Don't Stop Believing

"I have no interest in explaining, defending, reinterpreting, or adding to what is there. No one was trying to be audacious, honest to God. We did what we thought we had to do. No one was trying to blow people's minds, or thinking, 'Wow, this'll piss them off.' People get the impression that you're trying to fuck with them and it's not true. You're trying to entertain them. [...] Anybody who wants to watch it, it's all there."

David Chase, September 2007

I watched The Sopranos as it originally aired on HBO. Not diligently, mostly due to college life, which could not afford premium cable.

Years later, my sweet lady bought the entire series on DVD and we watched it in order, as it was meant to be seen.

We're approaching the four year anniversary of the final Sopranos episode "Made In America" and the final scene is still debated today. I watched it live with my parents and brother. Everyone went apeshit when it ended. Debating and arguing.

I tried to do some research for this post, but I've always hated critical analysis. Who are you to tell me what any author, director, or songwriter was "really" thinking?

Good opinions do exist on this topic if you search, as well as some detailed shot-by-shot breakdowns of the final scene.

All I know is what I think I know:

Watching the entire series, for a second time, paints a pretty clear picture. Tony tells many different people, on many different occassions, that his line of work ends one of two ways, in jail, or dead.

I can dig Chase's open-ended approach, but only in hindsight. The quick cut to black angered me at first, because it seemed like an outdated Kaufmanesque gag.

But not this time. I saw it again this morning. The whole episode. I've gone back to the final scene many times in the past four years, but rarely the whole episode.

David Chase created a masterpiece in The Sopranos, an 86 hour journey into what makes us Human. The series ended the way we all know life ends - by reinforcing that we know nothing about what is Next. It's probably just a quick cut to black.