Many negative reactions from critics, bloggers and other commenters over last night’s series ending episode but not from this blogger. I was stunned when the screen went dark, as did others I wondered if there was a technical glitch and then the credits rolled, silently for once, showing that the quintessential nuclear family had not been detonated, decapitated or washed away in David Chase’s shower stall.
Tim Goodman, the SF Chronicle’s TV writer, said this morning on KFOG that one way to look at it (with which I agree) was that series creator Chase was simply telling us that the 86 episodes didn’t begin at some definitive beginning nor was the ending a conclusion. Rather the episodes showed us a passage of nearly a decade in the life of a Mafia boss; plenty of ups and downs, births and deaths, all told exciting times. Leaving important questions open is not typical of lowest common denominator Hollywood productions but The Sopranos were never lowest common denominator.
Not that the episode or series was perfect but I think the most prominently suggested alternate endings, killing Tony or packing him off to prison, would have been worse. Prison wasn’t possible because that would break the relationship viewers have with Tony, that despite his often monstrous behavior he was still, in his world, a good guy and death was too neat, too easy.
Killing Meadow, with the extended parallel parking scene and cars rushing by, or AJ, while making out with his new girlfriend as his SUV burned, those seemed much more in tune with the last stretch of episodes. Starting with Vito Spataforo last season and then rushing on with Johnny Sack, Christopher, Bobby and, viciously, Phil Leotardo last night, bodies were falling all over, and of course Sylvio left all tubed up in a coma (poor Little Steven, his hair for once a loose mess in the hospital bed).
But not Tony, though I half wondered if Pauly Walnuts, who–remember–had nearly turned on the crew in seasons past in favor of New York, was going to bring out a gun after turning down Tony’s offer of a promotion. The nervous guy who came into the restaurant, looked around, sat down at the counter and then went to the bathroom behind the family’s table gave a bit of a pause as did the two young guys who went straight to the jukebox.
As Jason Fried wrote, though:
There are lots of people saying it was lazy and lacked creativity, but in the same breath they fire off all the possible endings they envisioned.
Isn’t a large part of creativity about the unexpected? If it was formulaic it wasn’t creative. If it was obvious it wasn’t creative.
BillSaysThis 