Loved the ending. Made me laugh out loud. I didn’t think the cable went out, and I don't think it's a set-up for a movie. I knew it was David Chase. Who references the slouching off to Bethlehem to be reborn line by that poet guy Yeets? AJ watching his vehicle burn and being reborn by the experience of a wild and lively fire? That scene with Paulie sunning himself at Satriale’s as the cat sits down on the sidewalk was framed so beautifully – it looked like a moving painting. Vermeer in Jersey. Chase has always worked intelligently on multiple levels. It's why I love The Sopranos.

Find the reaction of the American public a little daunting, though. Nobody can handle ambiguity anymore? The Unknown makes people feel shortchanged? Now we don't just want "closure" we demand it -- or else. Is this what Reality Television hath wrought upon our cognition?

There's a very inspired video on youtube (done back in April) that mashes up a finale Six Feet Under-style. With edited clips pulled from previous Sopranos episodes, everybody dies to the mournful strains of "Breathe." It's an interesting alternative imagining for those who feel shortchanged by the actual finale. (It's called "The Sopranos Six Feet Under Ending.")

Terrific post, jennifer rexroat. You nailed it.

I'd go a step further with one of your ideas. Among the song choices Tony flipped through on the tabletop jukebox, these titles were prominently featured:

Somewhere in the Night

Turn, Turn, Turn

Only the Strong Survive

Victim of Love

I've Gotta Be Me

A Lonely Place

This Magic Moment

I'm Alive

Who Will You Run To

Magic Man

Don't Stop Believing

Any Way You Want It

Anyone who thinks David Chase is vague, sloppy, lazy or disrespectful to the characters and his audience just isn't looking too deep.

We can thank Mr. Chase for one thing: sparking the dialogue about the show. Because it reveals much about the haughty, above-it-all types who permeate this community. They overstate the show's importance and understate the premises of the criticism.

First, no one doubts that "The Sopranos" was a visceral, vulgar, and brilliant television show. It was cleverly staged and oozed symbolism. It was cool. It was contemptuous of its characters AND its audience. But it was a gangster fantasy, a myth, and above all, a television show. A great television show. But a television show all the same. It's not unreasonable to expect a beginning, middle and end when a television show is involved. Not because a television show reveals the meaning of life. But because it is entertainment.

Hundreds of thousands of subscribers paid good money for that entertainment. The market was flooded with promotions and "teasers" about the final season to induce people to tune in to see the show's end, and how they would wrap it all up. We shouldn't be surprised if people feel as if they were ripped off, especially after the crescendo of the final minutes. If "The Empire Strikes Back" faded to black just as Vader makes his tragic revelation to Luke, or the Godfather Pt. II faded to black right before Fredo goes out on the boat with Al Neri, Lucas and Coppola would have been pilloried for leading their audiences on. Why would Chase be spared such scrutiny?

I liked the ending more than I thought I would. But I can understand why people are so "miffled" at Mr. Chase. They were naive enough to think that if they pay for a television show, they should get a television show. These aren't the people that need perspective. Oddly enough, those who ramble on pretentiously about what the audience's reactions to a television show say about society are the ones who need it the most.

I am one of those (I guess "haughty" and "above-it-all" types) who think most of the "we got cheated" type criticism is misplaced.

I certainly never argued the "importance" of the show either way. I just think getting angry because The Sopranos, which has really never been conventional in the sense of TV or mob dramas, didn't end with a neat little bow just shows an amazing lack of imagination on the part of the viewing public.

This is not to say that The Sopranos is somehow better or more important for it. But simply different. And people just can't take different, I guess.

I guess your argument stands on the assertion (unstated) that this is a "genre" show and thus should follow some formula. But I disagree. I don't think it's ever been a genre show or formulaic. True, it's based on a genre.

I think expecting a "genre" ending (or a conventional TV ending) is just surprisingly naive.

And also, I truly don't understand how so many people actually perceived this as an "insult" from David Chase. I guess if challenging people to appreciate new and different approaches to something is insulting, then consider me happily insulted.

"...if "The Empire Strikes Back" faded to black just as Vader makes his tragic revelation to Luke..."

yeah, if only. Because it all went straight to hell at hyperdrive speed after that. Next thing we know, Ewoks and Jar-Jar Binks...

We should be so lucky that Lucas knew when to quit. At the peak.

Lots of good posts on this thread (far better than any other Sopranos discussion board), but it seems many folks have kind of missed Chase’s overarching point. The whole series, the last episode (titled “Made in America”), and especially the last 5 minutes in the all-American diner set, have been a withering critique of America and what being an American means today. Every single character has deluded themselves and has made calculated compromises all in the name of getting rich, or being comfortable, or having that great SUV or second house, etc., and they all spend day after day rationalizing their behavior and convincing themselves they are “good” people who deserve it, and why do bad things happen to us? They are completely incapable of self-awareness except for brief flashes, which scare them, so they crawl back into their safe, comfortable worlds. There is danger surrounding them, which they know, but what they fail to realize is that it is the culmination of all their self-absorbed and self-serving actions, coming back to haunt them. No different then all of us today, vaguely aware of the danger around us in the form or terrorism, etc., but unwilling to analyze and accept our roles in generating it. Whether our incessant need for oil or reckless foreign policy. That was the point of the whole show, hung on the rack of a mob story. And it was artfully done.