Reactions to the Sporanos Finale?
 

Not what I was expecting at all...... :confused:

I loved it. Specially when Phil's head went pop. IMO, very moving way to end the series. Also, nice layout for the upcoming movie.

It ended exactly as the rest of the shows have ended since the 2nd season.

Like crap.

Bad final episode for such a fine series.

It sucked. We should write an X5 ending...

WTF!!! I am pissed I thought it would have been better(more killing) I guess we'll have to wait till the movie, at least Phil got it good, I loved the sound of his skull cracking when he got run over!!!

I can't believe the first and only "whacking" occurred at approx. 9:47 pm!! WTF??!! I agree that the ending sets the tone for the movie, but they could've done a better job of tying up a few loose ends.

Okay, I think I recognized where the whacking occurred. I think that Barnes and Noble and Raceway gas station is on Route 10 & Route 202 at the Morris Plains/Parsipanny area, NJ. The Raceway gas station is officially in Morris Plains side and B&N is at Parsipanny. If it is the same place I am thining of, then it is right by where LeMans & CmyX5go had our mini meet at Ruth's Chris about block away.

UPDATE: Yup, it is the same place....check out this link: http://snark-a-bull.com/2007/06/04/made-in-america/

Funny thing how AJ finally got the M3 he always wanted.

I've been at that Barnes & Noble before with our M3.

Well, I guess we'll have to wait for a Soprano's movie!:popcorn:

The funny thing about the ending was that I thought our Sat connection died....Anyhow, love the final song with Journey's "Don't stop believing..."

I'm a huge Sopranos fan but alas...I thought the final episode tried to do too much. The ending while it kept you wondering what was going to happen was a disappointment.

What was with the cat and Christopher's photo? What happened to the ducks? I thought for sure it would end with ducks. At least there are enough guys left over for a sequel.

It was crappy. I also thought that the cable had gone out with that abrupt ending. I think it was a cheap way to setup and promote the movie. There was a whole lot of nothing for an hour. Other than Phil being killed, and in grand style indeed, there was nothing accomplished except for the aforementioned setup for the movie. (I appreciated the use of a less common brand of firearm to use on Phil.) There wasn't a damn thing that was final about it. Very disappointing.

Overall: :bsflag:

Though it was funny that AJ mentions that the M3 gets "23 mpg" which is the EPA estimate for the M3's highway MPG.

BS ending IMO. I see the setup for the movie but the whole hour (other than Phil) was a waste of time.

I feel robbed...crappy end to the best drama ever..period.

I'm thinking Tony got whacked in that last scene. Anyone?

I was thinking the whole family was gonna get it but that is not in old fashioned mafia style, usually the family is left alone, what was with all of those weird stare's by Paulie every time he go done talking with Tony??? Is Paulie the one who is going to have Tony whacked? Now we gotta wait it out!!!

The way they had Meadow repeatedly attempting to get into that parking space I was sure that once she finally got the car parked that she would begin to walk up to the restaraunt the the place would explode in a ball of fire. Very wierd indeed.

I too thought for a while that I had lost the video feed, but then the credits finally came on the screen. Not the way I would have scripted the final episode :tsk:

Jeff - hurry and make another post. All those 6s can't be good :rofl:

I stopped watching the Sopranos years ago when Adrianna got whacked.

Nice touch, going to black screen, as we are all sitting up
and hanging off our chairs...:confused:

If it were me, I'd leave it at the black screen, and the entire
viewing audience speculating over their demise or their lives...

As Peggy Lee sang, "Is that all there is...?"

Not being up on my HollywoodJive, I have heard of a "movie",
but is it already in the can, or do they drag them all back sometime
in the future for a movie making few months?

Someone want to give some spoilers about how it ended for those who will never watch cause they don't have hbo???? please.

I liked the finale, but you gotta understand that Chase doesn't necessarily believe that everything must have an ending and/or tied up. I think the clear Godfather reference of the hitman going to the bathroom says that he kills Tony in front of his family. 'Families never gets touched' was brought up many times over the past few episodes, so thats what I believe. Plus, Phil's wife didn't get capped either.

I can see how the loose ends would play into a movie, but Chase and Gandolfini have said many times before that there will be no movie (without Tony there's nothing unless you create a spinoff). Gandolfini truly wants to shed his portrayal of Tony Soprano, and not be stereotyped into that kind of role.

:thumbup:

Let's see...we have a drama series that runs for 7 seasons - and we expect everything to be neatly resolved -and make all the viewers happy? Aint gonna happen.

For the folks that didn't like the ending - let me hear your final script ideas?

Count me in the minority that liked the finale - especially the last 5 minutes in the restaurant. Admit it - until the screen went blank - and you were wondering if you forgot to pay the cable bill - it was edge of your seat suspense.

Anyone find it odd that AJ went from a depressed career jumping psychopath who REALLY enjoyed his vehicle burning up (almost like a serial arsonists) to a normal happy kid with a vision driving an M3 in about 15 minutes?

Too much needed to be tied up in the last hour of an episode. It should have been a 2 hour finale.

Yep. But fitting for a conflicted angst ridden teenager and Tony's son. Could AJ revert back to his former self in the next 15 minutes? Does he end up like his father later in life?

So are they going to do a movie or what?

I think thats what Chase wanted to show. Tony still is a depressed sociopath and his son is no different. Many people have come to like Tony because of his ability to change moods so much, a wicked boss to caring husband/father to saddened man. AJ goes from depressed over ex-girlfriend to anti-terrorist actions to happy-go-lucky rich kid snob.

So is both Tony and AJ also has Bipolar Disorder?

Tony spilling his guts to AJ's Psychiatrist was pretty funny. He really misses his sessions. Carmella's reaction was classic.

not really, he's Tony's son, they're manic.

By the way, if anyone wants to buy "AJ's M3", you can get your own piece of Sopranos history here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-M...spagenameZWDVW
;)

noice.

Chase got what he wanted ...endless discussion and the door left open for endless future possibilities :thumbup:

Two things jumped out at me about the final scene:

The guy who walked in and was dressed like a trucker (mesh cap, denim, vest) but was wayyy too clean and crisp to really be a trucker- one of the feds, I suspect.

The other guy who walked in behind AJ- he had a Member's Only jacket on! He had to be an imported "hitter", maybe a Russian or a merc hired by the Brooklyn crew. He then goes into the bathroom just before Meadow walks in.

So was he stopped by the Fed (you know they are surveilling Tony and Agent Harris has Tony's back) or did the hitter go grab the gun that was taped behind the toilet and whack Tony?

I didn't mind the ending so much- makes it easier to invent my own "Mad Libs" style conclusion.

I loved it...now its up to us to write our own ending. Did the entire family get wacked? Does life just go on for the Sopranos? Was AJ faking his depression to get what he ultimatly wanted...an M3 and a Nightclub? Is AJ secretly the smartest Soprano? Does AJ take over the family business when Tony goes to prison?

Lets face it, now matter how it ended the majority of us would have been pissed, the series is done and thats really why you arent happy.

Actually, i'm disappointed because each season i had so much hope for it to be as good as the first 2 seasons, and was let down each time.

Another reason I think the guy with the Members Only jacket on killed Tony after coming from the bathroom is that in last week's episode, Tony had a flashback to him and Bobby sitting in the boat on the lake (b4 BB kicked his ass). They are talking about getting whacked and BB says something like this, 'you won't see or hear anything, just cut to black'.

Tony is dead.

Its sad but it all comes to money those actors that want too much to do the movie will be dead and those that cut a deal will live on.

[quote=MrLabGuy]Anyone find it odd that AJ went from a depressed career jumping psychopath who REALLY enjoyed his vehicle burning up (almost like a serial arsonists) to a normal happy kid with a vision driving an M3 in about 15 minutes?

Its amazing what a BMW will do for you.;)

P,
I like your analysis!

Ol'TonyBaloney was in the process of, and did come undone...Chase skipped the obvious and
avoided the big "slo-mo shootout" finale, imo.

I'd put the "movie" chances at Slim to None and, Slim's on the bus headed out of
town.

I think it is the end with Tony getting whacked!!

Check out this explanation on another thread here: http://www.xoutpost.com/lounge/32907-...no-ending.html

That was the best episode/best death, ever.. !!

Warning, Sopranos Finale Spoiler Below...
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G, here is the NewYawkTimes version of the Cliff'sNotes Version and comments.
BR,mD

The TV Watch
One Last Family Gathering

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...opr.ms.600.jpg HBO
James Gandolfini and Edie Falco in "The Sopranos," which ended its storied run Sunday night on HBO.

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: June 11, 2007

There was no good ending, so “The Sopranos” left off without one.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/....ms.1a.190.jpg James Gandolfini, left, Edie Falco and Robert Iler in "The Sopranos," which ended its storied run Sunday night on HBO.

The abrupt finale last night was almost like a prank, a mischievous dig at viewers who had agonized over how television’s most addictive series would come to a close. The suspense of the final scene in the diner was almost cruel. And certainly that last bit of song — “Don’t Stop Believing,” by Journey — had to be a joke.

After eight years and so much frenzied anticipation, any ending would have been a letdown. Viewers are conditioned to seek a resolution, happy or sad, so it was almost fitting that this HBO series that was neither comedy nor tragedy should defy expectations in its very last moments. In that way at least “The Sopranos” delivered a perfectly imperfect finish.

The ending was a reminder of what made David Chase’s series about New Jersey mobsters so distinctive from the beginning. “The Sopranos” was the most unusual and realistic family drama in television history. There have been many good Mafia movies and one legendary trilogy, but fans had to look to literature to find comparable depictions of the complexity and inconsistencies of American family life. It was sometimes hard to bear the encomiums — the saga of the New Jersey mob family has been likened to Cheever, Dickens and Shakespeare; scripts were pored over as if they were the Dead Sea Scrolls. But its saving grace was that the series was always many different things at once.

The decline and fall of the Sopranos — Tony; his wife, Carmela; and the rest — served as a parable of America in decline, yet week to week the series was also just a gangsters’ tale, with lots of graphic sex, gruesome violence and most of all a sense of humor.

In last night’s episode Meadow Soprano, trying to explain to her father why she wants to be a civil rights lawyer, said earnestly, “The state can crush the individual.” Tony replied, “New Jersey?”

And, as last night’s episode showed one last time, a troubled marriage struggles on, devastating intergenerational conflicts scab over but never quite heal, and power comes and goes. Some things endure, but nothing is permanent in American culture, or in the Soprano family.

Tony remains alive, still in business, his wife and children are safe, but he resumes his criminal enterprise surrounded by ever-darker shadows of prosaic impeding doom: an indictment and most likely a trial.

From the very beginning of the final season, there were myriad hints and red herrings suggesting completely different conclusions. It wasn’t hard to suspect that a cornered Tony would be turned and enter a witness protection program. And that seemed to be where he was headed when he went to the F.B.I. agent named Harris whom he had mocked and dismissed for so many years, and offered information about two Muslim acquaintances, saying, “Can I bank the result in good will?”

Soon both Tony and the F.B.I. learned that Phil Leotardo, a rival mob boss, planned to take down the Sopranos and rub Tony out. Last night when Tony asked for a secret meeting with Harris to seek his help in locating Phil, he was sent away. Later Harris changed his mind, leaking to Tony Phil’s whereabouts, which he learned during postcoital pillow talk with a female agent.

And that breach of F.B.I. ethics led to one of the series’s most revolting death scenes. Phil, who had gotten out of the S.U.V. in which he was riding with his wife and their two grandchildren, was shot dead by a gunman. His wife, horrified, leapt out of the car with the shift still on drive. As the vehicle drifted forward with the two babies strapped in their car seats, the scene seemed headed toward a tragic tableau of innocent children destroyed — the collateral damage of organized crime.

Instead it veered into sick comedy: the wheels slowly crushed Phil’s head with a juicy, crunching sound that made a bystander vomit.

Tony’s troublesome son, A. J., seemed headed for disaster all season, and instead ended pretty much where he began: a spoiled, materialistic layabout. A. J.’s obsession this season with being jilted, as well as with the Iraq war, terrorism and the heedless materialism in American society, led him to a suicide attempt; after a ziti-laden buffet that followed his Uncle Bobby’s funeral in last night’s episode, A. J. lashed out at guests cheerfully discussing “American Idol” and “Dreamgirls.” He quoted a line from Yeats’s famous poem, “The Second Coming,” though he pronounced the poet’s name as if it rhymed with Pete’s.

Tony even made his peace with Uncle Junior, so senile he didn’t recognize his nephew or remember that he had shot him.

Yet Tony’s rift with his longtime psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi — so sudden it seemed hastily added in the show’s final hours to make room for a last-minute dramatic resolution — was not mended. Instead Tony went to see A. J.’s new psychiatrist, an attractive woman, and, perhaps reflexively, began to tell his own family history: loveless mother and miserable childhood. Carmela, at his side, scoffed and sent him dagger looks.

But Mr. Chase’s last joke was on his audience, not his characters. Tony, Carmela and A. J. are gathered at a diner in a rare moment of family content that cried out for violent interruption. A shifty-looking man walks in and eyes them from the counter, then, in a move echoing a scene from “The Godfather,” ominously enters the men’s room. Outside, Meadow is delayed, trying to parallel park, then begins walking toward the restaurant.

Nothing happens. Credits. What?

Mr. Chase wanted to end his tale without melodrama or even a splashy denouement. He succeeded.

:iagree: with "pseto" & "Motordavid" - He's a man alone at this point - his "crew" he grew up with is basically gone - the "Bobby" line was nice foreshadowing.

I just heard on the radio that Chase and his wife hopped a plane to France to avoid the Monday morning quaterbacking of his last episode. He doesn't want to explain or justify the ending. :dunno:

I heard that the real ending will only be avaliable on the Season finally DVD.

sorry if this was already mentioned

after all the monday morning quarterbacking i'm convinced that Chase is niether a genius nor a grand schemer... the ending is the ending and that's it, I think we're reading into it too much.

It's over.... NEXT!






Carry on.

Did anyone happen to watch the new HBO series John from Cincinatti? Only the first episode, but I found it to have a lot of potential.

I did, out of curiosity, seems a bit strange, I'll give it another episode or 2....

Here's more good reading about David Chase's thoughts about the ending.

http://blog.nj.com/alltv/2007/06/dav...se_speaks.html

Gresch - seems like the email you got was a hoax

That was a good read...Thanks.

+1 ...:thumbup:

I don't know which was more boring... the Sopranos finale or game 2 of the NBA Finals.

+2

You hit all the most interesting points that still keeps me thinking about this days later and why I liked the ending. This is a great article from NJ paper. The boat scene is key. What I keep coming back to a poster on the NJ blog brought up. In the second to last episode Tony lays down with his mega gun in an empty room on a bed with no sheets. In the opening of the last episode he wakes up in a sheeted bed with an alarm clock and beer next to him. Was the last episode a dream?

The episode had it all. Coming to grips with Tony being a sociopath so much his doc gave up on him, yet you're rooting for him. He's turing the screws on Pauly right up the the end even though he's freaked about getting killed and about a cat and yet you go with Tony as knowing what may be right.

Cringing and then laughing in the same motion with Phil's death

The feds closing in and yet some rooting for Tony.

Tension, right up to the end. Realizing this is Tony's life, scoping every person that comes near him.

ending-so many possible

Journey- word is the band found out a couple weeks ago the song had been approved for a scene but the didn't know when and were very stoked. Tuesday they fired their singer? Go figure.