THE SOPRANOS FINALE: DON’T STOP BELIEVING

Journey.
Onion rings.
Parallel parking.
Fade to black.

So … what do you think? Did Tony wind up with justice, mercy or grace?

I’ve got my own ideas, but I’d love to hear yours.

UPDATE: David Chase speaks
The Newark Star-Ledger landed an exclusive interview with ‘Sopranos’ creator David Chase after the finale aired Sunday night. Television columnist Alan Sepinwall spoke to Chase by phone from France, where the writer-and-director of the final ‘Sopranos’ episode had fled to avoid the onslaught of analysis of the series closer.

‘Sopranos’ creator’s last word: End speaks for itself
Tuesday, June 12, 2007

What do you do when your TV world ends? You go to dinner, then keep quiet.

“Sopranos” creator David Chase took his wife out for dinner Sunday night in France, where he fled to avoid “all the Monday morning quarterbacking” about the show’s finale. After this exclusive interview (agreed to before the season began), he intends to let the work — especially the controversial final scene — speak for itself.

“I have no interest in explaining, defending, reinterpreting, or adding to what is there,” he says of the final scene.

“No one was trying to be audacious, honest to God,” he adds. “We did what we thought we had to do. No one was trying to blow people’s minds or thinking, ‘Wow, this’ll (tick) them off.’

“People get the impression that you’re trying to (mess) with them, and it’s not true. You’re trying to entertain them.”

In that final scene, mob boss Tony Soprano waited at a Bloomfield ice cream parlor for his family to arrive, one by one. What was a seemingly benign family outing was shot and cut as the preamble to a tragedy, with Tony suspiciously eyeing one patron after another, the camera dwelling a little too long on Meadow’s parallel parking and a walk by a man in a Members Only jacket to the men’s room. Just as the tension ratcheted up to unbearable levels, the series cut to black in mid-scene (and mid-song), with no resolution.

“Anybody who wants to watch it, it’s all there,” says Chase, 61, who based the series in general (and Tony’s relationship with mother Livia specifically) on his North Caldwell childhood.

Some fans have assumed the ambiguous ending was Chase setting up the oft-rumored “Sopranos” movie.

“I don’t think about (a movie) much,” he says. “I never say never. An idea could pop into my head where I would go, ‘Wow, that would make a great movie,’ but I doubt it.

“I’m not being coy,” he adds. “If something appeared that really made a good ‘Sopranos’ movie and you could invest in it and everybody else wanted to do it, I would do it. But I think we’ve kind of said it and done it.”

TO READ THE FULL EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW (IT’S LONG) CLICK HERE

To read my earlier post about the Sopranos finale click HERE

Working hard to get my fill,
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin anything to roll the dice,
Just one more time
Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on …

GG