It usually takes me a few years before I catch on to a fad or get up to speed on what is considered trendy. For example, I only just now finished The Sopranos on DVD. Now I suppose I’ll put down my Tamagotchi and glass of Crystal Pepsi long enough to write about it.
The biggest thing I have to mention about The Sopranos is that everything means something. There’s more symbolism here than David Lynch could shake a stick at. Tony’s ducks are an obvious example. But there’s also Ralph making eggs, Chris’s perpetually dark apartment, and the bear that visits in the backyard. The show is packed to the steeple with motifs, and they pull it off without being preachy or self-indulgent.
It’s also the most cinematic show I’ve seen. There’s an obvious polish on each episode that seems to be missing from many other series. The show doesn’t apologize for itself, either. It’s going to kill major characters, perpetuate challenging storylines, and occasionally give you an unsatisfying ending. You’re simply along for the ride.
If you haven’t seen the final episode, odds are that you’ve at least heard that the conclusion was quite open-ended. I consider myself a pretty savvy media consumer, but I had to throw my hands in the air once I saw it. Does Tony get shot, or doesn’t he? I’m going batty trying to deduce a solid ending. Help.
That final scene practically bordered on a religious experience for this Sopranos fan. Its ominous tone setting up Tony’s looming assassination, undercut with Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing,’ completely immersed me in the show’s understated but intensely emotional style. The clues are all there and the entire composition of those final minutes – particularly the editing emphasizing the suspicious guy in the Members Only Jacket and our following him to the bathroom – reveals all. Clearly we are intended to expect Tony to get shot…but the screen goes black, and The Sopranos ends forever.
Not because Tony is killed as this author subscribes, though his compelling P.O.V illustration does seemingly demonstrate how those curious shots of the diner’s entrance serve to set up (and pay off) the final cut to black. No, with its deliberately obscure nod to the unknown in that final cut, show runner David Chase provides us the ultimate, final example of what elevates The Sopranos above mere entertainment: true art imitates life, and as in real life there is no narrative closure; no character ‘arc.’ There are no lessons or resolutions in The Sopranos. Like a mobster fleeing through the Pine Barrens, characters inexplicably disappear and frustrate our Hollywood shaped need for closure as spectators.
Our witnessing Tony’s assassination would only serve to undermine this. Yes, given the implied danger it’s very likely that Tony is about to be shot. But we are boldly, cheekily, cut short of that… and so Tony Soprano lives on forever! On some level, pointing to specific moments in The Sopranos to support any hypothesis concerning The End (such as Tony’s conversation with Bobby in the final season premiere) in fact ignores this defiant, central subtext and structure of the series.
Cheer up, people, The Sopranos lives on… on DVD.
Lyle:
Thanks, this is great. I’m still letting the series percolate in my head for a bit, but I loved the show.
-Dylan
I think I might be the only person in America who has never seen an episode…