Letters to the Editor
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The Gentle Mobster
The whole Christmas theme seemed a bit tacked on, since there was zero indication in the streets that Christmas was happening, and yet we're left with an orange-yellow scene that just makes you want to smack somebody.
I have a feeling the next batch of episodes are going to be brutal. "The calm before the storm" indeed. So many people could die for so many reasons.
The FBI guy informing Tony was weird, and who does it serve? My brother and I have quibbled before over who will end up with the family. Christopher is the obvious choice, but he's a junked out nincompoop. One option was for Meadow and Anthony Jr. to cohelm, but brohyme just doesn't have the instinct. Meadow would be a good option, which would hearken back to the lady leader in the Italy episode, but Meadow's ideals would obviously clash.
Whatever. Chase is definitely toying with us. The whole series has had the underlying psychological current, where the nutbag mob boss goes nice guy, but underneath could still kill his own son if it was necessary.
The saccharine elements of this season will be vindicated in the next episodes. You don't reinvent television only to end it with caramel coated smiles. This is not Sex and the City, or Felicity: this is The Sopranos, where things are weird, absurd, and events transpire that makes the viewer get that look on his face that Christopher gets: the wide eyed, questioning, did I just crap my pants look. Heads will role.
At least I hope so.
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Sigh...Another Anti-Climax
I think Chase is trying to play with expectations. The bit where Phil and Co. decide that someone else in the Soprano crew has to die, and you just know it's Chris...except Phil has a heart attack instead...shows that.
The problem is that, once Chase has pulled the switcheroo on you, what's switched to is less exciting. It's boring, in fact. He's building up the dread, building, building...and then the big suprise twist is that nothing happens? If this is innovation, give me hackneyed cliches any day.
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We'll Always Have Paris...
What was the "Casablanca" theme all about? Carmela in Paris, followed by "As Time Goes By" in the credits, (from last week's episode), then the kids watching "Casablanca" during the homey Christmas scene.
The Paris episode featured the Eiffel Tower sweeping search light, which we saw in the Tony in a coma episode, from outside his hotel window as airport control tower. It seems to be a death/afterlife symbol- and also another visual reference to "Casablanca" (RIck saying goodbye at the end, the airport as portal to the Afterlife).
But beyond the death/decay references of "Old World" vs. "New World" ( Carmela at the Louvre vs. the Sopranos at the Bada-Bing) I don't get what Casablanca has to do with the themes of this season. "Life is cheap in Casablanca". I get that connection. "We'll always have Paris..." - Carmela's future. Tony as Rick?
Will Carmela fly off with the family next year and leave Tony to begin a "beautiful friendship" with, er...Paulie?
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Damnit people...
Why does the Sopranos have to end in a blaze of glory? The last 2 seasons were as violent as it had ever been. Maybe we were spoiled with the double-death finale of last season (Adriana and Tony B.) but when you think about it, the Sopranos averages about 1 major death per season.
Maybe this is the way Chase (and his cabal of writers, Lord knows he hasn't written any actual dialogue in years) is going to trump expectations: not actually killing any main characters. The Sopranos, from the beginning, was always about being a different type of mob story. If you want something without irony, meaning, and lots of blood, rent "Casino". By the end of the first hour you'll be screaming for 5 minutes of Sopranos dialogue!
And, people, please. Can we stop comparing the Sopranos to "Six Feet Under"? How did that show end? They killed off the only decent character weeks earlier (with the much appreciated "Narm!") and everyone walked off into the sunset: complete with little "where are they now" blurbs circa "Animal House". Yeah, pure fuggin' genius... if you liked the end of "Happy Days". I've never quite understood anyone's obsession with SFU anyway. Talk about a show that went downhill after the first season... I mean did you people really care whether Brenda and Nate would get back together (sound like an episode of 90210)? I just wanted every last one of those depressing people to die in a gruesome death like they always did to the people and the beginning of the show.
And don't even get me started on "Sex in the City"!
Long story short: don't try to explain, disect, or predict where the Sopranos is going. It's not the destination, peeps: its the journey...
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It's a TV show
Really, how can people possibly get this worked up over a television show?
The mid season pre-hiatus episode wasn't thrilling enough for you, it must be the end of the World.
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REALLY? YOU WANT A BIG FINISH? REALLY??????
Despite the formulaic, sensational way in which HBO promotes The Sopranos -- note that the trailers are consistently misleading, excerpts chosen for their cliche implications, not their true context -- I have never watched the show for its storylines alone. Rather, its strength lies in closely observed character studies and in developing those myriad seemingly normal situations that lead to such stunningly dark and funny perceptions. This season had its share: with "pre-therapeutic culture", "nothing is holding us together but DNA" and many more, all ranking right up there with one of the early classics, trying to "grill a trout on a downed power line". As for the program's most important element, human behavior is rarely this well drawn in film, let alone TV. If you view a program such as this with little more than pat expectations, you're bound to be disappointed. Try watching it without blinkers.
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Did David Chase or HBO decide on a six-month hiatus?
Much of the commentary in this article assumes that David Chase decided to make last night's show the finale and to break this final season into two parts with a six-month hiatus in the middle. But maybe this was the decision of HBO.
It would be interesting to know whether the final 8 episodes are filmed and "in the can", and HBO decided on this six-month break for some sort of 'business' reasons. And whether HBO picked a somewhat arbitrary breaking point between the two halves of the season that Chase and his writers couldn't have predicted when designing the 'arc' of the last season (both this 'season' and the 8 final episodes). It wouldn't be the first time that sort of thing has happened.