that the series had to end with one of two events: Tony getting whacked, or Tony going to jail. A few vocal mavericks argued that it had to end with Tony on top (since Chase has never pretended that his show was a morality play).
If Chase had gone with any of those, there would be a motherfucking chorus of, "oh, he went with the obvious choice" complaints. Because heightened expectations lead to that particularly nasty no-win scenario (remember the folks who complained about the ending of Sex and the City, which did, indeed, go out with the ending everyone said it would?).
Also, just a reminder about the structure of classical narrative: The climax is not the ending. We'd long passed the traditional point of narrative tension; last night was the catastrophe, and we don't need to see it (whether in the form of that guy who headed into the bathroom, the kids at the jukebox, or simply a subpoena six weeks later) to know it's coming. The lack of music at the end is more than enough of an indicator that Tony might be happy for a few seconds, but that it won't last.
Which is not to say that Meadow's endless parking scene didn't annoy the fuck out of me. Ditto AJ's angst. But overall, I'm satisfied.
And tonight, I'll get John From Cincinnati (didn't record it last night) and Big Love. And next weekend, the debut of Meadowlands and the return of The Closer shortly after that. Followed by the return of Eureka and the limited run of Masters of Sci-Fi later this summer. The end of The Sopranos is no more the end of good TV than the end of Seinfeld (speaking of underwhelming finales), M*A*S*H, or season four of Babylon 5 were.
Well, other than the "fuck you, Tivo" aspect of it.
But I love the ambiguity, and I love the necessity of it. Almost everyone said that the series had to end with one of two events: Tony getting whacked, or Tony going to jail. A few vocal mavericks argued that it had to end with Tony on top (since Chase has never pretended that his show was a morality play).
If Chase had gone with any of those, there would be a motherfucking chorus of, "oh, he went with the obvious choice" complaints. Because heightened expectations lead to that particularly nasty no-win scenario (remember the folks who complained about the ending of Sex and the City, which did, indeed, go out with the ending everyone said it would?).
Also, just a reminder about the structure of classical narrative: The climax is not the ending. We'd long passed the traditional point of narrative tension; last night was the catastrophe, and we don't need to see it (whether in the form of that guy who headed into the bathroom, the kids at the jukebox, or simply a subpoena six weeks later) to know it's coming. The lack of music at the end is more than enough of an indicator that Tony might be happy for a few seconds, but that it won't last.
Which is not to say that Meadow's endless parking scene didn't annoy the fuck out of me. Ditto AJ's angst. But overall, I'm satisfied.
And tonight, I'll get John From Cincinnati (didn't record it last night) and Big Love. And next weekend, the debut of Meadowlands and the return of The Closer shortly after that. Followed by the return of Eureka and the limited run of Masters of Sci-Fi later this summer. The end of The Sopranos is no more the end of good TV than the end of Seinfeld (speaking of underwhelming finales), M*A*S*H, or season four of Babylon 5 were.