The Sopranos – The End

How do you end the greatest show in the history of television?
You don’t. Or rather, you can’t…
After my initial anger and dismay at the ending last night, I came to the realization that this is the only way you could have ended the series. There was no other way.
Any other ending would have degraded the series.
David Chase is absolutely brilliant.
Chase has made this series great by changing our expectations; expectations that have been formed by years of watching 90 minute movies and 60 minute television programs in which the plot conflict appears early and is fully satisfied by the end of the program.
But real life isn’t like that. In real life, Red doesn’t always walk up the beach to see Andy sanding a boat in Mexico. Sometimes important issues in our lives just don’t get resolved.
Furio just doesn’t come back. The Russian could be either dead or back in Moscow. Syl may or may not make it. We just won’t ever know.
The cynical element in me tells me that we need Tony and the family to make an appearance in a movie or in a spin-off. David Chase needs to make more money. But I’ve been programmed to think that by producers convincing investors they can make the magic happen again. Example; Sister Act or Look Who’s Talking Too!
Chase is smarter than that.
He knows that the Sopranos were the best thing to ever happen to television… It has changed the way we will forever be judging the programs that follow.
Television has now become a legitimate medium for art.
I know that he wouldn’t degrade his art to a cheezy “Paulie’s Place” sitcom in which Paulie runs his own own diner in Topeka after entering the witness protection program. (When the lady says “Kiss my grits”, you better f***ing kiss her grits!)
Tony and Carmella will die, but only Chase knows whether that will be by the hand of an assassin, or in a home like Uncle Junior probably will.
The same goes for the rest of us in real life. Most of us aren’t going to know. And if we were given the chance, would we want to know?
Would we be happier this morning seeing Tony’s brain matter splattered all over the inside of that diner with Steve Perry belting out “Don’t Stop Believin”? I don’t think so. Somehow, although that would have been something we have been programmed to expect by lesser programs, it just wouldn’t have been the proper ending to this series.
Chase has changed television forever, and for the better. He set the bar higher than we could ever imagine.
And I am one fan who thinks he got this one right.
And for that Mr. Chase, I thank you…