Warning: this post definitely contains spoilers. If you haven’t watched the series finale of The Sopranos, and you care about not knowing what happens, don’t read this. You have been warned.
I, like much of the TV-viewing public (at least those who subscribe to HBO), watched the series finale of The Sopranos last night. And what did I think of it? Weird. It was weird, OK? I feel like this show sort of reached its zenith in that season where Ralph owned the race horse, and then Tony whacked him, and it’s been on a downward spiral of shark-jumping (with a few exceptions) since then. Last night confirmed my suspicion that yes, the glory days are gone. It’s time for The Sopranos to be over, and for all of us to move on to something else. So far, I don’t think the something else is going to be HBO’s newest David Milch project, John from Cincinnati, but that’s another post.
Anyway, my husband and I were sitting and watching The Sopranos last night, and we were about 40 minutes into the thing. I turned to him and asked, “Is it just me, or is this the most boring, anti-climactic series finale in the history of series finales? Nothing is happening!” and right after I said that, Phil Leotardo got shot in the head. In broad daylight! In front of his twin grandchildren! And then, in one of those patented, awful Sopranos moments, his stupid wife got out of the SUV and left it in neutral, and the thing (luckily, off-camera) rolled over his damn head. First I thought “Ew!” but then I thought, “Yeah! Finally some shit will go down!”
I was wrong. That was the end of it. The rest of the show was as dreary and boring and uninspiring as the rest of it, except for those horrific few minutes of head-squashing. Maybe that’s the point, really. Is David Chase (who both wrote and directed the finale) saying to us that even though Tony is a mobster, a lot of his life is just as mundane and stifling as yours or mine? There are days when nothing much really happens? Oh sure, maybe now and then he orders a guy whacked, or attends a big funeral with a bunch of Italian-American caricatures, but for the most part, it’s a grind like any other?
I’m probably being too harsh, really. There was certainly some material for discussion going on in last night’s episode. Just the abruptness of the ending itself is grist for a long debate on the significance of it all. And there are other questions - wtf is up with Meadow? WTF is AJ’s problem? What about that slimeball Paulie? Don’t you just want to murder that selfish bitch Janice?
Rest in peace, Sopranos. Rest in peace.
