"The Sopranos": The Debate Rages On...
Not since the “Seinfeld” gang went to jail has there been so much debate about a series finale…
Having now seen the final scene on YouTube, I can totally understand why so many “The Sopranos” fans are up in arms. The tension and anticipation is so thick you can cut it with a knife. And then it goes black. But the scene doesn’t just fade to black. It cuts to black so abruptly you think your cable’s gone out (as many people across the country did).
Some people feel that this was creator David Chase’s way of flipping off America by refusing to follow conventional TV rules. Others say that leaving the ending open to interpretation was pure Chase genius.
Chase told the Newark, N.J. “Star-Ledger”: “I have no interest in explaining, defending, reinterpreting, or adding to what is there…No one was trying to be audacious, honest to God. 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. Anybody who wants to watch it, it's all there.”
Chase actually fled to France with his wife to avoid “all the Monday morning quarterbacking” and allow viewers to put their own spin on it.
And boy, have they…
HBO’s website crashed for 30 minutes Sunday night with 10 times the usual volume as fans flooded the message boards with their frustrations and theories…
The most predominant theory is that Tony was indeed killed and that the black screen hearkened back to a conversation Tony had with Bobby in which they discussed getting shot. Bobby said that when you die, “everything goes black.” Some fans say they recognized some of the men in the diner as people who had taken shots at Tony previously. And most people believe that the man going to the men’s room was an homage to “The Godfather” when Michael Corleone retrieved a gun from the bathroom.
Others think the ending was left ambiguous so that Chase could do a “Sopranos” movie. Chase told the “Star-Ledger”: “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.”
There were no alternate endings shot, but a final page of the original script that had Meadow taking her seat before it went black was scrapped.
If one of my favorite shows ended so abruptly, I would be furious, so I totally feel everyone’s pain; but I’m not completely against an ambiguous ending. I think that if the black had been more of a fade than a sudden jolt followed by 10 seconds of nothing that fans would have dealt with it better…
What do you think? You can see the final scene for yourself until HBO gets wise and takes it down at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QqmAsTPGiA&NR=1...
